Time Warner wins the "A-Holes of the Month" award

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
How much would the free good publicity have been worth if TW had stepped up and promised to eat the losses so that their loyal, valued customers would not have suffered any more than they already had? Millions. That would have been a huge bargain compared to the actual cost of replacing those boxes.

exactly. not the best pr move.

 

[Ronstang]

I have no problem with the customer being charged for the box....what I have a problem with is the price. My cable company uses the exact same box and they sell them to you for $100 if you don't want to pay the lease fee....so I think TIme Warner is taking advantage of an already bad situation....I hope this comes out and they look like total asses.

 

[chiwawa626]

Well if i hadn't read this thread i would have never heard about this problem, thus i conclude not a lot of people do know, and that means that Time Warners reputation dosent go down to far...I mean lots of people already dont like them since the AOL merger

How much more worse can it get?

 

[Lord Evermore]

If they have a little time to pay it off, they can go buy a used one at auction and send THAT to Time Warner. It'll be cheaper. (Obviously of course TW wouldn't take that.)

AT&T charged my roommate 180 dollars for a cable modem he was a little slow in returning when we moved. This particular model being one they're phasing out and wouldn't actually be giving to customers again. They can be had for about 9 dollars used.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Oh yes, as for whether a lot of people know or not, most likely a LOT of people in the surrounding areas hear about it, but what can they do? Cable is a regional monopoly for the most part. All those people that are outraged about it, they suddenly going to mass-defect to satellite TV and DSL? No, they're going to sit there and complain about it, maybe a few will write a letter to TW, but that's about it. So, really, TW doesn't have to care.

 

[Azraele]

Originally posted by: pulse8
That's so ridiculous it's kind of funny.

You wouldn't be laughing if you were one of the ones who had to pay for the boxes.

Big business can suck.

 

[shawnman]

looks like an excellent opportunity for DirecTV to come in and steal some customers from TW. Hell they could even offer to pay for the boxes - I think the customers would go for it.

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Hopefully after everybody pays for their boxes they will cancel them!

 

[charrison]

Well time warner is going to replace without charge, the less than 10 cable boxes that were damaged/lost in the flood. This is as of yesterday afternoon.

 

[ElFenix]

i'm glad i live on top of a hill.

 

[oLLie]

Originally posted by: charrison
Well time warner is going to replace without charge, the less than 10 cable boxes that were damaged/lost in the flood. This is as of yesterday afternoon.

Lol, I thought it was a lot more for some reason. Way to cover your a$$ time warner

 

[db]

IOW, for their cost of 10 boxes, it's a good PR buy for TW.
Otherwise, they would take advantage and charge 4x what their cost is.

 

[Lucky]

How much would the free good publicity have been worth if TW had stepped up and promised to eat the losses so that their loyal, valued customers would not have suffered any more than they already had? Millions. That would have been a huge bargain compared to the actual cost of replacing those boxes.

Actually, since there were only 5 or 6 people with damaged cable boxes, I doubt a decision by time warner to swallow the loss would have even been made public. Seems like these people were EXPECTING time warner to replace the boxes. I highly doubt there would have been widespread, if any, positive (public) PR since this applied to only a few people.

I think they were in the right to charge the customers but should only charge wholesale for it.