Time Warner tried to convince Ryan that he had already moved after prematurely disconnecting his cable service. Ryan hadn’t even told Time Warner he was moving. His house’s new owner, who hadn’t yet finalized his purchase, merely told Time Warner he wasn’t interested in their services. Ryan writes:

My wife and I have been subscribers of Time Warner Cable (digital cable + internet service) for over 3 years. We haven’t had problems as big as most, but we’ve still had our issues here and there. Yesterday’s happenings, however, take the cake.

Around 5pm my wife returned home from being out for much of the day only to find that our cable had been entirely shut off. She and I have just sold our place and are buying a new one, but we hadn’t yet called TWC to have our service shut off. Needless to say, she was confused.

So she called TWC and received a wonderfully helpful CSR (sarcasm, here). She explained to him that our service had been disconnected, and wanted to know why. The CSR told her that it had been shut off because we didn’t live there anymore. My wife attempted to explain to him that we, in fact, still live there and aren’t moving out for at least 6 more days. She had to say “I am currently standing IN MY LIVING ROOM. WE STILL LIVE HERE.”

The CSR then told my wife that they had documents from our buyer saying that he owned the place, and that our cable wasn’t going to get turned back on. Keep in mind we never cancelled it. Also keep in mind that the buyer could not have had documents stating he owned the place because as of yet he hasn’t received his final papers from Escrow. The CSR literally said (and I quote), “Erin, Erin. Erin. You’re not going to get it turned back on. You’re not. We are not going to turn it back on.” (Erin is my wife’s name).

Finally my wife escalated the call to a manager, who quickly turned it back on.

In short, our buyer went down to a TWC storefront and told them he was moving into our new place. TWC lied when they said they had proof that he owned it, because even our buyer doesn’t have proof that he owns it yet. They shut our cable service off without contacting us to confirm, and simply took the word of a person who, as far as they’re concerned, is a complete stranger. The CSR was disrespectful to my wife and told her there was no way in hell our service (that we pay for) was not going to get turned back on. The manager fixed it all.

This is why you always want to escalate to a supervisor. As for Ryan, he has a plan of his own: “We’re going to try DirectTV for our new house.”

(Photo: daedalicious)

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.