I just raked my cable company over the effing coals

[Sad, little man]

I noticed that my cable bill was a little high this month when I opened it, so I took a closer look at it. While the actual increase was due to some bullshit surcharges that obviously I can't do much about, I did notice something that was completely off base... There was a $7 charge for a cable modem. I've had the same cable company since I moved into my house in 2012, and I've never rented a cable modem from them. I've owned my own since day one.

Sure enough, I checked the last year's worth of statements available online, and they all seemed to have a charge for a modem on them. :mad:

So, of course I got on the phone with them. I'll try to make a long story short here by paraphrasing...



Me: You've been charging me for a modem for two and a half years, I've never rented a modem from you.

Cable co: Looks like you're right, we've been charging you the whole time and you've never actually rented a modem from us. Unfortunately in these cases my superior says that the most we can credit back to you is $50. If that's acceptable, I'll do that now.

Me: That's not acceptable to me.

Cable co: Well then who would you like to speak to?

Me: I'd like to speak to whoever there is capable of crediting back more than $50 to my account.

Cable co: Well you need to tell me who you actually want to speak to about this.

Me: I don't know who I specifically want to speak to because I don't know who is there at your call center, but I want to speak to whoever has the authority to credit back more than $50.

Cable co: Ok, please hold...

Cable co supervisor: Hello, what's the issue?

Me: I was just speaking with the other guy, and he said that you've been charging me for a modem for the whole time I've had service and I've never rented a modem from you.

Cable co supervisor: Is this the first time you've noticed this on your bill? We've been showing this on your bill the whole time, you should have noticed this and told us about this sooner. Unfortunately in this case the most we can do for you is give you a $100 credit on your account since you didn't tell us this sooner.

(At this point I smelled blood since clearly we have a moving target for what the "maximum" they can truly give back to me is.)

Me: To answer your question, yes, this is the first time I noticed this on my bill. I understand that I could have noticed it sooner and told you sooner. But, I'm just a customer, and it's not my responsibility to make sure my bill is correct, that's your responsibility since you're the cable company. So I don't accept only $100 to be credited back to my account. I want the full amount you've charged me for the modem.

Cable co supervisor: Ok, please hold.

*Hold*

Cable co supervisor: Ok, I've credited your account for the amount of $203. Blah blah blah we're doing you a favor here blah blah blah you should have noticed this sooner blah blah blah we won't be able to do this for you again.

Me: Thank you for that.




So there you have it. I have to say I think the key to it was being polite with them will still not accepting no or accepting a lesser amount for an answer. I never got angry with them, I just kept pushing for the full amount. And just as I said on the phone, yes, I agree that I could have noticed it much sooner. But I don't feel like my cable bill should be played like some kind of shell game where if I don't figure out where they're hiding my money soon enough then they just get to keep it.

It really bothers me how companies will play shame tactics by saying that I'm the one that messed up and dangle all sorts of lesser amounts of money in front of me just to keep some of the money that they over-charged me.

I just paid for a new set of center caps for the Lotus, and then some. :D

[Cam]

Well done.

[G'day Mate]

My internet company was actually under charging me for a while. Years, in fact, and I never realised. Unfortunately when I moved house they noticed and had to start charging me the proper amount.

Good on you though :up:

[Godson]

Hell yes. Stick it to them

[KillerB]

I had a similar experience recently. I had an issue with my Challenger that was subject to a TSB but not a recall. Basically the clutch wouldn't disengage all the way. The solution was to drop the tranny and lubricate the splines on the input shaft, but the service writer tried to tell me that it wasn't covered by the powertrain warranty because it was the clutch and clutch is a wear item.

My comment:

"I've dropped transmissions out of cars. I've never seen an input shaft that was attached to the clutch. It's attached to the transmission and the transmission is part of the powertrain. Look it up."

She started to argue when another service writer cut her off and said "just look it up."

"Oh. Looks like it is covered under warranty."

No shit, bitch. If I hadn't fought, that'd have been a $2k+ labor bill.

[Drachen596]

so... the cable company is at fault because you couldn't be bothered to check the bill?

do you bother to check the bill when you go out to eat or just pay it?

[Yw-slayer]

Well, the point is that he still sort of stuck it to them.

[Sad, little man]

so... the cable company is at fault because you couldn't be bothered to check the bill?

do you bother to check the bill when you go out to eat or just pay it?
No, the cable company isn't at fault because I couldn't be bothered to check the bill. The cable company is at fault because they make the bill, and it's their responsibility to make sure it's accurate. See, you're trying to do exactly the same thing they did, and the argument simply doesn't hold any weight.

For this argument to work, you have to start off with the assumption that it's my responsibility to make sure that my bill is tallied up accurately every month. That's an absurd idea. I'm not the cable company, I don't make the bill, and it's not my responsibility to make sure it's right. Part of the service I pay them for every month includes the work involved in making and keeping track of my bill accurately. I have never entered into any agreement with them to share the responsibility of their billing department.

I can understand someone saying "Oh, well, you should have noticed this sooner, so it's partially your fault." But really there's nothing concrete to actually back up that line of thinking.

Generally, when I go to eat, I look at the bill total, and if it seems reasonable, then I pay it.

KB, I'm really surprised about your TSB experience. All of Ford's TSBs state very clearly at the bottom whether or not the issue that they talk about is able to be covered under warranty. It seems kind of crazy for Chrysler to come out and admit there is a prevalent issue but then just leave it up to each individual dealer to determine if it falls under a warranty or not.

[KillerB]

It might not have been a full-on TSB. It's called a "Star issue" on the Challenger forum, and I'm not entirely sure what that means.

They also claimed my VIN was outside the range for it, but the issue matched the description perfectly.