Time Warner's DVR signup

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Time Warner's DVR signup

A small update to the earlier post about Time Warner's DVR rollout: a signup sheet is now available.

by Matt Haughey August 19, 2003 in News

Comments

I got my TWCNYC DVR box yesterday. It records 35 hours, and has the ability to record two shows at once. Also has a nice lil PIP feature. The interface is just a slightly more complicated Passport system that Time Warner has on their cable boxes. I don't particularly like the way it works right now. The manual was abosolutely no help. I like it though, it's cheaper than a second TiVo for sure, and it's only a few bucks more than the rental of a second cable box.

Posted by: riffola at Aug 20, 2003 9:20:37 AM

FUCK time warner...they suck ass...I have had 5 broken boxes from them i n the past 2 years. they are unreliable, they never "strive to be the best" like they say on their advertisements....Their customer service is sub-par...Yesterday I swapped out my box for the new DVR boxes, and inside Time Wrner on 23rd street was a friend of mine who was returning a broken box, and then I go home, plug in my box, and MINE doesnt work either!!!! And so then I have to schedule an appointment with them so they can come and swap out a box AGAIN!!!! THEY FUCKING SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: JFNONER at Nov 20, 2003 11:22:49 AM

does anyone know if you can hook the dvr box up to a pc?

Posted by: halo god at Mar 16, 2004 6:02:46 PM

time Warner has the worst piece of crap in the industry

Posted by: humblog at Jul 15, 2004 5:49:55 PM

riffola, i have been using it for ages and it works wonderfully well!!! and if u think it sucks go get a TIVO!!!
U want to use a device that does not work well.

Posted by: WEBFORUM at Sep 20, 2004 7:42:42 AM

Looking for people experiencing problems with Time Warner's DVR box
Please contact:
Gema.Delasheras@nbcuni.com

Posted by: gema at Oct 5, 2004 7:18:26 AM

My piece of crap Scientific Atlanta DVR from Time Warner conveniently dropped all my recordings from the last 24 hours and I was so pissed I went and ordered a second TiVo. My first TiVo is still doing great after 2 years and it hasn't missed a recording once. I don't understand how the Time Warner piece of junk ever made it out of usability and reliability testing.

Posted by: Dan at Oct 8, 2004 1:14:19 AM

CAN YOU SEND BROCHURE/INFO VIA POST MAIL ON THE DVR:

MANIKA CORONADO
406 ENID ST
HOUSTON TEXAS 77009
713.494.2530

Posted by: MANIKA at Oct 21, 2004 10:29:31 AM

Does anyone know if you can you a TWC HDTV DVR box on a regular televison or do you have to use a HDTV

Posted by: ron at Oct 25, 2004 2:42:37 PM

i was just reading over some of these remarks;
to the guy who was talking about his tivo still working great after 2 years while he's not even sure how the "piece of crap" time warner dvr made it out of reliability testing.... ever think the problems with the dvr MIGHT have been partially caused by the other "piece of crap" CUSTOMERS who rented the box before you?? you have to look at both sides. i think time warner (while i have had my issues with them in the past) DOES want their customers to be happy and their equipment to work. Think about this asshole, do you think the people there want to hear your rude, whiny, dumb ass calling and bitching all the time????? i can tell you they dont and i know that because (aside from common sense) i worked there for 10 months supporting high speed data and digital phone service. im not saying you dont have any right to be frustrated but just think before you start bitching like crazy.
also, to the guy who was bitching about having to possibly pay $150 to have "THEIR" (time warner's) cable line relaced and now your channels are staticy... your channels are probably staticy because yes, there is a problem somewhere and it DOES need to be fixed.... time warner cable does not ever charge YOU for THEIR items/equipment to be replaced though. They dont even charge for service calls (which other utility companies usually charge out the ASS for whether they find/fix the problem or not). If you had listened you may have learned that the line the tech said needed to be replaced was the line that runs from just outside your house, in through the walls and floors, and out the outlet. that, my friend, is not THEIR line! that is "your" line and in your case, your apartment manager's line which time warner is not going to pay to replace since it is NOT "theirs". it would be like you expecting the city water department to come fix a leaky pipe under your sink, get it? The fact that you said he "wiggled" the cable around and then the cable started working tells me that it was this cable that was causing the problem.
trust me man, the people at time warner dont want you to call or go see them at all. in the event that they have to, they want it to be as smooth as possibly and hopefully even make you happy by the end so you dont cuss them out and make them go home crying because some dumb jerk verbally abused them for 15 min because they didnt get to finish watching a lame-ass football game. (trust me, ive seen it happen)
really all i wanted to say is that you should really try to think about someone/something outside of you and what YOU want. maybe just CONSIDER that YOU may be partially at fault and that this company you despise so much is partially NOT at fault.

