Los Angeles to sue Time Warner Cable over shoddy service
by Darren Murph, posted Jun 6th 2008 at 7:42AM
Far from being the first time Time Warner Cable has
upset its subscriber base, the Los Angeles city attorney's office is pulling a Dee Snider and refusing to take the carrier's lackluster service anymore. In a 25-page lawsuit, the city is alleging that the operator "caused major havoc and distress" two years ago when it "failed to live up to its part of the franchise cable agreement requiring that a company answer subscribers' calls within 30 seconds and begin repairs of service interruptions within 24 hours of notification in 90% of its calls for service." The suit claims that no more than 60% of customer calls were answered in time, and cable / internet service was said to be "so intermittent and inferior in quality that it was not much better than no service at all." Not surprisingly, TWC representatives chose not to comment on the whole ordeal, but the outfit could face civil penalties of tens of millions of crisp US dollars in the case. Should've picked up the phone, TWC -- it would've been easier than picking up this tab. [
Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]
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Web 2 Concepts, thanks Scott]
Filed under: Industry, Cable, Internet
Tags: cable, california, court, customer service, CustomerService, lawsuit, legal, los angeles, LosAngeles, problem, quality, service, sued, suit, time warner cable, TimeWarnerCable, twc
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Big Wizz @ Jun 6th 2008 9:31AM
"requiring that a company answer subscribers' calls within 30 seconds"
Really?? I don't know if I could get my mom to answer my call within 30 sec.
Expecting a top-heavy (heavy on execs, light on actual CSRs) organization to answer the phone promptly is a bit unrealistic.
Big Sam @ Jun 6th 2008 9:54AM
TWC shouldn't have signed the contract then
The Fuzz 53 @ Jun 6th 2008 10:17AM
I hope we see a lot more of this. It's common knowledge that ALL communications companies suck. Honestly, you can say they are happy with their provider? These companies are a disgrace and only function because they are monopolies/oligopoilies. It's almost like they collude to provide shitty service and screw consumers every chance they get.
As much as I hate government intervention into ANYTHING, maybe it's time we do something about this industry. This is the USA. We are supposed to be the world super power, but our communication capabilities put us at the back of the pack. This needs to be changed.
The Fuzz 53 @ Jun 6th 2008 10:23AM
Wow, I butchered that sentence.
Should read: Honestly, how many people can you say are happy with their provider?
EQC @ Jun 6th 2008 2:33PM
and yet, so few people are willing to stop paying for the service and go without...
until consumers stop giving them money, the businesses have few reasons to improve.
EQC @ Jun 6th 2008 2:37PM
....of course, to be fair, consumers often end up with 1-2 year contracts for service, and there may be some threats of large monetary costs for canceling early.
By providing lousy service, the cable company may have broken the contract first...but that knowledge doesn't make it any easier on the consumer trying to cancel without getting extra bills.
So perhaps the real problem is with municipalities/governments that allow a single cable provider to hold a local monopoly, and for the governments allowing these damn 1-2 year service contracts that effectively tie the consumer's hands for a lengthy period of time.
mitchelljd @ Jun 6th 2008 11:10AM
I am a TWC LA Roadrunner client who can testify to the mixed results they really show consumers.
One day we lost our Cable/Internet, and I reported it, but they wouldn't send a crew to check until they hit a certain # of reports. Essentially they made a problem which could have been fixed sooner into a major outage for 1 1/2 days.
TWC can do alot better than they have been offering for LA. Hell LA is a major city, yet TWC offers tier 3 service.
Yes they bought Adelphia systems, but that doesn't mean they ought to be satisfied with low quality.
TWC needs to do better. In NYC they are alot better than LA, and it shows!!
Mote @ Jun 6th 2008 12:02PM
I am a TWC Roadrunner client here in Los Angeles and have been shown exceptional service where I live. So this is pretty much news to me. In the year I've had their service, I've only experienced one dropout of my internet connection, which ended up being my fault to begin with. But the tech support was fantastic and seemed very willing to help.
I guess I may be the exception.
Mark @ Jun 6th 2008 12:05PM
i live in this market... here's two ways they can make it up to us:
1. faster upload/download bandwidth caps
2. become one of the earlier markets to get update their HD channel line
Alex @ Jun 6th 2008 12:09PM
if anything cities should be suing them over Navigator!!!
Eli @ Jun 6th 2008 12:32PM
I had been an Adelphia customer in LA and was quite happy with the service. When Time Warner showed up, everything very quickly started to go wrong. When my last DVR broke, I was repeatedly given wrong information about having it replaced and ended up driving to the customer service office only to be told that I had once again been given the wrong information. When my Road Runner internet starting going off at random intervals, they sent a guy out twice who had no idea how to fix it, then told me a third time they could come by. I took the day off work and they never showed up. I switched to DSL from AT&T and have had no problems since (not to mention my download speeds are inexplicably and unexpectedly twice as fast). My cable signal is shoddy at best. I used to be able to get an Adelphia rep on the phone in a matter of minutes (and they were local), but now I wait half an hour on hold to get someone in Colorado.
I'll be switching to DirectTV next month. I've just had enough of this. Especially now that they've raised my rates $10 a month (not counting the $5 I lost when I got rid of internet), I can save a good amount of money per month and get more channels.
DJ @ Jun 6th 2008 2:22PM
(Disclaimer: I am not now nor have I ever been an emploee of TWC or any of it's affliate caompanies.)
OK, that being said, TWC is probably the ONLY "utility" company that I get great customer service from here in Southeast Wisconsin. I have never had any problems dealing with them, my questions are always answered, I have had almost no service interruptions and overall, I also feel I'm getting a pretty decent value.
My biggest complaint is lack of HD channels, Seems like everyone else, including LA, is getting HD rollouts long before us.
Evan @ Jun 6th 2008 2:35PM
TW is the worst piece of overpriced garbage ever... Sorry to vent but I have been having continual internet/cable blackouts in Columbus, OH for the past two weeks. Their network status is RED, and I have called a few times to report this. Do they seriously expect me to pay my bill no questions when my internet speeds have been hovering around dial-up with the occasional spike to ISDN?
They first said it must be my cable modem. When I asked what that had to do with me having cable on my TV... there wasn't a real response, just completely ignored it.
EQC @ Jun 6th 2008 2:40PM
If LA sues TWC, and wins a bunch of money...doesn't that just mean that TWC will get that money back by raising rates for consumers?
While, in the long run, that might drive a few consumers to switch to satellite, etc...in the short term it sounds like it will hurt consumers more.
Mark @ Jun 6th 2008 7:18PM
I'm in the TWC LA area as well. The lackluster HD lineup is my biggest complaint, but I don't like the contracts that come with Sat. The internet service is spotty but it's much better than the DSL I had before.