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 'CSI' fans in St. Louis who use hi-def robbed of experience they pay for by Charter indifference to customer needs
Posted Sat January 6, 2007 2:30 pm, by Jennifer S. written to Charter Communications
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I'm a CSI fan. Of all three variants. I've been fascinated by science since grade school and forensics since fifth grade.
I also purchased a Series 3 TiVo so that I could receive digital-only channels and high-definition shows, including CSI, via CableCard via Charter. I've been happy with my high-def CSI recordings since the CableCards were installed with no trouble whatsoever.
Except for the simple fact that I don't get CSI in HD anymore. I returned from vacation to find that the episodes that I should have seen (including one CSI: Vegas episode so good that the P-D tagged it as a "pick") weren't recorded -- even though the season passes are listed as high priority in my season pass list. Manually tuning to the station revealed an error message telling me to tune to Channel 4 -- the inferior, low-resolution version that looks like a drunken blur after enjoying hi-def TV -- you know, the TV that we've been promised for so many years but whose implementation deadline keeps getting pushed back repeatedly by the FCC.
I waited for an hour and 20 minutes to talk to a representative who had no clue what he was doing -- he asked me to repeat the error message three times, didn't understand what cablecards were, didn't understand the fact that the signal is coming through just fine -- there is just no content on it, no picture, no sound, just an error message -- and basically seemed too incompetent to do the simple job of picking up his phone and asking the tech department what the problem was, until I specifically asked him to.
I posted my angry story on a St. Louis blog, and was directed to a link telling me that Charter knows that the channel is missing, and has no idea when it will be put back; that it's not a technical glitch but that Charter deliberately stopped providing the channel that represents a significant portion of my HD viewing time. And that it's the fault of both Charter and KMOV-TV for caring more about their respective profits than they do about actually serving the customers -- us.
I then called KMOV and angrily but politely informed them of how unhappy I am and that their advertisers will now lose my business until they restore to me the service I am paying for.
I will be canceling my HDTV "tier" if this is not fixed within one week, and furthermore will be canceling the pure-profit "wire maintenance fee" that I've been paying for a number of months now.
Wasn't Charter supposed to improve its customer service after the St. Louis Post Dispatch's Tech Talk column so repeatedly skewered it for so-often providing bad service? First it has the gall to raise rates when thousands of people had no service for an extended time for the second time in a single year, -- how insulting can you get to send rate-raise notices when people have been "in the dark" literally and figuratively for so long? -- and then it knowingly and deliberately stops providing a service that thousands of people pay for, and does not bother to inform customers that they will be paying more for less. No, it just drops the service and then expects those of us who have adopted high-definition digital television (as we have been urged to do for so long) to settle for an aging, outdated technology that should have been phased out by now!
One of my neighbors wrote in a letter to the Missouri Public Service Commission that "St. Louis has become an interruptible city". He spoke of the power outages we've suffered through twice this year.
Seems like, as far as Charter and KMOV are concerned, so are intelligent, educated, and tech-saavy television viewers.
Charter needs to apologize to all of its customers for its unacceptable and reprehensible behavior and immediately replace the channel in the lineup. Additionally, customers who have contacted customer service to complain about the lost service should be provided a service credit on their bill to compensate for the fact that Charter forced us to pay for less service without adequate notice (I never received a letter until after my service was downgraded). Provide a full and public apology in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and assure customers that this will not happen again.
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Jennifer, can you still watch CSI on plain ol' regular TV? Is it
really such a big deal that one channel is in HD?
I have a regulary 27" TV, several years old, and CSI (Vegas only) is
something I do my best to not miss. Grisham and Sarah? He's so
emotionally retarded (I mean that clinically, not as an insult) that
it overrules his hotness, IMHO.
I guess I'm glad I have low standards for my TV viewing! :)
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by Courtney C Posted Sun January 7, 2007 @ 5:32 AM
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Well at least this one is to the right company! Yes, this is CHARTERS
decision. Your letter to poor CBS was completely uneccessary. That
being said, if for some reason Charter has decided not to carry CBS in
hi-def, they are not likely to rescind that decision based on one
person's threat, nor would I hold my breath for that written apology.
Cable companies are here to make money. For some reason, they saw not
enough demand to keep on. It doesnt make sense to me either, but
that's the way it is.
You have a few options. 1. Suck it up and dont have CBS in hi-def. 2.
Switch companies (I know Dish has all locals in St Louis in Hi-def).
3. put up an antenna on your roof to pick up the hi-def locals offair.
If you want to go that route, swing by a Radio Shack type store and
ask them about an Off-air HD antenna. RCA and Wineguard make good
ones, depending on what kind of home you live in. You're going to
have to choose one of these options, because expecting a cable company
to change their entire lineup at your whim is unreasonable. And asking
for a written apology in a newspaper is pretty rediculous. I hope one
of the other options work out and you can get back to your CSI.
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