Review of Time Warner's Digital Phone Service
Why We Are Happy We Switched
Having had experience with many different phone companies I came to feel that there are no good ones, just ones that are a bit better than the rest. There really was no reason for customer service to treat you like a human because you had no choice but to use their services.
A gentleman I know suggested I try Vonage phone service. This digital phone goes through your cable Internet connection and completely bypasses the phone company. Intriguing! I did some research and liked what I heard but never got around to making the switch until now. Instead of going with Vonage I went with my local cable company Time Warner Cable.
Why We Switched
I finally came to the end of the line with my phone company. I was three days late on my bill when I got a call from my phone company. The message stated they were going to shut off my phone service. I was dumbfounded. They are shutting off my phone because my bill was three days late? When my husband phoned them they said they have no choice because people are running up bills and then switching to digital phone. They were pretty nasty about it.
I think if people are running to digital phone it may have more to do with customer service than anything. I find this kind of behavior unacceptable. They also told us if they turned off any of our services it would cost us 26 dollars. It was also cost us 26 dollars to get it turned back on. This phone company considers local, long distance and the optional services to be three separate things. That's a whopping 78 dollars!
What We Got
I had been seeing advertisements in my area for Time Warner Cable's digital phone service. They claimed they could save me a bunch of money and I could kiss my phone company goodbye. We called and were blown away by what they were offering us. They have a package called "All In One" that consists of high speed Internet, residential phone services and digital cable with DVR. They offered us this package for $125.00 a month. After I did some math I realized I would be saving over $100.00 a month.
The Good and the Bad
I can happily say that we are very pleased with our new phone service. There are a few downsides to the digital phone but they are minor. It is a relatively new thing so the quality is not the best. If the power goes out so does the digital phone. I have only been without service once in the few months I've had digital phone and that was because my modem needed to be reset. A quick phone call on my cell phone and it was fixed within minutes.
One fabulous benefit of digital phone is the features. You get caller ID, call waiting, and a whole host of other goodies at no extra cost. The caller ID even comes up on my television. It's not as precise as the phone company's caller ID however. It gives the number but only says the state where the caller lives, not their name. It doesn't handle international calls well either. A call from Australia came up as 'Maryland' and I almost didn't answer.
The best bonus of digital phone is the long distance. You can call anywhere in the US and Canada for free. International calls are substantially less than traditional phone rates. I can call my friends in Australia for ten cents a minute.
If You Switch
Digital phone is not available in all areas. If you live in an area where you cannot get cable you obviously cannot get digital phone. If you do live within the service area and you are thinking of switching this is what you can expect.
Time Warner will handle all of the details themselves. They can port your number so you don't have to deal with a new phone number. This takes seven to ten days. They will ask you not to notify your phone provider. If you let your current service know you are leaving they can cancel your account and you will lose your phone number. A technician will come to your home and set everything up for you. You can use your existing phone.
Final Thoughts
Time Warner is a dream to deal with in comparison to the phone company. They are always polite, prompt and exceedingly helpful. They answer their phones at any hour of the day unlike the phone company in my area that closes at six PM. They are still working out the kinks but over all this service is amazing. There was a mix up with our work order, which caused the old phone company to keep billing us. Time Warner took care of the problem for us. It not only saves you money it also makes life a whole lot easier.
Published by Amy Mullen
Amy lives in upstate New York. When she isn't writing she is encouraging her children to dream big. View profile
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35 Comments
Post a CommentMy husband and I decided to go with the TW package to save money (my idea.. my bad) and we did in Jan 2009... that is the BIGGEST mistake we ever made. Within a year, our service was out around 10 times...go to call someone and no phone. Since the first part of 2010, it's been down 6 to 8 times already. I will Never Ever EVER go with TW package again... Can't wait until our contract is up so we can go back to AT&T... never had outages with them except temporarily during bad storms here in tX but they always had it back up as soon as possible.... I'm from OH and had TW tv and internet in Cols and Loved them... but the programmers here in Texas are a lazy bunch of nothing with reruns and very few shows on TV. Can't get good help anymore, esp down here... can't wait to move north again where they were much more conscientious and gave us our monies worth. BOOOO to Time Warner Texas.
I have to dial a number maybe 10 times, because I always get "the number you dialed is not in service," which is really annoying me. This is Time Warner's digital phone... Ihate it!!!
We had TW digital phone installed yesterday it's not working today.
i have a business and signed on for a year contract just to TRY them out. When i had to move, it took SOOOO long for them to figure out how to move my service and move the the MANY different departments (none of which knew what the other is doing) that i had to keep my verizon and my office open for a FULL 30 days in order to give them time to start my service. Now i am moving again, and after speaking with 5 SUPERVISORS, looks like my business phone service is going to be down a minimum of 5 business days even AFTER i told them that i had to be up and running by Monday, Feb 15th. WORSE COMPANY I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH. NEVER AGAIN!!!!!
I had a Verizon Bundle for nearly six years and finally dumped all Verizon services. Trying to reach the correct part of Verizon Customer Service was constantly a hassle with their Automated Phone Service. I also had Verizon DSL and had problems with losing my IP several times, and their Technicians are not in the United States, as all the Techs I dealt with are in the Philippines. I had Direct TV with Verizon also, and Direct TV is terrible. A little rain or snow and "Pixelization" took over.
I switched over to Time Warner in the Finger Lakes Region Of New York State, and I am thrilled with their service. Time Warner Customer Service is wonderful and easy to reach through their well thought out automated answering system. You get to speak to a human very quickly.
I just called Time Warner to add Digital Phone service under a special promotion of $39.95/month including long distance. After a lengthy discussion with the order taker, out popped a "connenction Fee" of $14.95, which was in addition to a service fee of $9.95. While both fees are nominal charges, only the service fee was apparent in the offer. I declined the service because it is another example of the suspicious ways Time Warner operates.
I previously had their Cable Service but after many instances of poor service and billing hassles I swithched to DIrect TV. I currently have Time Warner Internet Service because neither Verizon nor AT&T have service in my area my area. I will switch from Time Warner as soon as another viable service is avaialable. I could use Hughes Satellite today however it is more expesive. In the meantime I will stay with Verizon as my loval telephone provider.
For the past two months the voicemail for my Time Warner digital phone was inconsistent. Many times I would see calls on caller ID and it would be up to 24 hours later before I had a voicemail.
Two months after my first called I decided to call again. Tonight they told me that if I depend on the voicemail maybe I should get an answering machine and cancel their voicemail. I told the customer service rep, who was nice, that I guess I'll just go back 15 years in technology.
I thought it was just me going bangers. listening to you guys just confirmed it just how horrible TWC phone service really is. Right now my phone beeps a steady busy signal and its been doing it on and off for weeks now. TWC repair said it was my box and that I should do the old switch it on and off routine. When this started I called for ' repair ' to come to my house...he did and broke the screen on my Mac. Now I'm waiting for ' repair ' to still fix my Mac as well as my phone. What's worse is that TWC is saying that both issues are ' NOT ' their problem and that I can't prove their tech broke my Mac.
And god knows how many times we've been screwed with by their Tech "Support" and blown off by their technicans.
i have not been satisfied and my buisness has lost money to TWC poor phone service since i had it installed. and i believe there are enough dissatisfied TWC phone customers to consider a class action law suit... if you are an attourney or want to start a list to present an to an attourny for just such a reason send me an email to lab1@kc.rr.com