I am soo mad at Charter right now. I am so pissed my blood is boiling. I don't get pissed too often. Let me recap the past two months...

First of all my bill for high speed internet is way too high. No one should have to pay $56 for high speed internet. I have been paying this for a while...I just checked ATT to see what they can do. I really don't need a land line. Land lines start at $40...add the slowest internet and there ya have it. I can save a whopping $1.01. Or I can add digital TV for 19.99 per month.

Guess what. I don't need a phone...and I'm still not sure if I even want cable TV...so where's the package for me? Does Charter realize there are people that don't want their TV service? Does ATT know that there are people that don't want phone service? Why should have to pay for something that I don't want? Or why should I have to pay a lot for one service? This isn't an ala carte menu...I guess it is...

OK now that I have discussed this...so my debit card expired a few months ago. I had to update all of my billing records to show my new debit card number. What a pain in the ass. Well I missed one...Charter.

So Charter doesn't send me a notice letting me know that hey - you've got an expired card coming up. All of the other businesses I do send me a nice reminder via email or in the mail.

So Charter charges me an extra $20 for that month and let me know that my bill is due and that if I don't pay the 56 + 20 then they cut off my service. In the mean time...I realize this about the same time that my debit account has an extra 56 in it....cool...I could use an extra 56. Maybe I can pay my charter account with it...

I can't get to my charter account because I can't remember my username. My username is different from my email address. So I try to login with what I think my username is. No dice. I try combinations of usernames and passwords until it locks me out. So I hop on the chat live with Charter help.

They can't help me because I don't know my username or password. I explain that that's exactly what I need - a username and a password. They say that I need a security code from my last statement due to a new FCC requirement....Guess what? My statements are online. I can't get to my online statments without my username password. I explain this. They ask me to call them.

I say to the chat person...thanks for wasting my time....I call them. It takes 2 hours to get through. Thank God that this person speaks native English...that's a different conversation. I understand that not everyone in this world is a native English speaker, but only native English speakers should be allowed in a technical call center...anyways different conversation.

So the phone person tells me the same thing. They cannot reset my password unless I have the security code. Magically a hard copy of my statement shows up in the mail 3 days later without asking - with the security code....some cool points there for customer service, but let me get back to the billing.

I think I have it all straightened out with billing. They update my new card. I pay for one month on a different card, and set up autopay on my new card. I tell him to run the card for next month...and start up the billing.

No charge for the next month. I am wondering what's up...I just got an email saying that $113 was paid for the past month and this month. Great...I keep just enough in my account to pay for the bills that I have. What does this mean? My balance has been overdrawn $56. So my overdraft kicks in. No big deal...I never use this...but they charge me for using it. It's just goes into my line of credit account....but line of credit does increments of $50...so $100 is dumped in to cover the negative 56.

So...to recap...

1) Charter high speed is way too expensive for what you get....$56 per month
2) There are no alternatives..the question is qhich service provider has the least crappiest service....for high speed it's probably Charter.
3) There are some huge loop holes in the username / password.
4) The chat service doesn't really provide any useful service.
5) Their customer service still sucks
6) The phone people are not able to understand anything more complex than - I need to pay my bill and I need you to reset my password...because I have my username and my security code.
7) Charter reallly sucks at accounting...and billing. They forget to add some months and then double it the next month.
8) Their communication ability to keep the customer in the loop is lacking. They don't send any emails about what's going on with your account.

I thought autopay would be less work. Look at all the extra work it takes to pay a bill. I am considering going back to mailing my bill in. No wonder the service is $56 per month. They have to pay for customer service - which is complete overhead....because they don't really provide any service at all. What a waste of my time, their time...yada yada....

I'm glad I am getting some use out of my internet service by blogging about Charter's crappy service.