I don't normally like rants, but I thought I would share my experience with Time Warner in case you were curious how exactly they suck so much. I Googled for time warner sucks and sure enough, my experience is not unique.

So I moved to Cleveland Heights a few weeks ago and made the huge mistake of choosing Time Warner for their cable Internet service. Just Internet, with my own cable modem (okay, it's actually Dave Carlin's modem, mine was stolen - thanks Dave!). Simple, right?

Two days after installation, our connection went out for a day. When I called customer service to send a technician out, I learned that they had also signed me up for cable TV for just an extra $30/month, without my consent. How nice!

The technician did technician stuff for about an hour before calling customer service to discover that they had placed a "change of service" block on our account for no apparent reason. So he had it removed, there were no technical problems whatsoever.

Since then our service hasn't been online for more than two days in a row. It usually goes down before midnight and comes back online before noon - the most productive coding hours! I've called a few times and they claim there is no block on the account. During today's call I learned that whenever a technician is dispatched, they add the $3/month modem rental charge to your account, without your consent, whether or not the technician gives you a new modem.

How hard is it to keep the goddamn service you're being paid for online? I hate Time Warner.