I'm tired of poor customer service and I don't want to take it anymore.
 

Recently I switched to Time Warner Cable for my TV service. I posted about it regarding their DVR vs my beloved TIVO at the time.

I love my TIVO and basically, I've continued using it. I'll be sending their DVR back if this gets worked out - if not I'll be sending it back and cutting their cable to my house.

Basically the deal is - I called them up and scheduled an install. My instructions were specific - I wanted my service date and the start of my billing date to be one in the same. I asked exactly what I could expect my first bill to be: $109.40 is what I was told.

I got the first bill: $149.06.

Different from what I was told when I ordered the service. It explained itself in the statement. I was billed for a prorated amount between my install date and my billing date. Something I told them I specifically didn't want to happen (I hate that crap).

So, I called up customer disservice and asked them about it. I was told not to worry about it - mistakes like these happen in between billing cycles - pay the $109.40 and it'll work itself out on the next billing cycle (I got this dudes name).

FFW to the next month, as I expected - no change - the past due amount now shows the difference between what I paid and what I didn't.

I called up today and was asked 'Did I have service during those days?" "Of course I did, but only because you're install scheduler did not follow my specific instructions." "I'm sorry sir, you have to pay it."

"Put me through to the folks who handle disconnects. I may have to pay it, but it'll be the last few dollars time warner ever sees from me."

Note, I was not disrespectful or mean - I was matter of fact and to the point. I knew exactly what I wanted and asked for it. I told her I wanted a credit for the amount shown past due on my account - I had already been told the previous month I would not have to pay it.

If I do, it'll only be to keep them from sending it to collections which I know they will do.

So...I get to a supervisor and he says he needs to talk to the other Customer Disservice rep who told me I didn't have to pay it. He'll call me back once that is done - no indication how long that'll take. I got his name too of course - I always get their names.

Man I hate this crap - these guys have what amounts to a monopoly of sorts too. Very little competition...only recently am I able to get broadband from someone else other than TWC...

Sure, I could just pay it but I was switching to save money from Direct TV. The difference they are trying to get from me is a month's worth of savings. I went without TV (not that hard) for a few days to make sure my Direct TV had no pro-rated bills and tried to get my TWC to start on the billing cycle start date. They made the mistake - NOT ME - I'm not paying it.

Rant complete. For now...

Really...
 

Dear Mikester

Well I did not even bother to read past your screw-up bill bit ...

You think you got it bad? Well, if you want bad customer service just move up to the 48th parallel were C.S. is almost inexistent.

C'est la vie...:mad:

J.J.

The worst thing to ever happen to Directv was their divorce with Tivo.
Tivo rules! The DVR's that other companies offer these days is just terrible.
I feel your pain.

Have to agree.

I also have heard so many horror stories about Time-Warner (and Charter) that I'll never ever sign up with them. I don't care how many promotional junk-mail fliers they stick in my mailbox. I've never heard anyone have anything good to say about either company.

So it is something like, you scheduled the installer to come on on the 1st of the month, but you asked that the billing not begin until two weeks later, the 15th of the month? But they started billing you on the 1st, as soon as the service was installed? Am I understanding it right?

I can see your irritation, it seems like a simple enough request. But I can also see that they'd not have a system set up to handle this, since it also seems like a somewhat odd request. Simple, but odd - doesn't compute - bzzzt bzzt, smoke spark boom. You broke their system, bad boy.

I asked them to schedule my install to coincide with the start of my billing cycle. It seemed like a simple enough request to me as well.

The person on the phone told me my billing cycle started on the date that my install was scheduled.

Then I get a bill with 20 days of prorated service + a month.

Nope. I was given inaccurate information by the person representing the company. I should not be responsible for that inaccuracy.

My DSL and Direct TV is cheaper than Comcast.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-eREiQhBDIk&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-eREiQhBDIk&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Awesome movie.



Mike--cancel 'em all and go antenna. All of the cable/subscription companies can ki$$ my arse.SmileWavy

Okay, so the install was on June 1st (let's say) and you asked for the billing cycle to start on the 1st day of each month, but instead the billing cycle started on the 20th day of each month. So your first bill was $109 for 1 month (June 20 to July 20) plus $40 for 20 days (June 1 to June 20), instead of just $109 for 1 month (June 1 to July 1). Is that essentially right, other than that I don't have the exact dates right?

