Bad Dad asked if I mentioned that TWC (Time Warner Cable) was charging us a monthly fee for a cable modem that we didn't even have.
Oops, I forgot about that particular transgression.
When we started with Adelphia* prior to 2000, we rented a cable modem from them. Sometime later, we purchased our own cable modem and returned theirs. Adelphia went bankrupt and TWC/Road Runner took over our cable and internet respectively. Eventually, TWC rebranded RR as TW Internet.
The entire time that we had an account with TWC, we have used our own cable modem. For most of that time, they knew that and didn't charge us modem rental fees.
The bills climbed ever higher with more and more fees. Bad Dad and I have PhDs, but we are also busy people. We don't understand the purpose of every cryptic line item fee on their bills but we pay them anyway.
When Bad Dad called to cancel our cable service on Tuesday, they asked us to return their modem. Bad Dad informed them that we don't have one of their modems. They asked, "then why have you been paying for rental of a cable modem for the last 6 months?"
Bad Dad asked them how they decided to tack on the fee and why they obscured the $3.95/mo fee so it wasn't clear that we were paying for something we never received. He wanted the fee refunded retroactively.
They went on the offensive and told him that he should have alerted them earlier.
Bad Dad stuck to his guns. They were able to confirm that they don't have a record of issuing us a cable modem. (They could also easily have checked our MAC address and seen that it wasn't one of theirs.)
Why, after so many years, did they sneak a modem rental fee to our account when we have always provided our own modem?
And, why, would they blame a customer for their own mistake? Or was it a deliberate and fraudulent attempt at revenue maximization?
He got the fee refunded retroactively.
We hate Time Warner Cable.
Time Warner Cable Sucks.
* I have some real horror stories about Adelphia customer service. I would have gone after them for the malicious damage by one of their service guys, but Adelphia collapsed due to mismanagement and outright fraud in the tech bubble.
UGH!
ReplyDeleteWe're also with Time Warner, but only because there aren't really other good options in our neighborhood.