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Time Warner launches SignatureHome premium installation service, cable package

Time Warner Cable is stepping up its home cable offering and customer service with the launch of SignatureHome. All of it goes miles beyond what TWC currently provides its customer base, but if you want to enroll in this premium program, it will cost you.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

Time Warner Cable is stepping up its home cable offering and customer service with the launch of SignatureHome. All of it goes miles beyond what TWC currently provides its customer base, but if you want to enroll in this premium program, it will cost you.

Sure, there are some wireless speed upgrades for both downloading and uploading, but let's get to the biggest perk first: the home installation set-up.

If you decide to sign up for SignatureHome, you'll be assigned an appointment time as to when TWC Connections Specialists will show up at your home. (That's a specific appointment time. No waiting around for three to four hours only for the cable guy to show up at the last minute of the time frame.)

From there, the specialists will analyze your entertainment set-up in any room where you want to set up the cable boxes, whether it be the bedroom, living room, kitchen, children's room or even the "man cave." The specialists will set everything up for you, including hooking up all the wires for HDTVs, gaming consoles, Blu-ray players, etc. They'll even tie all the wires together in an orderly fashion (as pictured below), and then clean up afterwards (as seen by the dust buster in the photo to the side).

The SignatureHome service also includes a concierge service of sorts in which subscribers can call Personal Solutions Advisors on a dedicated hotline without being put on hold for hours like everyone else. And if there is a technical glitch and something needs to be fixed at home, TWC will send someone out within a day, whether it be early in the morning or late at night.

Subscribers can also look forward to a number of other perks, including being able to manage everything online (i.e. parental controls, remote DVR management, etc.) either on a computer or a smartphone. Each SignatureHome plan also comes with a pair of cable boxes hosting 500MB each, bumping up the amount of shows that can be recorded at once from two to four. Customers can buy additional cable boxes, but the pricing varies from area to area.

SignatureHome is available in all TWC markets now, starting at $199 per month. The monthly fee includes all of the installation and customer services already mentioned, the cable boxes and the basic digital cable/Internet/landline phone plan.

That $199 figure is certainly pricey, especially when you add it up for 12 months. But we all know the torture of trying just to get through to a cable company's customer service center and get an answer, let alone someone to come out to your house and fix the problem in a timely manner. If you want to make the most of your home entertainment center and have the cash to spend but not much time, then maybe this is the solution for you.

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