For the last year, I’ve had problems with getting channels. Quite often channels that are included in my subscription, such as Turner Classic Movies, Fox Sports 1, etc., show as “___ is currently unavailable. Try again later.” For non-sports channels, this issue is a matter of less than an hour, sometimes a bit more.
Sports channels are different though. I should have known by now, especially given that the sports channels don’t show up when they are showing actual live sports, that I’d have a problem getting the baseball playoffs. Well, I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that because I hoped that TWC would miraculously get it right just in time. Hah, hah. I’m a fucking numbskull.
I spent some time this afternoon chatting with a TWC rep (who was very helpful, attempted her damn best to fix it), and the end result was that every time I tried to go to FS1 and watch baseball, I got the Golf Channel. Fucking GOLF? Seriously?
I’ve decided that I’m better off having only over the air TV than fucking Time Warner. I can’t believe that I was so stupid as to expect them to show me a channel that is included in my subscription.
TWC has one selling point: Dish and DirectTV don’t offer high speed internet. It’s either TWC or DSL for most of their coverage area. That is why TWC’s motto is “We’re better than Comcast, at least.”
I get internet through U-Verse. I haven’t subscribed to their TV because they charge extra for HD. (Also because I bought a modem for internet service, and if I switch to internet and TV, my one-year-old purchased modem is no longer usable. I have to rent one from them that works for both. Also pretty fucking irritating, I must say.)
TW works pretty well in my area (Greater Kansas City)…at least now it does.
Within the last 6 months TW has improved my cable reception and more than tripled my download speed (7Mbps to 30Mbps) with an offer to crank that speed up to 100Mbps.
Coincidentally in the last six months Google Fiber has been laying glass in my region. In the last few days the Google contractors have been in my neighborhood extending service from the distribution blocks to homes and yesterday afternoon the contractor landed the fiber to a new customer service box hanging off the side of my house.
I wonder if those two actions are related?
Within the next few weeks I’ll have Google Fiber installed at 1000 Mbps and I’ll be thanking TW for years of modest performance when they could have quite easily offered better.
I get this sometimes too with Cox. After it happening several times and waiting for hours sometimes for it to come back I called and bitched about it and the rep. said to unplug the box so it resets. It worked. So I do that whenever it happens. Sometimes I have to reset it twice.
Interesting!! Now that you mention it, TWC’s internet upgrade in this area followed very closely on the heels of the announcement that Google Fiber would be coming to the Raleigh area (though not all the way to Wake Forest, sadly).
I’m still with TWC for internet only because of the speed they offer…the only other available services for my neighborhood are somewhere around 5 Mbps or less. I switched to DirecTV a couple of years ago after I got back from vacation to find that Time Warner’s shitty equipment had failed, costing me two weeks of recordings. I’m close enough to the major broadcasters that a $40 indoor HD antenna is enough to ensure I still have local channels during bad storms (when you should turn your electronics off anyway!) or ice/snow buildup (rare!).