$90.34 of cable bill will cost me $212,602
9 days before closing our home mortgage, I found out about a very recent collection on my credit which will increase the previously approved rate of 4.6% to 5.6%+ over a 30-year mortgage. The $90.34 cable bill appeared a few days ago and I must say that the timing is comical. My credit rating has dropped from 710 to 676 and — assuming no future refinance & rates staying same — I’ll end up with an additional $212,602 in interest over 30 years.
The collection agency said this was sent by Spectrum. Spectrum is the new brand of Time Warner. Summing up hours of phone conversations with Spectrum: I have been paying Time Warner (now Spectrum) for 13+ years through auto-pay and when I moved from San Diego, they offered to transfer my service …and they did turn on service at the new place. Except that Spectrum actually cancels your first account with the associated auto-pay before the last bill and creates a net new account for the new address due to their separate systems. For reasons I’ll never understand, they don’t charge your last balance through auto-pay. Result? in 60 days, my closed account was sent for collection.
To make matter even more ironic, a new charge of $5.60 was added to my account for speaking with the agent …about resolving the credit issue. Luckily, I found and took care of it today or would have gone in collections too. For what it’s worth, I have paid the $90.34 balance — but unfortunately — this will only show as “settled” and not help my credit.
Now this leaves me wondering why Spectrum makes it difficult for customers to make last payments? Why can’t they use the same auto-payment account for the balance? Why don’t they transfer my one account and not make multiple accounts which their customers are likely to lose track of? And I know I’m not the only one to miss this detail about their processes and system limitations — so why can’t cable companies help people recover from snafus over such small amounts by expunging them off the credit reports?
We love to hate cable companies and some of the criticism is probably unfair. However, in my opinion, cable companies can do small things that will make huge differences in how they impact their customers’ lives, not just with products but through broader understanding of their experience— even after customers move or turn-off the service. Sadly, for now, Charter Communication/Spectrum/Time Warner’s promise below — carrying all bravado but missing customer focus and empathy — doesn’t give much hope.
