Talk:Charter Communications

Stop whining
A lot of whiny customers here. Yesitsnot (talk) 07:37, 9 September 2010 (UTC) That is because Charter is a bad company to have services with. In addition to this, you do not want to work for this company. I have worked on and off for them since 2001 and I can tell you after my last stint as a Team Captain I will never return. The leadership is unprofessional and conniving. They owed companies they never paid and wrote off 6 billion dollars. They went bankrupt and will never pay these people. They even owed me and I figured when they brought me back in with more pay, benefits, and a leadership position that this was their way of paying me back. Nope. - Adamson 9/11/2013

Complaints
I once owned a Computer Business on Main Street Austin. The company also developed public safety software for sheriff and police. I was located there for about ten years. What did Hormel do? Dropped my contract for Dell. My family is from town and in the Masons, also my Grandfather used to work head in the telecoms there in Austin and my other Grandfather was Hormel's master plumber. So, invision this, still Hormels didnt care because it would save them some USD to switch to Dell. Yea they are jerks. You can imagine, after I lose that contract, shortly later, Earth Link asks about Charter Communications, we say well yea we are with them too and Earth Link says it's us or them, so we choose Charter, and what does Paul Allen later do? Release us from Charter. So here we are, no corporate contracts left. So then of course I have to shutdown and move out of town. To this day Charter still owes our Public Safety Technology, Inc, PST "Your Computer Connection".

Slogans

 * "Don't come to us, we will make your ass broke as a joke" (2009)

''The slogans section is used on the Wendy's article. that was my template for this article. If we should put it back on the article, please do so. If i can find it, i will put up some of the older, funnier slogans. --Zeroasterisk 18:28, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)''

The out and out bashing of this cable company, yet remaining NPOV is awesome! Nick Dillinger 09:24, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

leaving the actual history in the article is fine, placing opinions in the article as fact is not the spirit of Wikipedia Jwestbrook 14:11, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Tough s***.

<< Wikipedia is a great resource. I'd hate to see it discredited because of statements such as the above. Jwestbrook is right: opinions stated as fact will dilute the reputation and usefullness of Wikipedia. Zero and Nick, please save that kind of juvenile spew for the blogs. >>

The official slogan is "Brings Your Home to Life." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.44.216.43 (talk) 03:33, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Indictments

 * "1998 the SEC investigates a buying binge by the company which leads to the indictment of four former executives for improper financial reporting"
 * is this not the same thing as the 2000/01 fraud? Is it misdated? Or did the fraud investigation begin that long ago on other matters than what led to the convictions? Rd232 talk 01:01, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

charter has a lot of hidden charges that will make you broke as a joke —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.71.48.3 (talk) 05:37, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

See I knew it all along: Charter = Satan —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.233.69.107 (talk) 18:38, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

what hidden charges are you talking about. the only charges not in the "bundle" are modem lease fees. $4.25 if you have hsi and phone. and do you seriously expect to get free equipment?????

Link to date for indictments(sp)
Media Tracker

Here's the info I found that put it at 1998, the way courts work it may have been that long (1998-2000/1) to actually get it done

btw t/y for helping out

J\/\/estbrook      05:32, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

Telephone service
As a charter Support tech I just need to clarify; charter phone is NOT VOiP. It is Broadband Telephony. Charter phone service is not based on the internet rather the RF signals and fiberlins that the other services use.
 * Yes, it is VOIP: it uses the Voice Over Internet Protocol. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.191.141.46 (talk) 00:11, 3 April 2007 (UTC).
 * a Charter tech doesn't know the service he supposedly supports uses VOIP. Yep, that's Charter, all right.
 * Side note, Charter utilizes VOIP technology but differs then use of other companies such as Vonage that relies on 3rd party Internet service, Charter uses its own private network to transfer VOIP packets, though congestion and outages {power loss at headend, fiber cuts, and overall node failure} will interrupt service. The Charter support tech is trying to clarify that difference imo, no need to bash him/her for incorrect information.

Ranking
From Cox's wiki page: "'Cox Communications is a wholly-privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television and telecommunciations services in the United States. It is the third-largest cable television provider in the United States, serving more than 6.7 million customers, including 2.7 million digital cable subscribers, 3.1 million Internet subscribers, and 1.7 digital telephone subscribers[2]. Its animated spokesman is named Digital Max.'"

