TWC Strikes Again

For me, Time Warner's broadband Road Runner internet capabilities beats Embarq's by a long shot. But both businesses culture's discourage initiative and customer service that really sucks big time.

They are their own biggest fault modality: of the issues that I've had to endure as a customer, virtually all have been caused directly by unthinking, bureaucratic actions on the part of TWC people. Of course, a few have also been caused by unthinking Embarq contractors as well, and maybe some of the fault lies with the marking people too.

Here's the pattern that has repeated itself over and over:
1) marker guy walks all over my property spraying paint on my lawn and driveway, along the street, etc, etc.
2) contractors come out to dig something in
3) me or one of my neighbors points out that the marker did not mark the cable and/or phone. We say clearly "DO NOT DIG HERE" because there is something buried. We tell every one of the contractors on site.
4) Contractors ignore our information, trench directly across the cables. We lose phone and/or cable service for a couple of days.
5) Finger pointing beings.


Not to mention that these companies constantly send people out without notification to spin these problems, but can never identify exactly when a crew will fix the problems. You're supposed to be home "sometime between 9 to 1" or some such huge window. And even if it is noted as a cable cut on their work order, they may well test the signal at the pole and mark it "resolved" if no one is home.

I'm fed up with them. This last time it was the phone contractor who restarted the cycle. They were digging in fiber across the street. We went over and told them, look at the pole: we have internet and cable service coming from that pole. Please don't cut it. They cut it. Several hours later, TWC shows up and patches the cable.

Ok, fine, they patched it. But a week later, they show up again, this time with trenchers. I tell them, there is a phone line buried in my driveway, and ask why in the world they are replacing my cable, when it is SOUND. The cut was across the street. THERE WAS NO REASON TO REPLACE THE ENTIRE SPAN OF CABLE. It was completely unjustified. No, they said, this is how it is done. So away they go, and cut my phone line. Too bad they say, it wasn't marked by the guys who do the marking.

So now my phone doesn't work, and who knows when service will be restored. Worse yet, it is as likely as not that they guys who come in to fix that will again show their lack of competence by cutting through something else.

Stuff like this makes me yearn for a way to do without a phone company or ISP. The technology is sufficiently advanced to conjecture that a peer-to-peer urban/suburban wireless last-mile architecture could work. Something like an ISP co-operative. Something where the network terminators were themselves extenders for a co-op owned network segment, and segments were strung together through their nearest neighbors, with support provided by the cooperative but no ISP restrictions by a corporate ISP.

Of my service providers, the two who stand out as shining examples are Wake Electric, and Freedom Federal Credit Union. I would be much happier doing business with one of these kinds of companies than TWC or Embarq, who have completely lost touch with their local customers.