Charter completes acquisition of Time Warner Cable, will phase out tarnished brand name

[Shawn Knight]

Charter Communications on Wednesday announced it has completed its acquisition of Time Warner Cable. Its first order of business, according to spokesperson Alex Dudley, is to do away with the tarnished Time Warner brand.

Time Warner had the worst customer service score in any industry according to an American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey from last year. Subscription TV providers Mediacom Communications and Time Warner shared last place with a score of 51 out of a possible 100.

Rather than ditch the name in one fell swoop, Dudley said Charter plans to phase out the Time Warner brand over time. The same is being done with Bright House Networks LLC, which Charter purchased in conjunction with Time Warner for $10.4 billion.

David VanAmburg, ACSI’s managing director, said it’s not surprising that Charter wants to rebrand Time Warner as it has scored better than Time Warner in recent years. It won’t be a cakewalk, however, as VanAmburg said data suggests leaps-and-bounds improvement could be difficult.

Charter received a score of 63 in last year’s ACSI survey. For comparison, rival Comcast received scores of just 56 and 54 for its Internet and pay TV services, respectively.

As a result of the acquisition, Charter is now the nation’s second largest broadband Internet provider behind Comcast and the third largest pay TV distributor behind AT&T and Comcast.

Charter first revealed intentions to purchase Time Warner nearly a year ago to the day in a deal valued at $55 billion. The announcement came shortly after Comcast dropped its proposed $45 billion merger with Time Warner due to regulator pushback. The failed merger ultimately cost the two companies more than half a billion dollars.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/64879-charter-completes-acquisition-time-warner-cable.html

 

[Darth Shiv]

Wow those satisfaction figures are crazy poor across the board! No wonder they need a good kick up the backside.

 

[Greg S]

Wow those satisfaction figures are crazy poor across the board! No wonder they need a good kick up the backside.

Internet speeds absolutely suck for the price you have to pay. I'm not at all satisfied and won't be until fiber is under $100 a month for gigabit speeds without ridiculous data caps.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Internet speeds absolutely suck for the price you have to pay. I'm not at all satisfied and won't be until fiber is under $100 a month for gigabit speeds without ridiculous data caps.

Currently on TWC 300+mbps @ ~ $65 USD. That is WAY ahead of where Australia is. Rolling out "up to 25mbps" by 2021 LOL.

I was paying I think $80 AUD a month for 8mbit unlimited downloads. ADSL2+ at about 4km from the exchange.

Gigabit across the board would be magnificient but there is a loooooooong way to go.

 

[Scshadow]

The idea of data caps are pretty obnoxious but the whole Gigabit Fiber is pretty wasted on a consumer for pretty much all legit uses of a consumer grade connection. I'm pretty happy with the 100M download I get from Charter. Drops maybe once every 2-3 months but usually comes back up within a reasonable amount of time. I do want ever so small amount more of upload because I stream ultra casually(ie I really don't have a desire to be famous or create a following). The 4Mbit upload we get is plenty for a non-partnered streamer cause they don't allow us that much bandwidth but it really doesn't leave a whole lot of room for a household to upload much else or perhaps host a 2nd stream(like if a miracle happened and I got a GF who streamed as well.). In a dream world, I would have this price drop to $30 a month. A dollar a day for internet seems reasonable. All in all pretty happy with what I've got. People get angry over limited service options with some justification but then get all butthurt over every little nitpick and thats why satisfaction is so low. People are really entitled when it comes to internet service.

 

[Uncle Al]

Sadly, the entire cable industry has written off customer satisfaction. With all the bogus "fee's" and other phony charges plus zero flexibility in show menu's; and all of this on top of ridicules over pricing, they are driving away customers by the boat load. Until the govt. and consumer protection lands on them hard, we will probably be faced with a lot more of the same!

 

[wiyosaya]

Sadly, the entire cable industry has written off customer satisfaction. With all the bogus "fee's" and other phony charges plus zero flexibility in show menu's; and all of this on top of ridicules over pricing, they are driving away customers by the boat load. Until the govt. and consumer protection lands on them hard, we will probably be faced with a lot more of the same!

Exactly! And since Charter is retaining all the TWC employees, and likely their crap customer service, Charter has just started the drop to the bottom of customer service ratings. Changing their name won't do sh!t unless they change their business practices. Given that Charter was just ahead of TWC, I highly doubt that CS ratings will improve due to their merger.

 

[amstech]

Sadly, the entire cable industry has written off customer satisfaction.

If TwC was a person I saw everyday, everyday I would punch them in the face.
Don't think this merger will change a damn thing but the logo on my bill.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Only reason gbit is wasted is because it isn't ubiquitous. More rollout, more uplink speed, more services that can leverage it. Chicken and the egg.