Cable company overcharging totals at least $7.2 million a year

[SirMonti]

ArsTechnica reports on cable companies overcharging customers for service and equipment.

Quote

Charter and its new subsidiary Time Warner Cable (TWC) have been overcharging customers at least $7.2 million per year for equipment and service, a US Senate investigation has found.

According to the article both companies were overcharging customers.

Time Warner: $1,919,844 per year

Charter:  $5,312,292 per year

Those numbers of course are totals for the companies.

 

Time Warner will be giving one-month credits to customers who were overcharged, but for many people who have been overcharged for months this will not cover what they have spent, and their only chance is to bring up the issue with them.  

Quote

"Time Warner [Cable] will not investigate when it began overcharging those customers unless customers bring specific concerns to the company’s attention," the report said. "Nor will the company automatically provide a full refund dating to when the overcharge began. But the company’s new policy will at least provide customers with notice that they have been overcharged, making it easier for overcharged customers to determine whether they should request a larger credit or refund."

 

Link to article:

http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/06/charter-and-twc-overbill-customers-by-7-2-million-per-year-senate-finds/

[vanished]

Why am I not surprised?... 

[iCrushDreams]

So it looks like just as Charter acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House, they simultaneously acquired Ubisoft's digging shovels.

[Dredgy]

Considering the size and reach of the companies involved and the number of subscriber, that seems like a low figure. I've seen larger erroneous charges here in Australia.

 

Time Warners cable revenue is $23,690,000,000.

That's only a margin of error of 0.00008%. Wouldn't even show up as a blip on their records.

[SirMonti]

6 minutes ago, Dredgy said:

Considering the size and reach of the companies involved and the number of subscriber, that seems like a low figure. I've seen larger erroneous charges here in Australia.

 

Time Warners cable revenue is $23,690,000,000.

That's only a margin of error of 0.00008%. Wouldn't even show up as a blip on their records.

That perspective is important and I agree, this probably isn't is a big deal for either of the companies financially, but the error and how they handle it is, and for many people a few dollars more on a bill makes a difference.

[Suika]

12 minutes ago, iCrushDreams said:

So it looks like just as Charter acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House, they simultaneously acquired Ubisoft's digging shovels.

The difference is, a lot of people can't just stop buying their services, unlike Ubisoft, so no matter how deep their hole gets, people are going to continue throwing money into it.

[iCrushDreams]

1 minute ago, Suika said:

The difference is, a lot of people can't just stop buying their services, unlike Ubisoft, so no matter how deep their hole gets, people are going to continue throwing money into it.

Right..

 

So they acquired the shovels AND plated them in gold.