Did Your Time Warner Cable Go Out Last Night?
Saturday AM update: Time Warner says digital cable (only digital level) throughout Greater Cincinnati crashed Thursday night due to a "computer failure." Each channel had to be rebooted individually. They said they started about 10:20 p.m., and it took about an hour.... although some customers told me their service was out until noon Friday.
Time Warner says their considering asking networks for permission to repeat the finales missed Thursday night. Ch 9 also apprising ABC of situation. Some shows can be found online, but not NBC's ER or Scrubs. I'll post more as I know it next week.
Thanks for all the emails and comments.
--Kiese
Did your Time Warner Cable go out last night when you wanted to see the season finales of "Grey's Anatomy," "CSI," "ER," "Scrubs" and other shows? How frustrating was that? Tell me about it.
No, I really want you to tell me about it. Please e-mail me. I'm looking for frustrated viewers for a story about the outage. Please include your name, age, neighborhood or suburb, and daytime phone.
Also tell me if you gonna watch the finales you missed online today or sometime soon....
Thanks.
77 Comments:
didn't notice, but then again I have DirecTV since I refuse to use TWC anymore, especially after they sent one of their goons to my house who forced their way in and then insulted my wife because we weren't interested in their "great deal"
Around 9:55, my DVR locked up. I had to do a hard reboot, and lost the last five minutes of the CSI finale. ~ Michael (Anderson Township)
My DVR stopped working at 9:48 last night. I was watching the Gray's Anatomy finale and recording another show. I tried rebooting several times, but couldn't get a picture or change the channel. I was furious until I realized I could watch the finales online today. What a tremendous let down by Time Warner!
Our cable froze at 9:48p. I had the DVR set to record CSI and Grey's - but of course both stopped when the problem started. I do plan on watching both programs online over the weekend. Can't believe this happened during the best hour of broadcast television! (A conspiracy by TWC???)
Fairfield
I was watching The Office which I had DVR'd earlier and didnt realize there was a problem until I went to erase the show and my whole set froze. Lost the last half hour of Grey's, last 12 mins of Scrubs and all of ER. TWC needs to replay all of these shows over.
Liberty Hill
My cable went out about 9:50. Fortunately I had another TV that was not connected to the cable and was able to catch the end of CSI.
Our DVR locked up as we were watching/recording Grey's and recording CSI. When the system rebooted we lost both and now also have other issues with the DVR. It now oddly has shows for viewing that we previously erased. Not only is missing these shows disappointing but even worse the lack of customer service by TWC. Finally got through at 11:50 PM last night and was on hold until I gave up at 1:10 AM. Today their attitude is a lame 'sorry' about the outage but we're now back up...you can watch it online. C'mon kids...let's all gather around the laptop!! Are the local stations concerned about the advertising and promos that vast numbers of their audiences missed? TWC is the worst!! I know it's only TV but could there have been a worse night for this to happen? I was told they have no plans for trying to re-air the missed broadcasts - thanks TWC!
Same story all around. My TV froze at about 9:48 right at the last 10 minutes of CSI. I don't have Tivo, DVR or anything else, but fortunately have another TV not on cable and caught the last 10 minutes. The cable still did not work this AM. I called TWC and was told to unplug the box for 30 seconds. That did the trick.
i have basic analog cable and it did not go out thursday night.
mark
mt. adams
In the old Adelphia area here in Delhi I had no porblems with my cable last night I would watch all of the shows.
While we are talking about season finales I have to say that I was dissapointed. Why did the networks feel the need to be so dramatic and make all the character's lives so miserable? It was depressing to watch Grey's and Ugly Betty (WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO BE A COMEDY).
Same as others... my DVR went haywire at 9:48 PM. Lost the end of Scrubs.
Mine went out after I finished watching the Office (recorded). My setup to record Lost was lost. I am now lost. Of course I'm sure they didn't tell us anything worthwhile. They never do.
I was watching the Detroit/Chicago game when my DVR went out. That was the second time this week. Before it went out during the Golden State/Utah game and I missed some good action.
a friend called me and told me that he had a problem. the picture on both boxes, a regular digital box and a hd dvr box. he tried unplugging it but it didnt work. he is thinking of switching back to dish.
