Time Warner Cable

I used to teach business administration. I used a lot of case histories in my teaching and most of the cases were about how not to do it. Consider this to be another such case.

The story begins with a mailed flyer from Time Warner Cable (TWC) inviting me to return as a customer because "A lot has changed since you've been gone." It offered a two-year price guarantee of $89.99/month for "TV+Internet+Phone" with "FREE Installation, No long-term contract, 30-day Money-Back Guarantee*" That asterisk led to a notice on the other side of the flyer that "30-day money-back guarantee does not include installation charges in most cases" and a bunch of other exceptions.

The timing of their flyer was good. My monthly bills from AT&T U-verse had been increasing steadily toward $200 even though there were no special orders or changes in my usage to account for the increases.
So I called Time Warner and we settled on a package that, according to my notes on the flyer, would cost me $148/month with tax. Although that price was nothing like the "$89.99/month" promised by the flyer I had opted for some upgrades and had been told that the "core" charge had risen to $99.99/month and, of course, did not include taxes. I should have seen the red flags.

The first shock was that when the TWC installer arrived on October 25 (two hours late) he had no information about the features of the system he was installing except a flyer in fine print on the functions of the buttons on the remote control. Each cable company has its own numbering system for the channels and I was left to fish without a map for the channels I wanted.

The next shock was a bill for $219.13 that came about a week later. It was for the "Service Period 10/07-11-06" and included $139.92 for installation charges. Remember that "FREE Installation" in the flyer? I called TWC and, after waiting 10 minutes, talked to "Dawn" who told me that a corrected bill would be sent.

The bill I received a few days later was for $399.15 and payment was due by 11/19/12, less than a month after installation of the service. The new bill had no correction of the installation charges. It simply added $169.04 plus $10.98 in taxes for monthly services in the 11/07-12/06 period. So what had happened to the monthly charge of $148 with tax that I had been promised before installation?

Meanwhile I had received a flyer from AT&T U-verse similar to the one from TWC, inviting me to come back. I lost no time in calling AT&T and scheduling reinstallation on 11/21. I then called TWC and cancelled their service as of that same date.

Since I had been with TWC less than 30 days I expected them to honor the 30-day money back guarantee. Their next bill seemed to do that. It debited partial monthly charges of $256.48 but inexplicably charged me $141.88 for monthly services for the 12/07-01/06 period when, of course, I was no longer receiving service from them.

I sent TWC a check for $103.51, basically covering the installation charges, together with a letter explaining why I had subtracted the service charges for the 12/07-01/06 period. Back came a new bill acknowledging the payment but rebilling me for the bogus $141.88 of service charges and demanding immediate payment. This ignited another phone call to TWC, another long wait, and a 20 minute talk with "Vickie" in Billing. After checking my records she agreed that I did not owe the $141.88 bill.

You would think that was the end of the story, but no. Two days later I received a collection notice from Credit Protection Association L.P. for the $141.88. Apparently to TWC immediate payment meant faster than a speeding bullet. Now I have to call CPALP. Help!