Posted by: fauroz at Oct 27, 2004 6:13:03 PM

TWC HOUSTON - ROTTEN SERVICE. Heavy digital pixilation, long channel change lag, and BLACK SCREEN OF DEATH. Picture goes completely black 15 times per hour ONLY AT NIGHT. Low volume on several channels. Static and flashing on analog channels. They won't come out to see it past 8:00 and refuse to admit to the BSOD (black screen of death). Would like to hear from Houston people having bad TWC service. e-mail platt4620@yahoo.com Thanks.

Posted by: stephen platt at Oct 31, 2004 2:40:10 PM

I have had the Scitnific Atlanta explorer 8000 for some time now. I have exchanged it once already. I keep having the same problems. Problem #1, when recording 2 shows at the same time and then trying to watch something that was previously recorded the system will often freeze and then reboot. This means that shows currently recording will be interupted and a few minuts will be missed. Also, some times when recording one show and watching other shows the system will just freeze up for no apparent reason. Also when the time changed a few weeks ago, i think it screwed up the internal timer cause it did not record new shows. I also find it funny that when I exchanged my original unit they did not bother to ask me what was wrong. I think it is apparent that Time Warner is using its customers for quality control. The expect us to check the unit and verify that everything is working. I am certain that they are aware of these and other issues, they just are not concered with customer satisafaction. If they were they would not just let you bring in a defective unit and replace it with one that may have the same problems. What do you think?

Posted by: zensunniwarrior at Nov 14, 2004 1:00:08 AM

ZenSunniWarrior, if you feel you're fighting the Time Warner challenge with your recording box, contemplate spending a couple hundred on a basic TIVO or Replay box...by no means free but guaranteed to be a whole lot better! Have been a Replay dude (basic / un-hacked) since early '99 & am pretty happy overall. Am working today on figuring out how to get an upgrade for HDTV but that's out of reach at $1k+ ... good luck ;-)

Posted by: TheOtherDonald at Nov 14, 2004 1:52:56 PM

I've had Time Warner for almost 1 month, having switched from Everest. I'm completely disappointed. The DVR is the exact same model as we had before. Only difference is that it doesn't work. Live TV is choppy. Watching a recorded show is as painful as having teeth pulled. I can't stand it. I'm convinced that there are issues in the firmware they are using, as I never had these problems in the past. We did have to exchange our first one after 6 months (hard drive went bad), but that is expected. I'd rather make my own PVR with a linux computer. TW Sucks.

Posted by: DS at Dec 2, 2004 6:26:36 PM

I am now on my third timewarer(Explorer 8000) box in a week. This one does not even get beyond the you are not authorized screen. I have spent countless hours on the phone and no help. I have reached the point of returnin the box and getting satellite. Timewarner customer service sucks. They recycle box's that others folks have turned in without checking them.

Posted by: Ivehadit at Dec 13, 2004 9:39:01 AM

I Have Time Warner Here In Philly....and they just got DVR , but our division got there boxes from Motorola , i don't know how it works yet i might get it....the DVR from Motorola records up to 120 hours..but far as service with Time Warner i like it so far.

Posted by: Samuel at Jan 9, 2005 5:09:11 PM

Time Warner has to be the most condisending business out there. I just bought an hdtv today, and I call Time Warner up, to see if I can go pick up a new hdtv dvr box from them. NOPE, they now have me scheduled for a serviceman to come to my house 3 DAYS FROM NOW! Do they seriously think that we are too stupid to be able to hook up a freaking cable box? It's 2005, and if you don't know how to hook up a cable box, and your reading this on the internet, something is wrong with you! I hate their additudes at my local office. It's like it is a burden to talk to you, everytime I call. Bunch of crap. I'm so disappointed in the service they "provide".

Posted by: James at Jan 12, 2005 7:53:00 AM

Scratch that last comment,.. it's not 3 days I have to wait,.. they just called me back and told me it's over a FULL WEEK til I get someone to come here and bring my new cable box! I HATE TIME WARNER!

Posted by: James at Jan 12, 2005 8:44:12 AM

FUCK TIME WARNER! I seriously hate having to take off work to wait for them to show up to install the simpliest things. Annoying as hell. Comcast never did this to me.