Blanchester
We had recorded The Office and we watching that while we were assuming the Lost special would record but it didnt. It really sucked because I was reallyy looking forward to it. -Dan (Newtown)
Add me to the list of 9:48 victims. What galls me is that there was no getting anyone on the phone at TW. If past experience is any indication, I can be very sure there won't be an acknowledgement of the service interruption, or, God forbid, an apology.
It's just more encouragement to keep an eye on my options.
My cable went out about 9:50. I originally thought the HD just went out, so I switched to the regular channel and it was still out. I had another TV upstairs that was not connected to the cable, so I ran up stairs to see the rest of Greys Anatomy.
Same thing happened to me, cable went out.
I think TWC should reimburse people for their glitches, I mean come on we are paying for a service that should be dependable. When they don't deliver, they should reimburse a little.
I couldn't believe it. It went out at 9:48 and I lost both Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs. Grey's I can watch online, but Scrubs I don't think is available. Time Warner please replay the shows!
Double whammy...watching CSI and DVR Grey's Anatomy. Excellent 'kwalatee' Time Warner!!
Yes, my cable went out last night at precisely 9:45 pm. And my DVR didn’t record Grey’s Anatomy either, even though it was recording at the time cable went out.
I was DVR’ing Grey’s Anatomy AND simultaneously was watching it live. With 12 minutes left until the ending of the season finale, our cable went out. I thought to myself, “phew! AT least I DVR’d it!” But when our cable came back on after 10 pm, I quickly found out that the DVR didn’t record Grey’s Anatomy either. Lesson learned ~ if cable doesn’t work, neither does the DVR.
I am very frustrated.
Thanks TWC for making me miss the season finale of my favorite show.
I was so mad! I had DVRed Gray's Anatomy but when i got to the end everything froze up. I tried everythng to get it back on. I ended up calling a friend to find out how it ended and figured i coudl watch the show online today, but no luck there yet. I also lost all of ER and they don't even put their episodes online.
Yep, I'm with all of you-cable froze up at 9:48pm last night. I missed the end of the CSI finale, end of Grey's finale, and the beginning of ER finale. And, to top it all off, I had guests over my house watching! Timewarner should offer its thousands of customers an apology, and replay those shows!
Yes my cable went out the last 15 minutes of CSI. Both cable boxes were non-functional. Very frustrating when you call TWC and all you get is a busy signal whenever you really need to get a hold of customer service!
Similar experience here. Lost the picture at 9:48 on the TV with the digital cable box. The cable did not go out on the TVs without the box, so I was able to watch the end of Scrubs. Unfortunately, I was DVRing ER, so I lost that. At 10:30, everything came back on. Tried calling Time Warner last night, couldn't get thru. Haven't tried today. Ironic how one of their main selling points against satellite is that cable is more reliable. Warner just sucks.
John Burroughs
Hyde Park
My digital cable went out at about 9:50 last night while I was watching Grey's Anatomy. Fortunately I have analog in my bedroom, so I just went in there and watched the end. Aargh! Gotta love Time Warner!
Erin, Sharonville OH
I'm with everyone else...not only did I lose the Pistons-Bulls game, but my ESPN HD channel was STILL out this morning.
Time Warner should be ashamed of itself; it should offer AT LEAST partial credit on future billings and/or a complete replay of all the shows that were cut off last night.
I was very disappointed last night when I missed Grey's Anatomy. I was recording it since I was at work, and my evening of relaxation with the season finale was ruined! Let's get a re-run of the show(s), or at least give everyone a free month of service. TWC's customer service has been deteriorating, and I think this monopoly should at least make customer service a #1 priority.
I was really upset too. We dvr'd it to watch later last night and were disappointed to not see the end. Time Warner should do something.......
I too missed the season finales of a 3 shows that I watch due to the cable outage. I was furious as the same thing happened to me last week as well. i can watch most of the shows online, but that is not the point. these shows were on "free" tv, but because i pay a bunch of money to have "great tv" at my command, i missed these episodes! i hope time warner is going to give us all some refunds for our trouble!
After trying for 10 minutes to both reboot and get through to TW, it was frosting on the cake to miss the first section of "Lost," as well. And to have the company say, "well, good thing you can watch the episodes online" doesn't hack it. Jeesh.
