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Charter Raises Rates on 'Mispriced' Customers

Charter doesn't think customers it recently acquired in the Time Warner Cable and Bright House deals were paying enough money, so the company is engaged in a "sweep of customer accounts" to ensure that they are. That's according to the Sacramento Bee, which has been fielding complaints from numerous Time Warner Cable customers who say they're suddenly being forced to pay significantly more money -- for the exact same services and channels. Users have been complaining of even worse customer service and higher rates since the deal was finalized last year.

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"It was bull crap," one Charter customer tells the paper. "They don’t give us any notice, they just spring it on us in the middle of the month. And then they tell us we’re getting an 'upgrade.' This isn’t an upgrade, it’s the same channels we already had!"

For his part, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge (whose 2016 compensation was $98.5 million), says the "repackaging" and "sweeping" of these customers into higher rates is part of his effort to "move prices in the right direction."

"It’s a difficult thing to model,” said Rutledge on a recent earnings call. "But we’re coming at it both ways, both from creating a value proposition in the pricing and packaging we have, and doing those smart things that you can do with an existing customer base that’s been mispriced to move them in the right direction."

Consumers say the problem is that the rate hikes aren't really coming with any corresponding improvements. Charter has largely frozen broadband upgrades as it continues to take stock of its recent acquisition prizes, and the company's customer service still remains among the most poorly ranked of any industry in America. And that's before you even get to the soaring cost of cable TV and the now standard programming contract disputes and blackouts.

So Charter customers, do you feel better now that you're no longer "mispriced?"

Most recommended from 60 comments


Terabit
join:2008-12-19

22 recommendations

Terabit

Member

CEOs and Executives should be held accountable

All of these twits who push these mergers and monopolies should come and explain this. How is this better for Americans versus even MUNI FTTH, which they seem to hate?

I just wonder at what point RWers will have enough and start to demand changes from the republicans who promote and push this nonsense. To think that while people are being ripped off like this, (R) legislators are actually doubling down on their pro monopoly bills.

What the hell does this CEO #### do to deserve a $98 million salary.
ncted
join:2010-10-25
Durham, NC

17 recommendations

ncted

Member

Competition is the only answer

I look forward to cancelling Charter as soon as Google Fiber finishes the installation of my neighborhood. Unfortunately, many other people across the US have no other real option, like my parents in Upstate NY, so they will have to pay whatever Charter wants them to. Yay Monopolies!

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
·AT&T U-Verse

10 recommendations

trparky

Premium Member

There's a reason why there's so many satellite dishes in my area...

There's a reason why there's so many satellite dishes in my area... a lot of people are going with dish in my area. One street alone has nearly fifteen dishes. I have no idea how many of them are actively being used though. But the fact that there are so many tells me that the cable company isn't too popular in my area.

I myself have AT&T for Internet so Charter can go f*** themselves.

WHT
join:2010-03-26
Rosston, TX

8 recommendations

WHT

Member

WHT's Take On Rutledge's Earning Call

"It’s a difficult thing to model” - No matter what color of lipstick you apply, its still a pig.

"But we’re coming at it both ways" - We're gonna f--k you on your back and on your knees.
shanghaista
join:2014-08-03
Canton, MA

5 recommendations

shanghaista

Member

Business

»www.fiercecable.com/cabl ··· o-offers

The man is completely detached from the average consumer:

“Time Warner wanted to make a video number, and there were data packages that were discounted that cost less if you took video than if you didn’t,” Rutledge said. “And a lot of those were churning out. And a lot of them were basic-only. So on the margin, at the end – in the last year, I think they were selling 40% of their connects as basic-only.”

That sticker shock, Rutledge said, resulted in most of the customer defections, as opposed to customer unwillingness to transition to Charter’s “Spectrum” brand.
adam1991
join:2012-06-16
united state

3 recommendations

adam1991

Member

This reminds me of Best Buy

many years ago, Best Buy told the world in no uncertain terms that they wanted high-dollar customers--not the pikers who were looking for the lowest price.

They were bold about it, and about the moves they made against those looking at pricing. They really wanted people who never discussed price, who simply bought because it was something they wanted and it was right there for them.

I think that didn't last too long, as I remember.

Frank
Premium Member
join:2000-11-03
somewhere

3 recommendations

Frank

Premium Member

Viacom channels removed.

What I think is going on is that they have commenced removing viacom channels from existing plans and moved up them up to only be available in more expensive tiers:

Take a look at this:

»www.spectrum.com/browse/ ··· eup.html

If you enter the zipcode for certain brighthouse and twc areas youll see that it shows MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike TV, Comedy Central as only being available in the much more expensive GOLD package or DigiTier2 packages.

In my opinion this is probably gonna piss off alot of customers and cause alot of churn because as far as I know practically every other company has those channels in thier lower rate packages and also they didnt lower the rates to substitute for the loss of those channels.
gtb
Premium Member
join:2016-05-16
united state

1 edit

3 recommendations

gtb

Premium Member

Audits happen

Most companies (apparently not L-TWC) occasionally audit their accounts to make sure that the combinations of services are still valid and have not expired from any discounts, or various other anomalies. I know Comcast in my area has done them randomly in the past looking for specific well understood issues. I actually ended up with a lower bill (only a few dollars, more than made up with a later future rate increase) as the result of one of those audits. Paying the accurate amount for ones service should not be controversial (although no one wants to pay more than they have to), but it can certainly be a big surprise if one has been floating for years with a bill that was wrong. Communication seems to be the failure here.

Anon5615a
@2604:6000.x

2 recommendations

Anon5615a

Anon

I do not want to be Bitchy here...

But this is NOT a Sacramento BEE article. This is a Kentucky Herald Ledger article:

»www.kentucky.com/news/po ··· 744.html

I say you need to update the post to correct your typo.

JimE
Premium Member
join:2003-06-11
Belleville, IL

2 recommendations

JimE

Premium Member

Pricing changes should be expected

All of the legacy Charter customers went through this process years ago. It's no secret that Charter wants all customers on a unified system of packages and pricing. Yes, I agree that we would all like low(er) prices. But there is no reason for customers to be paying different prices for the same package. Hence the sweeps to unify the service and pricing information.

As to the analog channel free for all, that will be coming to an end as well. The newly acquired legacy areas will be converted to the same all digital format Charter pushed out a couple of years ago which will require a box for each TV.