Posted by: Betty at Jan 12, 2005 8:51:10 AM

TWC in Kansas City (well, Overland Park). Worst service on the planet. Their previous named company 35 years ago wired my house with 450mhz "A/B" cable, and refuse to replace it. Everytime it storms, a tree rips the line from my house and they patch it and put it back up. The lines running to the service pole in my back yard are over 30 years old aswell, and they refuse to replace them. Call their 'customer service' (which is THE Worst of any company I've ever had to deal with, and I *AM* a customer service manager for a company) and you get the run around. Had their 'road runner' crap that stopped working out of the blue one day. Called and complained, "yeah, your cable modem is dead. Come exchange it for a new one." Did it, didn't work. So I called them back again, and it'll be FIFTEEN FUCKING DAYS before a tech could come out to my house and see whats wrong with my internet! A lot of my work for my PERSONAL company (not my primary source of income) Relies heavy on my Road runner, as I have some servers at home for webpages and online purchases, ebay, etc.

Trying to watch 0-99 channels, the 'non digital' works just great, except for the fact that I have to switch my home theater receiver to "Analog direct input" and run ANOTHER audio input into my receiver, and crank the fucking volume to 100% to hear anything. Secondly, the "Digital" channels are a total joke. Half of them work about 1/3rd of the time, and when they actually do the picture looks like I'm watching from Rabbit ears! Its snowy, has GHOST IMAGES (!!!!!!!), and is VERY grainy, choppy, and the sound cuts out about every 26 seconds. Their "DIGITAL" channels about 1/16th of the time actually have some TRUE digital audio coming out of their POS Pioneer (JUNK!) box, through their archaic coaxial digital audio output, and usually sounds like junk in the end anyway.

Video on demand? Never worked from the day they started the service. Not once have I ever been able to watch a complete movie or show on VOD. 99% of the time, it won't even start.

Southwestern bell for phone service sucks, so I called both and told them to piss off, called Everest and got 'totally wired.' 122$/month and I couldn't be happier. Yeah, some of the issues like the digital audio haven't been solved, but what I pay for I'm actually getting.

TWC == Teh worst company I've ever seen.

Posted by: elesjuan at Jan 19, 2005 8:45:15 PM

How can I get around the mac address that is sent from a scientific atlanta 8000 box from out of our area to my local time warner office? The local TW office reads the mac address, does not recongize it and gives me the screen to contact cable provider. Is there a clone? I am not wanting to steal a thing from TW. I have one DVR box that they supplied to me, which I pay $120 a year to rent, and I wanted another for another room, and save the $10 a month fee. Everything I get from the DVR box is FROM THE DVR BOX,Not Time Warner.

Posted by: Tom at Jan 21, 2005 12:58:13 PM

I've had my dvr box for 2 or 3 months and it has worked wonderfully. I hope I don't experience any of the problems others are having though. I would like to know if there is a way to record from the dvr to my pc. If anyone has any info please let me know.

Posted by: Jeff at Jan 27, 2005 12:26:05 AM

you're all right, we are out to get you...

Posted by: cid at Jan 27, 2005 2:13:23 PM

i've had my SA 8000 for about a month. it requires full a reboot (unplug, wait a minute, plug it back in) nearly Every Single Day. seems like i've got a 50/50 chance that doing anything with the DVR will generate a hard drive failure.

TW can't just replce the box, they have to send a guy out to fix it, and all i can get are "full day schedules", meaning the guy will show up between 8am and 8pm . W.T.F. ? what kind of service is that ?

Posted by: cleek at Jan 27, 2005 6:56:02 PM

I had a Time Warner DVR for a month and the entire time I couldn't pull up the list function using the remote. I kept thinking it was user error (I'm no genius when it comes to this stuff), but finally my brother came over and we called tech support and were told it must be the remote. I switched out the remote and still nothing. Today I picked up a new box, having gotten a new HD TV, and here I am again -- no list coming up with the remote. Anyone else run into this? The woman at the local TW office (which, by the way, has no phone number available to customers!) said she had the problem and found she wasn't in "cable mode." I do the requisite "push select and cable at the same time, wait for the double blink," so I'm pretty sure that's not the problem (there's that user-error factor, again). Can anyone help?

Posted by: KG at Jan 29, 2005 3:56:17 PM

what I hate most about Time Warner cable is that I have to listen to their spam ads while I waiting to talk to a real person for about 20 minutea. This is the fourth day and I still can't get anyone out to repair my lines which should have been fixed right last month.They can't do anything right. I hope they go bellyup.

Posted by: jerry brown at Feb 12, 2005 1:19:47 PM

Wow, this must be costing TimeWarner millions of dollars (that explains the outragous fees they charge). We have had 5 units, all of them had problems, from re-booting, to freezing up, 1 minute recording of nothing. Every time the tech showed up, all they could offer was work-arounds! Bool Sheezit, I was told the last time that I need to un-plug the unit everyday to make sure the firmware update takes. TimeWarner is engaged in deceptive, non-responsive, or as I like to call them a 'USP' - Useless Serive Provider! They had the gall to offer us 3 months of free HBO if we would keep the box. Can you beleive it? Save yourself the pain and buy a TiVo instead.