Cable with analog hookup was fine. HD went out around 9:50. It appears to have just been a problem with TWC digital cable subscribers.
It went out mid-scene during Grey's Anatomy. I've never seen my wife run so fast to get to the other TV to watch the rest of the show.
Same story. We were watching The Office that was recorded and didn't even realize that the system crashed at 9:48, cutting off the ends of both Grey's and CSI. We have a TiVo on basic cable that caught CSI but I've been refusing to talk about Grey's all day today because we've purchased the episode on iTunes but haven't watched the end yet. Any idea what the 9:48 glitch was at TWC?
Landen
OUr cable in Golf Manor froze at 9:48 pm and the 2 shows we were recording stopped at that time.
There has been an ad on Ch12 morning news in the 7 -8am hour about notifying your politicians about legislation to create more cabe options. What's up with that? Can anyone in the know reply? John?
The cable was frozen up on some blonde lady during a commercial. I got tired of looking at her and watched the rest of the show on an old t.v. with an antennae!
I am terribly disappointed by the Time Warner Cable mistake. This is almost as upsetting as the climate changes that are endangering the Polar Bears.
I have been having problems the past 2 days with TW. Yesterday morning I could only get local HD stations. Then later it went out just before 10. This morning when I went to check again before work I only had channels 1-76 (none of which worked, No Data), and that makes an HD subscriber a little peeved.
Same as many people...watching the Scrubs Season Finale (my favorite show on tv) and at 9:48pm the cable goes out. This was extremely frustrating. My friend and I went over to his house to catch the last 13 minutes (since he had DVR'd it) only to find that his cable was out as well. We tried buying the show on iTunes and watching it on NBC.com but neither had posted it as of late last night. At some point over the next few days I am going to find some way to watch it. It may be a bit ridiculous to get this upset over a TV show but it is also ridiculous to drop-the-ball completely as a service provider (major props to Time Warner on this one) and have the only avenue for complaint be a voice recording saying 'they are aware of the problem.' It really stinks.
I am so TIRED of this but have heard horror stories of bills for broken parts and boxes with Satellite folks...so.
but TWO TIMES in 48 hours TW goes OUT? WHY? The digital was out for almost two hours...MORE ANNOYING was the busy signals for HOURS...Did they take the phones off the hook? I am calling up later today and raising hell saying I want a discount...TWO TIMES I was watching a show and missed the last few minutes....Tuesday night I figured it was the storm (though we have underground utitlities and after ALL THESE DECADES, can't cable figure out how to lightening proof things? That's the problem with satellite..snow storms and such erase signal,
I say EVERYBODY ON THIS BLOG CALL TW and DEMAND a discount for loss of service for TWO NIGHTS...they will not say no..THey will not OFFER it..you have to ask for things and it will often be given!!
but there is strength in numbers, so call them folks and posts your response from them here...I know I WILL.
A few questions I'd love answered from TWC:
- Why did this happen?
- Why haven't they communicated anything to their customers? They have our email addresses.
- Will they credit our accounts or otherwise compensate us for this highly ill-timed meltdown?
Maybe you can find out the answers.
- Chris (Brighton)
I am with the 9:48 crowd, and had dvr'ed both scrubs and grey's and i got home from work and sat down to watch them, and the stupid thing stopped working! of ALL nights, for the cable to malfunction, it HAD to be on the night of the finale's!! i hate twc as it is, and this just makes it THAT much worse. I wish they would replay both! :( grrrrrr
In Bridgetown the cable was lost around 9:45. It was very frustrating that it occured during the time slot of the season finale.
You guys watch too much TV. ;)
OMG!!! I was soooo ticked off. Mine went out at 9:48 like everyone else. I hit the off and redial button for 15 minutes and actually got through! Then was put on hold for almost 30 minutes before I got disconnected!!! Then I hit the redial button for an HOUR and never got through. I called TWC from work this morning and got the option to have a call back in 12-19 minutes, and hour and a half later... yup.. you guessed it... NOTHING. I called back and did the call-back thing again, this time being told 8-12 minutes... 20 minutes later someone called me. All they can do for us is give us a $40 credit towards our next bill. I know it wasn't the guys fault on the phone, but COME ON... I just found that www.cbs.com has the FULL episode. Gonna watch it right now.
