Received a call from a customer today. The Spectrum/Time Warner Cable technician couldn’t get internet to work for my customer, who decided to upgrade from Windstream DSL internet service. This customer was on one of my prepay services, so was able to call with any issues. He handed the phone to the technician so I was able to speak with him directly. I told him it was a Linux computer and what he had to do to get a new IP address. About ten minutes later I received another call from the customer saying the Spectrum technician was unable to get internet to work and that I had to go to the location to fix the issue. I was speechless when I saw how the technician installed the device:
Spectrum Installation
The Ubee DVW32CB Advanced Wireless Gateway that Spectrum is using now to provide customers with internet and VOIP phone service, was simply supported by a single coax cable line and ready to fall at any given moment. Not only that, but no network cable was run to a wired desktop computer which had NO WIRELESS CAPABILITIES. The device was also installed in the basement, for some reason. This is far away from the physical computer. Now to add insult to injury, the technician saw that the computer was hooked up to a network cable, but it was the old DSL modem/router, which that very same technician had essentially disabled when he connected the phone jacks to their device.
After I saw how Spectrum/Time Warner Cable was installing their new Ubee devices for internet and phone service, I stayed at the customer location and assisted the sales person who sold the customer the service with correcting the installation.
Did you catch that? Yes, it was a sales person. This is because Spectrum/Time Warner Cable uses contracted service technicians to perform some of their work. Although they may have Spectrum/Time Warner vehicles they may not be actually from that company. We did get lucky though with this particular sales person as he used to be a technician. He had some knowledge about the service installation, but not about the actual device being installed, nor about some additional ways of installing VOIP services. It’s a good thing I was there to assist otherwise the customer would be lacking in services.