Posted by: Greenman at Mar 2, 2005 8:38:13 PM

I've had a TW DVR 8000 box for about 4 months now, and every now and then I get random audio "crackling" noises when viewing lower channels numbers (2-13) on my Mitsubishi big screen. I did not have this problem with the previous TW High-Speed Digital box. Has anyone had this problem before, or may know what the problem is ? After reading the previous posts I feel "lucky" not to have any other problems with the DVR box - assuming this is probably my problem.

Posted by: Karl at Mar 5, 2005 2:29:25 PM

I've had my box for just over a year, and suffered occasional problems in that time (shows only partially recorded, pixellated images, etc.) Nothing too bothersome, and I found that things often worked better if I kept my stored shows at 20 hours or less.

For the last two weeks, though, I've had problems where multiple channels will just go black, while other completely freeze up (to the point where the box just automatically reboots). It's always the same channels, too. Has anyone else experienced this?

Posted by: Frank at Mar 9, 2005 9:56:28 PM

We moved here from Florida, Oct. of 2004. I could believe the poor customer service, and the poor equipment from Time Warner. We have three digital boxes and we have problems with all three to our vcr/dvd recorders. The box downstairs cuts off and reboots several times a day on it's own. Half the time if you use i-control, it freezes up then goes off and then reboots. If you try on your vcr or dvd player, it won't let you use volume control. We've changed out the box once, just as bad. My son's box, won't let him play his vcr/dvd player. It now jumps from channel 3 to 38 on it's own. My box, I now have to use the vcr remote to use it. I've been waiting on the repair man, his appointment was between 10-12 today. They called but he never came. Doesn't surprise me in the least, as they were supposed to come 2 weeks ago and put in digital phone service, and they didn't show up then either!
You can't call, their menu system sucks. You have to drive to an office to talk to someone. I have never seen such terrible service before out of Time Warner, too bad we don't have an option for another company, this is what a monoply gets you.
If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. We pay a fortune for this service that is terrible. I'm retired, and this is my entertainment, or at least it used to be. Beettle Mama

Posted by: Carole Keeth at Mar 19, 2005 10:48:24 AM

Hi. I have been a subscriber of Time Warner cable for 15 years and since May 2004, I added their DVR service. Ever since, I have experienced CONSTANT "macro-blocking" and frozen imaging on my TV. The idea of watching TV especially in a city like this is to gain the rare down time, relaxation moment when you just need to escape the daily stress and pressures of the big city by staring at the box.

What I have been dealing for almost a year is the constant aggrevation of interrupted, choppy and frozen service, constant calls and waiting for ridiculous amounts of minutes before a Time Warner rep finally picks up a line to answer your query and hopefully understand what you're going through and sending out a technician.

Their technicians initially didn't know what the problem was: "The technology is too new and I have never dealt with this before," was the first technician's response after all the effort I went through to make the appointment and taking a day off work.

Finally last weekend, after 10 months of complaining, they provided a new DVR box which has been working thusfar. For almost a whole year of going through the viscious circle of calling, hoping you're not holding for another 30 mins before someone answers the phone, making yet another appointment, taking yet another day off work, another incompetent technician showing up not knowing what they're doing ...

Now that they've created a new box, they are not willing to refund the past 10 months' of lack of service that they've been charging over $90 for per month for!!

The best they can offer is a month's service for free - is this proper business practice and dealings with a loyal customer of 15 years?

It doesn't even end on that note - to comfort me, the customer service supervisor, Ms. Kaiser, said that even with the new box there are no guarantees - images may still freeze as we're still working on our DVR service!!! Great consolation - why offer the "service" and charge an arm and a leg if you're not fully committing to providing a functional service!! I guess they have a building on Columbus Circle to pay for!

I'm switching over to Dish.

Posted by: sean at Mar 24, 2005 10:45:15 AM

I have the DVR box and we pay about $200 month for the Its all here package. I called to tell them about some difficulty with frozen pictures etc. (25 minute hold time) and the genius on the phone had me reboot which lost all of the the saved shows. Fine no big deal. I call back ( 35 minuted hold time) to tell them I need a service person because it is messed up. They tell me they can come a week later. I call back (15 minute hold time)and ask if there have been cancellations and if they can come earlier..since I do pay $200 a month. They said they would give me a call back the next morning to let me know. The next day comes and goes...no call. I call them that evening (10 minute hold time) she said that sometimes that happens and now that call back is closed out and asks if I want one for the next day. Ummm....sure I guess but only if they are ACTUALLY going to call me to let me know. She said "I can't guarantee that" ...well what is the point of a call back? The woman told me to stop yelling (which I was not) and SHELLY (the woman on the phone) who apparantly is suffering from dementia blurted "thank you for calling time warner" and HUNG UP ON ME. I waited on hold for a total of 85 minutes to handle this and she felt it was okay to hang up on me? I think we should all pool our resources and start a new cable company that actually values customer services.

