Slashdot Mirror
Charter Files For "Prearranged Bankruptcy"
jamie points out news that Charter Communications filed for "prearranged" Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday, primarily to reorganize some of the $21.7 billion in debt it has accrued. Quoting:
"The St. Louis-based company seeks to emerge from bankruptcy as early as the end of summer and doesn't plan on selling any of its assets to competitors. After Chapter 11, interest costs at Charter, which has never posted a profit since going public in 1999 due to massive debt interest payments, will be cut in half to $830 million a year. The filing restructures about $8 billion of debt at Charter, which is controlled by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, but leaves about $13 billion of debt on its books. Allen will control 35 percent of the votes in the reorganized company. In the bankruptcy, Allen's 51 percent equity stake in the cable operator will be wiped out, along with shares of other stockholders. Allen also holds some debt and preferred stock."
As an employee of Charter Communications I resent your stance that you're glad anyone is in financial hardship. I can attest through my own observations and experiences that there is flaws in the customer service side. Since Charter outsourced their customer service department to "Convergsys" and "Teletch" based in locations such as the Phillipeans, the customer service quality has plummeted. The outsourcing companies undertrain their employees and the reps are not armed with much knowledge to properly resolve customer issues.
I do believe the backbone is strong however. As with many large companies, there are going to be complaints of problems and inefficieancies. However, as someone with direct communications with customers, the very large majority are happy with their service, especially with the internet side of things.
You made the comment on how horrible the moxi dvr's are, and how many customers are frusterated. However, there has been a non-stop demand for these boxes and in some areas its hard to keep them in stock. These are by far our most requested DVR, far over the motorola dvr's. For equipment that is being "beta tested" there sure is a lot of happy customers with them.