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Goodbye

2351 Views 19 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  dodge boy
Well long story short, I'm switching to Time Warner DVR service.....
Long story my R15 I owned died..... kept rebooting and downloading software, the old 104b, but it would do it 3x's a day (on it's own) I called (I had the protection plan) the girl said they would replace it, I told her to just note my account, I would be willing to wait a day or so, I just wanted it documented what it was doing. If it got worse I would replace it..... The next day I got up and it was dead.... not responding to the remote, I unplugged it and it statrted ok.... or so it seemed.... It deleted everything and immediately rebooted after I set it up, I had to enter dish info and eerything, tried to download new software, it got the old 104b and I had to re-enter the zipcode and dish type again (like a new install) it looped and did it all again. I called D* the girl this time said they couldn't replace it until after Jan. 9th (or maybe 19th) when the software update is complete.... I was pissed and hung up. I went and un hooked it and called back and told D* to shut the receiver off. This time the girl asked why, I told her, she said the girl I talked to the day before should have never said they'd replace it and she wasn't going to shut off a good receiver until it gets the update.... I told her it wasn't good, shut it off, I am throwing it in the garbage. I called Cable looked at their prices and I can get a DVR for $50.50/ month for 12 months and no commitment and no down payment for equipment and no connection fee (Wire has to be ran from the street). I am considering selling my equipment to cover my cancelation fee, I suspended for now, until Aug. 1st (told them I migfht want NFLST next year, but probably won't give them a dime of my cash again, just delaying cancelation fee of $175.00)
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I hope everything goes well for you, if TIVO goes to Comcast I'll be right behind you especially if I get hi-def.
So they're not sending out any replacement units until the new version goes national? That's real handy. Good luck with TW Dodge Boy.
I hope you have better luck with TW in Ohio then I had here. I was also in Michigan for over a week and stayed with family. They have Comcast and I was surprised how bad the picture was. The constant dropouts in the middle of shows and the VOD that worked like 1/24th of the time you try and use it. I know when I lived there it wasn't very good and it's still doesn't seem to be.

When I had TW here in FL it was just as bad and a lot of the time I got a picture on many of the channels that I just couldn't even watch.

Did you try and run it further up the CSR flag pole and get satisfaction from DTV? I have found that many times when calling a CSR you just have to get to someone else to be of any help.

I actually laughed this weekend, DTV was out to install my new dish and HR20 and when the installer was trying to get it activated and de-activate my old phillips receiver it replaced he was getting MAJOR frustrated with the CSR. Got so bad that he finally hung up and called back and got someone useful who had everything going within 5 minutes. I sort of think these call centers need to do some house cleaning and get rid of the bad people, there are some good ones out there so I won't lump all their CSR's in one group.
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Good Luck, TW here sucks. The Scientific Atlanta boxes are the worst POS that I have ever used. I went through 4 in a month and all of my equipment is backed by UPS's. The signal here is poor at best and my road runner is sluggish. My house is re-wired and They gave me multiple drops into the house which improved things slightly but not enough.

I've been told by the tech's that it can't be fixed unless they re-wire the neighborhood which they won't do.
Sneezy said:
Good Luck, TW here sucks. The Scientific Atlanta boxes are the worst POS that I have ever used. I went through 4 in a month and all of my equipment is backed by UPS's. The signal here is poor at best and my road runner is sluggish. My house is re-wired and They gave me multiple drops into the house which improved things slightly but not enough.

I've been told by the tech's that it can't be fixed unless they re-wire the neighborhood which they won't do.
My girlfriend's dvr works flawlessly. I don't have a computer at home, since I stare at this thing for 8 hrs a day at work. I kinda feel bad, been with D* for about 6 years..... oh well, I'll get fewer channels but I'll pay less too. Thanks for all the support guys, I will still read these posts and if they get it (R15) working I just may come back, if I can get a leased on for free and go back to my Total Choice Plus package.... I was still getting it for $48.99 and it said I subscribed to a package they no longer offered but I coul keep it.
My Sci Atl 8300HD works flawlessly as well. It records what it's supposed to, it doesn't record what it is supposed to not record. That's all I want, and it does that. The interface is not as polished as TiVo, that's for sure, but it's just as reliable. Take a look at the Provider Specific DVR Forums here, see all those complaints, and the general unhappiness? I’m not experiencing any of that with my 8300HD. The box is perfect. My one complaint is that I wish the EPG would fill the whole screen on a 16:9 display.
Steve Mehs said:
My Sci Atl 8300HD works flawlessly as well. It records what it's supposed to, it doesn't record what it is supposed to not record. That's all I want, and it does that. The interface is not as polished as TiVo, that's for sure, but it's just as reliable. Take a look at the Provider Specific DVR Forums here, see all those complaints, and the general unhappiness? I'm not experiencing any of that with my 8300HD. The box is perfect. My one complaint is that I wish the EPG would fill the whole screen on a 16:9 display.
Do you guys get dual tuners?
Good luck Dodge Boy. I hope everything works out for you no matter where you end up.
Yes. TW strictly uses Sci Atl hardware, all four DVR models they ever made have 2 tuners.

