 Review by gzt7d8 
UPDATED: 304 days ago
member for 7.4 years, 2993 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
 Swartz Creek,Genesee,MI
 $82 per month
 about 5 days
 "Recent problems fixed, speeds more stable"
 "No competition here so prices are higher, not best bang for your buck"
 "Stable speeds, questionable value, but better than Direcway or dial up"
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(ratings match consensus)
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Updated March 8, 2008
Late 2007 had issues with speeds. Prime time speeds were 20% - 40% of advertised tier. Actually got tech who monitors the Charter Forum to take notice of our problem. They were the reason it was corrected. Speeds have been very consistent for me other than the occasional problems.
I recognize that I pay a lot for the service 10Mb/1Mb, but it is not a packaged deal, so I have no room for compliant. I have to accept that and hope that the cost will drop over time. There is no competition where I live, so I don't have much leveraging capability with Charter.
I will consider the 16Mb service when it becomes available, because I love to surf at the speed of life.
Greg
Updated May 6, 2006
I've been disappointed with Charter this year. The speeds are not consistent anymore. I feel like I'm on a party line and all the life gets sucked out between 6pm and 11pm, daily. I'm paying for 5Mb/512Kb but it is not worth the value when you download speeds drop below 1Mb in the evening. It is just prime time that I see the huge slow downs, and I never had that problem prior to this year.
I've called Charter, but no change. Let's just admit that the infrastructure needs investment and they don't have the capital to get it done.
So I can complain, but I don't have other Broadband choices. Using direcpc was like a fast phone line connection, that is way over priced.
Greg
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I live outside of any major city in mid-Michigan so my only broadband service available was DirecPC satellite service. I used this service for 21 months before Charter Pipeline was made available. Satellite worked well for me but it was a very inconsistent service.
Charter has been a good move for me. Installation went very well, and the service is consistent and my average speeds are very close to the service that I pay for. (1544/128) These speeds are all day long, I haven't had any experience with degradation of speeds. I hope it stays that way.
Of course, I can only speak for the service in my area. I have seen and read where the Charter service is less than desirable in other areas of the US. That was the reason why I tried a 3 month package with Charter before I committed.
My bad experience happened the first week after I had the service. I lost my service and after 4 field visits and 2 no shows it was fixed. Good thing I wasn't running a business.
At this time, my experience has been great. I'm very pleased with the service and hope continues. 
Greg
Update June 8, 2003
I am coming up on 1 year and for the most part the Good and Bad points still apply. I feel "lucky" that the connection works as well as it does, but when I have a problem, it has taken Technical Support weeks to get the problem fixed. The last occurance probably could have been fixed in a week, but it took 7 weeks to fix. The Technical Support offices and Field Services do not work together in this area. I'm not sure why but Field Services keep sending the wrong Tech to fix the problem. It took way too long and was unexceptable service.
When it works, it works, but boy when it goes in the ditch it seems to take for ever to get fixed.
Greg
Update September 28, 2003
For Charter customers the recent upgrade to 2Mb down has been a hot topic of discussion. I was part of a stress test that Charter ran in the month of August for customers on the east side of Michigan. The network seems to handle the increase without issue. My speed tests continue to run in the 95% - 99% of advertised speeds. I also have had many speed tests exceed the 2Mb cap.
Upload continues to be a question of debate. But my conversations with local offices here indicate that 256Kbs will become the norm pretty soon.
For me, and I can't speak for others, Charter has been a good value. The sound bites above continue to summarize my experience. I suppose I probably land in the lucky category. Maybe yes, maybe no.
Greg
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