Promises Not Fulfilled
Does Time Warner Cable Tell the Truth, and YES I KNOW I AM NOT GETTING A TABLET.
I am starting to see a pattern when ever I deal with companies today as a consumer they all use the same mantra…Tell the customer what they want to hear and not worry about what the outcome will be.
My elderly parents had finally decided to get with the times and upgrade their standard TV to HDTV. With the new TV they wanted to get DVR service and HD programming.
They have been loyal customers of Time Warner Cable, formally Syracuse NewChannels, and Verizon phone service for decades. Their unbundle services costs have always been on the higher side, certainly higher than the $79.99 promo bundle offered by FiOS.
After researching all my parent’s options, and excluding anything that caused my parents to convert their phone to digital service, we decided that it would be a better deal to upgrade their current deal with Time Warner Cable (TWC) and switch their Internet provider to TWC as well. The plan would save them money and they would get a 7" Samsung Galaxy Tab too.
Thanksgiving weekend my father and I went down to the local TWC office to change their service. We switched service, and rather than receiving the tablet right then we were given information about how we would receive the tablet.
- Keep the service for 90 days
- Wait for redemption code
- Enter code online, and register for the promotion.
- Wait 4-6 weeks to receive tablet.
Ugh…oh well at least were getting the tablet.
After waiting the 90 days, and constantly reminding my parents of the procedure I received the redemption code and began signing up immediately on the promotion redemption site. The text on the website referred to receiving a “Reward Card.” This didn’t seem right so I called TWC customer service and explained my issue. I was quickly reassured that the site was not updated and I was indeed getting the tablet and not a reward card. Phew! After the call I completed registration and received confirmation from TWC. I still didn’t believe the service rep 100% so I contacted the number that is on the promotion fulfillment service who told me that I did register for the reward card, and NOT the tablet. Ruh roh. I am not giving up at this point, and won’t call my parents with the bad news until I am 100% of all the details. Time for another call to TWC customer service.
On March 3rd I took a deep breath and begin my odyssey with TWC customer service. After explaining my story many times to numerous agents I was finally connected with Alex, #904348, who was very understanding of what happened and informed me that there were many other people that were told the same thing, switch service get a tablet. No explanation of what exact service had to be switched to, just switch. Not to worry he Alex told me I would be placed on the “exempt list” and would indeed receive the tablet. Wow what service. TWC actually came through (You all know how this will go but keep reading) Alex said once I received the card to call back in and we would take care of it then. I was of course still skeptical because Alex said he had no way to email me any of the details that he assured me he had added our conversation to my account.
Back to the waiting, but now waiting on the reward card. When the time came for the card to arrive, and we didn’t receive it, I called the 3rd party fulfillment site and was told that the cards are delayed and will take between 6-8 weeks. After six weeks my parents received the reward card, and I promptly called TWC to get my tablet. After going through numerous agents again and being told they don’t know anything about the promotion I was finally connected with a special agent Erica #82283, that said she understood the issue and new what to do. She informed me that:
- TWC was out of tablets so no matter what I couldn’t get one.
- She didn’t know Alex, and though he document my case in my account, but there really wasn’t an exemption list for cases like mine.
- Then she told me that I never qualified for a tablet, and I never should been told I would receive on.
She was sympathetic to my issue, and tried to inform me of why I was wrong, and how all the other agents were wrong. She had no tablet to give me, though if I had qualified she would buy a tablet and send it. After a long upsetting conversation she did offer a bill credit and a monthly discount of service.
I told my parents that the reward card was theirs to use, and of the bill credit. They were extremely disappointed that they weren’t getting the tablet. I was very disturbed by TWC response because it really feels like my parents were told information in order to win their business. I have lost trust in TWC as well because it is impossible to know what agents actually know what is true and what isn’t.
- The first sales agent gave wrong information
- The second customer care agent gave wrong information
- The supervisor gave me wrong information.
My parents are ultimately very upset and also distrusting of TWC and are currently debating a switch to Verizon after being a loyal TWC customer for all of there cable subscription 40+ years.
I do realize that they are only one customer, but a quick search on Google reveals several customers with the same frustrations. Read: Time Warner Cable Fine Print Fools Customers
Good luck Comcast with your purchase, don’t be surprised if you find out that you didn’t qualify to actually purchase TWC.
UPDATE I: Read my follow up blog We Should Never Be Rude
UPDATE II:
I had given up and saw a good deal on a tablet on Woot.com so I purchased it. After doing that I sent up the white flag to TWC on Twitter.
When I last talked to TWC on the phone the escalations agent, Erica, had offered me a 12 month invoice credit of $10/month. This was very generous. The first month I received $7.13 in hardware credits. Not quite the $10.0o as promised, but ok. The next month I received no credit at all, nothing, nada, zilch. I did interact with @TWC_Help on Twitter who wanted to help but politely kept telling me that I didn’t qualify for the tablet, and no response about my missing monthly credit.
PS. TWC I understand that you are not giving me a tablet.
Lesson I learned: No reason to trust what Time Warner Cable tells me in person or on the phone. What’s the Verizon FiOS number?
