Comments on: Sunday Morning Music – Brian Eno

By: greenasheville

greenasheville — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:51:11 +0000

We have a bundle package with DirecTV and AT&T for TV, phone and internet. We tried the go local approach, but unless its for beer or produce, your S.O.L. The ATT/Directv is the best service I’ve ever had – for TV, phone and internet!

Rate this comment: 0 0

By: Arratik

Arratik — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:57:19 +0000

Doug – unless we’re directly in his myopic view of what “progressive” means, Wally Bowen could give two shits about us.

(On an unrelated subject, am I the only one who finds Grovelbot to be annoying as hell?)

Rate this comment: 0 0

By: Arratik

Arratik — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:47:36 +0000

I thought that DirecTV shut down it’s ISP division shortly after News Corp. bought them out due to unprofitability. Did they bring it back, or are you just hallucinating?

Rate this comment: 0 0

By: greenasheville

greenasheville — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:43:56 +0000

we had MAIN years ago and never could get on the net. The few times we did we got booted off after about 15 minutes. We got Direct TV and it rocks! Asheville (MAIN, etc.) needs to get over itself and embrace reality!

Rate this comment: 0 0

By: Grovelbot

Grovelbot — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:20:27 +0000

Beep… beep… beep…

Just a friendly reminder that Gordon Smith needs your help to get elected to Asheville’s city council. Please make a generous donation here:

http://gordonforasheville.com/donate/

Thank you.

beep… beep… beep.

Rate this comment: 0 0

By: Doug Gibson

Doug Gibson — Mon, 18 May 2009 23:18:44 +0000

Wally, you do keep up with local blogs, right?

Right?

Wally?

Rate this comment: 0 0

By: arratik

arratik — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:52:18 +0000

Thanks for the feedback/suggestions, folks. After discussing it w/the missus, we decided to hold our noses, bite the bullet and go with Charter.

Sorry, Wally – your grassroots progressive whatever isn’t worth the change in my couch, and if you want to keep your customers, the best way to do it is to provide a valuable product. Arrogantly expecting your customers to put up with mediocrity and unreliability just because you’re “local” is not a good business model, even for a “progressive” non-profit.

Rate this comment: 0 0

By: bobaloo

bobaloo — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:52:04 +0000

Charter is actually pretty good when you know how to handle them.
First of all you have to know what you’re talking about when you call for an issue. If you don’t know your cable modem from your cable box, they’ll walk you through every mundane fix in the world to prove it’s not their fault, but if you’re halfway hardware literate you’ll be able to check all that before you call. Then you demand a tech visit.
Second, make sure you get the promotional rates for one year. They’ll do it. After the year is up and they raise your monthly bill, call back and tell them you want the promo rate again or you’re switching. They’ll do it with no complaint.
Aside from some obvious complaints having to deal with a huge provider like them (which is more than made up for by the blazing fast internet) I’m pretty happy with their service.

Rate this comment: 0 0

By: Steve in NC

Steve in NC — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:37:40 +0000

I too dumped Charter (yech!) in favor of satellite TV, but with the phone company not bothering to provide DSL to my dead-end street in West Asheville, I’ve been stuck with Charter internet. And they raised my rate $10 when I stopped getting TV from them!

BUT. According to a NY Times article last week, Verizon is coming up with a portable wi-fi receiver one can share with any 5 users who might be around, reportedly the size of a wallet, that will get 3G service wherever there is cellphone coverage. The cost is supposed to be around $40 a month, plus $100 for the “MI FI.” Verizon doesn’t have public info yet, but it will come out maybe this week. Maybe I’ll be finally able to escort Charter from my home!

Rate this comment: 0 0

By: platypus

platypus — Mon, 18 May 2009 03:29:07 +0000

Good choice of music. I remember a long day waiting for a flight at the New Orleans’ airport listening to that album. All the glass and metal made for a lovely couple hours looking up at the ceiling.

Rate this comment: 0 0

By: adam

adam — Sun, 17 May 2009 19:18:18 +0000

As long as you assert your authority over those bastards, Charter is manageable… of course, it took me a LONG time before I got to that point. We ONLY have internet service from them now.

I wouldn’t use DSL if I was paid…

Rate this comment: 0 0

By: arratik

arratik — Sun, 17 May 2009 19:07:26 +0000

We switched over to DirecTV so we could escape Charter’s clutches. Looks like our only real choice is BellSouth DSL (which I’m not really looking forward to, but when your ISP is too busy posting Twitter updates to fix the problem, at this point I’d rather go with BellSouth. So what if they let the government see my datastream – like they couldn’t tap into Wally’s tubes if they wanted to…)

Rate this comment: 0 0

By: adam

adam — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:50:14 +0000

I have blazing fast, uninterrupted service from Charter for just a bit more than that…

…if you can stomach Charter, that is…

Rate this comment: 0 0