Is Charter a good ISP?

[AznSensation]

I'm currently using AT&T 6.0 meg DSL (paying $45). I got tired of their bull**** billing, frequent disconnect, horrible service, and speed. So, I'm thinking about switching to Charter cable that is also available in my area. What is your experience with charter?

 

[CurseTheSky]

FWIW, they're rated pretty low. We've had them for years and haven't had any major problems. Occasionally we have a week (maybe once every 2-3 years, and one week out of the year) where there are several disconnects at seemingly random times throughout the day. We just figure it's due to them working on lines or upgrading. Other ISPs that I've worked with at other residences seemed to be a lot more spotty.

So, I personally recommend them, but I know plenty of people that hate them as well.

 

[adairusmc]

I know that in my town, they are the best at sending customers our way. One of our ex techs now works for them, but stuck with our ADSL because his employee 18meg cable connection was pushing 1.5mbit max regardless of time of day.

I have no experience personally with their internet, but I did have their television service for 2 years. I would rather go without television for the rest of my life than even take free service from them after that joke. It wasn't working more often than it was it seems.

This is just for my area though, the story is probably much different depending on their service area.

 

[Eos]

i know that in my town, they are the best at sending customers our way. One of our ex techs now works for them, but stuck with our adsl because his employee 18meg cable connection was pushing 1.5mbit max regardless of time of day.

I have no experience personally with their internet, but i did have their television service for 2 years. I would rather go without television for the rest of my life than even take free service from them after that joke. It wasn't working more often than it was it seems.

this is just for my area though, the story is probably much different depending on their service area.

this * 3.14.

 

[RockinZ28]

Had them for years at my parents house, and then for a few months at my apartment. I'm sure it varies by location, but this was in two entirely different cities for my experience.

Parents house: Had at least a years worth of 200+ms pings, even to servers less than 50mi away at most times during the day. Horrible download speeds. Network was severely overloaded. Down completely often. Even when it was working well, they always charged more for less speed than other cable companies around the area, but there was of course no alternative for HSI.

My apartment: No contract, internet only, $39.99 for 10/2. Took them 4 months of calling each month when my bill arrived to get them to credit my account for the $3/mo rent for a modem they never gave me. Was using my own, which I had to explain 4 times until they took action. Seemed to always lose connection for a couple hours real early in the morning on Sat or Sun, guessing for maintenance.

About 5 months into my service, speed automatically increases to 25/5. Couple months later, bill goes up $15. Call them and they explain prices have increased and extra speed was only promotional. In order to get my previous rate and speed, I must agree to 2 year contract. Canceled on the spot. Used tethered 3G from smartphone for ~3 months until I moved.


My condo luckily has Verizon FIOS. Had it about 9 months, not once has service been down. Speed is always above advertised and pings are great. Screw Charter.

 

[Demo24]

It's going to depend on where you are. We had it when I lived with my mom in her former house(GA), and for the most part it worked fine. Good speed(as advertised), low pings (strangely my best isp for pings), and it was fairly reliable. I actually miss this connection, but I sure as hell don't miss dealing with the company.

My dad has it where he lives(NC) because it's basically the only option. It seems to work 'ok', speeds are ok, pings suck, reliability average. They do this weird thing where they require your computers mac address in order to access the internet so if you have a router you must clone the addresses so you can use other machines on the network. My suspicion is that they do that so you buy/rent their wireless modem, but who knows.

 

[QueBert]

I live in So Cal and Charter's great, we just got a speed boost and I can pull a constant 14-18mb. There is a 100 gig cap, I'm not sure if the rest of the country has caps for Charter. But I couldn't download 100 gigs in a month if I tried.

 

[JechtShot]

Que, the 100 gig cap is for any tier lower than 18mbps, 18+ is a cap of 250gb.

 

[Jadow]

Never had a prob with them and it's fast for me

 

[Farang]

No complaints about the service. It was fast. It was the only service I've ever used that had a cap, but then again all providers in the area had a cap.

Their business practices are way over the top, though. They will constantly harass you, even when you move out of their service area.

 

[QueBert]

Que, the 100 gig cap is for any tier lower than 18mbps, 18+ is a cap of 250gb.

Hummmm really? Well they just boosted us from 8 to 16 it was 100 with 8. Thanks for correcting me.

 

[Kirby]

I had them in the Huntsville area, and had no problems. Was paying for 20 Mbps, and got 18-19 consistently. Ping was decent, although I don't play games so it wasn't a big deal.

 

[rudeguy]

Que, the 100 gig cap is for any tier lower than 18mbps, 18+ is a cap of 250gb.

ninja

 

[ch33zw1z]

I had charter from '06-'08 in Springfield MA area. The actual internet service was pretty good, I got the advertised speeds with not too many issues. Their customer support was terrible. Long story short, we canceled it due to them not being honest with us and we had to get the BBB involved just to cancel. So, watch your bills and if you cancel return the devices same day and keep the receipt (which is what saved our ass).

 

[Scarpozzi]

It's a lot slower than Comcast was when I lived in a different city....but then it's probably a bottleneck somewhere in the backbone they're leasing from whoever... I'm sure if you live in a large enough market area close to a major fibre bundle, you'll be fine. I can sometimes get 10-20 meg down, but then I get either throttled or hit spikes so the actual average is much lower....probably closer to 4-6 meg here. When I was on Comcast, it was a constant 8-12 meg connection....and that was what they offered 4 years ago after upgrading all their equipment.

 

[skyking]

Not the best uptime in Central Washington, from what I hear.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Ive been pleased with Charter since 2009. Not one single problem.

 

[CallMeJoe]

ACSI result for Cable providers.
Bad service is not a fluke at Charter; it's who they are.

 

[brandonb]

When I had Charter, I was pleased.

Even if you torrent and they get a call from a lawyer, they protect your identity and instead just send you an email telling you to "knock it off." They won't release your info, nor do they cancel your service, only after a few issues do they do something about it.

(A coworker of mine said he got busted by Charter when downloading an episode of Lost off a torrent/website)

 

[Phoenix15]

I've had Charter HS since the mid 90's. My first connection was a one way cable modem (upload over phone line download over cable). In my area (central Alabama) they are the best. I have the 25 meg service and I actually get 25 meg. Once in a blue moon it goes down, but only for a short time even then. I love them and I'm completely satisfied.

 

[AznSensation]

one more question: is there any governmental fees, additional fees, taxes with your bill?

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Been using Charter since 2007. CS is terrible, billing is a mess, actual internet service is fine.

 

[Eos]

one more question: is there any governmental fees, additional fees, taxes with your bill?

I don't know of any internet service without taxes and additional fees.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Where I live Charter is great. No caps, no shaping, and very fast. We download about 10-20gb a day without issue.

I looked at the router, last month we downloaded 346gb and sent 176gb

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Totally depends on the equipment in your area. I had them as my ISP and cable TV provider for about 6yrs. Got on them when they first came into my area around 2000 for the first 2-3yrs it was great then it began to go downhill and the reliability started to suck really bad, got to where not a day went by without several outages and sometimes the outages lasted days. I switched to ATT uverse when it became available in my area and have had a similar experience, first 3yrs was excellent and trouble free but in the last couple of years its become more spotty although it has never gotten close to as bad as Charter was before I switched.

It seems you always get the best service when a new ISP enters your area with all new equipment and a lower subscriber base, once the infrastructure equipment starts to age and their network gets more crowded the reliability problems begin to crop up