Fees to Pay Bill Over Phone Are Common, Even in Cable

By Kent Gibbons and Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 1/9/2012 12:01:00 AM

When Verizon Wireless floated — then, on Dec. 30, rescinded — a $2 fee for making single payments online or over the phone, some stories pointed out such fees are already in place at many telecommunications providers, including cable companies.

Often the fee is a lot higher, at least for over-the-phone payments.

Website DSL Reports noted that Comcast, at least in some markets, has charged a fee to customers who pay their bills in person, when a company representative handles the transaction (as opposed to dropping a check in a payment box).

Comcast spokeswoman Jenni Moyer said some markets might charge a fee for in-person payments, but that is “not across the board, to the best of my knowledge.”

Moyer also said Comcast, the top MSO, had no plan to charge a fee for one-time, online bill payments. Nor does No. 2 Time Warner Cable, spokesman Alex Dudley said.

Fees for paying over the phone, though, are standard practice for some MSOs, including Comcast and TWC.

A Boston Globe roundup on Jan. 5 noted that triple-play provider RCN charges “$4.50 to use its automated phone system, and $6.95 to make a payment through a customer service representative on the phone.”

Comcast charges $5.99, the Globe noted (and Comcast confi rmed), and DirecTV and Dish each charge $5 for payments over the phone.

Time Warner Cable, in at least some markets, charges $4.99 to pay over the phone — or even to process a payper- view event order a customer calls in.

The TWC fees prompted a rebuke from Bunnie Riedel, executive director of American Community Television, a not-for-profit group that supports public-access channels.

Riedel reviewed TWC policies in California, Texas, North Carolina and Ohio, and found $4.99 fees for “Agent Assisted Payment” or “Agent Assisted PPV.” That’s too much, she said, and might even be more than the cost of a PPV movie.

“If you think about who’s calling to pay over the phone, it’s typically people who are late or on the verge of being late,” Riedel told The Wire. “If they are late, they are assessed a late fee, but to pile on an additional charge for the privilege of giving an agent your credit card information over the phone is ridiculous.”

Moyer and Dudley said their companies offer an automated option to pay via credit card over the phone for free.

Traver Trades Cable To Build Next-Gen Internet Down Under

Gary Traver, former head of Comcast Media Center in Denver, is now an Aussie media maven.

Traver recently relocated to Melbourne to take a consulting job for Telstra, the country’s largest telco. He’s helping Telstra build its media business as it embarks on a project with the Australian government dubbed the National Broadband Network, which aims to deliver fi ber-to-thehome Internet access to 93% of the population by 2021.

“I call it Australia’s response to network neutrality,” Traver wrote in an email to The Wire.

Why Down Under? “I have always wanted to take an assignment in another country,” said Traver, who left CMC in 2010 after 10 years. He’s had some opportunities over the years, “but the timing has never been right until recently.”

The weather is a bit barmy, Traver allowed: Summer has started in Australia, and temperatures can swing between the 50s and 100 degrees (Farenheit).

“Even though Melbourne is at the same latitude as Denver, it has some tropical vegetation,” said Traver, who’s an avid cyclist. He’s digging the city’s culture and diversity and added that it has “unbelievable transportation.”

“Our kids are out of the house, and this is a great time to experience and explore another part of the world before grandkids come,” he said. G’day, indeed!

Moving On, and Up: Pac-12 Inks Marquez, Cox Taps New GMs

The coming of 2012 saw upward and outward moves by several people in cable, including the following:

• Arturo (Art) Marquez was named top affiliate marketing executive at the startup Pac-12 Networks sports programmer, which cited Marquez’s experience with launches of the NFL and MLB Networks. His title is senior vice president of affiliate sales and marketing. He moves from MLB Network, where he was SVP of distribution, affiliate sales and marketing. Pac-12 has partnered with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks in the upcoming August launch of a national network and six regional sports networks. Marquez only has to sign up the satellite-TV and telco-TV operators and the rest of cable.

• Marilyn Burrows, the Cox SVP and general manager in Las Vegas, was promoted to SVP and GM of the company’s Central Region (Arkansas, Kansas and Nebraska), filling the vacancy created when Janet Barnard became chief operating officer at Cox Enterprises’ Manheim auto-auctions unit (as noted in the Nov. 21 Wire). Duffy Leone, operations SVP for Cox’s California systems, becomes the new SVP and GM in Las Vegas.

• Jeff Pomeroy, the longtime Turner Sports PR ace, has set up shop as president of JDP Communications in Atlanta. Crucially, he already has clients, including the owners and producers of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and Kenny Smith Entertainment Group. Smith, the former National Basketball Association star, is an analyst on TNT. In other PR shop talk, Jim Boyle, the former longtime Discovery Channel communicator, has co-founded Boyle Public Affairs in the Washington, D.C., area, bringing on former Discovery PR folks Krista Van Lewen and Karen Baratz among his associates.

OPEN ‘HOUSE’ ON SHOWTIME

Don Cheadle, wearing a lot more clothes than in the opening scene of his new Showtime series, House of Lies, and co-star Kristen Bell posed for paparazzi at last Wednesday’s premiere party and screening at the AT&T Center in Los Angeles. The raucous comedy about rampaging management consultants debuted last Sunday (Jan. 8).