My husband and I have subscribed to Cable and Broadband Internet services through Charter Communications for the better part of 10 years. Roughly 3 years ago we began paying the majority of our household bills through automatic bill payments, to save us both time and gas money. Each week I sit down and go through my online bank information to ensure all transactions are recorded and correct.
Just last week, while at work, my daughter phoned me about problems we were having with both our internet connection and our cable tv. I spoke with my husband and we agreed there must be an outage. So, he phoned Charter they informed him that our cable and internet were disrupted because of nonpayment. He explained that our payments are made through the monthly auto - payment method, and that it had cleared our bank account as usual. The Customer Service Representative became very rude and informed my husband that the payment was not showing in their system, so it had not been made and we would need to go to the local office to make a cash payment in person, or authorize a debit / credit card payment over the phone for the bill of $176.45 a late fee of $5.00 a reconnect charge of $30.00 for a total of $211.45 if we wanted our services reestabulished that day. My husband refused and again attempted to explain that they had already recieved payment and would not be gettting extra money from us.
After getting off the phone with the CSR from Charter my husband called me and had me check our online bank information to confirm that the payments have been clearing our account. Which, of course, they had.
He then went to the local office the next day, with our monthly statements from March, April, May, June and July in hand. The local Charter office again told my husband that no payments showed in their system since May, and that they'd not recieved any communications from us after sending out a disconnect notice. They offered to accept a cash payment, or a debit / credit card payment for the bill of $211.45, which they informed him was less the monthly charges for July, if we wanted our services reestabulished that day. He then showed them our banking statments that have the automatic payments on them. The CSR's at the office then became just as rude as the one on the phone. He asked them to call our bank and confirm the cleared payment, they refused. After nearly thirty minutes of arguing with them in person they agreed to reconnect our services and investigate this matter further.
I'll keep you all posted on this mis-adventure.
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