Some residents afflicted by last week’s Hurricane Sandy are cringing over a newspaper ad run over the weekend in the Staten Island Advance from Time Warner Cable depicting a shipwrecked boat laying sideways on shore, asking area businesses, “Is your phone company leaving your business high and dry?”

“How fu** distasteful can you be,” tweeted one offended resident of the hard hit area. “So glad I have FiOS.”

Verizon joined the ensuing Twitter discussion thanking the customer for the shout-out, and letting him know the company was there if he needed them.

Time Warner Cable, apparently caught unaware of the tasteless ad, frantically sought out additional information about where it ran, claiming it ordered its ad agency to cancel it before Hurricane Sandy arrived. The company said it was looking into the matter, admitting the ad is “upsetting” under the circumstances.

Time Warner Cable will increase the broadband speed for its most popular Standard service to 15/1Mbps across the country over the next 60 days.

With increased competition from Verizon’s FiOS fiber to the home network and AT&T U-verse, Time Warner is boosting Internet speeds to stay competitive with aggressive promotions on offer from phone companies throughout its service area.

Rob Marcus, chief operating officer for Time Warner, today told investors U-verse was available in about a quarter of the company’s footprint, with Verizon FiOS offering service in 12% of the areas where the cable company provides service.

“Last quarter, U-verse featured fairly aggressive double play promotions, especially in Texas and the midwest, while FiOS continued to aggressively enter new buildings in New York City,” Marcus said.

Marcus

Time Warner Cable failed to meet investor expectations for broadband growth during the third quarter, and some are questioning the company’s wisdom narrowly-targeting promotions to specific segments of its customer base. Bloomerg Industries analyst Paul Sweeney suggested the company was struggling to market the correct bundles of services to its customers.

Marcus reported Time Warner has seen the largest growth in DOCSIS 3.0 enhanced broadband so far, with 73,000 new customers signing up for the company’s 30/5Mbps Extreme tier or 50/5Mbps Ultimate tier during the last quarter. Combined with Turbo customers, this represents over 22% of all Time Warner’s residential broadband customers.

But while the company celebrated its new revenue from cable modem rental fees, the new charge has alienated a number of customers, some now shopping around for a better deal from competitors.

“In essence, this is a rate increase on [broadband] service, but the key is our customers have a choice,” Marcus said. “If customers prefer to buy their own modem from a qualified list of options, we’re all for it. After all, if the modem is on the customer’s balance sheet, that is less capital expense for us and fewer truck rolls.”

Marcus’ statement conflicts with one made earlier by Joli Plucknette-Farmen, communications manager for Time Warner Cable in western New York. She told WGRZ-TV last month the new fee was not  a “rate hike dressed up as a fee”, as some critics have suggested.

The company made no announcements about increasing the speeds of its higher-speed tiers to maintain their value in light of the forthcoming speed increase for Standard service.

Your electric company is Frontier Communications?

That scenario could come true for customers in New York, Ohio and Indiana. Frontier last week unveiled FTR Energy Services, an energy reseller planning to supply 100% green electricity in selected markets in New York and Ohio and natural gas in Indiana.

FTR Energy Services is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Crius Energy, launching service Nov. 19 with a business plan that claims there is convergence in the broadband and energy sector.

Frontier is likely to combine its marketing efforts with Crius Energy’s products — selling electric and telecommunications services together. Some expect Frontier will even extend bundling discounts to customers who sign up for both.

Third party energy suppliers were supposed to spur lower prices for consumers and businesses by encouraging innovation in the power generation industry. But significant savings, especially for residential customers, have proved elusive. Complicated pricing and contract terms have led to confusion and high customer turnover. Many customers eventually gave up shopping around and returned to the original utilities that have supplied power for generations. For today’s energy competitors, finding a marketing edge can be the key to growth when customers are skeptical and resistant to change.

Crius is hoping its green energy angle will attract environmentally-sensitive customers and Frontier hopes the bundled marketing offers it can blanket across its service area might deliver higher average revenue from customers — a key demand from Wall Street.

