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Google Fiber Cuts Kansas City Resident's Internet Access Over 12 Cent Dispute (kansascity.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the nickel-and-dime dept.

New submitter twentysixV writes: Google Fiber offered a seven-year internet service if you pay upfront for connecting to your house, including taxes and fees. Victoria Tane signed this deal: $300 to connect, plus $25.08 for taxes and fees. Google Fiber internally accounts it as ongoing recurring payments. Kansas then raises taxes. Instead of absorbing the tax increase for customers who paid upfront, Google Fiber books it to the customers. To punish the customer for now being late on paying 12 cents she was not aware she now owed for additional taxes, Google then cut her internet access. According to Kansas City News, Tane tried to pay but Google wouldn't take checks for less than $10. Google reportedly tried contacting her via emails and voice messages, but Tane never saw them. When asked about the incident, Google Fiber issued a statement: "As with any customer who has a balance due, we made repeated attempts to reach Ms. Tane to resolve the matter. Google Fiber values our customers, and we have since worked with Ms. Tane to restore her Fiber service." Google forgave the total, restored Tane's service in less than an hour and credited her account for $30, reports Kansas City News.

8 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. 1 hour. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So less than an hour after the automatic disconnect, it was fixed. And they wiped the balance, thus eating the cost increase. Plus the time spent trying to reach her ahead of time.

    Such a bullshit nonstory, such a bullshit headline. Fuck you, Beau.

    1. Re:1 hour. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The $10 minimum for checks is interesting though.

      Having a $10 minimum is reasonable if they also have a policy of rolling over any charge for less than $10.

      Having a $10 minimum while cutting of customers that owe $0.12 is not reasonable.

    2. Re:1 hour. by KingMotley · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have comcast, was down for 3 days before they got it restored, and my bill was current. And I pay more for my internet with comcast then I would would google fiber.

      If this was comcast, I would have been on the phone for an hour only to be told I needed to call a different department that was now closed. If this is how google mistreats people, please SIGN ME UP!

    3. Re:1 hour. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's pretty unusual for a company to "not" be set up to take yer money. Most companies have fantastic amounts of "take yer money" machinery, including billing systems, tracking systems, auditing system, bookkeeping systems, ledgers, graphs, and powerpoint-presentation-o-matic generators for the stockholder meetings. Companies usually have far less "give yer money back" hardware which usually goes at the rate of Joe writing checks in the basement, and please wait at least 6 months for them to clear.

      In this case the company was running so far on autopilot that they didn't realize it had gone into exterminating the human race and was in the middle of roasting babies on a pitchfork before they decided "this ain't right". Running too fast in the wrong direction - it's the new disease in tech. The alarming thing is that it takes a PR nightmare to shut these things down. For every one story we hear about you're guaranteed there's at least a hundred more we don't get to hear about. Someone, somewhere, is fighting a lawsuit against Google because their phone is just the right Google shade of green and it's infringing on copyright. Somewhere.

    4. Re:1 hour. by jandersen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Such a bullshit nonstory, such a bullshit headline. Fuck you, Beau.

      Yes, I don't understand the editorial line that /. has taken - it is becoming more and more about inflating trivia to make it sound sensational, rather than real news with some thoughtful analysis behind. The thing is, this editorial line frustrates those of us who have been faithful readers for years, adding much of the comment that is actually driving the success of /. - when we submit comments, we do valuable work for the site in generating interest and starting cascades of comments etc, and we don't receive payment in any form. On that background, is it wise of the editors to constantly frustrate us with deceptive headlines? Every time I come across such a story and click on a link to an idiotic, vapid non-story, I get a little closer to simply abandoning /. as inconsequential. That is sad, I think - at on time this community gave name to the 'slashdot effect' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_effect), but when has that last happened? Bad editorship is what has eroded the core contributers away - those of us that are still left, stay mostly out of habit.

  2. Think about it. by mcmonkey · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They cut her internet access. Than sent her an email about it.

    These are the folks developing cars that drive themselves.

  3. Article Blames; I Praise by cervesaebraciator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The tone of the headline and text is critical. But if there is a story here at all, it's how decent Google acted about it. We should read this, not as it was intended, but as an article of praise for Google.

    Comcast, TWC, Spectrum, or whatever you are now, take notice. This is how to get people to like you: when you find your policies and automated systems have done something absurd, sacrifice the small change, fix the problem quickly, shell out a few courtesy bucks, and enjoy free publicity and good will.

  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion