**UPDATE, Monday, Feb. 16, 2009** Darryl Ryan, Time Warner’s director of media relations wants to hear from customers. See, “Hey ‘anonymous cowards’ - Time Warner wants to hear from you“
Time Warner Cable’s Valentine’s Day 1-cent-movies promotion attracted three times more viewers than the company anticipated, creating a major nightmare for customers and Time Warner this weekend. As some readers who had planned to spend Saturday night at home discovered, many of the movies were unwatchable due to pixelation or the inability to access them.
“We totally exceeded the number by 3-times the amount. It was hugely successful. But a lot of people used it at peak times, which overloaded the system,” Darryl Ryan, the company’s director of media relations, said Sunday. “For any inconvenience we caused for customers, we do apologize.”
Customers who call Time Warner’s customer service, at 1-888-TWCABLE, can get one coupon good for a 1-cent movie-on-demand. But you must call in to get this. Ryan also pointed out that once purchased, the movies last for 24 hours. Movies that couldn’t play last night should still be available and working today. Also, subscribers can order movies today and watch them up to 24 hours later through Monday.
This, of course, may not be enough for some customers to forgive yet another strike against the cable company.
Several readers left comments (fixed link, thanks 10ACGirl) about the poor viewing experience. One reader, Shamrockmom, may have summed it up best: “Just a tip, TWC–Don’t promise what you can’t deliver!”
Ryan, with Time Warner, said that the issue was due to excessive demand in Orange County. The 1-cent promotion was only offered to Southern California subscribers in the Los Angeles and Orange County viewers. Other parts of the region had few complaints.
“This wasn’t a widespread problem. It just happened to affect readers in your area. This was limited to SoCal but it didn’t affect other parts of the region. It mainly affected people in Orange County,” Ryan said.
This doesn’t bode well for video on demand, which Time Warner has been offering to customers for years. While the ability to watch a movie or TV show whenever you want is appealing, the bad experience will likely turn off some customers forever.
“Brian in HB,” a reader who left a comment, said past on-demand experiences have been disappointing. “I have had problems with their system in the past and I haven’t used it since. This weekend just pointed out they still aren’t ready for primetime with the video on demand.”
Recent Time Warner Cable stories:
Tamara 'the Gadgetress' Chuang
Here's a list of TV/mobile companies helping consumers one tweet at a time. 
IT WASN’T “THANK YOU CUSTOMERS” IT WAS F U CUSTOMERS!
Thanks for Nothing Time Warner
I live in Cypress watched 4 movies and had no problems. I thought 1 cent movies were a great idea. And for the complainers you get what you pay for
weird…all weekend was fine only last night had a bit of a problem…
I live in Chino Hills we watched movies on Saturday and Sunday with no problems………………..
Funny that Mr. Ryan actually thinks the inability to deliver services as contracted for is “HUGELY SUCCESSFUL!” This is absolutely unbelievable. This company must be run by a bunch of idiots! THEY KNOW NOTHING about customer service. Consider the following:
The CATV service offering is rank with fraud and decepttion. Any other business would be shut down for this kind of abuse and fraud. But since TWC and the other CATV operators are in bed with the FCC they are insulated from civil, criminal or attorney general prosecution, because they are really just SHILLS for government agendas, public propoganda campaigns and doping America into stupidity. Forget about national security issues, we don’t even have personal security, as you can’t make a 911 phone call with their digital phone when the power is out or because you didn’t pay your bill, even if your child were dying! Just like you can’t access the internet or TV when the power is out during a storm to receive weather alerts, or get safety information if a hurricane or tornado is heading your way! And, you might as well forget the fact that they derive huge financial benefit’s and profits from all sorts of free local TV under the guise of “Free To Air” rebroadcast / retransmission agreements that they actually charge their customers for content that steal from over the air broadcasters. IF ABC, CBS and NBC can’t fight them you certainly can’t! Yet they want us all to believe that “cable theft as a crime…” LOL Only in America! The disgusting thing is we actually buy this *%$ # !
Time Warner’s and the rest of the CATV industries media monopoly will soon be over. A new technology called Wi-MAX will spell the end for all the CATV BS we stomached for years. Yes their little Triple Play conspiracy “Bases Loaded - Triple Play - Home Run” scheme to extort money from consumers just got caught at the fence, the runners are OUT, GAME OVER, GO HOME TWC! You Loose!
You can cacel all your captive trash ad campaigns you sell to your existing customers because in case you didn’t know… unless you asre already a customer, you can’t see those trashy diatribe low budget ads hawking your crappy service! What idiots you are! Your mafia style credit -collection schemes and fraudulent debt collection racketering enterpirse days are over!
