Time for a Charter Change?

By Kelly Stone
Investigative Journalist
(Ron Lee contributing)

USA – Most people associate Paul Allen with his great philanthropic deeds through his several outstanding foundations. While some might only know Allen as one of the founders of Microsoft, still others know him as the owner of Oregon’s Trail Blazers and Seattle’s Seahawks, but, many upset consumers know him as the controlling stock owner of the country’s fourth largest cable company (according to ncta.com), Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR). Allen owns approximately 52% of the stock and controls around 90% of the voting power as chairman of the board since purchasing Charter in December 1998. Since June of 2007 Charter Communications had 5,376,800 cable TV, cable high-speed internet and/or voice over cable (phone) subscribers, and some subscribers are getting fed-up with Charter’s service outages, billing issues and poor customer service.

Subscribers in many states are so enraged with their “mis-dealings” with Charter Communications that they are posting complaints on legal web sites like medlawplus.com in hopes to spur a class-action lawsuit and others are filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) causing the BBB to make this statement about Charter Communications (this comment
is regarding Charter Communications Corporate, for local ratings go to BBB.org and search Charter Communications in your area):

“Based on BBB files, this cable, digital TV, and high speed internet access provider has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to a pattern of complaints and has failed to correct the underlying reason for the complaints. Complaints concern that the firm had improper billing practices, referred customer bills to collection agencies in error, provided poor customer service, used misleading advertising, provided defective internet or cable performance, used improper sales tactics or misrepresented the actual costs of installation and service, failed to properly install or maintain service, damaged customers’ property, and failed to honor service appointments … The BBB processed a total of 2193 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period.”

In the June of ’07 article, “The Best and Worst ISPs” written by Jeff Bertolucci of PC World, Charter Communications Cable Internet Service (ISP) was rated as worst against other companies who provide similar services. In fact it scored below average marks in all but two categories.

Charter Communications sign, Grants Pass, OR.

One elderly couple living in Southern Oregon, who had recently added Charter’s Phone service to their subscription, had their service disconnected for “line upgrades” two days before Thanksgiving. According to the grandson of the couple who spoke with the US~Observer on the condition of anonymity, Charter had told his grandparents that their service would be back on the next day, but when it wasn’t, the couple contacted the company through someone else’s phone service and they were told their service wouldn’t be on until after the holiday weekend. The grandson was concerned because the Charter Phone service was his grandparents only way to get in touch with family members and emergency services should anything happen. The grandson also stated that he has had issues with his Charter Communications provided services saying, “If you sign-up for a special promotion, they don’t indicate that there will be any increase in price. You just have to pay it when you get the bill, or your service will be shut off.” In a conversation with the grandson following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, his grandparents’ service had been reconnected.

A Wikipedia search on Charter Communications resulted in a page found with this history about the company:

“Charter Communications incorporated in Delaware in 1993. Through a series of acquisitions as well as internally financed growth, the company served one million customers in 1998, 3.9 million in 1999, and 6.8 million in 2002.
The company was involved in an accounting fraud in 2000/2001 (relating to the inflation of revenue and operating cash flow and cable subscriber numbers) for which four former executives were indicated in 2005. The company had been under financial pressure following a series of acquisitions; its stock peaked at $27.75 per share in November 1999, before falling to under $1 in 2002.
On March 22, 2006, Charter announced that it will sell cable systems serving approximately 43,000 customers in Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah to Orange Broadband Holding Company.
Charter will also sell cable systems in West Virginia and Virginia to Cebridge Connections (now known as Suddenlink Communications) and cable systems in Kentucky and Illinois to New Wave Communications.
In 2006, Charter accelerated sales of cable telephone services using Broadband Telephony technology (or VoIP). Charter suggests a battery backup to reduce the risk of being without phone service in the event main power is lost.
Customer service representatives are reported to recommend a traditional plain-old telephone system (POTS) access line for use with medical devices.”

On a corporate financial note, in a story written by Rich Duprey titled “The Chatter About Charter” which was published in August 2007 on the Motley Fool (www.fool.com), Duprey asserts that Charter has “nearly $20 billion of debt that it can’t service, $81 million in cash, trailing revenue of $5.7 billion, and losses of more than $1.2 billion over the past 12 months.”

According to some Charter subscribers this could be one of the reasons for their outrageous bills which are received after they have been “sold” by Charter personnel on upgrading their current level of subscription. They maintain Charter offers promotional rates for upgraded or new services and then doesn’t make good on the promotions. In one case, a Southern Oregon subscriber upgraded his service only to find out later by Charter representatives that the promotion was never entered into their system and he was forced to pay an exorbitant bill. According to the subscriber, Ron Lee (contributing writer of this story) Charter dealt with the situation by crediting his account and ensuring that his level of service was what he wanted, but this only occurred after Charter received notice that Lee was a member of the press and was going to be writing an article regarding their dissatisfied customers. Lee stated on his Charter customer service experience, “When I was just a customer I couldn’t get any help and was met with a constant run-around. At one point I was chatting on-line with one of their customer service reps on their web site and I asked for a supervisor’s direct phone number. They said that they couldn’t give out that information over the chat function for the sake of privacy. I found this odd as it was okay for me to submit a payment through this chat function divulging my personal information, but they couldn’t give me a phone number? It was soon after I responded with that exact question to the rep that my chat session was terminated.”