If that's the case, I guess I don't understand why this bothers you. You're not paying any more that you would otherwise have. Possibly you've made a single $40 payment a few weeks earlier than you otherwise would have - but maybe not, depends when the due date for that first bill for the period ending July 20 was, as compared the the due date had it been a June 1 to July 1 billing period.

I mean, true, you asked for something, it was promised to you, and you didn't get it. Yes, that is irritating. But if what you asked for makes no rational difference, then so what.

Suppose you asked the call center robot-person to send your bills on green paper because you're Irish, and he agreed, but now they are on white paper - how is your actual situation any more serious than that?

Not to thread hijack, but how. I am paying about $100 each for phone/dsl and Directv. I am thinking about bailing on Directv to get uverse, even with its' limitations of 2 HiDef feeds per house. It would save me roughly $75 per month.

Thanks,
Neil

I am paying appx $130/mo for voice, broadband, and digital cable. I'm too cheap to pay for HD or for a lot of premium channels, but even so there is enough programming for me.

What is this Uverse of which you speak?

Sheesh. Just wait until you try to cancel out of the LA Times. Took several weeks and about 5 phone calls.

As a fellow TWC hostage I feel your pain Mike. Their DVR is without a doubt the largest POS ever. I'm on my 3rd, or is that 4th, replacement so far. Menus take 3-4 seconds to respond to requests. Makes scrolling through channels an absolute delight :rolleyes:

I'd love to go back to Dish Network but the wife wants local (San Diego) news/programming and family wants the Padres.

Not sure about TWC but a lot of cable companies generally bill for the upcoming month, not the previous. Your first real bill was the prorated $40. The additional $109 is for the upcoming month.

Your issue is that you did not want to pay more than the regular monthly amount from the get go hence "start my billing cycle on my install date".

Would be my guess that is not so simple for a large provider.

From an operational and corp accounting POV consolidating revenue stream and invoicing would be beneficial to them.

Maybe you should have asked them when the standard billing cycles are and asked for an install date to coincide.

You are not paying anything extra.

That's nothing. We went over a year with T-Mobile and didn't get one correct bill. Not one. Some months we wouldn't get a bill. Some months we would receive a bill with the due date BEFORE the issue date. Some months my wife would call and be told we didn't have a current balance. Of course the next month we would get a nasty letter threatening to send us to collections. For over one year we called a MINIMUM of once per month to pay our bill. Each time they pledged to fix the problem, but never bothered. Quite frankly, they just don't give a damn. I finally voted with my wallet, they'll never see my money again.

That's what I did.... I despizzze TW Cable! I'll never again be subjected to their rudeness and other assorted crapola! :mad::mad:
And aftera few days I got kind of used to the new digital programming we now have here.

I did not ask them to make any changes to my billing cycle. I'm not sure why this is so difficult to grasp - even they get it - they just won't make good on their promises.

I asked them to schedule my install on the first day of my billing cycle. I did not ask them to make any changes to my billing cycle.

I was told the first day was the 3rd, turns out it is something like the 20th or 21st so I'm getting a bill for service for the 1st month + the difference of the 3rd through the 20th.

I specifically asked for an installation date on the start of my billing cycle so that there wouldn't be any oddness in my bills because I have had difficulty with them on this in the past. They made some changes last year to their billing cycles and said I was a month overdue - nobody at their customer service could explain to me their billing cycle in a coherent fashion. Eventually, I just paid the difference (which was 1 month's worth of service). It was extremely frustrating and I won't do it again.

I didn't ask for anything hard, they told me my billing cycle start date was a particular date. They got it wrong and scheduled the install. I will not pay for their mistake again. Is it really so hard to expect some measure of actual accuracy?

ATT is running fiber to neighborhoods. Since they are on fiber, they have much more bandwidth to offer. U-Verse is "cable TV" and Broadband Internet over the same wire (basically, it's really high speed dsl where they use part of your data for your TV).

With the U-verse DVR, you can record 4 shows at the same time. I almost got it, but didn't. I've read that if you really like HD, then you're better off with cable. I'm not an HD junky, so I didn't care. Now the price for Internet and cable is pretty much the same as I'm paying now for old-school DSL and regular cable. Since the price is the same and my stuff works well, I'm not going to switch. I'd be pissed if I switched and my service went to crap.