Tim writes:

I thought you might find the attached (redacted) letter of interest. I’ve had an unlisted phone number for over 30 years, but no more. Moreover, although I use a PO box for billing and everything else, this letter was sent to my street address, so that is probably the address that was sold and will be associated with my phone number. The worst of both worlds.

You can't un-ring a bell, but at last Charter seems slightly sorry for the surprise outing. Other than not publishing Tim's number in the first place, how else, if at all, do you think Charter should respond?

(Photo: Getty)

The multiyear deal announced Wednesday allows the St. Louis-based cable company to carry the network's programming throughout Big Ten territory, including systems in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and northern Illinois.

Charter spokesman John Miller says the network will be included in Charter's expanded basic level of service for the upcoming Big Ten sports season. After that, Miller says the company will re-evaluate the best place for the channel.

Charter strikes deal with Big Ten Network [Chicago Tribune]

UPDATE: Charter has responded to this post and says they're working with the family to get them a better prize.

UPDATE: Charter Gives Family 2 TVs After Contest Snafu

The winner was the straight talking submission penned by Mike Lewis' daughter, who said her dad was the greatest because he got up every morning, worked hard, and worked in the yard. When it came time to deliver the goods, there were miscommunications back and forth as Charter Cable marketing employee Jeff Hatcher tried to process Lewis' W-9 (part of the contest rules were that the winner had to pay sales tax on the prize). Then Hatcher realized the promised TV was too expensive for his marketing budget and sent a 19-inch one instead.

"It’s an insult," Chris Lewis, the mother, told Enews. “We already have a 40-inch TV, so we really don’t need a 19-inch...they shouldn't be allowed to promise whatever they like and not follow through."

Congratulations, Jeff Hatcher of Charter’s marketing offices in Alabama and Georgia, who ran the promotion, you are officially a jerk. Delivering the real TV was too expensive, but man, that free publicity, it sure was free. We don't know whether you have kids, but we have a feeling you won't be up for World's Greatest Dad anytime soon. Maybe Your CEO, neil.smit@chartercom.com, would be interested in hearing about what a great job you're doing marketing the company.

Cable system fails to deliver promised prize to local winner [The News Courier] (Thanks to Brian!)
(Photo: Getty)

In response to this post, Marty Richmond, Charter Communications Director of Investor Relations and Communications, wrote:

This letter is in response to your July 8 post regarding Charter Communications and its “Charter Presents Father’s Day in HD” contest.

In May, Charter announced an essay contest for kids of all ages to write a brief essay about why their Dad deserved to win a giant HDTV and free Charter services for a year. More than 10,000 essays were submitted and a grand prize winner in Bristol, Tennessee, along with four finalists, was selected.

In addition, due to such an overwhelming response to the contest, we expanded the number of winners to include “honorable mention” finalists. At the discretion of our local offices, these winners could be awarded prizes ranging from free services to an HDTV.

In Charter’s East Division, which includes the state of Alabama, 10 19-inch HDTVs were awarded as honorable mention prizes. In the case of the Lewis family of Limestone County, Alabama, an honorable mention prize was intended to be awarded. The details presented to the family were about a 19-inch HDTV honorable mention prize, not the grand prize 65-inch HDTV. Regrettably, this was not clearly communicated.

Charter has worked with the Lewis family, and we have awarded them prizes that are more aligned with their understanding of the contest.

We ask that you post a clarification and welcome you to contact me directly for any further details.

As information, attached is the original press release announcing the contest, a press release announcing the grand prize winner, and a press release summarizing the results.

Regards,

Marty Richmond

Got it. Glad the Lewis family expectations, set by your employee, Jeff Hatcher, will be accommodated.

Here are the three press releases:

Charter Presents Father’s Day in HD

Tell Charter why your Dad deserves to win a giant HDTV and a free year of
The Charter Bundle™

St. Louis, Missouri, May 27, 2008 – Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) today launched a contest in which kids of all ages can submit a brief essay telling the Company why their Dad deserves to win a giant high definition television (HDTV), along with Charter High Definition® (HD) service and The Charter Bundle™ free for a year.
“What better way to spend Father’s Day than by watching your favorite shows, movies, and sports on a giant HDTV with your Dad,” said Barbara Hedges, Senior Vice President of Consumer Marketing for Charter. “And with a free year of The Charter Bundle, he’ll receive Digital Cable® for access to On Demand, Charter High-Speed® Internet for a fast and reliable Internet experience, and Charter Telephone® for unlimited local and long distance calling.”
With Charter High Definition service, Charter customers can choose from over 150 shows and the latest Hollywood hits On Demand. HD customers also experience crystal-clear picture quality up to 6X the resolution of regular TV.
One lucky Dad will win the grand prize of a giant HDTV, plus a year of The Charter Bundle with HD service for free, and four finalists will win a free year of The Charter Bundle with HD service. For additional contest information, visit www.charter.com/HDdad.
Over the past year, Charter has invested over a billion dollars in capital to serve its customers and to enhance its service capabilities. Charter is committed to investing in its communities, providing an advanced network on which residential and commercial customers rely for their communications needs, and delivering value to all its customers by offering high-quality products and services backed up by superior customer care.