Charter also makes note that it is the third largest cable television provider. Jaymzyates 23:05, 23 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Charter technically is the third largest  publicly traded cable operator but fourth overall. Cox Communications is a private company but third overall.  ♪♫Al ucard   16♫♪  05:23, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Mistakes in outsourcing section
I am a Charter employee. The Bay City, MI call center closed. The Walker, MI call center remains open. I have corrected this.

I have added the inclusion of TeleTech's center in WV to the list. FFrX 08.01.07

fyi- The outsourcing section says all US call centers have been closed and outsourced out of country, yet one of the outsource centers listed is Laredo Texas. We all know charter is too cheap to keep even 1 US call center...

oooh and someone should add that Charter will take your money and say you are receiving 5mb/sec service when in reality you only get .5-1mbps unless it's 3-5AM. also might want to mention that after 3-5 hours of phone support with some jackass who doesn't understand what your saying (ex English), and another 2hr period in which a tech is supposed to come out, and then the next hour when they get there late after that 2hr period ended and admit that they simply are not providing enough bandwidth to the building and everyone has the same problem yet they still will not upgrade to provide the speed they charge you for or refund your cable bill aside from the last 5-7 days even tho it has been occuring for months. wtf i thought there are rules against monopolies —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.90.25.252 (talk) 00:26, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Corporate contact
The following line was deleted as it is not accurate the number listed (last 4 removed) is NOT a customer service number. It is neither a corporate contact number either. M-BMor 07:51, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
 * HSD/Telephony Emergency Support: (502) 420-

I have added the customer service number for ALL services. Press 1 for Cable & HSI, 2 for Telephone. If you are experiencing a telephone related problem, such as No Dial Tone or trouble with a feature, you can reach the repair department by following the prompts. Select 2 for Telephone, 3 for Support, and 2 for No Dial Tone to quickly speak with a representative. FFrX 08.01.07

Incorporated / was founded
Question, should it be "Charter Communications was incorporated" or "Charter Communications incorporated"? For clarity, it seems the former is clearer as it seems someone identified the statement as Charter Communications Incorporated (like Charter Communications, Inc.) --AllyUnion (talk) 08:36, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Recent additions to this page
Several (presently unsourced) paragraphs about the recent activities of Charter Communications were recently added to the article's intro. In their original form, they read like advertising copy, so I removed them. The author Mbaker99 reintroduced them, still failing to cite sources but with the tone cleaned up a bit. I then split this off into a separate section, as there was way too much detail for a brief introduction to the topic. This section has since been moved to the top of the page.

My present thoughts on this are: 1) It's still unsourced. This should be fixed, by someone who can verify this information and link to it; my cursory attempt at looking on google didn't turn up these statistics. 2) It's too long; I don't think excruciating statistical detail on the growth of this company needs to comprise such a large portion of the article; something brief indicating how many customers they currently have/have gained recently would be sufficient. Similarly, the multifarious paragraphs on customer service improvement could be cut down to a couple sentences saying that they've hired more agents and are answering calls faster, IF this information can be sourced. 3) This information should be AFTER the info providing a general overview of the company; putting it before sections like "History" that describe what the company's actual business is makes the article clumsy. 4) I'm 99.999999% certain Mbaker99 is a Charter employee, as information like "average speed of answer" is NOT generally made public by call centers, and is unlikely to be available from any source other than Charter's internal documents.

Since I have no desire to get into a revert war, I'm going to wait (a bit) before making any more changes to this article to see if anybody else has any thoughts on this. e v i l d e a t h m a t h 16:52, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

I reorganized the new material somewhat; I added a reference for the revenue growth info and consolidated the paragraphs about awards the company has received and moved them into a separate section (I haven't added references for them yet, but both publications are pretty well-known, shouldn't be hard to find. . .)

I also removed a couple of things that I couldn't find sources for; everything citing call-center statistics is now gone; it needs a source if it's to be added back.

The list of services provided by Charter (telephone, broadband internet, cable TV) is in the intro, so I deleted it from the "Recent Growth" section; I also removed the "175 HD channels" bit; it's an oversimplification anyway, as the channel lineup is dependent on where you live and what package you sign up for, and I don't think an encyclopedia is the place to maintain a running log of what/how many HD channels a specific cable provider is offering.

