My family moved on December 1st to a new apartment. Our landlord owns several properties in our city and we moved to another property they owned. We've had DirecTV for the past three years. We had an appointment for installation on December 1st between 12 and 4pm.

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TL;DR--DirecTV is lazy and Time Warner Cable doesn't communicate between departments

This is a two-parter, involving Charter. Recent events with them caused me to remember the idiocy from before.

( Part 1: Moving.Collapse )

Everything is transferred and working perfectly. But I am unemployed, and my boyfriend had a lot of sudden expenses come up, so we decide that no really, this time we HAVE to get rid of the cable. I call Charter to explain this. Their billing cycle ends around the 21st of the month, if I remember right. I explain I want to cancel my cable, but keep the internet.

( Part 2: Collapse )

Starting Monday, we will be checking out AT&T etc. for their internet rates. Because at this point Charter can just kiss the fattest part of my ass.

This is in letter format.

NOTE: I'd spoken with each representative and provided security information to access the account. Never was I advised that I wasn't formally on the account. Comcast rep that the letter is addressed to emailed and informed me that the issue couldn't be discussed over email, due to the fact that I wasn't formally on the account, but could over the phone.

( LETTER FORMATCollapse )

----------------------------------------------------
ETA @ 8/17/10 at 5:15pm

THISSMALLWORLD,

I would need to speak with BOYFRIEND before I can discuss his account via email. My direct contact number is ***-***-**** and my office hours are Mon-Fri, 8-5. Our prices for our DVR is as follows, $6.95 for the converter (equipment charge) and $15.95 for the ability to record (service charge) for a total of $22.90 before taxes. I look forward to speaking with him.

Comcast Representative.

--------
REALLY?!?!? The last email to me said "At this time we are unable to discuss BOYFRIENDS’ account with you via email correspondence. He currently has no additional authorized party documented to his Comcast file. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause." So last night he did what was required to add me to the account. This company is a joke. They are clearly stating that their representatives' word has no merit and they do not care about customer service. Does anyone have any suggestions about who else I should write??

Thanks.

I'm at my wit's end with these jokers.

( Cut to spare your friends page from my rageCollapse )

The following is a copy of the letter I plan to send to the billing dispute department. If need be I plan to contact the BBB and AG as well in order to receive satisfaction. I understand they make no promises on their website for service however, outages and unavailability are a far cry from deliberately withholding information that I have made an effort to seek out in order to make an informed decision.

Suggestions on the letter itself are wonderful.

1/8/10

Andrea N.
123 Main St
Anytown, US 12345


DirecTV Inc
Attn: Billing Disputes
PO BOX 6550
Greenwood Village, CO 80155-6550

Re: Account#8675309

To whom it may concern:

I am writing this letter to request the reimbursement of the late fee I was assessed on 1/4/10 by National City in the amount of $36.00. In the beginning of December I signed onto your website and changed my automatic draft from a checking account at National City to my current account with Day Air Credit Union. My automatic draft comes out at the very end of the month. At this point nothing had come up to alert me that this would not go into effect until the draft due at the end of January. Having read over the terms and conditions listed on your website I have to date found none discussing automatic drafts.

I had not seen any drafts taken from either account until 1/4 when this was withdrawn from my National City account- an account that was left with only enough funds to cover 3 unrelated drafts- resulting in an overdraft fee. I called your customer service line on 1/5/10 and spoke with a customer service rep and then a supervisor named Victor. Both of these individuals insisted that there was nothing they could do regarding the late fees while at the same time acknowledging that your guidelines regarding automatic drafts are not available to the public on your website .

I was informed that reps inform customers of this information when this change is done over the phone. Customers who opt for the “convenience” of the website have no such disclosure. Before writing this letter I called once more and spoke with Ceasar ID#100243313 in your Phillipines call center. This time I recorded the conversation and will be more than happy to provide a copy. In this call Phillip acknowledged that in fact nowhere does it disclose on your website that changes to the automatic billing go into effect the next billing cycle.

As there is no industry standard (my changes to my Clearwire account were made with a scant 4 business days notice), I feel it is irresponsible not to disclose your policies regarding automatic drafts anywhere on your website. I am very upset that I am being penalized for something that has been acknowledged that I have no conceivable way of knowing by making a change on your website. This is a very deceptive practice and I do not feel confidence in your company knowing that it operates in such a fashion. If I do not find satisfaction here, I will be escalating this matter as high and far as I need to in order to get this overdraft fee reimbursed.

I thank you for you consideration in this matter.

Sincerely,
Andrea N

If anyone has any advice on this it would be greatly appreciated as well.

Dear Comcast

Bite Me.
( I hate Comcast- got really longCollapse )

TLDR; account cut off while in chat room with tech to transfer service, unwarranted charges, installation problems all adding up to numerous calls

I just wanted to reiterate that Charter is the devil.

