I have contacted Charter several times over the years concerning the information contained in the Guide, the on screen program schedule. The information provided includes a notation of whether a show is NEW or RERUN. Every show is listed as NEW. When I am selecting what to view, knowing if it is a rerun helps me decide which show to watch. The synopsis is not always descriptive enough to refresh my memory as to whether I've seen the show or not.
Every time I call, I get a different reason for the misinformation. Last night I called and after being placed on hold several minutes was informed a show may appear on one network, then be repeated on another. It would be considered NEW on the second network. Almost sounds reasonable.
The problem is when The Tonight Show is listed as new on NBC, how can a rerun on the same network be NEW? I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told it would take 20-30 minutes for a supervisor to get on the line.
I suggested they could discontinue my service if a supervisor wasn't on the phone immediately.By now, I'm feeling paranoid and looking for that conspiracy. Could the 20-30 minute delay be an attempt to get me to give up on my complaint?
Surprisingly after about 30 seconds a supervisor was on the line (There go those paranoid feelings again). After explaining the situation to him, he stated that the line up "feeds" come directly from the networks without any auditing by Charter. If I had a complaint, I should take it up with NBC, CBS, ABC, Discovery, History Channel, etc.
What a great Customer Service scam. Charter provides the unaudited information to its subscribers, but if there is a problem, the subscriber should take it up with Charter's vendors - the networks.
I explained I did not think it was my responsibility to attempt to have Charter's vendors correct the information sent to Charter.By now of course, I am becoming somewhat irate.
The supervisor's solution was to schedule an appointment for a technician to visit my home (and me to take the day off from work) to determine if all the cable boxes in my home, my neighbors homes, and even distant relative's homes were mysteriously changing RERUN to NEW (paranoia creeping in again - was this a tactic to get me to drop my complaint?).
I told him not to schedule the technician at my home, but rather HE file a complaint with the customer services of the 100 networks.
Now, today, I get a phone call wanting to confirm my appointment. I called back and spoke with another customer service agent. She informed me they needed to send the technician because Charter's procedures are to attempt to reset the box while I was on the phone. If that didn't clear up whatever possible problem might exist, then a technician would be sent.
I asked if the CSR's had anyone they could contact for a problem their scripted procedure would not solve and was told - NO.
I asked if she had the ability to meet with her supervisor, possibly a team meeting to discuss problems. I was told they had no time for team meetings or training because they had so many complaints. Hmmmm. She advised it had been months since the last team meeting of any kind and it was not for discussing job functions.
I again had become somewhat irate. I left my cell phone number, a number i have had for 10 years and still do not receive sales calls, porn text messages, or any other nuisance phone calls. Within the hour of talking to the last CSR, I start receiving phone calls from a cruise line with 2 free airline tickets to text messages advising me to call this number to talk to women. Again the paranoia creeps in.
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