by Ok ya got me, awful is nowhere near strong enough a word but it'll have to do. Why? Ok here we go:
1) If you have a TV it MUST have a set top box otherwise you'd better have an air antennae or the tv is useless. $5.00 a month per set top box.
2) 4 Incoming TV streams. So you can watch different channels on 4 TV's. if you have 5 simultaneous viewers on 5 TV's, one of them must watch what someone else is watching or they can watch a DVR recorded show (if ya spring for the extra money for a DVR set top box.). Ok, sounds a little constraining but that's a lot of TV to watch at once right? Oh you forgot about the DVR didn't you. If the DVR is recording two different programs at the same time, there goes 2 of your streams leaving you 2 streams left to watch on your remaining TVs.
3) If you opt to pay the additional $10 a month for HD programming, 2 of your 4 channels are HD, the other 2 are SD. So if you happen to DVR those two programs in HD (and why the hell wouldn't you???) well you've still only got 2 channels left, but they are SD so enjoy watching that SD on your HD TV ya paid all that money for.
4) Only 1 DVR per house-hold. You can watch recorded shows from the DVR on any of your TV's but you can only schedule recordings from the DVR Tv (or the web based interface (which is only available to the primary account holders login on their site, so sorry spouse, roommate, or children, better ask the account holder to do it for ya…))
5) The 2Wire DSL modem / wire-less router combo. OK the device itself isn't awful for your average web-surfing person, but I have a swell D-Link wireless router that I purchased because it has all the features I require. It did work behind the 2Wire one, but has no way to disable the router or route all traffic to the real router so it effectively crippled some features (automatic DYNDNS updates, UPNP firewall, etc)
6) Understaffed installers and incompetent customer service personnel. I'm sure there are a few who actually know how to do their job, but I have no empirical evidence of that. The woman I spoke with to order my service got the number of TV's wrong (3 instead of 4, I realize there only one away but its a pretty important detail…) So of course when the installer gets there, he only has 3 for me. 6 hours later he leaves after drilling 2 holes and running cable to 2 rooms 10 feet from each other (….) and tells me I can schedule another box to be delivered. Which I do, of course the 1st appointment available is 3 weeks out. So I tell them to cancel the service, and magically they can drop it off 2 days out. So I take the day off work and wait for my 8:00 am – 10:-00 am appointment. 10:15 rolls around and the installer says he's running late and won't be there until between 10:00 and 12:00. 12:30 rolls around and I call them as I've heard NOTHING and he's running late and says he won't be there until between 12:00 and 2:00. 2:15 rolls around and surprise, he won't bet there until between 2:00 and 4:00. So at 4:30 I call them to see where the hell he is and of course customer service says no installer has been assigned to do anything and they can schedule one (…wait for it…) in 3 weeks.
So, thankfully, I never cancelled my Time Warner service as I suspected AT&T Uverse was incompetent and lo and behold, they are. So I re-wired my cable in 15 minutes (6 freaking hours it took the moron to wire in the Uverse) and I have reliable service again.
On the positive side, the set top box UI is way better then Time Warners, but that ain't any reason to keep the service.
Clusterfuck is far more an appropriate term. I suggest you stay FAR FAR AWAY from this garbage. Asta la vista baby, you can suck it!