As a Western New York hometown girl I was initially pleased that Adelphia was our only cable option in this area of the Georgia Coast. If you've got to be stuck with a monopoly, it may as well be one that owned the Buffalo Sabres and contributed heartily to St. Bonaventure, my alma mater.
They provided decent service and we rewarded them accordingly by having both their cable modem and all of the premium services. It was expensive, but we knew the prices when we ordered it and the service was reasonably responsive. As a bonus, I enjoyed the familar Buffalo accents on the phone lines when I had to call for service.
But then there was that little unpleasantness that is currently in trial in the Federal Courts and the announcement that the company was up for sale.
I can't tell you the day the announcement was made, but I can tell you with certainty that in the window between when we ordered the Baseball season package and the 19 phone calls over 10 days tolling more than 8 total hours on the phone before the package was finally activated.
When we ordered the baseball package, we waited on hold for most of the time to be greeted by a decidedly not-Buffalo accent. Of the various folks we spoke to over the next ten days, Colorado and the local office were the only places folks would fess up to being... but we had a clue we weren't in Kansas anymore. Each time then told us the signal would be up monentarily, each time we called back and waited in the endless queue when nothing happened. Eventually they scheduled a service rep to come to the house, but before he/she arrived... the signal magically healed itself.
We were promised a $39 credit for the missed games and aggravation. The $149 package was sold to us, as it was last year, with the payments spread out over three months.. with the credit promised that should have amounted to $40 a month for three months. There was never any question about this.. until the bill arrived within days of the sale annoucement.
The bill dunned us for a late payment... for a payment that had cleared their bank a full week before the due date. It also "forgot" the promised discount and ... charged the whole $149 up front.
Frustrated with phone calls, we sent an email to the corporate office only to get a local response saying:
1) The payment had been received in plenty of time, it was just the new computers.
2) The new computers would not allow the three month payment plan that we were sold we would have to pay the whole baseball package up front.
3) The new computers would not allow the discount we were promised.
This was was all the fault of the new computers and had nothing to do with building a balance sheet for potential buyers.
I asked for a corrected bill and then emailed them again to cancel the baseball package which had become much more aggravation than it was worth. Every time we checked the baseball channels the games were still there.
The next bill arrived uncorrected other than crediting the payment we had proven. It charged us ANOTHER $149 for the baseball package.
If you're keeping up, you'll see that we have now been billed $298 for the $149 package that we were supposed to pay $110 for over three months.
I called the local office and requested a corrected bill, it arrived today with us in arrears for three months service (even though the last full payment was credited May 5) and charged us another $149 for the baseball package The baseball offering is now a $347 package we have been trying to cancel since the bait and switch of the first bill. One more bill and it will be cheaper to fly to the remaining Cardinals games.
Apparently they have given us the three-month plan we asked for... charging the full price each month.
I will gladly pay for the services we contracted under the terms they were sold, but $800 for two months cable service is a little extreme.
If we don't get a corrected version by next month we'll either pay the bill or buy the Sabres.



Copyright 2004 Judi Griggs