( The devil I tell you!!Collapse )

*facepalm*

tl;dr... I HATE CHARTER.

Annnndd... I am far too long-winded for a short short suck.

This is very very long because it's almost 3 years worth of frustration and then another 4 months of horribleness. Please be patient! D:

Now most of you probably don't know much about what goes on in the US military community. So I'll have to preface my complaint with some history. I hope it makes sense. (Because it's hard to explain unless you're living in it.)

( So very long a complaint....Collapse )

( Simple Math is ConfusingCollapse )

The Teal Deers are running RAMPANT in this entry- Time Warner Promised $99 a month bill for a year, but I was paying $119 a month for 10 months before realizing it (yes this was stupid, I get it). I realize it, ask them to refund it. They agree, then try to sign me up for a new contract instead of crediting my account as promised.

Since my fiance and I have moved into our house last April, we have gotten exactly two bills from Charter, our cable company. For the first two months. And then they stopped.

We have called every single month, and they keep promising to mail it to us (along with the others they have never sent). At one point, they had our address in the system incorrect, and we got it fixed (although I can't see how they were able to mail us the first two bills with an incorrect address). But even after that, we've called to clarify that they fixed it, and still--no bill.

They've threatened to cut us off a couple of times because at one point in December, we got fed up trying to keep up with what we owed with no bill, and called and told them that we weren't going to pay any more until we saw an actual, itemized bill. My fiance caved and paid them.

Their place in town says they don't have any way to get us our bill; we've stopped by and tried (they're actually pretty useless--they just refer us to the customer-service line if we need anything other than for them to take our money). They won't set us up with an account online unless we pay an obscene monthly fee. I am so frustrated. I've tried being nice. I've tried being mean. I've tried bargaining. I've tried begging. Every time, they promise they'll send it to us. And yet, it has been nine months since we've seen any indication of what they're charging us and why. Is there any way I can get them to send me my bill? I don't mind paying them if I know what I'm paying for!

I live with my grandmother, and, as of next month, I'm taking over paying the virgin media bill.

We called a few days ago, to try to set up a direct debit from my account.  They said that that wasn't possible right now, and that we needed to pay the bill we currently had, and then they'd be able to do it.  So, we pay it, wait a few days for it to go through (it's currently paid at the bank), and then call again.

They tell us that we have to pay the next bill before they can set it up.

It seems that there is a teeny, tiny little gap between bills, during which a direct debit can be set up.  I used to work in a financial call centre myself, and we were able to set up a direct debit, even with a currently pending bill - we'd just have to warn them that the direct debit would take the next payment, and they'd need to pay the current one another way.

We all know that Comcast is lousy in both actual service and customer service, and I've refrained from posting about my experience because it'd be beating a dead horse, but the little thing that happened yesterday just pushed me over the lj-posting precipice.

I was living in a campus apartment last year and had our cable and internet in my name. I moved rooms after the first trimester and contacted Comcast to try to get the service switched to my former roommate's name. They told me they'd send me an e-mail with the form to do it, I could fill it out, mail it in ,and it'd be done.

6 months after the fact with a call to Comcast CS every two weeks where they'd promise to send out the e-mail immediately (but never did), my mother was told at a Comcast service center that they "haven't done the e-mail thing in over a year." And no, they couldn't mail the form, it had to be done in-center. So, my very ex-roommate and I went the next week to the service center to get it straightened out.... and the service center had disappeared.

Finally, we gave up, since she was good about giving me the money she owed, and I continued to pay the bill until ex-roomie moved out in June, when I canceled the service. Frustrating? Sure.

Yesterday, I got an e-mail from Comcast with an attachment that claimed it was a change-of-account-holder form.

*headdesk*

So bear (bare?) with me, this goes back over the years. I just want to come home, watch TV, and not worry about what they're going to do to screw me over again!

1.) Insight: 3 years ago, Insight decided we weren't paying our bills, or they didn't like our check, or something. Sent a guy out twice! to disconnect the cable. Except...when we got him to wait the first time, and called Insight up, we got an "oops! Our bad! You're current". Okay, fine. Fast forward 2 weeks, same thing except the tech doesn't wait. We did love the irony of them mailing us a refund and a "sorry we lost your business note" though. And we'll ignore the fact they lost my modem *after* i returned it, and was a serious fight (and faxing a receipt 4 times) before they dropped the collection calls/letters.

2.) Time Warner: We paid you every month on the dot. So after we leave you for someone cheaper, you decide we were somehow behind a month every time?? Something doesn't compute. I'm still fighting this one, though I think it's about done. That's the perk of on-line banking; I can see where I sent the money!
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