Posted by: Sarah at Mar 29, 2005 9:56:35 AM

I'm on my second DVR box after the first one's CPU died. This one turns itself off every five minutes or so, re-boots, then turns off in another five minutes or so. The technician came out, plugged the cable into some thing he brought with him, and said that the problem was my apartment complex which wouldn't give TWC access to the equipment. So I can't even use the box now and the apartment complex doesn't know what they're doing, as usual. Anyone else experience this?

Posted by: Suzanne at Apr 19, 2005 6:51:04 AM

The Time Warner Albany, New York DVR is very inferior to the DVR used by Bright House in central Florida. The DVR used in Florida has many features that the Albany DVR does not have. For example, in Florida the DVR will record only new shows if you program it to do that. When you play a program that is still recording it starts at the beginning. The Albany DVR starts at the point you start viewing and you have to rewind to get to the beginning. The bottom line here is that the Bright House Cable DVR is far superior and Time Warner in Albany should look into using it since it has many more options and is very reliable.

Posted by: Allen at Apr 26, 2005 7:44:20 PM

Time Warner has been a pain in my azz now going on 2 years. I am now in the process of changing to anybody but Time Warner!!! They suck and so does their service. They want to limit their competition here in Texas so they can keep rapeing the consumer. Guess what!!! It won't fly in TEXAS!!!!Time Warner can go F%$K themselves!!!!

Posted by: BOB at May 3, 2005 9:56:36 AM

i have had TWC HDTV DVR for two months. in that time i have had to replace one box and now the current one is screwed up. i "fried" the hard drive the first time and now i have to reboot each time. i had no problems for the first six weeks and have had problems twice in the last two weeks. i think that i use the DVR too much for the hard drive to handle. it should be better quality. they do come out and replace/fix it in a timely manner. i am in Raleigh, NC. good luck to all of you.

Posted by: chris at May 11, 2005 3:39:56 PM

ohboy. I just signed up to change from DISH network to TW,including their DVR box at a bargain rate designed to entice satellite customers back. Never have used a DVR, and these stories sound really grim. I will look for the problems and dump the equipment back on TW if this crap occurs. Thank you guys for the illuminating input! (wish me luck!!)

Posted by: Jeanie K at May 11, 2005 11:27:02 PM

My tale must be told . . .

My first name is Fran and for security reasons, I refuse to divulge my last name. The tale I am about to relay to you is revolving Time Warner and I am sure they can authenticate it by searching their database with my soon to be previous telephone number (832) 203-8853. I would like for you to take it when you go to the state capital stating why Time Warner should not have monopoly for cable business in Houston. Their customer service is lousy which I feel is being dictated by the laissez faire corporate culture that is depicted to the employees. I intent to post this on the Better Business Bureau web site and that of every major news agency in Houston. I also would like to know my legal recourse against them.

I signed up for their new combo pack; phone, road runner for my computer and TV cable service when I moved into my new apartment at the end of Feb. of 2005. I scheduled an appointment for a technician to come in and complete the hook up for my service about two weeks later. The technician showed up as planned and did everything as he was supposed except that when he went to hook up the service in my son’s bedroom, he told me that because the remote to the TV was not the original one intended for it, he could not program the TV and I would have to buy a new TV. About a month later, after squeezing my tight single-mother budget, I brought a new TV for my son and set out to auto program it myself by following the instructions on the manual. After three attempts, I realized that this was not going to happen; the TV was simply not picking up the cable channels. I called Time Warner on 05/01 and made an appointment for a technician to come out and check the service on 05/07 between 8-10a.m. It had to be on a weekend because I work during regular business hours and there would be no-one at home to attend to a technician during the week. My home only has two occupants, myself and my 6 yr old son. On 05/03 (a Tuesday) I called my voice mail to check on my messages and one was from a technician claiming he was outside my apartment to fix my cable service. I called Time Warner and they claimed they had me down that Tuesday from 8a.m. – 8p.m. I am saying to myself ‘who is going to give 12hrs of my day to wait on a technician? Definitely not me!’ This is where the corporate culture started rubbing me raw. They refused to accept the responsibility of giving me the wrong appointment and stated they did not have any openings on the Saturday I was alleging the appointment had been fixed for. I asked to talk to a supervisor who told me that regardless of everything that has been said, there was no guarantee that Time Warner would be able to provide service to three rooms like it had advertised. I wanted to know why this was the case if the rooms had all come cable ready? She did not have an answer and at that time, I simply asked to disconnect the service. She transferred me over to Retention (this is the only dept that does not have a 30min hold time). Retention asked for an opportunity to make it up to me and promised to have a technician over that following Sunday to rectify the situation.