Most third party resellers enjoy modest wholesale pricing discounts, so any profits earned from reselling energy to customers are expected to be modest as well. But Frontier hopes the more services it can bundle for customers, the more “sticky” their products become. With bundled discounts and term contracts, it can become an expensive and complicated process to sign up with another provider. So many customers simply don’t.

Some of Comcast’s customer service representatives and their supervisors could care less more than a million east-coast residents remain without power and thousands may no longer have a home.

Priority #1: Where is our equipment? If you can’t find it, you are going to pay for it.

Yes, once again the company that redefines lousy customer service is back to illustrate why their reputation as the 4th Most Hated Company in America is well-earned. The Don’t Care Comcast Customer Service Bears in Kabletown call centers are only too happy to give the desperate in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania a hard time.

Blogger Seth Clifford (via the Consumerist) doesn’t need Comcast’s attitude problem. His parents have already lost one home and are on the verge of losing another.

Comcast’s Shocking Realization: the Clifford family has bigger things to worry about than a set top box:

[My mother] was trying to explain to them that they stood to lose the entire house in an explosion and that the authorities were having trouble even reaching the area to cut the gas to prevent this. She mentioned that she wouldn’t be able to return the cable box and equipment because the storm had basically destroyed the area, and the house was perilously close to being destroyed completely as well.

Comcast’s reply to her?

We’re very sorry, but the price of the equipment will be charged to your account if you’re unable to return it.

That’s right: in the middle of a natural disaster, the worst our area has seen in decades, at a time when my parents have already lost one house and stand to lose the other, as well as everything in it (remember, it’s not a rental so it’s fully furnished and they live there for part of the year – there are family keepsakes, antiques, and the like) – at a time like this, Comcast has essentially told my mom “tough s***”.

She spoke to a supervisor who echoed the same thing. Comcast was very ‘sympathetic to the situation’, but according to policy, the company must assess fees against unreturned equipment, no matter the situation.

Devastation on the coast of New Jersey

This is hardly the first time we’ve seen Big Telecom Companies Behaving Badly when Mother Nature strikes.

After tornadoes devastated parts of Alabama in 2011, one of Charter Cable’s customer service minions told a victim they will wait on the phone while the customer searches the yard for missing cable equipment. Can’t find it? Pay us.

The worst companies just don’t care until someone in the media embarrasses them sufficiently to realize the cost of a cable box isn’t as great as the drubbing they are about to get on the 6 o’clock news.

Once exposed, damage control kicks in. The flower arrangement is on the way and the “we’re sorry” card is in the mail.

Too bad the flowers are not for everyone. For those whose stories never go viral, the response often remains “pay up or we’ll ruin your credit for years.”

Comcast is a long way from its “Comcast Cares” motto:

“It’s a wonderful thing to have people work together for the benefit of others.”

Clifford is disgusted with the realization Comcast only cares about itself:

• Comcast does care. It cares about reclaiming equipment in the face of unspeakable disaster. And about charging fees for equipment that does not get returned, even if there is no physical way within the realm of possibility in which to do it.
• Comcast, does not, in fact, care at all about you. Not even a little. House burned down? F*** you, pay me. House about to explode at any minute? F*** you, pay me.

After the Consumerist shined their flashlight on Comcast’s house of corporate evil, the inevitable apology was on the way:

We have already reached out to apologize for adding to his parents’ difficulties and to ask for his parents’ contact information so we can call to personally apologize and assure them that we are handling the equipment without the need for them to do anything further. Please know we are working with our teams to ensure we handle all customer calls on a case-by-case basis with sensitivity to the devastating effects Hurricane Sandy had on so many of our local communities and residents. Again, we are of course notating his parents account to ensure they are not charged for equipment they can’t return.

Hey Comcast: how about “notating” every customer account in the northeast pummeled by Hurricane Sandy to ensure the flying monkeys customer service reps in the call center don’t abuse anyone else? Comcast’s “case by case basis” is loophole language that could leave customers shelling out hundreds in lost or damaged equipment penalties.

We’ve received FreedomPop’s “Freedom Sleeve Rocket for iPod Touch” here at Stop the Cap! HQ and are giving it a run.

Originally slated for release in the late summer, the $99 sleeve finally arrived yesterday afternoon. FreedomPop’s attraction is 500MB a month of free Clearwire WiMAX usage indefinitely. After the upfront cost of the sleeve ($99), customers can snap the case-like sleeve on the back of their 4th Generation iPod and be on their way streaming content, making Skype calls, checking web pages/email, or sharing the connection with up to eight devices (or friends).

It could be a fine alternative for usage-capped wireless customers who want an extra 500MB edge every month, and if you’ve ever lost a cell phone while exercising (I have), this is a little less risky (and you will definitely notice because the iPod you are listening to will go missing with it).

Still, FreedomPop is a start-up and “free” wireless data sounds a little too good to be true (or at least long-lasting should the business model go awry).

Customers can earn additional usage allotments “connecting” with “Freedom Friends” or signing up for third party offers. If you like the service and want more, FreedomPop’s real business model kicks in — selling you additional data allowances that range from $7.25-$20/GB above and beyond your initial 500MB each month.

Clearwire’s hit or miss coverage in upstate New York.

So how does the device work? We’re testing it out this week and will report our results in greater detail sometime next week. But up front, some interesting observations:

1. The device seems durable enough. It can recharge from a USB port or from the included power adapter. Charging time initially took several hours, but we’re unsure how long it will run just yet;
2. A web-based control panel offers easy customization of the device, which appears as a Wi-Fi hotspot when the 4G service is enabled. You can reset your password and even manage the power level. The “low” setting proved more than adequate for anyone within 10 feet to connect, and since this was designed to attach to the back of your iPod, signal strength of its Wi-Fi service is no problem;
3. You better have a 4th generation iPod or else it simply won’t fit. I actually discovered I had a third generation unit, which means no luck snapping the iPod to the back of the sleeve. Apple’s newest iPod Touch won’t fit either. But then I discovered it really didn’t matter. I can slip the sleeve all by itself in a pocket and it will still work fine with my iPod, attached or not. FreedomPop also sells a small portable hotspot device that could work equally well if you don’t need a “snap-on” solution;
4. Clearwire, which has a dreadful reputation for reception and speed issues here in western New York, actually worked impressively well in early tests. Indoors we managed a medium strength signal from a cell tower located about two miles away. Clearwire’s very high frequency means outdoor reception free of obstacles like walls and doors will perform even better, and it did. We managed at least 1-3Mbps service at all times, which is better than a lot of cell carrier 3G networks locally;
5. Making and receiving VoIP calls using an earlier generation iPod Touch is a nuisance. We noticed audio dropouts and call dropping, and you need to supply a headset with a microphone to be able to speak to a caller. But who calls anyone anymore? Text messages and Google Talk’s instant message system worked much easier;
6. You can eat usage just browsing web pages. I was astonished to discover I consumed more than 42MB after less than 30 minutes of reading e-mail and web browsing a half-dozen news site web pages. At that rate, I’d be close to my limit after just 10 days. This surprised me because my Verizon Wireless data plan shows my spouse and I manage around 700MB of combined usage every month, and that includes streaming radio every morning on the ride to work. FreedomPop’s usage meter will need some closer inspection because there are indications it counts 1MB of usage for each hour the device is powered on, regardless of whether you are actively using it or not;
7. The second thing we did after unboxing was visit FreedomPop’s website and turn off “automatic top up” under Billing Settings. Otherwise after you reach 400MB (not a typo) of usage, FreedomPop will “conveniently” automatically add 1GB of additional usage for $20, billed to your credit card. Set in the off position, your account will simply stop working for the rest of the month once you hit 500MB.

I had low expectations from FreedomPop’s alliance with Clearwire, the WiMAX network Sprint customers love to hate (and then turn off on their phones to conserve battery life). But so far I am cautiously optimistic.

Readers should be careful before jumping in and check FreedomPop’s coverage map first because Clearwire’s network is notoriously limited. For example, here in upstate New York Rochester, Syracuse, Geneva, and Cortland are covered. Buffalo, Albany, and Binghamton are not. In the Big Apple, New York City has coverage, Long Island east of Valley Stream is out of luck.

We’ll post a more detailed review next week.