Tennessee Dad Wins “Charter Presents Father’s Day in HD” Contest

Daughter nominated Dad to win a giant HDTV and a free year of
The Charter Bundle™ with Charter High Definition® service

St. Louis, Missouri, June 12, 2008 – Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) today announced the winners of a contest in which kids of all ages submitted brief essays telling the Company why their Dad deserved to win a giant high definition television (HDTV), along with Charter High Definition® (HD) service and The Charter Bundle™ free for a year.
Abe Manogue, the contest winner and leukemia survivor, was nominated by his daughter who said in her essay: “My Dad worked really hard to get through three years of sickening chemotherapy. Before he was really able to, my Dad acquired a job to better support his family, and voluntarily got off disability. When he comes home at night, tired from his long day, he really enjoys watching TV.”
“We received over 10,000 entries for this contest, which reinforces our customers’ desire for quality high definition,” said Barbara Hedges, Senior Vice President of Consumer Marketing for Charter. “HD customers experience picture quality up to 6X the resolution of regular TV. With Charter High Definition service, our customers can choose from the most popular networks and nearly 200 shows and the latest Hollywood hits On Demand.
“And with a new HDTV and a free year of The Charter Bundle, our winning Dad will receive Digital Cable® for access to On Demand, Charter High-Speed® Internet for a fast and reliable Internet experience, and Charter Telephone® for unlimited local and long distance calling,” Ms. Hedges concluded.
Four lucky finalists from St. Louis, Missouri; Boiling Springs, South Carolina; Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Fort Worth, Texas each won a free year of The Charter Bundle with HD service. Furthermore, due to such a positive response to the contest, Charter expanded its winners to include “honorable mention” finalists as well. More than a dozen Dads in markets across the country were each recognized with additional prizes ranging from a free HDTV to Charter High Definition service.
For contest information, visit www.charter.com/HDdad.

Over the past year, Charter has invested over a billion dollars in capital to serve its customers and to enhance its service capabilities. Charter is committed to investing in its communities, providing an advanced network on which residential and commercial customers rely for their communications needs, and delivering value to all its customers by offering high-quality products and services backed up by superior customer care.

Charter Awards More Than 20 Dads
Prizes in its “Charter Presents Father’s Day in HD” Contest

Due to positive response to the contest, Charter expands the number of winners
and awards over a dozen additional prizes

St. Louis, Missouri, July 9, 2008 – Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) today announced the results of a contest in which kids of all ages submitted brief essays telling the Company why their Dad deserved to win a giant high definition television (HDTV), along with Charter High Definition® (HD) service and The Charter Bundle™ free for a year.
“We received over 10,000 entries for this contest, which demonstrates children’s vast appreciation for their fathers and reinforces our customers’ desire for quality high definition service,” said Barbara Hedges, Senior Vice President of Consumer Marketing for Charter. “Due to such a positive response, Charter expanded the contest to include ‘honorable mention’ winners in addition to the grand prize winner and four finalists. We could not have been more pleased by the response to the contest, and we are excited to recognize and reward these deserving Dads.”
Grand Prize Winner
Abe Manogue, the grand prize winner and leukemia survivor, was nominated by his daughter. Mr. Manogue was awarded a 65” HDTV along with Charter High Definition® service and The Charter Bundle™ free for a year. The Manogue family is thrilled to have won this contest, and is looking for the “perfect place” to put their new 65” HDTV.
Four Finalists
Four lucky finalists from St. Louis, Missouri; Boiling Springs, South Carolina; Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Fort Worth, Texas each won a free year of The Charter Bundle with HD service.

Honorable Mentions
Due to an overwhelming response, Charter expanded the contest to include honorable mention winners. More than a dozen Dads in markets across the country were each recognized with additional prizes ranging from flat screen HDTVs to free Charter services for a year.
For full contest information, including winning submissions, visit www.charter.com/HDdad.
Over the past year, Charter has invested over a billion dollars in capital to serve its customers and to enhance its service capabilities. Charter is committed to investing in its communities, providing an advanced network on which residential and commercial customers rely for their communications needs, and delivering value to all its customers by offering high-quality products and services backed up by superior customer care.

Looks like everything is hunky-dory now. All it took was a little negative publicity.

Reader Jesse writes (emphasis added):

I spent a long time last night looking into the way Charter is handling this program, and based on their own explanation it's obvious that the cookie is not a "real" opt-out. Here's why.

When a customer clicks a link, advertisement, or visits a page, Charter will capture the browsing data and send it to the third-party advertising provider. If Charter wanted to offer a functional opt-out, it would be at this deep-packet inspection level. The do not offer a way out of that service, however. The only thing they offer is the cookie-based solution you've previously covered, which merely tells the third-party organization not to match the machine with the DPI-harvested data or deliver the advertising. Customer browsing is still being captured and is still being turned over regardless of anyone's individual opt-out status, but the third party is just blocked from doing anything with it by the cookie.

I might also point out that by doing this Charter is explicitly requesting that their customers choose not to follow safe browsing best practices. Every modern browser available today has an option for clearing cookies when the browser is closed, and many people choose to take advantage of this practice, myself included. Charter is either demanding that I and many others either fill out their form several dozen times per day (every time we open our browser) or specifically switch off browsing features intended to keep customers safe. Neither of these are acceptable, of course.

I am going to contact Charter's executive team again this morning on the matter, as well as an attorney. I have not been notified of Charter's changes through a letter or email, and learned about this program last night via other means. Having read through the Cable Privacy Act, which governs Charter's use of personally identifiable information, I have discovered no fewer than three potential violations. Moreover, Charter is required by law to make any collected data available to its customers, so I would suggest that all Charter customers request their DPI browsing data on a daily basis, and file appropriate complaints when they fail to deliver it as required by law.