On the promised Sunday 05/08, I received a call from the technician who had a pretty good knowledge of the layout of my apartment. He told me that all that needed to be done was to flip a switch in the closet of my master bathroom. I did not have the key to the closet and my leasing office is closed on Sundays. He asked me to call the Customer Service department and schedule another appointment for during the week when the office would be open. At this time, I realized that I had not needed to buy another TV for my son’s bedroom; the previous technician simply did not know what he was saying. I did not call to make the appointment like he had suggested because I wanted to cross reference with my apartment management that it was okay to let the technician into my apartment in my absence. I called the leasing office on Monday and they did verify that it was okay and that technician simply needed to go there and get the key. I then called Time Warner and scheduled another appointment on Tuesday 05/10. I gave the representative detailed notes as to what needed to be done and my cell and work numbers if there were any hiccups. I came home that day from work to no service in my son’s bedroom but two voicemails. One from the technician claiming he could not get access and another from a Time Warner representative claiming the technician could not secure access to the apartment. Why they had not called me at work or on my cell, I had no idea. Who did they hope to reach at home, an empty house? I called Time Warner again and reviewed the notes I had made the day before and was assured this would be fixed tomorrow. I came home the following day (05/11) again to no service in my son’s bedroom and another message from the technician left on the home phone that he could not get access into the gate of the complex. At this point, I am thinking they cannot all be that dumb. The complex gate has engraved lettering giving instructions how to dial the office to gain access to the complex. I am assuming that he must have gone there to get the keys, why not ask for access? I decided, enough was enough and on 05/11, called into cancel the cable service. This time I did not give another opportunity for them to make it up. I spoke to a Loretta who promised to have this taken care of. I went home and my cable was still on. I assumed that maybe there was some timing issue. I noticed the service was still on and again called on 05/16 asking why I still had the cable service when I had asked for it to be turned off. This time, my representative was Shay (spoken to her before, she had been the one to ask that I give them a second chance). She did not see where a disconnect notice had been placed but she would be happy to help me out. Two days later 05/18, I still had service. I again called and spoke to a Caroline who promised to take care of the issue. The call got disconnected in the middle of our conversation and when I called back I was told they did not have any record of who I had spoken to and did not even have a manager by that name. I was at work and because I had already spent 30mins holding, I decided to continue this fiasco later on my own time. When I went home to find out that Time Warner had disconnected all the services I carried with them; the phone, road runner and cable. I was livid by that time. I called them again and demanded to speak to a supervisor and was informed that one was not available to talk to me. I asked if the entire call center was running itself and was told to hold, I held for 45mins and gave up the ghost. I started to think why I would want to continue doing business with a lousy company like this one and I hung up and called another phone carrier who promised to have my service on by the next day.
The next day, my new phone service was on with voicemail and all. If I dialed the new number from my cell phone, it would ring and roll over to voicemail but I did not have a dial tone on my home phone. I began to wonder what could have happened now when I realized that Time Warner had not disconnected all their services from my line, the voice mail was still on and it was not allowing my new service to come through. I called them on 05/20 and I was told that it takes a few days for the voicemail to be deleted from the line and for me to hang tight. Hang tight – I was paying for new service that I could not get access to. Who was going to reimburse me for that? Time Warner said it was not their responsibility and told me that since I was paying a month in advance for their service, I would be getting a credit for the unused portion within the next 4-8wks. The disconnection is a two step process and they still had yet to relinquish complete control of my line.

On 05/23, I called them again wanting to know why the voicemail was still there and really got tired of holding so I decided to make a trip to their service center in Houston was told my line would not be released until 05/26. I asked to talk to a supervisor because I wanted to know if this was legal, she said ‘these things take time.’ She apologized for all I had been through and said that was basically all she could do. I wanted to know why customers were not told that disconnection would be a two-step process so that they are caught in this loop. She gave me dead air and asked what exactly did I want her to do? Today is 05/26 and I still have their voicemail on my line trapping the line and no phone service in my home.

