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Senate Report Says Charter, Time Warner Cable Overcharges Its Customers (broadcastingcable.com)
According to an investigation by a U.S. Senate, Charter and its new subsidiary Time Warner Cable have been overcharging customers at least $7.2 million per year for equipment and service. Time Warner Cable over-billed customers nationwide an estimated $639,948 between January and April period this year. This projects the sum to a yearly total of $1,919,844. Charter admitted that it overbilled its customers by "at least $442,691 per month." A report on BroadcastingCable states:The study found that "Time Warner Cable estimates that, in 2015, it overbilled 40,193 Ohio customers a total of $430,393 and 4,232 Missouri customers a total of $44,152," while "Charter estimates that it has annually overcharged approximately 5,897 Missouri customers a total of $494,000 each year. Charter does not provide service in Ohio." The report also said that Charter and Time Warner Cable have taken steps to correct the situation as a result of the investigation.
They use their government approved monopoly to charge way, way more for something that should be a public utility and then keep all the profits that were supposed to upgrade the speed.
Of course Charter and TWC cheat their customers. Who else could they cheat?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I'd like to see how much the senators on this committee received in donations from Comcast and AT&T. And not just to their own campaigns, but to super pacs too.
You are welcome on my lawn.
With good Internet there are lots of other choices. Not all are legal... But most are easier.
But to get that good internet in most places you need to buy it from the cable co.
There should be a 10x penalty for billing errors, or some other type of real teeth.
Inevitably this stuff leads to a fine that costs less than the infraction profited, and maybe a class action lawsuit that might resolve after several years with tiny vouchers for the class members.
Short of campaign finance reform to cut out the root of the problem (lawmakers beholden to companies instead of the electorate) I don't see this or many other problems ever coming close to resolving.
Monopolies in utilities like internet access should be regulated as monopolistic utilities.
....... It's always the same excuse... "A computer error"
Because they meant what they said. Had you not noticed the overcharge, nor called, then the computer was working correctly. Its a game of customer against algorithm, and you won that point. But this game is like pong and really gets tedious for people. So that's why they do it. And we hate them even more.
That's quality and commitment we can count on!
It helps explain why companies want to go paperless, doesn't it? No US Postage Stamp means they haven't committed mail fraud.
The first time it happens, the company should have to pay it back with interest. If it was a mistake, that's fair, and it makes sure they don't benefit from it by sitting on the money even temporarily. The second time, they should have to pay double. The third time, triple. And so on. After some period of time without any significant "billing errors" in their favor, the meter gets reset back to "damages plus interest". (Say, two years for these jerks.) This would protect both legitimate business who do occasionally make mistakes, and their customers, while providing a disincentive to make "mistakes" for those who habitually do so.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
With good Internet there are lots of other choices. Not all are legal... But most are easier.
Haven't seen ONE yet that approaches 1/10 of the ease of "pickup remote, Go to channel-guide, pick a channel, watch or record", sorry.
We're SORT of getting there; but it's still WAAAAY too "techy" for average people. You and I can easily deal with it, but a LOT of "ordinary folks" (like the 99.99999999999% of the population who don't read Slashdot), um, just can't.
That's not their fault, it's ours; for being to stuck-up and/or lazy and/or stupid to come up with a solution that works more like a "TV" and less like a "File Server". Voice Search stuff is helping get past the "typing/spelling" part; but something still isn't quite right to make it "click" (no pun) with the masses.
Hulu, Netflix, etc are too difficult for normal people to use? Since when? It's a rare person who has trouble using a web browser these days.
Now, if you want to watch shows on your big screen TV there's lots of cool techy options that are... almost completely gratuitous. Plug an old computer into the back of the TV, fire up the web browser, and watch away. Old laptops with plenty of power can be smaller, cheaper, and quieter than some cable boxes, to say nothing of things like the Raspberry Pi. And a small wireless keyboard and mouse make for a perfectly adequate remote... though I'd love to see a mouse designed specifically for the job, with at least extra buttons for volume, mute, pause, and on-screen keyboard activation. Not terribly difficult for a tech to set up, but there's no reason you couldn't make one that acted appropriately right out of the box.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
You don't even need a laptop. Get a Roku box and in minutes you can be watching Netflix, Hulu, etc. It's simple to do for people with little to no techy skills and is very inexpensive. (The priciest Roku is $100, IIRC.)
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.