Ok heres the story. I recently moved and so I had the cable disconnected from one apartment and moved to another. When the cable guy installed the new devices he took the old ones. I just recieved a bill in the mail for $400 dollars from the cable company saying my modem & box were never returned from the previous address. To top things off, the work order does not show the modem/box being returned either. He forgot to fill out the paperwork, and I neglected to assure that the devices had been marked as returned on the paperwork. What in the world am I suppose to do ? I tried calling them and all they can say is "the work order shows this". Yeah because no one ever maeks a friggin mistake in your company, right?!? If that is true, why do I have a bill for $400 dollars and neither a box nor a modem?!?!? Idiots. And I tried to get to talk to the person that installs it and all they can see is "Do you know how many installs i've done every single day". Anyone have any advice on what I am to do, as the only response I get is "check the workorder and it shows nothing" or "he wont remember". This is BS!!
The best advice I can give you is to talk to a supervisor or a manager. Do not be a prick on the phone but be professional. Explain your scenario throughly and do not give up. The cable company call representatives have an SOP they must follow, as well as a budget for expenses. Only the manager or an authorized supervisor can add your claim as a mistake on behalf of the company. So get onto the phone to them and argue your case. Be presistant in stating that you have "witnesses" who saw the cable installer leaving with the hardware(a mother, brother , wife, children...friend)but only if they were there. This will negate a possible civil suit because it may be harder for them to win and the expenses of a lawyer may balance out in the negative for their risk mitigation. The 98% of companies insure all products they 'lend' or 'rent' to their clients. Make sure they are not going to increase their christmas bonus with your money.
Yeah. Thanks for the advice. Yeah I was not trying to be mad with the person on the phone I was very calm (with a frustrated sound). Unfortunately, no one was there other then myself when the person left with the hardware. I will try and have to contact there manager, and will see what happens.
tell them to **** off or be nice to them and if that doesnt work ignore them they will go away soon enuff lol
I agree with zebulon, in that you should call and ask to speak to a manager, and be stern with them and explain what happened. They must have some kind of inventory system
I had the same thing happen to me. The only saving grace for me was that they'd actually put my equipment back onto the network. They ran a system test and saw that my exact equipment (noted by the mac address and serial #) was back out on the network. I got a big fat apology and it was done. See if they can check by mac address of the equipment.
Hello, how much is the cost for this kind of modems.. 400? If it's cheaper try to buy a similar one in ebay , and tell them, hey! I have your modem here, would you like to pick up it?
Why spend money at all? Its not your fault. Any respectable cable company will not argue with you much because they know mistakes happen. Ask to speak with a supervisor, and plead your case with him. Praise his company and tell him why this is putting a bad impression on it. Like "I've loved your service up to date, but now I'm considering switching". Don't ever be afraid to threaten to discontinue your business.
Just tell them that the install guy took it and if they can't live with that, They can take you to debt collectors. They will most likely listen to your story.
It is Insight communications. Thanks for the advice I will give them a call today and try and contact the manager. I can't do the hole "ignore it and go away", because they will send me to the collections. Messing with my credit is a no no. Its my baby Yeah I am not going to spend money either way as well, because it isn't my fault (other then not verifying the information was on the workorder). Hopefully they can do some type of MAC address trace, maybe I will throw at them. They can't prove it wasn't returned.... nor can they prove that it was returned.
I recently canceled my cable, as the company kept billing me for services I did not receive. For example, HD DVR is not offered in my area (we are out in the sticks), yet every month I was being billed for that service. Apparently, they gave me an HD DVR box accidentally, but since the service is not offered to subscribers in my area, they should not have done that. They said they would charge $13 for someone to come switch the boxes. I told them that I would not pay for their mistakes, and they persisted in charging me, so I told them to go ahead and take the box, along with my cable modem and digital cable box, and cancel all of my services with them. They lost $140 a month all over a $13 mistake.
The company should have records of who exactly came out to your house to do the installation. Explain what happened and demand that they allow you to contact the exact person who was at your home. I'd be wary of just hoping they go away. They can mess up your credit record if you do that, which can cause you a world of hassles down the line. Instead, if they continue to insist on collecting this debt, you could consider filing a police report saying the modem was stolen, with the cable company itself as the suspect. Then file suit in small claims court to settle the issue.
Yeah. I am definately not going to do the 'ignore it and it will go away' thing. As for contacting the person who installed it, they will not let me as they do not release emloyee information to customers. I am waiting for a bit hoping that the devices got put back onto the network. I will do that with the small claims court if this can't be settled for sure.
call every single day until they resolve it for you. I've done this with my bank and cable company and it works every time. Once they realize you are persistent and won't give in, they will just credit you to get you out of their hair.
this is bad advice. It can negatively effect your credit history. And a collection agency has one task, to collect funds for other companies, they have no interest in listening to your story.
Awesome. Well heres the update. I just called in again today and I now I have a $5.00 CREDIT on my account. Somewhere along the lines of last week and this week the charges have been removed. I don't know if someone just realized a mistake was made and didn't want to inform me of it or what, but now I am getting a $5.00 credit back to my account. Even though they should have called me to let me know of the mishap, the removal of the bill is still good news.