Yesterday, I got a surprise when I opened my cable bill. It doubled in the space of a month. Apparently my offer expired. The offer that the cable guy told me would not expire--well except for the Showtime that I haven't watched in 8 months. I don't even know what channel it is and it is too far in for me to surf to.
So I called Time Warner to see what was up with my bill. I expected to see a rate increase in January but that didn't happen. It happened this week.
The call system was very frustrating, It kept looping me through with I'm sorry I didn't understand that. It took me 4:20 to get into the cue. Then I got the service rep from Hell. When I complained about the automated system and that it took me an uncommonly long time to get into the cue, she said We have a lot of people waiting. What? Instead of saying I'm sorry that must be frustrating, we are working on the system to provide excellent customer service, she didn't want to hear that the company she works for has horrible automation. Well, I guess, they hire the same sort of employees as they do machines.
Then she continued to dispute with me on this issue, I said, if you will listen to me then we can get to my problem and you can get to the next customer. Finally, I explained my problem. She looked at my account and said That is your rate. What? No it wasn't until this month, what happened. This took another 3 times explaining before she looked into my account to see what happened to make my bill double.
The I explained that Time Warner has two options they can either reduce my bill back to my former rate or I can turn my cable box in. Then she went on about something, I don't even remember. When I asked to speak with a supervisor she refused. Then I got fed up with her and explained that I wanted to speak with a supervisor about the lack of her customer service skills. This took another 3 minutes of explaining to her that I wanted to complain about her so I needed to speak with someone. Finally, she put me on hold and I spoke to the supervisor which she had previously explained to me did not exist. To be fair the supervisor was professional.
The end result is that there were no special rates and Time Warner would rather not have my business. Which is fine with me because after yesterday's interaction and the fact that the last two times I went to the local store during their business hours they were closed, I am happy to be without TV.
TV is something that I don't really need. For me $50 was a fair price for me to get TV and internet. (Turns out my neighbor has a wireless network that I can cockroach on so I don't internet) But more than $50 crosses what I deem as a fair value for my perceived needs. TV for me is a convenience and not a necessity. When the cable guy knocked on my door offering me the deal with immediate hook up (no being held hostage in the apartment waiting for them to come in the window and then failing) I did a quick value calculation in my head. The cost matched the value I was willing to pay, so it worked. Now the cost exceeds the value so back to the cable shop. If they are open that is.
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