They're not going to stop doing this until or unless they lose more money than they make on it. We have vehicles available to us to lose them vast sums of money on this project, if only the word gets out.

Subsection D of the Cable TV Privacy Act states, in part: "A cable subscriber shall be provided access to all personally identifiable information regarding that subscriber which is collected and maintained by a cable operator. Such information shall be made available to the subscriber at reasonable times and at a convenient place designated by such cable operator." It's debatable whether the data Charter is collecting is "personally identifiable information" under this statute, which excludes from the definition "any record of aggregate data which does not identify particular persons." Maybe a subpoena would clear things up.

Cable TV Privacy Act, 47 USC § 551 [Cornell Law]
(Photo: Getty)

Reader Matt copied us on a letter he sent to Charter's VP of Customer Operations and CEO:

Dear Mr. Stackhouse,

I am a high speed internet subscriber in the Fort Worth, TX area. For the last year or so I have had Charter’s 10 Megabit service and I am a satisfied customer. I am writing, however, because I am concerned by your recent letter discussing the “enhancement” that will be coming soon to my Charter web browsing experience (targeted, in-line advertisement manipulation). I appreciate Charter’s respect for my privacy, but the method that Charter has provided to opt-out of this tracking scheme is insecure and woefully inadequate.

The method that you provide to opt-out is as follows. First, a customer must visit www.charter.com/onlineprivacy. Once at the site, the customer must enter his or her complete name and address. Upon submission of this personal information, the customer must accept a cookie from Charter that indicates his or her opt-out status. While this process sounds simple on face, further consideration reveals that this opt-out method is fraught with privacy concerns and places the burden on your paying customer, rather than Charter.

The most pressing privacy issue with this opt-out method is that the opt-out form presented at the aforementioned URL is not encrypted. As I’m sure you realize, this means that a user submitting his or her address to Charter is doing so in the clear, leaving this personal information open to eavesdropping. It is not difficult to create an SSL-encrypted web form. It is troubling that Charter has not done so in this case.

The fact that this opt-out system relies on a cookie to keep users opted out is also a privacy issue. By telling customers who visit the opt-out page that, “if you delete your cookies or cache files… you will have to opt-out again,” you are encouraging users to keep those files that good privacy practices dictate should be frequently purged. Ironically, the best reason to purge one’s cookies often is to prevent internet marketers from tracking one’s behavior online.

In addition to the critical privacy concerns, the steps required to avoid being tracked by this new advertising system place the burden on your customers, rather than on Charter where it belongs. A customer should be able to opt-out of this advertising tracking system in a manner that will rarely, if ever, require the customer to opt-out again. Instead, because the system uses cookies, a customer must insecurely opt-out of being tracked on each PC in his or her home. Further compounding the work that the customer has to do, if the he or she deletes cookies in accordance with safe browsing techniques, it will be necessary to insecurely opt-out on each and every PC again.

I suggest that rather than force your customers through unending iterations of opting out of this advertising system, you should allow customers like me to opt-out at the cable modem level via a secure, encrypted form on your website. I’m glad to hear that Charter has an appreciation for my privacy, but please change your opt-out process to demonstrate that you also have an appreciation for my time and security online.

Matt's letter focuses on the flawed opt-out clause, but the program itself, an implementation of "deep packet inspection," is more worrying to us. Deep packet inspection allows an ISP to monitor not only its users searches and visited websites, but also the type of activity (e.g., email or peer-to-peer), which could be used for traffic shaping and threatens net neutrality.

Charter to Monitor Surfing, Insert Its Own Targeted Ads [DSLReports]
(Photo: Getty)

Stop us if you have heard this one before: Comcast and the BTN still don't have a deal. Nothing has changed since the football season, when many fans were upset at not being able to see the Wisconsin-Ohio State game, which aired on the BTN.

In early January, BTN President Mark Silverman said he was "optimistic" an agreement would be reached with Comcast. Now another month has passed, and nary a grand signing ceremony has been seen.

Silverman acknowledged Thursday that talks continue, but he didn't want to add anything more. That's probably a smart decision because it probably isn't a good idea to get everyone's hopes up again.

The BTN also doesn't have an agreement with Charter Communications, the main cable carrier in Madison. In an effort to accommodate Badgers fans, it appears Wisconsin will open the Kohl Center free of charge and air the game on the big scoreboard TV screens.

Big Ten Network, Comcast continue battle [Chicago Tribune]

In the Charleston SC area we are fortunate to have local a internet / phone / cable provider called Knology that has made customer service an art form.

Over the last few weeks I have been reconfiguring my home network and have contacted their customer support several times to change my settings, each time I was greeted by a competent employee who handled my request with ease. I finally settled on using an Apple AirPort Extreme and placed one final call to set it all up.

Now, because I am a lifelong Mac user I expected to hear "What is a Mac?" or "We don't support Apple products." Instead the customer service rep said it wasn't a problem and even shared some geeked out fact about the router that I didn't know. He made the changes needed to the account, I didn't even have to touch my keyboard or mouse. At the end of the call he offered to have a technician follow up with a call in an hour to make sure it was working. One hour later the technician called while I was happily surfing the web over my new wireless connection.

