Big Corporations

Those of you who have been with the blog for a while may remember the day Shell Oil Company dinged me for $15.00 after I paid Dad's Shell bill one day late, and refused to even discuss the matter with me -- they are willing to cash my check, but they won't discuss the account with me.

Now it's Time Warner. The rehab facility hooked up Dad's cable TV in the facility. On Friday, a bill arrived. I was chagrined to realize that the rehab facility and Time Warner can, between the two of them, open an account in my name (not Dad's) and start billing me, all without even discussing it with me. This seems unreasonable to me. No corporation has the right to open an account in my name and bill me without my consent. Or so you would think.

I called them on Sunday to close the account. They asked me for my phone number, which I gave them, but since it wasn't associated with the account they got confused. The account number wasn't enough for them to identify the account (?!?). When we finally sorted it out, they put me on hold and dribbled inane marketing messages into my ear for 15 minutes before I finally hung up to preserve some of my precious Sunday afternoon. About half an hour later I thought better of it: if they can open the account in my name, what's to stop them from continue to bill me month after month. Better to deal with the problem now, I thought.

Yeah, right. I tried again, went through the whole routine a second time, and ended up in the same position: on hold for 15 minutes, listening to them pour marketing messages into my brain. I just couldn't take it.

This morning I tried sending an e-mail. Here was their response:

Thank you for your email. We apologize for the long hold time that you
may have had when calling our Customer Service department. Please be
assured that your Customer Service experience is our main priority and
we are working hard to be able to address your concerns in a timely
manner.

We are sorry to hear that you will be leaving us and we regret losing
you, a valued customer. Time Warner Cable understands that your time is
important and our commitment to your customer service experience is our
top priority. To comply with your request for disconnection, you will
need to contact our 24 hour customer service at 1 888 892 2253 or you
can visit a local office.

To find the office nearest to you, please visit us online at:

https://ecare.timewarnerla.com/cablestores/


If there is anything else we can assist with, please let us know how we
can help. Have a nice day!

So my choice are: 1) repeat the business with the phone, or 2) drive somewhere. I responded: I AM NOT YOUR CUSTOMER. I suggested that if they are able to open an account in my name without my assistance, they ought to be able to close it without my assistance. Then I said "Have a nice day!". Their response:

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately we are unable to set up disconnection from this office. You will need to call in to set up a disconnection. Please call our customer care center at 1-888-892-2253.
Representatives are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Once again we thank you for choosing Time Warner Cable and have a wonderful day!

I'm tired of this crap. I tried the FCC web site, and gave that up after 20 minutes. I'm tired of people coming at me with their hand out, and believe me it's been non-stop since the day this began.