Who is Worse? Spectrum or Frontier?
American Internet Service Provides Compete For Bad Service
Spectrum is the brand name used by Charter Communications to market internet and cable services in many places across the United States. According to Wikipedia, Charter Communications is described as follows:
“With over thirty-two million customers in forty-one states as of 2022, it is the largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, just ahead of Comcast, and the largest pay TV operator ahead of Comcast and AT&T. Charter is the fifth-largest telephone provider based on number of residential lines. It's brand of Spectrum services also include internet access, internet security, managed services, and unified communications.”
Something missing from Wikipedia’s description of the company is its terrible customer service.
In May 2024 I called Spectrum to cancel my cable service, as I was (and still am) doing a major renovation to my house in Long Beach California. I had at the time planned to be out of the house for anywhere from four to six months.
When I called, the customer service rep explained to me that Spectrum has a special program. Rather than canceling the service, I could go on something she explained to me was a seasonal service, that people who have summer or winter cottages use. The customer pays a base rate of $4.99 per month while the customer is away from the property, and then can reactive full service without having to pay a new hook up fee. The plan sounded great. I told the customer serve rep to sign me up.
Everything worked out fine for a few months. Then I started getting phone calls from Spectrum saying my bill was past due and my cable service would be cut off. I was told that I owed Spectrum $121.47. Not only was I expecting to pay only $4.99 per month for the seasonal program, but the account was set up on auto pay, whereby it was billing one of my credit cards, so any amount that was due should have been charged to my credit card.
I called customer service to find out what was going on. Over the course of the next couple of days I spoke to two different customer services reps. One told me that they had tried to charge my credit card, and it did not go through, so they immediately cancelled the seasonal billing and started billing me the regular monthly charge (without informing me). The other customer service rep told me that the seasonal billing had been set up so it would automatically expire and that was why the bill went up. Two different stories from two different customer service reps.
I asked if my bill could be adjusted because after all I was not using the service and that was something they could tell from their end. The customer service rep said that she could not adjust the bill, and that I had to pay the $121.47 in full. I also noted that for one of the months she was trying to collect I was being charged $68.24 for the month, which was well above my old plan which was $44 per month. I didn’t think it was fair that I should pay for a service I was not using so I asked if it could be escalated to another department.
I cannot recall if she transferred me to another department, or if that other department called me back, but either way I did get to speak to another customer service rep. That rep explained to me that once the seasonal rate ended, I had to pay the full regular amount, even if I was not using the service, and there was no adjustment possible. I had to pay, or the service would be cut off (remember I was not using the service anyway).
At this point I was a little pissed off, as you can imagine, so I paid the bill and then asked to be transferred to someone who could cancel my account. When I got that person on the phone, I said I wanted to cancel the account but of course that person wanted to know why I was cancelling the account. I explained the situation and that person said there was nothing he could do about it, and so I cancelled the account. The person then told me I would be charged for the Spectrum equipment I had at my house. I explained that all the equipment was packed in boxes, and I could not get the equipment until the house was finished and we unpacked the boxes. He told me it did not matter. I would be charged for the equipment if it were not returned in 60 days.
About two weeks later I received a call from a very nice lady asking me why I had cancelled the account and asking if there was anything she could do to keep me as a Spectrum customer. I explained everything to her just as I have explained in this article. She completely understood the situation and said she was sure she could get me some sort of adjustment on my bill to keep me as a customer. She said she would call me back in a few days. At this point you will not be surprised that I never received a call back.
Meanwhile I constantly receive by email and in regular mail solicitations from Spectrum to sign up with their service. Too bad Spectrum seems more interested in taking customers away from other service providers, as opposed to just taking care of its existing customers. I also note that all the advertising from Spectrum focuses on price – not customer service.
Charter Communications has over 100,000 employees. I have never worked in a company with 100,000 employees. I have to wonder, what would happen if the CEO of Charter Communications sent an email out to all employees stating the regardless of policy, procedure or precedent, if you put yourself in our customer’s shoes and you feel that the customer has not been treated fairly by our company, then fix it. I am not sure if a business enterprise that large has ever tried something like that, but my guess is it would not be the end of the world, it would not throw the company into massive losses, and the company would have a lot more happy customers.
Just for the record, my new internet service provider is Frontier. Now you might wonder how things have been going with Frontier. Here is my experience. After having the service connected to my home I went to use it for the very first time. It didn’t work. I called their service number and was encouraged to use their app (after about nine minutes and going through various menus I could not get anyone on the phone). The app said there was some problem with my internet (yes, I know that) and scheduled a service appointment for a week later, so my very first week with Frontier was a week without service. I then spent another fifteen minutes on the phone and finally got a live person (based on the accent clearly not in the USA). That person’s helpful advice was to use the app (the very same app that had scheduled a service appointment for me in a week’s time, leaving me without internet for a week. The person did say if I used the app there was an option for speedier service. I could not find it.
This is what happens when you have huge organizations that have limited or no competition. All set up and protected by your government. You wonder which politicians are getting campaign funds from Spectrum and Frontier?
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