Charter & Series 3 Problems

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Charter was able to move up my appointment (I recommend calling back frequently, it's amazing how some CSRs can find a slot for you and some can't!) - so my install is scheduled for this Saturday now. Should be fun!

 

Has anyone gotten cards from Charter in the St. Louis area?

 

Bubba, I Am In The St. Louis Area. I Just Had Charter Out This Morning With 2 Cable Cards To Install. He Followed The Tivo Directions And Activated The Cards By Phone With Charter. Then......nothing!!! When Testing Channels, Nothing Came Up!!! We Tried Restarting Tivo, And Even Went Back Through Guided Setup.....still Nothing!!!

I Am Not At Home Right Now So I Will Mess With It When I Get Home. I Am No Longer Blaming Charter Anymore.....$800 And This Is The Best Tivo Can Do??? Talk About Going Downhill Fast!!! I Haven't Seen A Dynasty Gone Bad Since The St. Louis Blues Last Season.

 

I just checked with my CT Charter office about all this HD stuff. They informed that starting in CT next month or shortly thereafter they will introduce the Scientific Atlanta 8300 MR. It will allow one HD Server in a home to serve up to THREE other HD TV's from a single Hard Drive. Also, they said the SA software would be updated SUBSTANTIALLY.

I am still sitting here with a TiVo S2 having a Lifetime Subscription. I will now wait to try the SA 8300 MR first before making my decision on the S3 upgrade. They said the cost would only be one or two dollars per month more for a MR lease. I am presently paying $ 11.99 for the SA 8300 HD lease. This setup will be able to access VOD, PPV AND XOD, which is something new and I am not sure what it is.

I presently have one Sony 32" HD TV, have another on order and have one other 32" SD TV which I have not decided to upgrade to HD yet.

However, since this is all NEW, there could be bugs here just like with the S3. I love new technology and its just a question now of whose bugs I will endure.

The link to the new SA 8300 MR is:

http://www.scientificatlanta.com/consumers_new/CableBoxes/8300HDMR.htm

 

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What you are doing is called HIJACKING A THREAD. Stay on topic in here please. And make a sincere effort to post your posts where they belong. IOW this isn’t about charter and other options, it’s about charter and series 3. Thanks and have a nice day.

 

I subscribe to CHARTER in CT and also have an S2 with Lifetime Service and am considering an upgrade to the S3. All experimental and variable factors entering into this decision seem to be fair game for me and possibly to others here. Everyone here who uses Charter and is getting an S3 is affected by ALL these factors.

All of us have a $ 1,000 decision to make.

 

Just got off an hour of calls with Charter.

1. first person seemed like he didn't know what to do and handed me off to another person.
2. second person stated that I needed to come to the local office and get the cards which seems totally unlike anyone else's experience
3. third person, i wrote her name down, was mean and rude. basically, gave me crap stating that if it wasn't a tv she wasn't going to install it. somehow, she decided to have it installed after putting me on hold. she then stated that they may not install it when they come out? huh?

My goodness, why don't i install sattellite? I am more then frustrated with dealing with their

I guess we'll see how friday goes.

 

From a conversation with a Charter rep during a call about other things:

Cable Cards are $1.50/mo each, two would be $3.00/mo
No cable box is required if cable card is used.
Digital cable is required
HD is not required and costs $9.99/mo extra.
There is only one HD plan due to the limited number of HD channels available.

 

Here is my install experience:

Had the appointment from 5-7. They showed up about 5:15. I knew it wasn't going to be exactly what I wanted when they (2 guys) said: "We're here to install a cablecard"

I know I asked for 2 cards but maybe they had another one along to install as well.

Neither one had seen a S3 before and didn't talk highly about installing cable cards. I handed them the instructions and they seemed fine with the steps. However they suggested not installing the 1 card and waiting to come back to install 2. I suggested not and they went to work on the 1 card.
Apparently my signal was -52 or so and that the 2-way splitter I had on there wasn't going to work. I said ok and had them just attach the Tivo. The one guy did most of the work and I would guess he was still "in-training". He disconnected the OTA antenna I had connected as well and was taking the HD cable box out when I said that I wanted to keep that one and send back the non-working regular cable box in the bedroom.
The cablecard menu came up after popping the card in and they called in the numbers. It seemed to be going fine but we still didn't have any channels after 5 minutes. They called in again to verify the numbers but they matched up.
So the 2nd guy checked the cables and apparently the 1st guy plugged the cable into the antenna input. After a few mins, we were going. I noticed that some of my HBO channels were missing but figured they would come in sooner or later.
So I let them go.