BTW - I'm in your cable franchise, I get service from TW Rochester. Dual tuners DVRs were offered here since at least 2002.
Good luck. We had the TW DVR are. Within a week I couldn't wait to get back to D*. The picture with TW was brutal on most channels.
xtoyz said:
Do you guys get dual tuners?
Dual tuners, Picture in picture and soon Caller ID on screen that works... well with their digital phone service, but all their employees get the software updates first and they are debugged before I'll get them so I won't be a Beta tester anymore. and a side not I have a digital converter as well as the DVR, plus analog (up to channel 99 on 2 other TV's) and the analog is no charge..... and if I go HD, my locals in HD are free.
TigersFanJJ said:
Good luck Dodge Boy. I hope everything works out for you no matter where you end up.
Thanks..... I love it so far. It's been less than a week... I just have to relearn the channels.
I will admit it was about 4 years ago when I had TWC. I actually went 2 years without any TV except just the locals but I hated it. If the new units are better at TWC good for them because the old ones were worse then the R15. That still leaves me with 1 issue, they can't and won't get a reliable signal to my house!

I really just want FIOS......
purtman said:
Good luck. We had the TW DVR are. Within a week I couldn't wait to get back to D*. The picture with TW was brutal on most channels.
I had all time warner up until about 2 years ago. I had road runner since the day it was available and finally gave it the boot when my road runner was running at such crippling speeds my dad's work laptop on dial-up was faster.

Apparently the main feed line into my neighborhood of 300 houses was broken delivering terrible internet and cable quality. TimeWarner didn't feel it was that big of a deal, knowing damn well what was wrong, so they never bothered to fix anything.

I personally know 2 dozen houses in my neighborhood that switched to DSL after that incident, as well as picked up service with DirecTV.

Anyways, I was just asking about dual tuners. I don't know much about TW anymore. My brother in law has it, and has by far the worst picture I've ever seen. I'd rather go back to black and white televisions than watch the crap he gets. I probably wouldn't hesitate to switch back if TW got Tivo's, though.
TimeWarner is just as wonderful (NOT) here in Houston. A friend has the same problem you describe. Unreliable speeds, bad picture. Same problem and they refuse to do anything about it.

Just one of many reasons I will never use TimeWarner.

Plus their ads are insulting and they lie.
xtoyz said:
I had all time warner up until about 2 years ago. I had road runner since the day it was available and finally gave it the boot when my road runner was running at such crippling speeds my dad's work laptop on dial-up was faster.

Apparently the main feed line into my neighborhood of 300 houses was broken delivering terrible internet and cable quality. TimeWarner didn't feel it was that big of a deal, knowing damn well what was wrong, so they never bothered to fix anything.

I personally know 2 dozen houses in my neighborhood that switched to DSL after that incident, as well as picked up service with DirecTV.

Anyways, I was just asking about dual tuners. I don't know much about TW anymore. My brother in law has it, and has by far the worst picture I've ever seen. I'd rather go back to black and white televisions than watch the crap he gets. I probably wouldn't hesitate to switch back if TW got Tivo's, though.
Does your brother in law have digital cable or just analog? We're nearly 100% digital now, picture quality is excellent, better then DirecTV. Analog was bad, but it is better now than when we had TW back in 1998. The number of times the cable line is split also has an effect on analog cable, so if he has a few TVs the picture will degrade with each split. Road Runner has always been blazing fast for me. When I got it in Fall of '04 we were at 3Mb now it's 10Mb. I have the premium service and it's nearly the speed of Fios.



That's about 2.5 times faster than Frontier DSL. With current trends, by mid 2008, Frontier will no longer be the #1 telephone provider, Time Warner is expected to be the area's largest phone company. They already are the #1 broadband provider.

I'm shocked they don't want to fix your neighborhood. The few times I've had to deal with Time Warner they were out here the next day or the day after. As a Road Runner only sub they were so reliable and had such good service, that's part of the reason I decided to go back to them for TV after over 7 years. Overall I am very satisfied with them, I just wish they'd get their phone service out by me.
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Digital, 2 boxes, all wired by TW, and one of the TV's is HD. His internet is just as bad. Quite frankly they can have great internet, but even before the main line went in our neighborhood speeds were horrible. When we first got it when it came out the speeds were great. As the trend caught on in the neighborhood speeds got slower and slower. Frontier may not have the best speeds, but loading pages and downloads are just as fast at my house as they are at my college. I have absolutely zero reason to go back to TW. I've never liked there hardware, prices, or channels. The worst of it is their hardware. I've got multiple friends in apartment complexes with no choice but to get TW and their boxes are by far the slowest responding pieces of crap I've ever seen.
xtoyz said:
Do you guys get dual tuners?
Yes, and my SA8300 works perfect as well. Never I repeat NEVER has it missed a recording, cut one short, or recorded crap it was not supposed to, BUT saying that I also have ZERO problems with my R15 as well. I have DTV because of Football and Baseball, and cable as a backup.
xtoyz said:
Digital, 2 boxes, all wired by TW, and one of the TV's is HD. His internet is just as bad. Quite frankly they can have great internet, but even before the main line went in our neighborhood speeds were horrible. When we first got it when it came out the speeds were great. As the trend caught on in the neighborhood speeds got slower and slower. Frontier may not have the best speeds, but loading pages and downloads are just as fast at my house as they are at my college. I have absolutely zero reason to go back to TW. I've never liked there hardware, prices, or channels. The worst of it is their hardware. I've got multiple friends in apartment complexes with no choice but to get TW and their boxes are by far the slowest responding pieces of crap I've ever seen.
I still love mine 2 weeks and counting with TW now.
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