[gui-talk] [EXTERNAL] Re: Time Warner Cable Nightmare

[Baracco, Andrew W]

Actually, the customer service that I have received from TWC has been
wonderful. I have heard and read that Comcast consistently ranks at the
bottom for customer service. However, they are the only cable or
satellite company that I have heard of that is developing an accessible
set top box.

Andy


-----Original Message-----
From: gui-talk [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Steve
Jacobson via gui-talk
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2014 10:26 AM
To: Discussion of the Graphical User Interface, GUI Talk Mailing List;
Gerald Levy
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [gui-talk] Time Warner Cable Nightmare

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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