An amusing postscript to this story. Right after I had finished setting up the connection, an AT&T salesman comes to my door and I was able to give him an ear full of what I thought of his illegal wiretapping company. It was like icing on the cake. : )

In New York, customers tired of Time Warner, Verizon, and Cablevision can look to independent DSL providers like Bway.net. Frustrated residents of other cities can use DSLReports.com to track down their own local alternatives.

Local (Mom & Pop) ISPs [Broadband Reports]
(Photo: dailyinvention)

There is no way to retrieve the messages, photos and other attachments that were erased from inboxes and archive folders across the country on Monday, said Anita Lamont, a spokeswoman for the suburban St. Louis-based company.

"We really are sincerely sorry for having had this happen and do apologize to all those folks who were affected by the error," Lamont said Thursday when the company announced the gaff.

Cable Co. Empties 14,000 E-Mail Accounts [AP]

Overall rating / Company / Rating for Internet / TV / Phone
250 Verizon FiOS 84, 84, 82
222 Bright House 75, 69, 78
222 Cox 74, 69, 79
221 Verizon/DirecTV 73, 74, 74
221 Qwest/DirecTV 72, 74, 75
221 AT&T/Dish Network 72, 70, 74
214 Cablevision 72, 65, 77
208 Time Warner 71, 63, 74
199 Comcast 66 ,62, 71
188 Charter 61, 59, 68

Despite occasionally setting a house on fire, Verizon FiOS is clearly tops, while Comcast and Charter are scraping the bottom.

Internet, TV, phone [Consumer Reports]

I don't see this mentioned very often but if you need help with a local cable company or telecom company you should see if your county/city has a franchise authority. My county has a very active authority and in the two times I have used them I have gotten resolution quickly for issues I had previously spent months on. In talking to my local authority they try to avoid being involved in petty billing disputes or when people haven't yet tried to resolve the issue directly but they want to be involved if you fail to get a response after a good faith effort to resolve the issue.

Situation 1:
A technician left a cable across the road and failed to tack it down. So the cable coiled up in the middle of the road and sidewalk, over the next 3 months numerous children riding bikes or just running down the sidewalk would trip and fall. Every week I would call and report this cable but nothing was ever done, well 4 days before Halloween I got desperate and tried the franchise authority (Imagine kids in costumes walking down the street close to dusk and a black cable along the ground). One hour after my email someone from the authority called me back to say that a Cable company rep would be calling me that day. They did and a tech was sent one hour later and the cable was removed!

Situation 2:
I started having problems with my cable service and repeated calls over a month would result in a tech visit who would say that the problem is upstream. During one of the tech visits I was told that some large repairs were needed at the head-end and until they were done the whole back half of my neighborhood would continue having this problem. So I sent another note to my franchise authority. Three hours later the local office manager called and said that someone would look into it first thing in the morning. The next day I was told they had confirmed the problem and it would be fixed in 3 days. Sure enough, 3 days later my cable TV was perfect!

In both cases the people who responded were helpful, followed up and kept me appraised of the status of my issue. I think it helped that in both cases I was offered service credits and discounts, which I declined to avoid any pretense that my issue was about money. I have found that this helps the escalation reps understand that the call is about the issue at hand and not someone looking for a hand-out. I was also very polite, told them how much I appreciated their help and never bashed them or their company, I would just explain my issue and my hope for a resolution. My cable provider is Charter but this should work with any provider assuming you have a strong franchise authority.

In Los Angeles, franchises are overseen by the Chief Administrative Office, who setup a hotline for consumer gripes at: (213) 922-8350.

For all other localities, try calling your local executive—Mayor, Town Supervisor, Chief Cow Herder—and ask about the local franchise authority.

Cable & Open Video System Complaint Form [DoITT]

He writes:

My wife and I are in a really tight spot right now with a cable company, and being an avid fan of what you guys do I wonder if there is anything I can do to either fix and/or shed some light on our situation. We had been customers of Charter Communications in Southern California for roughly a year, and at the end of our service we returned our equipment and were issued a final bill from the company. The bill was paid, however, the company made an error when we returned our equipment and issued us further notices that the equipment had not been returned, and that we owed an outstanding balance to pay for their loss. After numerous phone calls to their customer service, and after presenting the receipt we were given when the equipment was returned, the company admitted their error and issued us another statement stating that we had a zero balance. Months later we received another bill from Charter requesting, once again, the money for the unreturned equipment. When we called to find out why an additional error had been made, a Charter Customer Service Rep assured us that the bill had been issued in error, and that we had a zero balance.

This evening we received a threatening letter from Credit Protection Association, stating that due to our "Refusal to pay our outstanding balance," our "Repeated disregard for their past notices," and my own "Ignoring possible damage to my credit" that they had reported an unpaid balance to the National Credit Bureau. This balance, a random amount not represented on any other previous statement from Charter, was going to damage my credit rating and that I must pay them immediately or face further antagonizing calls/mail from their organization.

When we called Charter to receive further information about this issue we were completely shut down. Customer Service was not only rude, not only threatening, but called my wife a liar and stated that they could not pull up any information on what the outstanding balance was for, and even after conceding that we had called the previous week and been told otherwise, this was now our burden to deal with and that they would not let us speak to any supervisor, billing department, or other party who could assist us in fixing their mistake. To reconfirm we called a second time and spoke to a woman who told us that although Charter had not sent us any of the bills mentioned in our letter from the credit agency, our own powers of deduction in sifting through previous bills of what we owed, what we had paid, the equipment cost and the equipment returned would have given us incite to surmise any outstanding balance ourselves.

