[gui-talk] Time Warner Cable Nightmare

[Steve Jacobson]

Actually, the merger might be helpful for accessibility in that Comcast is apparently trying to address some 
issues, but like many, I worry about a merger for other reasons.  

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson


On Thu, 12 Jun 2014 10:13:29 -0400, Gerald Levy via gui-talk wrote:


>I'm already paying almost $120 a month for Time Warner cable service for the privilege of receiving 500 channels, 
99% of which I have no interest in just to be able to receive the few that do interest me.  It has taken me years 
to figure out which channel numbers corresponded to my favorite channels.  I spend a lot of time listening to the 
Music Choice channels, so imagine my surprise when I tuned to TWC channel 629  this morning, which used to be the 
solid gold oldies channel , to discover that it was now some other channel.  And to my horror, all the other Music 
Choice channels, which used to be carried on channels 601-647 were also apparently gone.  Fuming, I called Time 
Warner customer support, always an exercise in aggravation, and after waiting 20 minutes, finally got a customer 
service agent who explained to me that Time Warner had changed its channel lineup, and that my beloved Music 
Choice channels were now located from channel 1901 to 1950.  I explained to the agent that I was blind and that 
the only way I could determine where all my favorite channels were located would be to visit their web site and 
use the Find function of my screen reader to locate each channel by number and its corresponding musical genre.  
But Time Warner has not bothered to update its wb site , so when you visit it, you get the old channel lineup , 
which is completely different from the new one.  And because the onscreen channel guide displayed by the cable box 
is totally inaccessible, there is no way to get correct channel information this way.  And the channel lineups on 
NFB Newsline have not been updated in years to reflect the current Time Warner lineup.  What an outrageous 
nightmare!  After telling me that she had no idea when or if the Time Warner web site would be updated to reflect 
the new channel lineup, I asked the agent when Time Warner would be offering accessible set-top boxes, but after 
she asked me to hold so that she could speak to her supervisor, she came back on the line and told me that she had 
no idea when such boxes would be available.  I asked her whether Time Warner was even working on an accessible box 
and again, she told me that she had no idea.  If I could get decent reception with an antennaa, I would ditch Time 
Warner altogether, but here in Manhattan, reception with an indoor antenna is difficult to impossible.  Time 
Warner really has its customers by the gonads,and things are only going to get worse if their merger with Comcast 
is approved by the FCC.  Do any other Time Warner cable customers on this list have any tips for locating specific 
channels of interest without sighted help?  Or must I scroll through all the channels on my cable box just to find 
the few that I'm interested in?  What a freakin' mess!

>Gerald 

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