Los Angeles Sues Time Warner Cable For Shoddy Customer Service
Lawsuit Claims TWC Fell Woefully Short During Transition Of Adelphia, Comcast Accounts
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 6/5/2008 9:47:00 AM
Los Angeles city attorney Rocky Delgadillo filed a lawsuit Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court against Time Warner Cable for significant service lapses in 2006 and early 2007, officials in his office have confirmed.
The suit, first reported in the Los Angeles Times, is linked to the problems the operator had during the time it assumed control of the former Adelphia Communications Inc. systems in the area, as well as system swaps it executed with its co-buyer in the Adelphia transaction, Comcast Corp.
Time Warner's takeover necessitated an e-mail migration by customers from Adelphia and Comcast domains to that of Time Warner; channel line-up changes, billing changes (especially among Adelphia customers, where poor database management had allowed some customers to pay discounted rates years after the offer had expired) and other customer-facing changes. The resulting customer calls swamped the call centers leading to long hold times.
During that period, the city recorded 1,997 complaint calls, compared to 984 complaints in the same period the previous two years. But Time Warner rushed to hire more personnel and has been operating without public outcry for at least 14 months before this lawsuit.
The complaint alleges that Time Warner violated state business regulations by making misleading statements to customers. Time Warner's advertising at the time promised the transition would be easy and consumers would have to take little or no action because of the change in ownership.
At the time, the city had a contract with Time Warner requiring it to answer all calls in 30 seconds or less and to begin repairs, once notified of a problem, within 24 hours, 90% of the time. Time Warner was out of compliance with those standards for about six months.
The operator is no longer controlled by the city of Los Angeles; in 2007, the state legislature approved a state franchising scheme, shifting cable regulation to the Public Utilities Commission. Time Warner applied for regulation by that agency in January.
Time Warner now controls most of the cable homes in the city of Los Angeles, except for a franchise area in the harbor-San Pedro area operated by Cox Communications Inc. and in Malibu, where Charter Communications Inc. serves about 100 homes.
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It is true the Adelphia systems were not in good shape and the upkeep had been poor, however Time Warner Cable knew full well what they were getting into as the infrastructure had been evaluated before the transaction closed. They were arrogant and over confident without reason - monopolistic, yes but not just in LA. The monopolies exist all over the country and not just for Time Warner but for COX and Comcast etc. as well.
TWC has been greedy and the internal management consists of people who know no other way than the easy monopoly way in which they can just pass on all their cost increases (many employees in management have been working for the company since the beginning or early in their careers and they don''t know any other way to operate). Now competition has begun in earnest and all the states are moving to statewide franchising leading the way to opening up to the Telcos including UVerse and Fios. Time Warner is not prepared for any of this and have been pushing the bounds of their financial status.
The management of expenses will prevent improvement in the customer care and field services areas. They are taking on approx. $10B of debt to separate from Time Warner, Inc. effectively doubling their debt load. Their programming costs especially for Spanish product is likely to increase soon further impacting performance. Don''t look for any improvement in LA for some time to come.....
Ms. King - 7/26/2008 4:47:00 AM EDT -
F*CK YOU, TIME WARNER CABLE!
Shame on you! I've never had such horrible [lack of] customer service in my LIFE... and I am pretty forgiving.
They have lied, misled, ignored, messed up, put me on hold for HOURS, not returned my calls, overcharged me, taken away channels and then billed me more, and even the supervisors don't return my calls.
They are HORSESH!T and they are GOING DOWN!
How can I join in on this lawsuit? I want ALL my money back that I've paid to them, plus losses for my time on the phone with them for HOURS on end, only to get NO RESULT, and also for horrible service which negatively affected my business life, social life, and family life.
Are we customers going to get reparations?
FVCK YOU, TIME WARNER CABLE! Shame on you!
Pissed Daf Huckoff - 7/25/2008 5:14:00 AM EDT -
You can''t totally blame Time Warner, matter of fact I put most of the blame on the City of Los Angeles itself. The greedy city powers negotiated these monopolistic franchises with little thought for the consumer. There was no requirement to improve or develop services, it was actively permitted to just limp along with antiquated equipment and services. When Time Warner took over Adelphia who had a large portion of the LA franchise it got a dog. For years Adelphia had substandard service, substandard signal quality, and frequent outages. One December I experienced an outage of over two weeks. They were one of the last companies to offer internet access and High Def and both were crap. Frequent signal breakup and loss of connectivity. So the City may try to lay the blame on Time Warner but they are as much at fault.
Scott Krueger - 6/5/2008 7:39:00 PM EDT
Adlink Loves Los Angeles VOD
02/23/2008L.A. Sues TWC for Service Lapses
06/08/2008L.A. OK with Time Warner
12/01/2005
