Friday, May 23, 2008

Legal False Advertising



Dear Charter Communications and Paul Allen, CEO:

I want to share with you my concern for your well-being, as I experienced a rather deep shock and dissatisfying event yesterday when I attempted to sign up for your cable internet services.

I went to www.charter.com and attempted to sign up. Everything seemed fairly easy at first. In fact, I was delighted to sample your wares for six months at an introductory rate of $19.99, going so far as to try and set up an appointment for installation; however, the website was spotty, and I was forced to call a help number.

Now please note, everyone with whom I spoke was helpful and well-mannered, but I must say I was taken back when the person mentioned the $10.00 “no cable fee.”

I asked where in the Terms and Services it contained information on this fee, and in fact it was not in the terms and services section of your website – it was in fine print at the bottom of “more information” regarding the unbundled $19.99 offer.

My dissatisfaction comes with the fact that this is legal false advertising being committed by Charter Communications, and I find it particular distasteful that your good, polite employees are forced to defend it.

Even when I printed my receipt – it contained only the $19.99 per month fee and the installation fee. Meaning I would not have known about the other fee until my first bill arrived.

As gas and food prices continue to increase, your services may be one of the first to be trimmed to save money in each family budget, especially when services and expectations are not being met; consequently, please consider using a sharper honesty in dealings with the public, that your good, hardworking employees not be forced to defend corporate marketing deceit and legal false advertising, and that your company remain solvent despite a host of issues which most of your customers are not aware.

Sincerely,

Admin

11 comments:

Jeremy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jeremy said...

I got tired of Charter's special-rates-for-however-many-months-
then-exorbitant-rates-afterward deals and got rid of cable TV and cable Internet upon moving to my new place. Now I have DSL (and no local service) through AT&T and it's a flat fee every month with no surcharges, taxes, etc. Best of all, I'm getting $175 in rebates for switching.

Kelly said...

yeah...i got slammed with a completely unmentioned $30 'upgrade fee' when i switched to a digital bundle that was CHEAPER than my BASIC cable tv + internet package.

plus, when we moved a year ago they somehow charged us for the month before we ever called and signed up. it took 3 hours and 4 people hanging up on me to finally get transferred to a manager who told me, 'with all due respect ma'm you can't possibly be right.' - until i told her to double check her dates and received a reluctant apology and agreement to remove the extra month of charges.

man, i can't express how much hatred i have in my heart for charter. i'm glad to be canceling my service the end of this month!!

zen said...

Exactly. I prefer basing my decision to buy/rent/lease something knowing the cost of it. But that's just me... heh.

Tron said...

That 'no cable' fee has been around as long as Charter has been around. It's actually cheaper in most cases (Mine, for instance) to accept the basic cable... even if you wont use it (even though you know you will :) ).

Sudeaux Lux said...

Doesn't that just suck? I have to have Charter for my home business since they're the only high speed in my area.

Shad Marsh said...

I can feel my blood pressure shoot up whenever someone just mentions the word Charter...They are slime.

Anonymous said...

Charter is RANCID slime. Their customer service is revolting. My husband spent more than 30 hours on the phone one week with their horrid customer service people to try to rectify a problem that he could prove was on their server's end (his master's work is in computer science). They refused to take any off our bill to make up for his time. (He also made two trips to their office.) We dropped them and never looked back. Sign up with Charter at your own peril world.

Matt Howard said...

Being involved in URTV, having charter is the only way I can watch my show. That said, I want 10 years without cable, and will probably dump them when my 12 months special rate is up.

mygothlaundry said...

Ah yes, the horror that is Charter. Remember last summer? They're unbelievable. And, once you have them, the cost to switch makes them indispensable. Yargh. In two years (okay, or twelve, whatever) when the kid moves out, the TV goes away forever and then, ha ha, no more Charter!

mygothlaundry said...

Wait, not indispensable. I mean you're stuck. You cannot get out without paying even more money. They're totally dispensable, not indispensable. More coffee! Must have more coffee! Wait! Perhaps am already too wired! AAAAIIIIEEEEE!!!