Who do we speak to with regards to having this issue resolved? Charter, from all my previous experience, is one of the most coarse and difficult companies to deal with. Their poor service, numerous blackouts, and horrible bookkeeping make this situation a nightmare when they are fumbling with our credit. Is there any way I can ascertain their records? The Customer Service agents we spoke to refused to allow us to speak to any supervisor. Who should we get in contact with to right their error?

We have numerous documents to back up our story, but who in an organization such as theirs do we give them to so we can be taken seriously? Any assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated. We are huge fans of this site. Thank you.

(Photo: Stephanie Costa)

(Photo: Tengaport)

Now Charlie writes, "Just wanted to let you know that she was able to connect me to another "escalation specialist" who ended up being able to fix my problem...

"...He wouldn't be very specific about what the issue was, but it sounds like they probably entered some numbers in wrong at some point... It's funny that their first response to a simple problem is to send out a technician and refuse to look anything up! ...It's amazing how fast things can get done if you talk to the right people!..."

Thanks to the magic of bad press, Charlie can once again watch his favorite BBC America show, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.

PREVIOUSLY: Charter Doesn't Care If You Can't Watch BBC America

When I received the modem and start up disc, none of the codes would work for my computer, nor my housemates. I called Qwest and was told that it was because I had a MacBook. During the month of June I called Qwest over nine times, and was repeatedly told in both polite and in rude terms that the problem was my Mac, not Qwest. During one call to Qwest, an employee told me that he could get it up and running in 30 seconds if my computer were a PC. When I asked him if any of his colleagues were trained for Macs, he told me that hardly anyone uses macs and Qwest should not have to train its employees in a practically obsolete system. He then transferred me, against my will, to the apple support line."

My computer is a 2007 Macbook that receives wireless at every coffee shop or business with wireless; i is not a problem with my computer. The apple support line should not have to pick up the pieces for Qwest employees.

The amount of time spent on the phone with Qwest in June, transfers directly to my cell phone bill. I went over my minutes for the first time in my cell phone contract by exactly the amount of time I was on the phone with Qwest. I admit, I do choose to have a cell phone instead of a landline. This means that 1-800 numbers cost minutes on my plan, yet if Qwest employees had been trained sufficiently in both Macs and PCs, I should have only had to make one phone call, and thus not go over my minutes. I do believe that part of my $57.54 monthly Qwest bill is to having access to customer service.

After this cell phone bill, I asked Qwest for a new modem to rent. I was sent a non-rental and charged roughly $100. I did not learn this until my bill at the end of July.

After receiving the new modem, I had the same series of problems with wireless not working in the household. After three more phone calls, I got a Qwest employee that knew Macs. He got the wireless up and running in under 30 seconds.

Shortly after the wireless got working, I got the bill for the charged modem. I immediately called billing and asked if I could have it transferred on my account as a rental. The first person I talked to did not think they could do it, but then I got them to transfer me to the Loyalties Department. The first person I talked to in loyalties, told me that they could change it to rental status, and because I was a loyal customer, he would give me three months for half price in recompense for all the previous trouble. He told me to wait three days to pay my bill, because he would start the discount that month. I was much relieved. Yet when I called to check on my bill five business days later, it had not changed.

When I called to check with billing they had two different computer profiles for me, one gave the information that loyalties had told me, the other had the higher bill. They could not rectify it, so instead of Qwest figuring it out its own internal error, they forced me to talk to Loyalties, billing, and customer care. I spent over two hours on the phone that day. I should not be the one communicating to each department in Qwest about Qwest's own internal error on my bill. Qwest should be taking responsibility for making sure their profiles on the customer's is correct. I believe this is what costumer service entails.

I canceled my service that day. This was the middle of August. I was told by Loyalties that my plan would be terminated, and essentially erase a month of service from my bill for all the inconvenience, and that she would send me a label with reference number for the modem, so that I wouldn't have to eat the cost of the modem. I never received a reference number. It took the final bill until mid-September to arrive. Loyalties was able to give me the one month discount. Yet the modem had not been credited. I had to call again for a reference number to send the modem back. Again I was told not to pay the bill for the modem.

I sent the modem back near the end of September. On September 26th, I received notification that Qwest was going to send my bill to a collection agency if I did not pay or make arrangements for payments. The bill in question was the combination of the $100 erroneous charge for the modem, the non-credited month of service and a partial month of service. All of these charges I had been told by three separate employees to wait to pay, yet apparently interdepartmental communication had failed again. I called on the 26th and paid everything except for the modem cost, asking if that would stop them from sending it to collections. The Qwest employee told me it would.

One week later, I got another notice to pay the $100 for the modem, or it would be sent to collections. Again, I called and asked to put a stop on the transfer to collections. Again, I was told it would not be sent. Yet today, I got both a collections notice for the $100, and a phone call from collections. It was both the rudest letter and phone call that I have ever received, and it was due to the fact that I waited to pay the bill because Qwest had told me to wait. I paid the collections agency in order to save my credit rating, then called Qwest. I was told that the $100 had been credited to my account and the collections notice was a mistake.