I was so made about this whole ordeal that I took that cable box and I first pounded on it a few times and then I drop kicked it across the family room and it hit my dog. I had to take the dog to the vet and now I think that I have permenently damaged my box. Time Warner should give me a new box and pay the vet bill!
You're all a bunch of babies. It's a couple of television shows. Find something more productive to do than sit around the t.v. and then whine, if you miss some of the show. Wow, is this really what America's come to?
Why isn't cable TV billed by usage like other utilities? You should pay for what you use. I'm not sure how it would work but when there is an outage, they don't send a refund for the duration of the outage.
9:50, during CSI lost the show. My son was really glad - he was waiting for me to come upstairs to say goodnight.
He asked me to 'give up those stupid shows' for the summer and 'get more sleep'. Funny, I wasn't really that upset when it went out, so I think I'll take him up on it.
I was not having a good day but had been looking forward to my Grey's finale all day! I was so frustrated when it went out right at the end but figured it matched the rest of my bad day. I'm not a fan of TWC, wish we had more options.
Blue Ash
I was DVRing CSI, Grey's, and Scrubs. Lost all 3 @ 9:48. Internet service still worked, but couldn't get through on any listed TW phone #. No replay = bad call. Service is not their strong suit (understatement).
HD DVR box.
Went out at 10:15. Everything fine until Grey’s ended at 10:15
Was recording ER and went to start ER on DVR said not available and then noticed all stations out via Warner HD DVR
Luckily set has HD tuner with Warner Cablecard and signal and shows were fine via that input.
Did miss first 15 minutes of ER.
Pete - West Chester
I lost the last 15 minutes of Grey's Anatomy, all of Lost, all of ER, and the last 15 minutes of CSI. These shows need to be run again - not all are online and not everyone has access to online shows. That is why we pay for cable. Do we get a refund for the time we lost and the season finales we will probably never see?
Luckily for me, I don't watch any of the 9:00 shows, but I would have been very upset if I had not seen the end of The Office. This is the second time this month that there has been a widespread outage for digital cable services in my area. Both times, it was impossible to even get through on the phone, as it was perpetually busy.
Unfortunatly, my frustration with Time Warner is not limited to the outages. After my DVR box went out last month, I returned it to a local office. They gave me a refurbished one, which lasted about two weeks. When I took that one back, they gave me a used one, and said that I would have to have a service call if the third one went out. When the service guy came out, he tested my signal, which was fine, and informed me that the third box had also failed. When I called Time Warner and requested a credit to my account for the repeated failure of their equipment, what did they give me? $5 towards one monthly bill, which typically runs $142 a month.
Satellite is looking better every day....
I had the same problem as everyone else at 9:50 whil watching Greys. The biggest difference is my HD DVR still workded and I was able to watch the entire episode later.
time to call Cincinnati Bell and get DirecTV
This is exactly why i switched to DirectTV. After many problems with TW i could not put up with it anymore, and could not be happier with making the switch.
We were watching South Park on Comedy Central and missed the ending. Does this mean Kenny lives?
I lost mine a few minutes before 10:00 and it never came back, so i went to bed.
I grow tired of TimeWarner's "digital cable". It's five seconds delayed, it constantly jittered, freezes, glitches, it's insane to pay incredible rates for horrible service.
How many people tried to use their digital phone service from TWC when the "computer crash" occurred??
It's time the Ohio Attorney General inquires about the customer practices and lousy service!
I was watching Grey's at someone else's house when their cable went out at 9:48, too. What gets me is that it was at one of the best parts of the show- you're waiting for George to say something and all the sudden the screen goes black. I'm always getting grief for having "analog" cable, but my roommates had no problem watching Grey's last night...
Sounds like most of the shows people were missing were on broadcast TV anyway. Just unpug your cable tv and watch beautiful HDTV with an antenna.
Isn't it interesting that the only failures were for people with DIGITAL cable?
When they say digital is the future, now you can see what to expect.
Is there any truth to the story that TWC wants to shut off analog cable so everyone can be treated to this new level of service?
This is as much of a reason as why I moved to Northern Kentucky as any. We have Insight and it is 50 times more reliable than TWC. TWC is a joke of a cable service. A coat hanger attached to a small Hitachi is 5000 times more reliable. If you waste the time to call them they will have no idea what you are talking about.
TW said they received a memo that stated "If anyone gave any credits to someone who lost cable, they would be fired". This is very poor customer service. Anyone try to call to see if they would give a credit? They would not give me a credit and were rude. $120 per month, and it never works half the time. I will be switching to DirecTV. This is the straw that broke the camels back.
You poor fools wasting all that $$$$$$. I am basic and definitely in the minority I know...I have no cable or satellite system. I get free over the air HD local Television and had NO problem with my season Finales being recorded on my VCR. Sure it is a little slower, fast forwarding thru the commercials on old fashion tape, but I did get to see the end of all the shows I put on Oxide and saved a few bucks in the end. Long Live Free Television.....
Just got this in an email and wanted to share with you:
My husband and I missed the end of Grey's and CSI last night due to TWC's crappy service.
I blamed it on my dog at first because he had jumped up on the couch and stepped on the remote, which sent our whole system into a fit, which of course I thought caused the DVR to stop recording both shows at 9:48.
Not necessarily better, but it is nice to know that it is TWC's fault
and not that of my dog...
--Kiese
Saw all the finales, but then again, I have Direct TV. Time Warner sucks!
Luckily, I saw all the shows...but that's only b/c I switched from Time Warner to Direct TV about 10 years ago. I will never use Time Warner again b/c there service was terrible then and it seems it still rings true today.
OK. I have to chime in for all the belly achers. First of all these are only tv shows. If you missed them on the local tv then see if you can get them online. They even said earlier that TW is trying to get the rights to replay the episodes.
Before I continue I feel it is my duty to advise everyone that I USED to be employed by TW in the customer service department. I know people have been complaining about not being able to get through but you have to cut them a little slack. They are doing the best they can. I have friends that still work there and they told me that when the problem occurred their call volume ( they have boards in the call center letting you know how many people are on hold ) and was told that in a matter of SECONDS the calls on hold jumped from 20 to over 300!! Perhaps that is why they had a hard time getting to your call.
Sorry John, just had to rant. People don't realize that people in the call center for TW have to put up with a lot. Thanks for posting this...
Anonymous said...
TW said they received a memo that stated "If anyone gave any credits to someone who lost cable, they would be fired"
...
That sounds about right. When you SIGNED your service agreement it states on there that would be refunded a portion of your monthly bill IF your service is out for 24 hours. Seems like people need to read things before they sign them...
This is why I have DirectTV ofr these exact problems. The onlt itm you have problems is in severe storms
Sunday the cable and internet went out completely from 12:31 pm til 1:36 pm and per time warner no credits are given unless it is a system wide outage for at least 24 hours.... the outage was in Mt washington and North College hill i guess TWC is NOT into Customer Service
Here's something weird.
I live on the west coast and had this problem with "The Office", ER and Grey's. Talk about strange. This happened with my HD-DVR but not my regular digital box. Good old TIVO continued on like a champ with that.
I live in Northern Kentucky and I am sorry to read about all the problems you have in Nohio with TWC. Between TWC and Cincinnati city coucil NKY looks better every day!
John in Hebron
I too lost my service about 9:50ish. I thought it was just my box (I rebooted twice), then saw on the 11pm news that TW had a problem. It is anoying & frustrating when technology fails us...but look folks, no one's life support goes dead when the cable is out - just keep it in perspective. But I don't mean to let TW completely off the hook...they can easily take some steps to help their customer support image (or lack thereof)...for instance a simple recording on the phone line saying they are aware of a problem and are looking into it would probably have gone a long way toward a release valve on their customer's anger. Neither would they have had 300+ customers on hold getting angryer (sp?) by the minute. Sometimes the customer only needs some reasurance that the problem is being worked on...Cinergy/Duke Energy does this, when I call about my frequent power outages, the knowledge that someone is on the problem cuts the frustration level in ½. I would have hoped that a large system like TW would have enough clout with the networks to allow a rebroadcast of the missed content over one of TW's spare channels....
Vern
Fairfield
This reply is for Vern. When I called TW about the problem, I got a recording telling me about the problem. They even told me what steps to do to try to correct it.
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