When we moved into our current home last year we were all set to get cable for the first time ever, and to have no home phone. TW blew off two straight installation appointments. They called three weeks after DSL was installed instead to see if we wanted to reschedule. Here's one cat owner's response to what sounds like even worse service.

Yuck. Last summer, after making 3 appts when the technician finally arrived at my apt., he decided "it's too hot in here so I'm going to come back." I said "NO WAY, WE'RE DOING THIS RIGHT NOW." The problem ended up being that the cable in the backyard was unplugged (and I had no access to the backyard), so the 300 lb. dude sent ME down the rusty fire escape to plug the cable back in. Thanks for nothing, Time Warner! (

while i've had my problems with directv, you could always go that route. but you have to have a landline. and i believe they have come on the weekend before. actually, maybe not. i can't quite remember anymore.

The basic fact that they expect you to take a day off from work to let a cable guy in who, inevitably, will look around and say that he needs to go back and talk with his supervisor is shameful. I would like to start calculating what I earn per hour and charging them for all of the time I've taken off in the past 2 years.

My pet peeve with them is that they always try to get me to go through the motions of unplugging the modem, waiting 60 seconds, plugging it back in, reporting which lights are on, etc. I've gotten to the point where I tell them, "No, I am not going to do any of that, I'm just calling to report this outage so you can credit my account when you get it fixed." I find it satisfying to get my account credited, but in the end it only comes out to a few dollars, even when I haven't had internet for days.

I still have not paid for one month of cable-- November 2004. They refused to credit me, even though I had little or no service on and off for three months...so I've just refused to pay for that month. I figure, as soon as we move I'll be able to get DSL again (my aparment isn't wired right for it) and Time Warner can eat it.

i absolutely hate tw. even if you can get a tech out on the weekends, you still have to sacrifice something like a 4 or 6 hour block of time waiting around (with no tv and/or no internet!). it's completely ridiculous. there's usually some sort of communication problem too because tw contracts out their work. the contractors aren't authorized to do certain things, but imo they are usually the ones who know more about what's wrong and what to do about it. the tw techs are both lazy and stupid.

sounds so much like comcast. i absolutely hate comcast. omg. they are such douches. sorry, but growl!

:)