Ah, Charter. Oft-maligned, and for good reason: they pretty much suck at life. And yet, we still rely on them to provide our teevee and interwebs, a decision that I rarely question unless there’s a problem. And boy, is there a problem.
It’s expensive!
What I dislike the most about Charter is that sort of underhanded way they rely on limited-time offers to sell their services. Offers that really make the product affordable, until you reach the six-month point and it doubles in price. The best part? Good luck finding the real prices on their website.
Honestly, I can live with internet that costs $45 a month; I require it. But $50 a month just so I can watch the same episode of House Hunters where they have to decide whether they want the charming bungalow (but it only has one bath) or the historic saltbox that’s too close to the highway (the third choice was a raised ranch but they ruled that one out early on because the backyard was too small).
Where was I? Oh yeah: cable television costs too much money for what is essentially junk.
So I think I’m ready to cut the tethers to Charter’s cable “service” altogether, I’m interested in your suggestions for broadband internet providers. Since Charter’s not going to be changing their ways any time soon, maybe it’s time for me to change mine.
anonemoose
8:09 am on February 5th
Andy,
I hope you get helpful information. I, too, am looking to dump Charter. To date, I haven’t had time to research how best to replace their internet and cable services at what I hope will be a much more reasonable fee. I will welcome any suggestions regarding providers.
moose
Jim Sisko
8:57 am on February 5th
Andy/Moose – I dumped Charter and went with Dish Network (digital picture and sound + DVR for a little over what I was paying for basic cable) for TV 3 years ago and NetZero DSL ($19.95 a month) for internet last year and haven’t looked back…
Dino Corvino
10:41 am on February 5th
Sisko,
How does it work with NetZero? I mean hard ware wise.
Jim Sisko
11:11 am on February 5th
Corvino – All you need is a modem (vendor provided) and access to a phone line. Much, much faster than dial-up I might add…
Andy Laub
11:24 am on February 5th
Does Dish require a box for each TV? That’s something I’d like to avoid; we have about a million TV’s in our house.
Dino Corvino
11:37 am on February 5th
I dont want a phone line.
Jim Sisko
11:49 am on February 5th
Andy – You can run 2 TVs off a single box (you can DVR and watch separate programs tho)…
sweetgirl5051455
2:32 pm on February 5th
O Charter, Charter, Charter.
I am a college student and I have Charter. To say the least, I have to go to school and use the internet because it won’t work at home. The lights on my modem are always flashing. I am so fed up with it! The only reason I got it was for school, and because it was only $20 a month (for 6 months). There are too many problems with Charter.
Charter, YOU SUCK.
Lisa Stahl
2:36 pm on February 5th
Well, you could just give up TV.
Dino Corvino
2:47 pm on February 5th
Charter has an office here in town, and you should go knock on their door. Its the reason I have charter, or cellular one. I like having a business I can go open a door and sit somewhere until they give me what I want.
Andy Laub
2:49 pm on February 5th
lisa, that is certainly a tempting thought.
Dino Corvino
3:01 pm on February 5th
I like cooking shows, and there is always hope Aaron Sorkin will comeback.
Jim Carlson
3:36 pm on February 5th
I love Charter. My high speed internet works more than half the time! Customer service usually answers my calls within 3 hours. They don’t really help, but I like listening to them huff and puff in their helpless ‘do you really think I can help you?’ tone.
You can plug your TV into the cable jack? Hmmm.
Jane Neal
5:09 pm on February 5th
We switched to DirecTV about a year ago and we pay LESS than we did for cable (two boxes), and HD on the grown-up’s TV. And we locked in a good deal for internet through Verizon (less than $20, but you need a phone line).
We’ve had an occasional glitch with the Dish, but when I call, I get to talk to a HUMAN (and they are NICE! and HELPFUL!)
I could tell you some really ugly stories about how horrible Charter was to me when my mom died. Over and over and over again for months. But I won’t. Let’s just say they will never get any more business from my family!
Andy Laub
5:45 pm on February 5th
It’s so strange to me that both Charter and Comcast offer the exact same services and both manage to be utterly despised by nearly everybody. From what you hear you’d expect them to be completely inept in all aspects of running a cable business, and generally that’s not far from the truth. Is it that difficult to run a business when you have a monopoly on the market?
Honestly, is there anybody who would go out of their way to defend either company? If so, I happen to have a bridge for sale (I am willing to work out a payment plan).