Lee stated that this was hardly the first time he had contacted customer service regarding his Charter account. “I have had many conversations with customer service, especially regarding the outages I was continually experiencing. I was being told that the problems were for my benefit, because Charter was upgrading their system to make way for phone services and also doing routine maintenance. I explained that I wouldn’t be upgrading to their phone service, because if they couldn’t provide the service I was paying for, why would I add another? Interestingly, the representative, who I recorded under Oregon one-party consent recording laws, admitted that she thought Charter was going to lose all of their Oregon customer’s because of outages and service interruptions. She said, and I quote,‘Oregon. Ha, ha, ha (laughing). Oh, poor people, Oregon. Oregon has had several, several, several issues with maintenance due to the fact that we are launching telephone in that area, and so the maintenance that is going on is us moving your head in from one place to another and splicing in new, um, (something said here) lines and things like that. All this stuff means nothing to you of course, but it is why your services are frequently down. … Medford got hit so hard with maintenance that I thought for sure that all of Oregon was going leave Charter. We had a lot of irate customers.’ unquote.”

In the recording of the Charter representative, it is stated,“The poor services you are receiving now is, uh, what is, uh, it’s, it’s supposed to and and it’s happening to, in fact, better the service believe it or not, even though I know you don’t see it that way. And I know it’s extremely frustrating when you pay for a service and you expect it to work the way we say it would, then it doesn’t work that way.”

When asked if the representative knew if consumers were supposed to be notified of maintenance she gave this response, “Here’s another thing that is probably going to make you have a small little coronary. That little yellow paper or that little pink slip that you signed when you first accepted Charter services, in the really fine print that no one ever never reads, we included, it says that from time-to-time services will go down due to maintenance and you, you are aware of this fact, um, by signing that paper … Sorta, Kinda we tell you that we informed you that it may happen, um, but we kind of leave it to you to read those itty-bitty words with a magnifying glass.”

In a conversation with a Charter’s escalation officer and a VP of communications where Lee informed them of their representative’s statements regarding the fine print they both said that Charter doesn’t have contracts, and that the only thing Lee could have possibly signed was an initial work order. They also maintain that they are very concerned about the customer experience, but in Lee’s opinion they are more concerned with the appearance of good customer service than actually providing it. Lee said about correspondence he received from one of the executives, “I got an e-mail saying that they had looked into service issues in my area and that customers with similar services had minimal trouble calls. It went on to say that many had none reported in the past five years. I found that to be very interesting. As part of my research I went around my area asking about their Charter experiences. I found the comments to be predominantly negative toward Charter. This was backed up by ratings both locally and on a corporate level through the BBB where every Charter franchise that I looked at had an unsatisfactory rating and many customers with whom they hadn’t even responded to.”

According to Paul Walter of NewsWithViews.com, even Charter’s corporate billing has issues. “We got a bill from Charter for commercials we ran and we paid it right away. Then all of a sudden we get another bill for the same thing!” Walter explained. He went on to say that he had to contact Charter to remedy the situation.

These complaints aren’t just local to Oregon; they are nationwide in every market where Charter is the cable provider. For instance, complaints like those on the Class Action bulletin board titled “Charter Billing Practices” on the medlawplus.com web site include 42 posts since October 1, 2007 and include the following:

Back in September we added telephone to our current cable and internet services and the bundle was supposed to upgrade us to high speed internet, add HBO and Cinemax and with the telephone be a total of $119.97 per month plus taxes. It was going to add $16 to my current charges which was about $50 a month cheaper than having AT&T as our phone company. HOWEVER, we have yet to receive a bill for $119.97. I have been paying $125 a month which is close to what it should be with taxes, however now I have a past due bill around $200 with service charges. I have called, emailed and even spoke with a customer representative who told me that the reason my bill is $139.97 per month plus applicable fees is because I have HBO and Cinemax and some Movie View thing on my cable. I told her that it was part of the “Package” and she told me I needed to prove it by taking the original promotion card I received in the mail in early Sept. to my local office. Hello…. I don’t have the original promotion card anymore. Why would I keep it?! So, from what I can gather, I’m stuck with a larger bill until “I can prove” what “their” promotion was. What a bunch of B.S.
Sherry
Michigan

Charter Communications maintains its commitment to its customers stating on their web site, www.charter.com:

“To further strengthen our customer relationships, Charter continually invests in customer care and service capabilities, striving every day to deliver high-quality, value-added services, support, and a quality customer experience. We provide convenience and compelling value through our triple-play bundle of cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services, remaining constantly focused on our mission of providing value to our customers.”

While Lee is satisfied with the final outcome to his issues, he maintains his opinion that the solution was only due to his status as a journalist.

Lee said of his research into Charter, “Obviously there are a lot of people out there who have serious issues with Charter Communications, and many are making what could be considered accusations of criminal conduct against the company. You only have to do an on-line search to find it.”

On a solution Lee said, “Hopefully Charter can turn things around before there is another class-action suit filed or the Attorney General gets involved. But, I hope Mr. Allen, who I have a great deal of respect for, will hear just how hurt so many feel by a company he is a part of that he will change Charter for the better. Only time will tell. Until then, a great many people will continue to feel they are stuck with their Charter experience.”

For information on cable regulations go to www.fcc.gov.

If you wish to contact Charter directly:
Charter Communications
Telephone: (636) 207-5100
Fax: (636) 230-7034
Or you can e-mail the Charter Communications President & CEO, Neil Smit, directly at: Neil.Smit@chartercom.com.