I am dumbfounded that this went to collections despite my communication with Qwest. I feel harassed by this continued ill treatment, and blatant irresponsibility by Qwest. This irresponsibility has added up to a $100 collections bill, a threat to my credit, a $89 charge in overage minutes on my cell phone, and two months of bills paid to Qwest for wireless service when no wireless service was being received in our house. My main complaint is that as an individual paying for a service, I should receive that service in exchange for my payment. I that service should malfunction or not perform with in the bounds of its contract, then the company should be responsible for fixing it. It
is not the individual's responsibility to call every department of a corporation to make sure they are getting proper customer service; it is the corporation's responsibility in exchange for monthly payment to give proper service to the customer.

My house has switched to Charter and they had us up and running immediately. The one time that we have had a problem, Charter came to our house, and fixed it for us, free of charge. They did not force us to stay on the phone for multiple hours, or try to tell us that it was our computer's problem.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Lindsey Case

(Photo: Getty)

...He admitted to *never* having dealt with cablecards before, and thus knew absolutely nothing about what was required to set them up. I felt like I had to train Charter's own technician. He brought a new card, which I was pretty convinced wouldn't fix the problem since it was being seen on both of the cards I already had. Nevertheless, he went ahead and called the Charter operator to begin pairing it with my account (and I, of course, had to find all the numbers for him since he apparently had never seen a cablecard before).

While this was going on, I received a call from someone at Charter. I was told that I should cancel the technician call because the issue with channel #196 was a head-end issue and the tech wouldn't be able to do anything. Unfortunately, by this time the tech had been at my home for over half an hour and the process of changing cards had already begun.

The new card the tech brought was deemed to be somehow faulty by the operator. He put the old cards back in, but the operator was convinced that they would stop working within minutes. He then got up to leave without fixing the problem. I made a call to Charter customer support immediately, telling a manager that my problem was not fixed (and in fact was made worse), that the technician had no idea what he was doing, and that I was getting fed up with dealing with it. The manager put me on hold while, I assumed, she was on the phone with the local dispatcher. After a lengthy wait, she came back on and told me that I would be receiving a call from an experienced technician in a few minutes, and that he would be coming out to my home that night. I did tell her that another Charter representative had called to tell me that the issue couldn't be fixed by a tech, but she assured me that it could. She also promised a credit for the time I went without service.

Two hours later, no technician had called. I called Charter customer service back, and was told by a different manager that (as I had been told earlier in the day) it was a head-end issue and could not be resolved by a technician. I asked when it would be fixed, but she could not give me an answer. I gave it a few days before calling again.

I called back on 10/6/07, a week after I first reported the problem. My call was answered by a Charter representative who admitted she knew nothing about cablecards. Her very first response was to schedule a technician to come to my home. I explained to her that a tech had come out for the very same issue a week earlier, and that one of her coworkers had already told me that a technician could not do anything. She went to talk to her supervisor, and came back a few minutes later to tell me that the supervisor agreed that a technician must be sent. Again I tried to explain that a tech had already been to my home and had not been able to do anything. After a few minutes of this, she game up and transferred me to her supervisor. Initially, the supervisor game me the same story of wanting to send a technician. However, after I explained again and again that a tech had already been to my home, she looked up the issue in the system (and I have no idea why this wasn't the very first thing done) and found out that, yes, it was a known head-end issue that other people were having as well and, no, a technician couldn't fix it on my end. She put me on hold while, supposedly, she tried to verify the status of the problem with whoever actually fixes problems at Charter. She came back on after a while and could not tell me anything new, only that it would be fixed sometime in the future. I asked her if it would be helpful for me to call my local Charter office. She said that it probably would, but there was no number she could give me for it. She then said that she would request that they call me within the next 24 hours. I have yet to receive that call, 5 days later.

I am in an extremely frustrating position. The channel still does not work. I have no idea when it will be fixed. Whenever I call the only number I have for Charter, I get a representative who has no idea what they are talking about and, usually, tries to send a technician to my home, even though I have been told there is nothing a tech could do. Besides this, the technicians that have come to my home have been universally ignorant of the product they are supposed to be installing. If I get through to a customer service representative who actually understands the issue, all they can tell me is that it is "being looked at". I have no way of contacting the people who are actually fixing the problem (if they exist) to check on its status.

I know it's only one channel, but this is just the latest of a long string of issues. I am paying for Charter's service, and Charter needs to make sure that it works. I am very tired of constantly being forced to talk to representatives and technicians who know less about my problem and cable in general than I do. Besides this problem, it took several weeks and 3 technicians to even get my digital cable setup to work to begin with. The service is flaky; it has become deauthorized several times for no apparent reason. The technicians that come out don't know what they are doing and are typically dishonest on top of that. 3 of the 4 techs I have dealt with have requested to use my phone because theirs is "broken" or "the battery is low". One of these 3 kept getting calls on his "broken" phone throughout the visit, proving that he just wanted to use my minutes instead of his own. Also, I was charged for all 3 service calls (the billing statement for the 4th hasn't come yet, but I don't have high hopes), even though the issue has always been plainly Charter's fault. I was able to get a refund for 2 of them by calling customer service several times, but I should not have to fight for the right to not get ripped off.

