Alan H. Rolnick, Esq. sent a message to Thomas M. Rutledge - Chief Executive Officer and President of Charter Communications, Inc. - Email Address that said:
Dear Mr. Rutledge:
I moved three weeks ago from my family home, which was sold incident to a divorce, where I had paid approximately $300 per month for eleven years for Time Warner Cable. I could have called your competitors, but millions of dollars in advertising and a torrent of offers in my mailbox convinced me to call your people instead. When I did, I was not told that I could arrange to have the old account transferred and re-badged in my name instead of my ex-wifes, thereby retaining my whole house DVR service, which could be grandfathered in. I also was not told that if I didnt do that, as a new customer, I wouldnt be able to get whole-house DVR and would be charged $199 to install your fastest internet service (even though I had your fastest internet service for a decade at my old address).
I learned these facts the hard way, after the equipment was hooked up, when I realized my DVRs were not talking to each other, and then got a robocall dunning me for a past due bill of $400 after three weeks. An hour and a half of customer no-service today ended with supervisors admitting that salespeople might fail to disclose material facts in order to make a higher commission on a new account, but even if this amounts to consumer fraud, they were really sorry, I was a new customer, would have to pay the connection fee, and could not get the whole-house service grandfathered in, because these were your rules and I could basically go eff myself. Apart from an hour and half of billable time I cant get back, your company owes me $199 and a whole-house DVR system.
I have never before filed a complaint with any consumer fraud office. But your company has earned it. I have filed a complaint with the California Attorney Generals Office, have posted these facts on yelp.com, and am advising people that your company is defrauding consumers. Its particularly odious that youre defrauding existing customers. In addition to rectifying my situation, and at a minimum, you should immediately instruct your salespeople not to commit fraud by omission in pursuit of a commission, and empower your customer service people to cure that fraud when it occurs.
Yours truly,
Alan H. Rolnick, Esq.
