Sad, little man
January 27th, 2015, 04:04 PM
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
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