Boogenstein
5:55 pm on February 5th
Aas much as I hate Charter, and their bills, their broadband is way superior to Verizon DSL. We had that for a while and you could set your watch by the times when it would slow to a crawl.
As for DirectTV, they wanted us to have 2 dishes, one on the house and one on the garage. It was a better deal so we were going for it. They said that the garage dish would allow us to get the local channels! Then the installation guys turned up and said that the cabl;e from the garage to the house would have to be underground and they could come back when we had dug it! Trees blowing in the wind were another issue so we will be sticking with cable and it’s faster and more reliable broadband.
Marcus Nelson
7:45 pm on February 5th
Andy – about a year ago we were in the same predicament. We live in Kronenwetter, so going DSL was not an option. We went with a Dish Network and got one dish to power two TVs, plus separate remotes for the DVR so you can watch two different programs. The family package is about $39/month.
Our phone went to Cellular only and the Internet, well – we had to stick with Charter. $59/mo. for 5MB. Totally blows – so last Friday I called in to get a reset and asked about any promotions. They offered me the same set-up for $34.99/mo. plus a netgear wireless modem. I didn’t need it, but for that price, it seemed worth it.
Wonder how long this promotion will last?
The upside to all of this is AT&T. They are creeping in slowly, but surely. Once they arrive with Cable and Internet, things will change quite a bit – I hope.
Barry Liss
8:14 pm on February 5th
It’s weird how much TV costs – TVs as objects are perversely expensive and TV reception at home too. I guess people spend money on what they perceive to be important to them. Funny creatures are we…
Andy Laub
8:59 pm on February 5th
Barry, interestingly, I don’t really have issues with the cost of the television hardware. Actually, I don’t have issues with the cost of any hardware, generally. If I can pay for it once up front and be done with it, that suits me just fine.
Awhile back, TiVo used to sell lifetime subscriptions that were tied to the hardware. You could choose to pay $300 and never have to pay another fee for that box, or you could pay $12.95 a month instead (forever). Obviously it takes time for that purchase to pay off, but I still felt more comfortable with it and wouldn’t have bought it otherwise.
Marcus, you say you “got a reset”… how does that work exactly? And for what term is the $34.99/month?
Shawn Sullivan
10:40 am on February 9th
You know, I hate Charter with every fiber of my being, but am also afraid of making the switch to another provider and having things be even worse. You know, like sticking with the devil you know.
I was ready to make a switch right around the time of the Packers/Cowboy game but didn’t want to just react. I wanted to do research. Can’t say anything has clarified my position at all. It’s almost crippling.
Has anyone out there gotten Solarus? We’ve seen the ads and it’s available in our area, but only for phone and internet.
Then, do we go with DirectTV or Dish? Any feedback is appreciated.
Marcus Nelson
7:55 am on February 11th
Andy – Once in a while the cable internet connection drops. Usually happens every other month for me. It’s like the router forgets who it was talking to. I tried the usual tricks to get it to reconnect, but they didn’t seem to fix it.
I called Charter and they “Reset” the connection. Basically it refreshes the MAC address of the router in their system so it knows where data packets should be sent — any way, it’s painless and off it goes [btw, a MAC is a Media Access Control address originally developed by Xerox fro ethernet control. Has nothing to do with Steve Jobs.]
I’m not sure how long the promotion lasts, but it’s tied to renting the router, so maybe it’s indefinite?
Dino Corvino
4:16 pm on February 11th
I dont know what Solarus is Sullivan.
I think its funny that our city was up in arms about the Charter Packer debacle, but after that was settled, everyone went back to being fine with Charter.
HIGHLARIOUS
Boogenstein
10:00 pm on February 11th
Solarus don’t have BBC America so it won’t happen here.
Barry Liss
6:37 pm on February 13th
Here’s some free media for you for Valentine’s Day and a little culture to boot. The Academy Award winning film Shop on Main Street will be shown at UWMC in room 233 this Friday the 15th at 7pm. Here’s more info on the film:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shop_on_Main_Street
All are welcome.
Barry
Dino Corvino
9:34 pm on February 13th
Barry write something up, and we can post it on the front page
puckb6655
2:38 pm on March 31st
I’m also a college student here in Wausau with Charter. When I first moved here last year I came to find that Charter had definitely dominated the market as a internet provider, but there are a few other options out there. Here are some links to other internet service providers in the Wausau area…
LocalNet:
http://www.localnet.com/access.phtml
AirRunner Networks:
http://www.airrun.net/wireless.htm
FiberNet:
http://www.fibernetcc.com/services.htm