I want to know what my recourse against Time Warner is and any legal help you can render would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by: Fran at May 26, 2005 1:32:50 PM

Wow, there are a lot of intelligent people here. I was debating getting a Tivo just as a second box, and possibly updating it. i started with the basic DVR and then upgraded to the HDTV dvr when they offered it. they gave me the HD box as a free upgrade and no change in price to my service. i've had it replaced once due to a problem. not with TW but with the box, made by SA . i think TW does a lot of good stuff for their customers and if a lot of people would be a little more patient and nice to the CS reps who make 8 bucks an hour to listen to you whine, you'd get more done.

p.s. my dad and sister have both had their DVRs for over a year and not had any problems with them. maybe its a problem with the users and not the equipment??

Posted by: Jeremy at Jun 17, 2005 7:45:59 PM

My Bright House / TWC bill is $165.00 per month. My 2 DVR boxes are $29.00 dollars per month of that bill. One of them has a black screen on all of my HBO channels each and every night. Both of the DVR boxes lost their ability to successfully record movies some time ago.I have had these boxes for 3 years with minimal complaints/calls to the CSR portion of the company (twice to be exact).I am an informed consumer and am aware of the rebooting process and other frequent upkeep rituals for these appliances.BACK TO THE MONEY... For people who arent crazy about math, that is $1,044.00 paid out for equipment I do not own. Get tivo. My sister has tivo. She also does not have black channels. The movies recorded with the TIVO box come in loud and clear from beginning to end. She has 2 TIVO boxes which she paid net $200.00 for.You may pay more or less depending on your purchasing source.Compare a one time purchase to years of a monthly fee before you have put out over a thousand dollars. Save yourself some money, time, and stress. I hope I kept this short, sweet, and factual enough for all to appreciate and gain knowledge from. Take care all. Thankyou.

Posted by: Ms.Howard at Jun 19, 2005 9:30:22 PM

I am spending this rainy Saturday surfing for all sites related to "Time Warner Sucks" and "F*** Time Warner." As these morons have kept me on hold for the last two days trying to have each and every piece of their crapt equipment repaired and probably enjoying it, I am getting joy and relieving frustration by seeing how much TWC is hated by others! I now know I am not alone in experiencing the worst customer service with TWC(The Worst Company) ever(including Sprint PCS). Wow.... now that I think of it PCS (Poor Customer Service) could lend their acronym to TWC. And for the jack ass CSRS and Techs that post about how the consumers are whining...GO TO HELL! Its a wonder that they pay you $8 an hour and not minimum wage seeing as your knowledge is relegated to reading flowcharts, diagrams, and written manuals to frustrate your consumers even more in lieu of you idiots and morons getting an actual education and using actual skills to troubleshoot equipment problems. It says enough that over the last 48 hours I have spent approximately 320 minutes(running up my cell phone bill) "on hold" with TWC Customer Service Department(at least that is what they call it) trying to get issues resolved with DVR and VOIP. It says that not only is their equipment and service junk, so are the pre-programmed dumbassess that have chosen to answer the phones for them. Along with the time running up my cell phone bill on hold, I can now add an additional 200 minutes(and approximately $80 to my cell phone bill)having to explain the problems to these ignorant jackassess. I have decided not to vent the story of my horrible experiences with TWC here again as I have had to repeat it to a different moron at TWC each time I have finally had my call answered. I switched to TWC because of their bundle priceing for all three packages. The old cliche' is true..."You get what you pay for"...translation...you pay for Time Warners shit...you get Time Warners shit in return. I will be going back to SBC for phone service and DSL and Dish Network Satellite for cable programming, who(although slightly more expensive) both always did what they said they would do when they said they would do it. And with both those companies I never had had any service/equipment problems in the 8 years I had been with them. GET A CLUE TIME WARNER! If your average wait time to speak to a CSR is 15+ minutes(a conservative estimate at best) at any given time...IT MEANS YOU ASSHOLES AREN'T DOING SOMETHING RIGHT! YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVE TOO MANY PROBLEMS THAT YOU CANNOT HANDLE! Go back to what you did best.....Movies and Television! Time Warner cable can go to hell, along with their internet and phone services. A quote for the history books,,,"FUCK TIME TIME WARNER...TIME WARNER SUCKS!"

Posted by: Kelly C. aka TeXaS KiLLeR at Jul 9, 2005 9:00:05 AM

time warner's dvr product is so weak. it destroyed my whole box and now it's slow and does not have enough memory to record any shows at all and sometimes the channels don't even work!!! ITS A CRAPSHOOT to get HBO!!

anyone know how to fix that with out a cable guy coming???