Soon your financial statements will have to carry the same sort of message that our set top boxes have when we are late paying our bill and can;t call you on our digital phone to arrange payment thatmight read like this:
“Your Subscriber Base has been terminated due to poor business practices. Since it is now impossible to restore consumer trust after 30 years or more of corrupt business practices. Less you forget who actually paid your idiot “overpaid arrogant executives”? It’s probably way too late to save your customers, they have resorted to a better service. Please arrange to come and pick up your worthless hardware and remove your cables from my home, before I start charging you for allowing your service equipment to be installed on my property!”
Your Former Customer!
I am writing this because I care, and want to resolve any issues that our customers are facing.
Time Warner Cable values each and every customer. Whenever there is a problem, no one ever feels good about it, and we at Time Warner Cable take it upon ourselves to amend any issues that our customers may face.
We believe in you, our customer, and we want you to trust us, believe in us, and know that we do and will continue to work extremely hard to make sure that you get the best products, services and customer support.
To our customers, we appreciate your loyalty and commitment, and we value what you bring to our company. For this loyalty and commitment, we will continue to work each and everyday to improve the customer experience.
So, to anyone affected by this past weekend’s VOD situation, I ask that you reach out to me, and I, along with the rest of my colleagues at Time Warner Cable, will work to resolve the issue. Or if there are other issues you have, simply contact me, and provide me with insight as to how or what we can do to make your experience better.
I can be contacted at darryl.ryan@twcable.com
I had a relative visiting from out of town. I live in an ”old” 40 year old house and she couldnt believe” the archaic cable wiring that we still use ‘from TW.
As for the 1 cent movies Im not surprised they were crappy movies anyway.
Too bad I missed this latest Time Warner fiasco. After years of crappy service I had FiOS installed on Friday and couldn’t be happier. I not only now have channels I never knew existed, but I have some of those same channels in HD. It took forever for TWC to expand their HD lineup and even then it was rather pathetic.
You would think that instead of running ads instilling FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about Uverse, FiOS, and sattelite that TWC would actually improve their service so that it would be on par with their satellite and phone company competitors.
I knew this was going to happen, I told my wife. The sad part is how the internet got affected. I work from home and am dependant on internet from Time Warner (for now).
It is highly reckless to promote such a silly marketing scheme that could potentially redline local bandwidth. This is a textbook example of a marketing dept being out of control. These type of stunts only hurt companies like this.
Well…just as long as they apologize
I am so glad we switched to ATT Uverse when I did. TIme warner really is the worst cable company ever!
Every since the outage a one or two months ago my TWC telephone line has static in it. Soon I’ll drop TWC phone service. I’ll just use my cell phone or go back to Vonage. I’m also thinking about dropping the video service too. Less TV means more reading.
I’m going back to aerial reception. Channels 2-13 wtih a few UHF stations! Just like the old days.
I am such a slave….I cannot stand time warner cable, but I do nothing about it. Somebody help me.
What Time Warner needs to do is drop the phone service and concentrate on getting their Cable & Internet up to speed on the quality! Time Warner offering Phone Service is like going to a Pizza Joint and asking for a Hamburger. It just shouldn’t be… Time Warner getting out of the Phone Business will free up bandwidth and then maybe they wouldn’t have all this Tiling or Video on Demand issues… Just a thought…
Time Warner’s Motorola DVR does not work properly.
If anyone here has had any problems, with the Motorola DVR, read this page describing all of the bugs and problems http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Bugs#Bugs:
A Time Warner representative in the Los Angeles office acknowledged that these problems will not be resolved any time soon. The Time Warner Cable representative promised that I would get free dvr service for the next year, on both of my boxes. My bill was lowered by $20 per month, but I have yet to receive my next bill to confirm this.
Even though I am supposedly receiving this discount, no one from Time Warner Cable has admitted fault on their end. I find that incredibly disrespectful.
I understand everyone’s side. I too experienced some issues. After a few attempts I was eventually able to watch my movies. But you have to admit, it was nice for Time Warner to have this offer. People spend $5 for pirated movies but these movies were legit and only a penny, can’t beat that.
Time Warner’s customer service is crap….
i have canceled the TW service few months ago and they still sent bill for unused 1 month. I have called them and their customer service lady was just horrible as TW. She told us to wait few weeks…
As for verzion phone service, they should be awarded as best customer service provider.. as we moved, they even gave us money refund for unused days. and Verizon took care of other stuff, unlike TW, who keep sending us the bill, even after we disconnected the service.
Sorry for all the cable problems, but I have VERIZON FIOS service…it is excellent!! Try it if you can get it…*-) Don’t settle for less.