Later, I plugged in the 2-way splitter and everything seems ok (still running my S2 next to the S3 for a while). I may even try a 3-way splitter to hook up the cable-in on the TV if I feel adventuresome!

Still no HBO at 9:30 tonight so I called the 800 number. All they had me do was unplug Tivo, wait and power it back on. So if you are missing any channels, try that first.

I also was able to reschedule the 2nd card for Monday from 5-7.
Tivo is up and going but only at 50%. I am glad I found out that your best options are 0 or 2 cable cards otherwise only 1 tuner will work.

Just before they left, the 1 guy commented that the picture looked great compared to the boxes they provide. They suggested I request them to do the 2nd install but I figure I will take my chances and perhaps get another tech trained/exposed to the S3.

 

If you don't mind me asking, where in WI are you? I'm gonna be calling Charter tomorrow morning for my cable cards and was hoping for some good news in my neck of the woods. Which by the way is the Genoa City/Pell Lake area.

 

La Crosse/Onalaska, WI
The billing address for Charter is Altoona so I guess this area spans Eau Claire and Central/Western Wisconsin.

 

Ahh thanks for the answer. Think mine is out of either Madison or Janesville. But good to hear that LaCrosse is doing good, will have to let my brother know, he lives in Holmen and has Charter.

 

Thanks for the post. I got a call from him too, but wasn’t home. I’ve been trading a couple of emails with support and sent this one just now.



I got a call (he left a message) from Van who wasn’t clear on why he called but said, "He wanted to try a few things" whatever that meant. He also said he KNEW that The Tivo Series 3 is still in beta testing. IT IS NOT STILL IN BETA TESTING.
It seems clear that Charter here in Long Beach has no experience in a cable technology they should, and , that has been out for quite a while, OR, they are purposely not trying to right this issue but string this along giving the impression they are trying and hope we give up as well as many others. Just a theory.

This isn’t about the cards working in a Tivo, because if they work they work, period. There isn’t any difference between a Tivo cable card and a TV cable card.
Two cards in my Cable card TV from you guys haven’t worked. This was over 8 months ago. Which begs the question, why don’t you guys know why yet. Or is it more like not trying to know why, seems more like it. Please be informed, I’m not going away on this
Per the FCC ruling, compliance was mandatory as of July 2005,
Charter in Worcester. MA. was successful for a customer for a Tivo, why don’t you guys call them and ask how they succeeded.

My appt is for tomorrow between 1-5, I hope your assurance of my problem being taken care of comes to light and thanks for the reply.

 

Got this email in response

Dear Mr Me,

Thank you for writing to Charter Communications. It is Vincent again.

I understand that the issue with your cable card has not been fixed. You would like this resolved at the earliest.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

I would like to inform you that I have escalated this issue to our local office in Long Beach for investigation. I assure you that this matter will be taken care of. Please note your reference number ???????????????? regarding this issue.

 

Great job PlungerMan. I can't wait to see how their LB office will resolve this issue. It is very sad that Charter is not as up to date as TW or Comcast as the polls from another thread showed. It was only Dan203 and megazone who didn't have any problems with their installation. Hopefully everyone else's that are scheduled for later this week and next week will go smoothly as it possibly can.

 

Well, just got off the phone with charter here in southeaster WI. Ordered up 4 cablecards, and told them they were going in 2 Tivos. The CSR didn't even hesitate. Asked if I wanted to keep the Charter DVR or standard dig cable box I already have, told her I would wait to see how the cablecard installs went. She seemed fine with that, told me to just let the tech know. Setup for Monday from 8am-noon. So now I'm just crossing my fingers for a smooth install.

Btw, 29.95 truck roll fee, plus $1.50/card.

 

If a cable company employee was even interested in their job, they should researched the series 3 prior to availibity. I work for charter in MI, and we had a sub come in for 2 cards for a tivo. Everyone looked stunned. I been reading on these boxes for quite a while now.
I knew of the release date of the Series 3 on the 12th. He came in the 14th.
Anyways, we set him up for install, and the tech, who is fairly new, had no problems in our area pairing the cards to the Tivo. The install went as smooth as can be. I paired the cards through charters billing system, and up came the channels. 3.00 a month for his ccard rental (1.50 each) the local HD ($3.00) is free. Only a charge if they wanted the HD Tier (ESPN, TNT, HDNET, etc).
Good luck to all of you. You just need the right people, regardless of company name, who know about their products and offerings.

 

Here, here mikep51. I wish all cable providers did some training to the new technology floating around. Too bad you are not in the SoCal area. Any plans on relocating? LOL

 

Can I have my Charter's people talk to your Charter's people?