Complaint Review: Charter Communications

I received a bill from Charter in October stating that I was late in making my payment. I pay my bills online through Wachovia Bank and was concerned that maybe they had not sent the payment. Thinking that I made a mistake, I sent another payment through the on-line bill pay. I got another letter stating that if I didn't pay my bill that I would have my service disconnected.

Upon review of my bank statements and the bills from Charter, I went back for the past year and cross-walked each bill to the payment. Two payments for October had been posted to my account, October 7 and October 24. So being confident that I was not in arrears but in fact paid up through November, I took my folder of bank statements and bills into the local office. The lady there was not accommodating. All she could tell me was that her records pulled up on the computer showed that a payment had not been made. When I tried to show her the back-up documents that I had, she told me she couldn't help me, and that I would have to go to my bank and clear it up. I left there and went straight to my bank. The bank officer pulled up my account and researched where the payment went. They called Charter while I was there and tried to resolve the problem.

As it turned out, the bank had sent the payment to a different account number. This was not their fault, as I was sent a letter from Charter a few weeks back telling me to change my account number. I did and subsequently the payment was sent there. The bank gave them all the information as to what account the payments had been sent to and was assured that Charter would clear it up on their end. I even received a letter from my bank a few days later stating that they had forwarded to Charter proof of payment.

It seems to me that all they had to do was see that the payments had been made to the wrong account number and fix it on their end, but Charter kept saying they had to research it. After my visit to the bank, I felt things were taken care of but when I kept getting phone calls and more threatening statements, I realized that it wasn't. So, I called the bank again. This time, we had a three way callbank, me, and Charter. We went through everything again giving all the informationcase number, account numbers, etc. Again, all I got from Charter was they would research it.

Another week or two went by and I was still being harassed by Charter. They even disconnected my service, so I called again. I went through the whole thing one more time. I was really becoming weary of having to explain over and over and over with nothing ever being done by Charter, so I turned my business over to AT&T. I gathered all the equipment together and took it in to Charter's local office and told them to terminate my service. At this point the same lady that wouldn't help me to begin with told me I still owed two months service. I told her that I had tried my best to clear it up, but Charter was not listening and that I was through talking. She threatened that if I didn't take care of the bill that it would be turned over to a collection agency and end up in my credit file.

I have since gotten two phone calls from collection agenciesone I explained everything to which he said he would note the conversation and another left on my answering machine. I take a stand that I DO NOT owe Charter Communications a dimeif anything they owe me for the two weeks they disconnected me that was already paid.

I am not somebody that doesn't pay their bills as my credit history will confirm. I will NEVER do business with Charter again and will tell whoever will listen to me how they have treated me. I don't understand how such a business of their caliber stays in business. I have also written a letter to the Better Business Bureau and the three credit agencies in case Charter turns in a negative credit report on me.

Sandra kay pepper
Athens, Alabama
U.S.A.

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