Dr. Krishnakumar sent a message to Thomas M. Rutledge – Chief Executive Officer and President of Charter Communications, Inc. – Email Address that said:
Dear Mr. Rutledge,
I am writing to describe the horrible experience I have had with time warner staff re a recent upgrade to my services. I have been a long standing time warner customer for internet and tv services. I read on the internet about new phone service and plans that had lower calling rates for Trinidad and Tobago than I had with Vonage. So I called your folks at time warner and they were able to sell me on both adding time warner’s phone service and upgrading my internet package. I was assured that with an additional monthly fee of about$4.50 I would be able to call Trinidad and Tobago for one cent per minute. However, on looking at my online account I found that I am enrolled in the Global Penny Plan and that the lowest rate for Trinidad and Tobago is 13 cents per minute. As you can see quite a difference! I was convinced to make the switch to time warner phone service first because of the 1 cent rate and because I was assured that I would be able to keep my old phone number. However, when the install was in process I was told my old number was in a different “rate group” and time warner would not accept it even though vonage was willing to release the number. Also, all of the sales pitches for switching phone services and upgrading my internet package never mentioned I would have to pay an upgrade charge. I have only lately discovered I have been assessed an $84 one time charge for the ‘upgrade” to the services I have made to my account with time warner. If I had known up front that 1) I would lose my old phone number, 2)the phone rate with time warner would not be 1 cent a minute for Trinidad and Tobago, and 3) I would have to pay an ‘upgrade” fee for the change in services I would not have opted to do what I did. In fact I would have either stayed with Vonage or looked at FIOS or Direct TV to meet my needs. I believe your customer representatives engaged in deceptive practices in luring me to make the changes I did. I understand your company records calls made to customer service so you can review those and verify what I have described above.
There were multiple customer representatives that lied to me or failed to disclose charges that would be made if I took the package on offer. However, the representative ( I believe described as being from the retention department) who assured I could keep my phone number and initially offered the low 1 cent rate was the most egregious. Because of that I did make a complaint to another of your customer representatives. That episode was yet another frustrating experience but finally I did get an ID number associated with that first complaint. The install and my initial complaint was made on January 2nd and I have not had any feedback on what action if any was taken re my complaint. I have provided my account details below for your convenience.
Sincerely,
Dr. Krishnakumar
