Senate Finds Cablecos Overbill TV Users, Do Little to Correct It Cable providers today will head before Congress to defend their long, proud history of utterly abysmal customer service. Among the things to be discussed at the hearing will be cable providers' consistent tendency to dramatically overbill cable TV and broadband subscribers. One study (pdf) released before the hearing found that these over-charges can often be dramatic, and quite frequently consumers aren't seeing refunds for the errant billing. The worst ranked providers consistently saw the most problems on this front.

Our readers may be shocked to learn the investigation found that "customer billing records do not always match customer equipment and service records, meaning that some customers are billed for items they have not ordered while others erroneously escape being charged for services or equipment they use." For example, between January and April 2016, the Senate Committee found that Time Warner Cable overbilled customers nationwide an to the tune of $639,948. The Subcommittee's study projects that, in 2016, Time Warner Cable will overbill customers nationwide a total of $1,919,844. The Committee stated that Charter has not yet completed the underlying work necessary to determine how much it has overbilled customers, but it informed the Subcommittee that it overbilled customers by at least $442,691 per month. "Throughout the time period examined by the Subcommittee, Time Warner Cable and Charter made no effort to trace equipment overcharges to their origin unless customers specifically asked them to and did not provide notice or refunds to customers," notes the study. Of course now Time Warner Cable and Charter are merged, the combined entities hopefully won't become the Voltron of billing incompetence. Both companies tell the Senate they've put systems and procedures in place to minimize such problems moving forward. Interestingly, the study found that while Charter and Time Warner Cable didn't try very hard to prevent over-billing, Comcast and DirecTV provided full refunds to overcharged customers, and that Dish’s "sophisticated billing system is designed to prevent these types of issues from occurring in the first instance." Senators Rob Portman (R, OH) and Claire McCaskill (D, MO), chair and ranking member, respectively of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations spearheaded the inquiry. The duo stated a hearing was necessary due to the deceptive business practices of some pay TV providers. However, given that campaign contributions are a huge reason that pay TV providers have behaved in this fashion for the better part of a generation, it seems unlikely today's hearing will do all that much. The Senate's report, as well as the full testimony from attendees of today's hearing, is available The Senate's report, as well as the full testimony from attendees of today's hearing, is available here for those interested.







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Most recommended from 25 comments

pandora

Premium Member

join:2001-06-01

Outland 20 recommendations pandora Premium Member News flash - Congress does nothing! It came as a shock today when a branch of the United States Congress held hearings, did an investigation, and took no meaningful action on an issue confronting Americans.



In other news, rain is wet.



Studies show the sun may be hotter than a candle, but only if you are very close to the sun. If you are over the candles flame, the candle is hotter. Some claim this is the law of relativity, others claim it's a law of thermodynamics. More studies are necessary.

voipguy

join:2006-05-31

Forest Hills, NY 7 recommendations voipguy Member That's Entertainment Skip through the video to a bit past 1 hour in to see the Q&A session.



It is quite amusing, especially the responses to Sen. McCaskill's questions.



The summary: Sen McCaskill: "you charge customers different prices for the same things"

Any operator: "well, yes, but for good reasons"

mikedz4

join:2003-04-14

Weirton, WV 7 recommendations mikedz4 Member What about our $200 monthly bills? Why doesn't our wonderful Congress do something about our outrageous cable/ satellite bills? mmay149q

Premium Member

join:2009-03-05

Dallas, TX 7 recommendations mmay149q Premium Member This is a laughing stock listening to it I love the part where Miss Schneider says "our success as a business depends on satisfied customers" That's a joke since they serve rural customers that only have them as an option, their success depends on being the only provider and having a monopoly because where else are you going to go? Pfft, don't give me that bullshit, listening to this all I keep hearing is an advertisement for each individual business and nothing more...