I have lived in my current home since 1988, In those years I have had several Cable TV and Internet providers, Spectrum is my current provider, as they bought out Time Warner Cable, before that Insight Broadband, and two more before that whose names I cannot recall.
Spectrum is by far the worst of the bunch.
Recently, they decided to "upgrade" their service. So, I received an email telling me the "items you ordered have shipped" (I had not ordered anything). A box arrived a day later, containing a cable TV Box, with instructions on how I needed to "self install" their hardware, a minor point, except that the box did not function (a technician they sent to my house said it was loaded with the wrong software).
So after a phone call to Spectrum and my having to repeatedly tell the help desk person what was wrong, she rebooted the system remotely, several times, with no result, she then talked me through a local reboot, which is simply unplugging the box waiting 30 seconds and plugging it back in (Which I had already done several times before calling) and still no effect. I also told the help desk person that I had two cable boxes in the house and I was concerned that if one needed replaced, then both may need replaced, she was unaware, based on my account information, that I had the second box (It had been installed by Time Warner before Spectrum took over the business. I told her that the second box would also likely need replaced, and that the second box also had a built in DVR component and that any replacement should have the same capability. She put in an order for another replacement cable box. Unfortunately when the second box arrived it was the same type as the previous box, no DVR and with the wrong software installed. The shipment also contained an internet router which I had not requested.
They sent out a technician to work on the system. He replaced both of the new boxes with boxes that appear to have been used before as they are externally badly scratched. After spending several hours rewiring my house (wires that had been working fine), I now have two new cable boxes that are harder to navigate than the ones I previously had, and have less functionality.
One box he took out had a DVR built in, the new one allegedly has the same ability, but now I have to call their help desk again and have the new one remotely activated because the technician says he cannot do that locally.
I am still being charged for in home Wi Fi, which is provided by my own router.
The two cable boxes they sent me to "self install" were in one case the wrong box and in both cases, loaded with incorrect software (according to the technician who came out to work on the system.
Now I have one cable box that functions and one that at a minimum brings the cable into the house but unlike the older "Outdated" box has no external readout for time or channel selected as the old box did. So I now have two "newer" improved cable boxes that offer less functionality. read more