For the past two years, Time Warner has charged Eric $10 per month above its published rates. Eric called and made what he thought was a fair offer: In exchange for refunding only one year’s worth of overcharges, he would add a premium cable service. A Time Warner supervisor responded with: “this is not let’s make a deal,” and then offered to refund three months worth of overcharges. Offended and armed with a reasonable request, Eric decided to unleash the mighty Executive Email Carpet Bomb.

He wrote:

I have been a Time Warner cable and internet customer since 2006. I recently began shopping around for service from your competitors in the area to compare pricing. I went to your site and viewed your current prices and realized that your standard bundle of digital cable and Roadrunner Standard was $10.00 cheaper than what I have been paying for the last two years and this is not a promotional price. This lower price has been in effect since 2007.

I called your customer service number, waited for a CSR for 40 minutes, and explained the issue. My request was simple: Correct the billing to reflect the regular bundled rate, upgrade my internet service to Roadrunner Turbo ($10.00 more) and credit me the overcharges for 1/2 the time it occurred. I am willing to split the difference. In addition, I will remain a customer and add a premium service. I think this is a more than reasonable request. The CSR placedme on hold to ask her supervisor who declined and offered to correct the billing as of today and credit me the previous 3 months in overcharges. The CSR offered to let me speak to the supervisor and Suzanne came on the line. Suzanne’s reply to my offer was “This is not Let’s Make a Deal”.

I found this to be extremely rude. Throughout the course of the phone call, she repeated this statement on two more occasions even after I mentioned to her that it was rude. I am an avid reader of The Consumerist and used the email address your company provided to them for problem resolutions. I have had a nice relationship with your company for the last three years and I want to give you one more chance before I cancel, and do business elsewhere.

Here is my current pricing:

Digital Cable with HDTV Tier: $50.95
Road Runner Standard: $46.95
Additional Tiers: Variety: $5.00
Equipment: HD DVR: $6.50
DVR Service Charge: $10.00
Multi-Product Discount: -$5.00
Total: $114.40

Here is your pricing for this bundle since 2007:

SURF N’ VIEW: $82.95
Digital Cable with HDTV Tier (included)
Road Runner Standard (included)
Additional Tiers: Variety: $5.00
Equipment: HD DVR: $6.50
DVR Service Charge: $10.00
Total: $104.45

I request that you credit me for 1/2 of the overcharges since your new pricing took effect. In return, I will remain a loyal customer, upgrade to Roadrunner Turbo and add a premium service. Thank you for your time.

He fired his EECB on a Saturday evening. By Monday morning, the price of his service had been corrected, and he had a $240 credit on his account.

To learn how to launch your own Executive Email Carpet Bomb, read this post.

(Photo: dan taylor)

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