I have never had such a prolonged bad experience with a company's customer support. I have also never dealt with a company that is this disorganized; time and time again I am told conflicting things by different Charter employees. Amazingly, even after completely failing to fix my issue, the representatives almost always try to sell me more service (usually telephone service). I don't see why I would want to trust Charter for more service when there have been so many problems with what I already have. I am forced by my apartment complex to use charter if I want to have cable service; rest assured that that is the only reason I am still putting up with this (for now, anyway). I used to have Comcast at my previous apartment. I always thought it was bad, but it wasn't until I switched to Charter that I knew how bad things can really be.

-Charlie

Charter Communications
Neil Smit, CEO
neil.smit@chartercom.com
ph: 314-965-0555 (ask for "the office of Mr. Smit." This gets you forwarded to a voicemail box. Who knows whether anyone who cares actually checks it. Dial by name directory doesn't work either).
fx: 314-965-9745

Either that, or switch to some sort of dish-based tv service.

There are red flags to be found in each telecom provider's privacy policy. A close reading of Time Warner's policy reveals:

Along with knowing juicy details of your calling and viewing habits — those 900 numbers, say, or that subscription to the Playboy Channel — the company keeps track of "Internet addresses you contact and the duration of your visits to such addresses."

Time Warner not only compiles "information about how often and how long" you're online, but also "purchases that you have made" via the company's Road Runner portal, which provides access to thousands of goods.

On top of that, the company may monitor "information you publish" via the Road Runner portal, which should send a chill through anyone who accesses his or her e-mail through Time Warner's servers.

That's not to say Time Warner or any other service provider is reading people's e-mail or invading users' privacy in any other way. The point is, they're explicitly saying they could.

The unchecked accumulation of consumer data represents a monumental threat to consumers. Data is collected to be used. Precision marketing is a relatively innocuous manifestation of data mining when compared to the nightmare scenarios envisioned by civil libertarians.

Most troubling is that these revelations hid in broad daylight. The contracts signed by consumers are not secret, and yet nobody noticed that something was amiss until a reporter from the L.A. Times sat down and read the contract.

Your loss of privacy is a package deal [L.A. Times]
(Photo: ann-dabney)

Someone emailed us the direct line for the office of Barry Rosenblum, executive Vice President of Time Warner Cable for NY and NJ, and when we Googled it, we found this treasure of trove of names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.

So, if you've got a complaint or concern with Comcast, Cablevision, Adelphia, Cox, Charter, Insight, or Toledo Buckeye CableSystem, the information in this list can help it reach the top of the heap.

Top 100 Cable Systems - Systems Directory [Multichannel]

A survey from a Michigan consulting group found that 54% of customers looking to purchase bundled services in the next year would prefer to patronize a phone company, compared to 44% of consumers who would buy from their cable company. The difference may seem slight, but it represents a serious threat to cable companies. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Now heavyweights AT&T and Verizon, which have enjoyed better results on customer service surveys, are encroaching on Charter's core business in markets nationwide. That lends more urgency to fixing customer service woes, said Joe Stackhouse, Charter's senior vice president for customer operations.

"We need to continue to improve our service," he said. "We know we're not where we need to be."

Charter has worked on integrating its call centers, to get calls answered faster, Stackhouse said, and recently set up a "day of" desk, to quickly help customers with problems on the day of an installation or a service visit.

CONSUMERS: Telco 'bundles' more attractive than cable's [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
(AP Photo/Tom Gannam)

So what do call center reps tell callers?

"We lie to them," Gates says. "We tell them, 'Absolutely, the technician will be there.'

A former cable company call center rep says: "We lie" to customers who ask when installer will arrive [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
(Photo: Mullenkedheim)

Matt's attempts to fix the problems were, how shall we say, less than successful.

CSR: Thank you for calling Charter tech support, my name is Bradley and how can I help you today?
Matt: Hi, I was calling to try to figure out where I need to go next with my service with you guys.
CSR: Try to go where...next?
Matt: Yeah, I've been having a lot of issues with my high-speed internet that you guys can't fix, so I was trying to figure out what we need to do next to escalate this problem to get it fixed correctly.
*hold music*
CSR2: This is Christy with Charter, how can I help you?
Matt: Hi, what happened to the other guy that I was just talking to?
CSR2: That I'm not sure sir, the call just came in to me. I'm in the disconnect department, were you wanting to disconnect your service today?

Matt: Wow, are you kidding me? No, could you please put me back in tech support? CSR2: For internet? Matt: Uh-huh. CSR2: Oh my goodness, I am so sorry. I wonder why they transferred you over here.

This was the latest in a series of slights Matt experienced over two months trying to fix his internet service. There was a problem in the line somewhere between his house and Charter's central server. Charter was to blame, according to the techs dispatched by Charter. Matt began recording his calls to customer service.

Matt was paying $80 per month for a 10MB connection. The first tech visited Matt's house to check the signals and equipment. He determined the problem was not in Matt's house. Charter decided to dispatch a second tech, a tech supervisor with a laptop.

Matt raced home from work for his 5pm-8pm appointment. The tech with the magical laptop never showed. At 9pm Matt called Charter, only to be told the tech supervisor with the laptop was not really a supervisor, but a contractor. Matt replied: "The contractor let Charter down. Charter let me down." Ouch.

For his trouble, Charter issued a $20 credit and flagged the problem as a "must do." How committal. Another tech was scheduled for an all-day Saturday appointment. That tech didn't show, either.

