Until about 8 months ago, I was a perfectly satisfied DirecTV customer. One day, a Time Warner salesman came knocking on my door. He claimed that they'd identified me as a DirecTV customer, and decided to get aggressive about taking market share via competitive pricing. He offered me a rate of ~$55 for just about every channel under the sun (ex. Playboy) - Wow, I couldn't pass that deal up!

I have a fairly elaborate home entertainment wiring system...had 2 receivers w/ 3 outlets, duplexers (sp?), and miles of speaker/signal wiring. The Time Warner dude who showed up to install everything was perplexed...he'd never seen anything like it. He failed to get it working, and had to send a more experienced guy out for another appt. wasting my time. The 2nd dude finally got it going, but I never got all the channels promised. I didn't complain since the price was good and I didn't want them screwing w/ my equipment & wiring any more.

I was just looking over my bank activity, and noticed my EFT draft increased from ~$95 to $134 in April and $140 in May! WTF? The worthless "customer service" rep I called advised me that I had a 6 month promotional deal. She didn't seem to care that they'd dismantled a $300 DTV installation by making me believe I had a permanent good deal or that I told her to downgrade me to basic cable - no salesmanship or even lame attempts at appeasing me.

Looks like I'll be going back to DirecTV! Even cooler, they now offer local stations, so I can ditch TW cable completely. When DSL becomes available in my area, I can't wait to tell them to **** off and die! (sorry, just had to get that off my chest).

I kept my DirecTV hardware, but it looks like they've come out w/ some pretty cool new stuff lately (built in Tivo, Ultimate TV, etc.). Anyone have any advice as to what's worthwhile and what's not?

 

Sorry to hear that you got the screw from TWC. Stick with Directv, I have had Directv for 5 years now and still very satisfied. I know many others that have gotten bad deals from TWC and AT&T (formally TCI).
Ultimate TV is nice, however you do need a dual LNB dish to use the 2 channel recording feature. I have a 2 receiver setup so that I can use my picture in picture during football season. I have a new mitsubishi SR HD-5 receiver that has component output as well a S video outs. My Sony Wega 36" XBR TV has component inputs and this is a perfect match. I also have DVD with component output and have this and my receiver going thru a component switch, XBR only has one component input.
Hope all works out well for you.
Fxxx TWC & At&t.

 

You're not the only one

 

After my experiences with AT&T Broadvision and AT&T@Home, I'd probably welcome the problems you had with Time Warner! Let's see, 17 service calls, more than $2,000 damage to my front yard (had to replace the front sidewalk too), lousy reception, e-mail system down for weeks at a time, untrained installers, incompetent service techs, clowns in tech support (where I've logged more than 50 hours in two years)

 

Let's all repeat: Time Warner is satanic. Time Warner is satanic....

Case in point: I can't get Speedvision, unless I get digital cable. But I can't get digital cable because TW won't offer it in my area. I LIVE IN THE MIDDLE OF GODDAMN MANHATTAN FOR CHRISSAKES!!!! ARGHHH!!!!!!!!! There must be able 20,000 potential customers per square mile here, but TW is too stupid to ge their infrastructure in order.

Part of the problem is dumb managers. An even bigger problem is the union labor that works with a silver goddamn spoon in its left hand.

 

in these things like tv and broadband your provider choices are between a rock and a hard spot. f'ing bastards.