It took just one phone call to give me the topic of my blog for this week. It was a 27-minute marathon with an unresponsive “customer service” rep from Time Warner Cable, and that 27 minutes proved just how obstinate the cable monopoly has become.
I know I bashed Time Warner a couple of times in this space for their strong-arming of broadcasters to keep their programming fees low, ultimately leading to greater profits for the media giant. But that was on the business side. It didn’t affect we consumers because most of us could have given a rip whether they pulled channels 18 & 24 from their lineup or not. But when it comes to openly and brazenly screwing their paying customers on the consumer side, my engine really gets going. Especially when it happens to me.
In my first column in this space, I suggested calling Time Warner and threatening to switch as a way of getting lower rates. Apparently that no longer works.
For the last year, Time Warner has been slowly and methodically slipping rate increases into our bill. First it was the “watch and surf” package, where they increased the rate 10% about a year ago, and another 10% just recently. Without warning or explanation either time.
And then there was last Wednesday. I noticed a 40% increase in the digital phone portion of the bill from last month to this month. 40%! So I called. I got Erin.
After I explained my displeasure and asked her to look into it, Erin told me she was looking for “notes” on our account log that would indicate if we should get a discounted rate. She must have said, “Please bear with me” 20 times and she hummed and clicked away. I had a very vivid flashback to Lily Tomlin’s phone operator character ‘Ernestine’ made popular on the old variety show “Laugh-In”, shown in this hysterical clip.
According to Erin, our promotional period had expired and unfortunately we were now up to full rate, despite the fact that more than two years ago we had been guaranteed that the rate wouldn’t go up for as long as we were TWC customers.
It was now time to speak to a supervisor. Erin said she’d need to put me on hold for “no more than two minutes” to get a supervisor on the phone and update them on “my situation”. After a full 7 minutes of dead air, Erin came back on and indicated that indeed she’d spoken with a supervisor, who was unable to come to the phone. She came to the phone for Erin, didn’t she? Grrr. Unfortunately they could find no discounts at this time. In other words, tough, we’re not going to help you. When I indicated that this would drive us to another cable/phone/internet provider, I was expecting something like “let me see what I can do, we don’t want to lose you as a customer”. Instead, Erin said, “Okay, here’s the phone number of the account specialist who can help you cancel your account.”
And this person is a customer service rep?
Now the question is, what to do? There is some great advice on a site called “measured up.com”:
“Anyone who’s done business with TWC knows that their customer service is non-existent. Complaints do no good. Here’s the solution: I contacted the FCC and was told that complaints need to be directed to Time Warner’s local franchising authority for your area.”
I found out that Time Warner keeps this information a closely guarded secret. The franchise authorities in Wisconsin are the local municipalities. So if you live in Kenosha, for example, the city of Kenosha is the franchise authority for cable TV. Yours will be printed in small print on the bottom of your exorbitant cable bill. Maybe if enough people do that TWC will change their ways. They’re long overdue for a reality check.
While I really smiled when I watched Lily Tomlin do her impression of Erin the customer service rep from hell, the famous scene from the great 1976 movie Network is more appropriate for this issue I think. As Peter Finch said, so passionately, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
