Problems With Charter Communications

Recently Veronica and I have had some issues with Charter Communications. We have all of our cable, internet and telephone services through them. We currently have the top tier of their cable television offerings and are paying good money for their services. Unfortunately their services were not top tier for a 7 day period. Below is something I wrote on Charter Communications Facebook page. They really should reconsider and be fair about a refund/reimbursement issue dealing with less than stellar services that we received over a 7 day period recently. This is what was written on Charter Communications Facebook wall:

 To Whom It May concern,
We are paying top price for the the top tiers of cable programming along with internet and telephone services. Recently over a 7 day period, we were having problems off and on with our cable service. It began during the transition period when we were going to this new all digital television programming. When we would turn on our television we would automatically be on channel  12. This is the channel when the Charter girl us is telling everyone how Charter Communications is improving everything for the customers benefit....going all digital and customers needing to get a new box etc. When we would go to another channel, there was a screen that told us we needed to put in our PIN. We would type in our PIN and we would be allowed to view the channel that we were trying to change to. When we wanted to change from that channel to another, we would again have to type in our PIN. This was not occurring all of the time but enough to make it aggravating and very inconvenient. It also got worse and occurred more frequently near the end of this 7 day period.  So during this 7 day period we originally had 2 issues that occurred off and on...automatically getting diverted to channel 12 upon television start up and also having to type our PIN to get to another channel.  During the last 2 days of this 7 day period, we started experiencing a new problem. After going through the aforementioned 2 issues and steps to watch television, we had no sound. Changing channels, after typing in our PIN, did not fix the issue. We had to turn the television and DVR off and restart everything, go through the aforementioned 2 steps and then we were able to have sound...be advised that the sound did not return all of the times after a restart be it did return more often than not. I waited a day to see if the sound issue would completely clear up. After it did not completely clear up, it was time for me to call Charter and see if they could help fix the issues we were having. After completely explaining what issues we were having, tech support was able to fix all of our issues.  I told tech support that this these issues had been going occurring off and on over a previous 7 day period and that we were paying top dollar for the highest level of cable services provided on that date and that I felt that we should be reimbursed a portion of our cable bill for the time and inconvenience that these issues had been occurring. I was then transferred to the billing department and spoke to a young man. After completely explaining the situation, this Charter representative      stated that he would calculate how much he would be able to reimburse us for the week that these issues were occurring in. I was told that he would be requesting a $50 reimbursement from my next bill. This Charter Representative stated that because the $50
reimbursement was the highest level reimbursement that he was allowed to give, that he would have to send up the $50 reimbursement request to a supervisor for his/her approval. The Charter representative told me that he has never had a supervisor reject any of his request, because he always had the proper documentation in order to get the request approved and that his request for my reimbursement was no different from requests that he had previously submitted. I was told that if for any reason his request...my reimbursement...was denied that I would be notified. This Charter representative was very confident that they would be no issues regarding my reimbursement. With the cable and sound issues finally being completely resolved and knowing that I would most likely be receiving a fair and equitable reimbursement due to the aforementioned issues, I stayed on the line and completed the telephone survey giving all involved with these issue high marks.
This morning I received my monthly Charter Communications statement that contained my bill for the services that Charter Communications is providing me. Based on the total of this bill, it was obvious that I had not received my refund for the 1 weeks worth of cable related problems. I proceeded to call the Charter Communications Billing Department. After explaining the situation, I was put on hold for a brief period of time so that the representative could review the notes in my account. Upon returning, this Charter Communications representative told me that the refund /reimbursement request had been denied because I did not immediately call Charter Communications as soon as the issue started. I told this Charter Communications representative the same thing that I had told all of the other representatives involved in this situation...I figured that the on and off issues that were occurring over this 7 day period were due to the transitioning to the all new digital cable services that we were getting. I also told each representative that I spoke to that the issues progressively got worse and occurred more frequently towards the end of that 7 day period. It was when the sound issues continued past a 24 hour period, that I made the call to get these issues fixed. We have been paying top tier dollars for Charter Communications top tier services packages. During that 7 day period we did not receive those top tier services that we had paid that top tier dollar for. I am calling out Charter Communications to please review the notes in my account in reference to the issues described above and for Charter Communications to do the right thing...refund me the amount that
the billing personnel felt that I deserved and apply that amount to my Charter Communications bill.
If you would like to contact me, please send me a private message(PM) from my Facebook homepage.
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Rick Rosenshein

One Step Forward And Two Steps Back

I went to my orthopedic doctor yesterday for my post operative followup visit. The doctor told me that everything looks fine but that it would take about 4 more weeks for everything to be totally healed up inside.
Since the operation I have gone for two walks. Each one was about 1.5 miles long and after each one I have had the same issue. Lots of pain and hardly able to support my own weight when I stand and put weight on the leg.
The worse part of it all is that the nights after each walk, I hardly got any sleep due to the pain in my knee.
Yesterday I did my walk and last night I might have got an hour of sleep if I was lucky. I have decided that it would be best if I not try my walks or if I do try one, that I only go about a half mile at most.
Today I have done all I can to get it back to where it was before yesterdays walk.
I will just have to be patient and let the healing process continue on its own without me trying to re-injure the knee.
Hopefully it won't be too long until I can get back into my long walks and my normal weightlifting routine.

Post Op Difficulties

I have not seen my doctor since getting my left knee worked on, so I haven't had the chance to find out exactly what he needed to do in there to get it fixed. From what I have heard it was more than what he had to do when he fixed my right knee, about 18 months ago. What I do know for sure is that my knee is really sore and it will take a little longer than usual to get it back into shape. I went for my first walk yesterday. I did one lap in my neighborhood and decided not to push it any further than that. I am going to try to go for a walk everyday as I try to build my left leg and knee up. My knee surgery has affected me most when I try to sleep. I am a side sleeper for the most part and usually I have one leg on top of the other when sleeping on my side. Unfortunately it does not matter which side I sleep on, there always seems to be pressure on my knee which in turn causes me pain. I will be so glad when i can get a good nights sleep.