Furious, Matt called back again and received another credit and another appointment. This time, the tech appeared and promptly blamed Charter for the problems.

Matt called again:

CSR: Alright, bear with me just a second. They're wanting to conference call me through the phone here. Give me just a minute, I'll be back with you.
*hold*
CSR: Right now they're asking me if anybody will be home between 8 am and noon on Friday morning.
Matt: No, why are they wanting to send somebody out?
CSR: Let me see here.
Matt: You guys have already sent two techs out that have said it's not on my end, so why are we still coming back to my house?
CSR: Alright, give me just another minute here. Alright, what they tell me is that he wants to send somebody out because if the tech does not fix the problem right now, the only thing we can actually do is send somebody out to reassess the issue again.
Matt: Yeah, the tech is saying the issue is not fixable from here. This is out on like the backbone on Charter's network somewhere. This isn't at my house. The only thing that tech does is check my levels, check my modem, that's it. Everything's fine. The levels at the street are fine, the levels at my house are fine. They switched out the modem, it's not the modem. There's nothing else that tech's going to do. I was specifically told that by the last tech that was sent out here. He didn't understand while he was being sent out again. Why are we wasting my time sending another tech out?
CSR: I just gave them that information, give me another minute. Give me another minute, they're contacting me again. Alright, Matt? What they told me is they have actually gotten word, they contacted dispatch to see what was going on, the dispatch told them that they had checked the server on the issue and the server is not the issue, that it's either got to be neutral there or in the neighborhood.
Matt: Okay. Wow, this is like really pathetic. That's not the issue. Anyone who knows anything about trace route knows that the issue's not here. Trace route sends a packet out of my house to you guys, it's not getting to you guys. So the network is not here, it's on Charter.
CSR: Right, he's saying that it's somewhere more than likely toward the neighborhood or neutral to that location.
Matt: Okay, then what does he need to come to my house for?
CSR: I'm not really sure on that, any trouble call appointments at all they always need to make sure that somebody's available.
Matt: Okay, so tell me this: What are you guys going to do when the third guy comes out to my house and says yet again that the issue's not on my end. What then? You guys going to send another tech out to my house? When does it end?
CSR: I mean, that's really the only thing that we can do from the tech support is send a technician out. Your local area is really responsible for getting that taken care of for you when they do come out. I mean the only thing that we have the accessibility to do is just go to the local office and say we need a tech out for this issue.
Matt: I mean this is like really pathetic. So I'm stuck in this loop of calling you guys when the tech comes out and says it's not a problem here. There's gotta be something we can escalate it to, there's gotta be somebody that knows something about networks that can come out to my house and fix this. This is like the biggest waste of time I've ever seen. This has been going on for two months, now I'm going to have to sit home again from work for you guys to come out here and say yeah the levels are find, this is all I can do as a tech.
CSR: Alright, give me just a minute here and I'm going to talk to them one more time. Alright, sir? Thanks for holding for me. I gave them all the information that you said, the only thing they can do is the tech would have to go back out and check everything again because it's nothing in the actual server.
Matt: This isn't an issue on a server, this is an issue on like a cisco switch on Charter's network somewhere.
CSR: Right, that's what I'm saying, they traced everything in the network and there's nobody else in the area having the problem, so they say that if nobody else is having the problem, there's gotta be something more neutral there. Or there's gotta be something- because it wouldn't only be affecting you if it was an actual system server problem.

Charter might be onto something. Instead of going through those horrific voice activated menus, you could have two options: tech, or no tech. Another tech, though, would not solve Matt's problem.

Matt: This is awesome. I mean, what would you do? This is insane, you guys want to send a third tech out here that's going to- so what are you going to do when a third tech comes out here and says it's not on my end? Then what? You want me to tell him no?
CSR: The only thing that I can do is send a tech out. With it being something that's out in the area and not anything to do with the actual signals or anything, there's nothing that I can do to repair that. Except for send a technician out.
Matt: So what do you want me to tell the technician? He can't leave until this is fixed then?
CSR: I'm not really sure that, I mean, the best people to talk to in this case would honestly be your local office because they're the one that handles anything to do with the area issues or any server issues or any system issues at all. All we can do in this center is just send the technician out.
Matt: How do I talk to my local office then?
CSR: You actually have to go down there and do a formal complaint in person.
Matt: They don't have a phone number?
CSR: Right, they don't have a phone number because it all comes through the tech support.
Matt: Okay, where is this local office that doesn't have a phone apparently? I mean do you not see how this is the worst customer service on this planet?
CSR: Right, I mean I understand the ongoing issues are definitely frustrating, there's just nothing that anybody in this call center can do.
Matt: So I'm having a tech support issue and you guys can't fix it, is what you're telling me?
CSR: Right, I mean there's no way that I can fix your lining problem from here.
Matt: Right, I understand that but you guys had two chances to come out here and fix it, and have failed.
CSR: Right, and that's your local office. I mean the only thing that we can do is send a dispatch flash to your local office to get a technician out there. They have to take care of everything else from there.

Maybe the local office has the magical laptop? Probably not if they don't have a phone.

The issue began in September and is still unresolved. Have you gotten into a finger-pointing war with your ISP? Tell us about it in the comments. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER

MattAndThat

Zac writes:

RELATED: Comcast Sets 60-Day Waiting Period For Customers Snagging Discounts By Threatening to Leave

Threatening To Cancel Cable Can Get You Discounts