Finally, I removed the section about call center agents being trained in specialties like billing, etc. This isn't new information (Charter has done this for at least four years), so it doesn't belong in a section on recent growth, and it's not notable either (at least not as specifically relates to Charter), as any large company's telephone customer service department is organized this way; if this information needs to be anywhere, my feeling is it should be in the general call center article. e v i l d e a t h m a t h 14:27, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

~Note: on August 5th, 2008 I edited the call centers that are open as outsource centers for Charter. London Ontario was still listed as being an outsource center, but we've been closed for 4 or 5 months now. 72.137.247.189 (talk) Laura Butler —Preceding undated comment was added at 01:00, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Link removed
A link to Charter-Bundle.com was removed from the bottom of the page. This is not a page by charter, rather a link to a Charter reseller. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.53.188.25 (talk) 23:50, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Complaints section
"All of these criticisms have led consumers to believe that Charter Communications offers the worst combination of price for channel availability of any major cable provider in the United States." This line is unsupported by any of the surrounding lines. It should have a reference. L.cash.m (talk) 20:54, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

"Operating income 	IncreaseUS$895 million (2011)[1]" "Net income 	DecreaseUS$-369 million (2011)[1]" The citations for the income are based on a 2007 Charter Communications annual report, predating their 2009 bankruptcy (based on the link provided). There is no TIMELY reference citing their cash flow and the inclusion of a 2011 reference is inaccurate based on the citation provided.

They just raised rates by almost 13% on their cable bill (specifically, from 54.99 for premium Internet to $61.99) in San Diego. Other markets may also have seen steep increases. The amount is arbitrary since the top price for ALL markets for the ultimate Internet service is $99.99

http://ww2.cox.com/residential/arizona/internet/internet-packages.cox?campcode=gntile_r_internet_preferred (Arizona)

http://ww2.cox.com/residential/sandiego/internet/internet-packages.cox?campcode=gntile_r_internet_preferred (San Diego) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.7.0.160 (talk) 05:05, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

History
Charter suggests a battery backup to reduce the risk of being without phone service in the event main power is lost.

Is this line really necessary under history? It seems to be out of place. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.124.2.206 (talk) 08:41, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Outsourcing
Kamloops, British Columbia no longer provides support for Charter. Support ended on January 9, 2010.

See http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20091217/KAMLOOPS0101/312179958/employees-out-of-work-victoria-out-of-money-to-help

http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20100109/KAMLOOPS0101/301099991/-1/KAMLOOPS01/convergys-staff-continues-to-drop-as-closing-date-nears

Cvgskam (talk) 01:49, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Reverted some vandalism.
I hope I did it right and didn't miss anything. I don't like Comcast or Charter anymore than anybody else, but still, vandalism like this doesn't help.--ThePenciler (talk) 05:41, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

Charter Communications Internet,phone service and cable television service.
I have been trying to get service for my monthly payment. I DO NOT get any phone calls INTO my house...since MAY 2010. Voice mails sent in MAY FINALLY came into my box in August. Internet emails show up WEEKS after they were sent. I have been dealing with field service techs and they have been great and they say that there is NO problem with anything inside of my house, and yet I need to use my cell as the land line still does not work.

Charter Communications...Phone, Internet, Cable Provider
The information I have read is very outdated and yet very much the same as to what is going on at this date. Charter Communications continues to send out monthly bills and yet provides nothing in the form of a "product" worthy of the package deals they "contract" to offer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.88.228.241 (talk) 07:57, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

Being a former employee I can tell you first hand the company is devoid of any people with reasonable intelligence from the corporate office to the grunt on the pole. Their policies and procedures are "Gray" and enforced by morons. They are completely anti-customer and frankly dont give a rats *** if your internet,tv or phone are reliable or not. They are only interested in making what loot they can, however they can. Their answer to customer complaints is to do a give-away for a tv or some other trinket that may shut up the little guy. Save yourself some grief and go with anything else besides them. And yes, this is my opinion but I am speaking from 5+ years experience with the company, or should I say circus. BTW, do a speed test and give them a call, you will see what I mean and believe it to be true. Thanks and good luck! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.12.240.190 (talk) 04:11, 16 October 2010 (UTC)


 * Why stay with them so long if they are that bad? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.154.168.91 (talk) 20:49, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

Logo is now dated
It appears (via their website and other branded materials) that the logo is no longer current. They do not use iconography anymore - the logo is now 100% text. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.65.128.6 (talk) 22:51, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