Posted by: Lorne Brown at Jul 15, 2005 6:10:15 PM

I am looking for people to share there stories on a national cable forum called CableTalk.org. When you have a minute please visit

http://cabletalk.org/forum

Thanks,

Malcom

Posted by: Malcom Chakery at Aug 7, 2005 2:06:57 AM

I am waiting on the cable guy who was supposed to be here an hour and a half ago. This is the second time that Time Warner's "contract" employees haven't shown up on time or at all. These guys only work for Time Warner, but if you talked to the cable company you are led to believe that they are so busy that they can't show upon time and thwy are "contract" so the cable company really has no control over them. Time Warner Sucks. If there was anyone else who offered 1/2 the product I would go with them, problem is they have a true monopoly on the cable service and cable internet service in Houston. Their "customer service" is nonexistent. They simply don't care about the customer at all!!

Posted by: casey at Aug 12, 2005 7:26:26 AM

My name is Kim and I have had Time Warner for a year now and I love the service the people in the office are nice. When I call for a billing question the operators are very nice. So for all you Time Warner haters get a life.

Posted by: Kimberly at Aug 16, 2005 12:51:53 PM

My name is Alexis and I have Time Warner here in North Carolina. I have the phone, internet, and the cable. I have never had a problem out of my dvr my internet is superb. I've never had anything faster. Time Warner is great here the employees are nice. I have never had a problem out of Time Warner Cable. I love it.

Posted by: Alexis at Aug 16, 2005 12:59:46 PM

Time Warner definitely sucks! The only good comments on here apparently are from people who work for them!
Anyway, I have the 8000 DVR and recently have been having problems with it rebooting several times a day (usually when I'm in the middle of recording). Called several times and last time, punched random buttons on my phone until I forced the automated system to give me a human. The human tells me it's rebooting because I've recorded too much (80gb hd and have 16gb free). What I'm being told is that it works well as long as you don't use it too much!
So now I'm gonna trade it in for a HD box since they have a 160gb hd and are no extra cost. It has RCAs out, so I figure it will also work with a regular TV as long as I plug the rca jacks in like I do with the DVR. I know I won't be able to watch HD, but it probably wouldn't work right anyway knowing TW! If that box won't work for me, please someone let me know before I have to go through even more hell at the TW office!

Posted by: Nick at Aug 22, 2005 5:19:55 PM

I recently moved to the North Carolina area only two months ago and got Time Warner Cable with a DVR. The first day I got cable it went out for the whole day. "Problems in the area " they said . Only a few days later my DVR starts clicking a making all these spinning noises. I call to get it fixed and they must have rebooted it a million times before the technician tells me that they will send out a technician to bring me a new box. Ok so thats box #1..A few weeks later my NEW DVR box won't turn on. I tried everything to get it to work. I call the technician and again they say they will need to bring me a new box! I asked the technician if there was a problem with the DVR boxes and she had an attitude and said that thye are computers and computers go down from time to time! So I had to take time off AGAIN and wait from 9-12. Thats box #2...A few days later it's not working again and they tell me to disconnect it for 20 seconds to see if it works. Yes, this actually worked but my DVR box would go out everyday and I had to do this daily just to get it to work! So obviously it was missing the shows I wanted it to record. It has been two months now and yesterday my DVR keeps rebooting its self over and over and the screen is blinking.I tried unpugging it for twenty seconds, EVERYTHING!. I am so fed up and call them again. Of course they said they would bring me a new box (loose track yet? That's box #3!). they tell me that they will be here from 9-12. I tell the technician that I was upset for their bad service. I told them why don't they take these boxes off the market. They obviously are faulty because this is my 3rd box to brak in 2 months! She had the nerve to repeat "It's a computer and sometimes they go down mam'". Can you believe that? They must get trained to say that. Time Warner cable sucks and their DVR boxes are pieces of junk! I am going back to my TIVO. I never had a problem with them .Satellite TV also was sharper and clear. Time Warner Cable should be sued. I am sure (obviously look at this site) that I am one of many...

Posted by: Enid at Sep 1, 2005 9:36:57 AM

What most people should keep in mind is the people that typically post reviews for a company/item are usually those who are dissatisfied with it. Those who completely love and enjoy these same products have no reason to get online and talk about it.

So much of the bitching on this blog is about such stupid things. I've had my ups and downs with Time Warner, but they've always been good in taking care of me. I worked for an electronics retailer through college and was amazed to see how shitty the manufacturer support for their own products was. You should praise TWC for how awesome they are.

Posted by: Josh at Sep 3, 2005 11:45:28 PM

time warner fucking sucks....my roadrunner is fucking slow..my digital cable keeps freezing up...and on top of that i have to wait on the phone for a TW rep for like 2 fucking hours at a time..plus when they installed my wiring in my bedroom they made the hole too big and now i get leaks when it rains ...(not tooooo bad) time warner sucks...my mom had comcast in indiana ...i wish they serviced here too..guess im stuck with 2nd best

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