W.O.W. → Re: CM500 blackballed

Somewhere in my basement is a 15 year old WOW-owned cable modem that I used back then. At some point I bought my own, but for some reason or another this WOW-owned model never ended up back with them.

They never asked for it back--but at the same time, in my various dealings with WOW, I've come to know that they know I still have it. A few years ago when I went back to WOW again, it showed up on my account. I even asked the CSR about it, but they don't want a 15 year old cable modem back--but it is there, and they CAN use that against me if they wanted, I guess.

Certainly it hasn't been in use for a long, long time. I don't know if there's some universal database somewhere; I wonder what would have happened, say, 10 years ago if I had sold it and someone else somewhere else tried to activate it.

Certainly it's absolutely useless today. It's a brick. Wouldn't work at all on any modern system. I guess I should stick it in my car to take back the next time I'm over that way.

At this point WOW! would have claimed all such obsolete modems in "inventory" as a write off on their taxes. Importantly to the IRS, the whole lot current value is zero, and the remaining capital value the previous year is a loss against taxable receipts. If they demanded you pay for it after that step, then that would be tax fraud.

I'm not a CPA, but not sure their depreciation schedule necessarily has to sync up with how they charge customers for the usage of the modem.

Would they care? No. Could they get $100 from a customer if they tried? That's all that matters.

I am a CPA, and charging a customer per the terms of their agreement with that customer does not represent tax fraud. And the fact they deducted the cost of that modem either immediately or over some period of time has nothing at all to do with what they bill the customer for the use of that modem, let alone any charge to the customer for not returning it.

It would be interesting to see their response. The local office would probably be annoyed at even having to do the paperwork just to toss/recycle the thing.