Largely a PUFF Piece
Reads like a PR handout from the company. I know certain dates need to remain because it shows their rapacious nature, but surely some of the bafflegab and PR swill can be removed. Not also that they're intending to swallow Time-Warner and petitions are flying. 184.148.107.107 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 19:43, 21 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Hi 184.148.107.107- Is there a specific section of the page you are referring to? If you can specify what area of the article, it would be helpful for other editors. I've made some edits to the page previously, I could probably help you. DirectAttrition (talk) 18:23, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Charter Communications
Semi-protection: High level of IP vandalism. Kazaro (talk) 09:47, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

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deletion of content
Hello, I would like to discuss the inclusion of awards and recognition content which was recently deleted. (See diff ) The edit summary stated "ads", presumably implying the content violated WP policy regarding advertising. I disagree that the content meets the definition of advertising, and I strongly object to the deletion of content without discussion. Particularly as the criticism section is maintained, I do not believe this NPOV editing. However, I would like to find a consensus of what, if any, content should be included. Dbsseven (talk) 01:10, 10 August 2017 (UTC)


 * The original version is:
 * Awards and recognition
 * In 2011, PCWorld awarded Charter with several "fastest ISP"-type awards. Charter has upgraded its Internet speed tiers and gave most of its customers a free upgrade in speed twice during the 2011 business year.


 * In 2009, Charter won a CableFax TopOps award for its Day of Service (DOS) team that answers calls from customers on the day that a technician is scheduled to arrive at their home.


 * In December 2007, Charter was recognized by CableWorld Magazine as "2007 Multi-System Operator of the Year". According to the magazine, the company was selected for this award based on "rapidly expanding its telephone footprint to take advantage of the triple-play offering; developing a consistent, data-driven marketing plan; and addressing its nearest-term debt maturities". During the spring of 2008, Charter was honored with third place among companies with over 2,000 employees in the annual "Best Places to Work in St. Louis" competition, sponsored by the St. Louis Business Journal, based on the response of Charter employees in the area to an online survey created and managed by the Journal.


 * Its Fortune ranking is 331 (May 26, 2015).

I think the deleting editor is incorrect in outright removal of this section. While editors are not to exaggerate, we are to put forth both the good and bad about a subject, to the extent it is supported by reliable sources. Of the listed awards, I would consider removal of the Cablefax/CableWorld awards as being least significant. —ADavidB 12:09, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
 * All of it is simply outdated information and the F500 info can be ascertained through the infobox. Charter is now mainly Connecticut-based, and increases in bandwidth are standard-issue for the ISP industry these days. Good call.  Nate  • ( chatter ) 13:25, 12 October 2017 (UTC)
 * The company has relocated its headquarters and bought other companies. What is your meaning of "ascertained through the infobox"? —ADavidB 17:07, 12 October 2017 (UTC)
 * I added some content back per discussion with in August. Sorry, I should have made a note here. I think the note about St. Louis should probably still remain as the company still has a large presence in St. Louis despite the HQ moving. Perhaps this could be updated, or similar information about other locations added, if available. Dbsseven (talk) 19:17, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

@Adavidb, the word “Ascertained” means to find out or learn. -NetWitz- 17:59, 12 October 2017 (UTC)NetWitz
 * I know what the verb typically means, though it seemed Mrschimpf meant something more specific, as if the F500 info were readily available from the current infobox content. This is why I asked for more intended meaning or details. —ADavidB 01:05, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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Which logo and product(s)?
An editor recently replaced the old "Charter Communications" logo on the page with the company's current "Spectrum" logo. I reverted the change until I realized that charter.com redirects to spectrum.com as their web page, upon which I undid my own edit. My latter edit, in turn, was reverted by someone apparently sharing my original thought that Spectrum was only part of what Charter does.

So, which is it? Does Charter still promote products other than via their Spectrum brand, even though spectrum.com is their (only?) website? If so, what are those products? If not, I suggest we display their current/only brand logo. Others' thoughts? —ADavidB 06:51, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
 * I think the what products Charter promotes is less relevant here than what the name of the corporation is. The article is about the company, not just a product/brand. So long at the company is Charter, I believe that should be the logo shown at the top. (Put another way: it is confusing/odd to open an article named "Charter" while the infobox says "Spectrum"). Dbsseven (talk) 17:27, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
 * I somewhat agree, though only the logo showed Spectrum, not the whole infobox or article. Do we have any evidence that Charter still uses a graphical logo with their name in it? —ADavidB 17:46, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Used on 3/1/2018 (the most recent notice on their investor relations page) Dbsseven (talk) 05:42, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

Copyright problem removed
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