A massive fire raced through 62 apartments at the Galleria apartment home complex in Fargo, N.D., in mid-October leaving two firefighters temporarily trapped and 150 residents with nowhere to stay.

As displaced residents contemplated the loss of their personal possessions, dealt with insurance company red tape in trying to get temporary housing allowances, and coped emotionally through the devastation, Cable One, the complex’s cable operator (owned by the Washington Post), wanted to let fire victims know they were thinking of them… and the hundreds of dollars in cable equipment lost in the fire.

“We’ve been hurt too,” Cable One’s General Manager Scott Geston actually told NBC’s Today show.

Two days after the fire, Cable One started reaching out to some fire victims demanding payment for their lost cable equipment, payable with cash, check (with proper ID of course), or money order… or else.

Cash, check, or money order?

“When may we expect payment?” was the most important question on the cable company’s mind according to several residents infuriated by Cable One’s completely unsympathetic attitude.

In Fargo, local stores, churches, community groups and individuals are donating time, money, and even places to stay for displaced Galleria residents or their pets. Cable One’s disaster recovery plan is to hurry out bills for $1,000 or more for their lost equipment.

“They can… exhale rapidly on me,” writes former Galleria resident Jim who found Stop the Cap! thanks to the Washington Post‘s opposition to Net Neutrality.  “I ‘re-phrased’ that because I am sure your group has readers of all ages, but I think most can put it together.”

Jim said Cable One is trolling around looking for at least $1,000 from him for equipment incinerated in the fire.

“We are staying at a extended-stay motel on an emergency stipend and these bloodsuckers have started demanding money,” he writes. “If only my renter’s insurance agent was as aggressive in handling my claim.”

Other fire victims are reporting similar experiences of unparalleled aggressiveness by the cable operator, literally hours after the fire.

It’s also the talk of Fargo:

Some fire victims say the pain and suffering they endured from the cable company didn’t start with the fire, because Cable One provided bad service all along.  But now that the fire is over, the company’s attitude towards the fire victims shows the true extent of how low this cable company can go.

“It’s all about the money with them — they want their money, and some fellow victims tell me the company has been increasing the dollar amounts demanded,” Jim writes.

When will Jim be paying Cable One?  “When hell freezes over.”

Pets rescued from the fire at the Galleria

That’s an attitude shared by several Galleria residents.

It’s also an attitude expressed by many other cable and satellite companies who would not think of charging fire victims for equipment lost in tragic circumstances like this.  The damage to the company’s reputation would be worth more than the value of the lost equipment.

“If you have a crappy reputation to start with, there is little to lose acting like insensitive thugs in cases like this,” according to Jim.

Many residents have other issues more important than repaying the cable company for cable boxes.  Many Galleria renters with pets are discovering finding a new permanent home may mean giving up their dogs and cats — they are not allowed at most Fargo apartment complexes.

After the local and national media pounced on the story, Cable One retracted their earlier insistence on being paid… slightly.

The Associated Press reported Cable One has now agreed to “eat the cost of damaged equipment for customers with modems, telephones or digital receivers.”

But the company still demands payment for lost DVR boxes, which Geston says are worth $500 new. The company wants residents with renter’s insurance to submit claims. For those without insurance, Geston says Cable One is open to resolving the issue by determining a fair payment plan.

Customer Rick told a Fargo TV station they shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for his check. He won’t be paying them. “No. On principle, I’m not.”

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KVLY Fargo Cable One Wants Their Money 10-17-10.flv[/flv]

KVLY-TV in Fargo shares the story of upset fire victims horrified Cable One is demanding hundreds of dollars to replace lost cable equipment, in some cases just 48 hours after the fire.  (3 minutes)

A Cablevision ad against Fox

Cablevision and Fox finally settled their two week programming dispute Saturday when two local Fox-owned broadcasters and an assortment of cable channels returned to suburban New York area-television screens.  Cablevision ultimately capitulated to Fox’s increased programming fees and grumbled it was stuck paying an “unfair price” for the programming.

“In the absence of any meaningful action from the FCC, Cablevision has agreed to pay Fox an unfair price for multiple channels of its programming including many in which our customers have little or no interest,” Cablevision said, adding that it “conceded because it does not think its customers should any longer be denied the Fox programs they wish to see.”

But in reality, Cablevision subscribers who suffered through the two week outage will ultimately pay the price for Fox-owned programming in the next round of cable company rate increases.

While Cablevision subscribers can now watch the remaining games of the World Series from home, the cable-broadband industry post-game wrap-up show is now underway, surveying the winners and losers.

Let’s take a look:

WINNER: Fox Networks

Fox got everything it wanted, and then some, from Cablevision.  Consumers never take the side of the cable companies that have overcharged them for years. All most know is that when their favorite channels are not on the cable system that charges them more than $50 a month for service, it’s the cable company’s fault. While the terms of the final deal were not disclosed, it’s a safe bet Cablevision is paying rates even higher than those charged to New York’s other cable company Time Warner Cable.  The cave-in by Cablevision means Time Warner and other cable systems will likely also see higher rates for Fox programming now set as a precedent by Cablevision.  So will telco and satellite TV providers.  That’s money Fox will take to the bank.

LOSER: Cablevision

Not only did they alienate their customers, at one point telling them to watch Fox programming on third party websites, they are now facing a $450 million class action lawsuit from subscribers (filed by an attorney with prior connections to Fox parent company News Corporation.)  It is difficult to feel sympathy for a cable company deprived of Fox programming that still charged subscribers full price for channels they could not watch.  One industry executive praised Cablevision for “taking one for the team,” a phrase consumers have heard before to defend corporate pickpocketing.

Cablevision was actively promoting ivi last week through their customer service representatives

WINNER: ivi Networks

Stop the Cap! reported on upstart ivi several weeks back.  The service carries all of metropolitan New York’s broadcast stations and Cablevision ended up recommending its blacked-out subscribers buy an ivi subscription to watch Fox-owned broadcast channels no longer on the cable lineup.  The new online cable system, which started in September, added New York subscribers in droves, annoying Fox to the point of sending a cease-and-desist letter to Cablevision CEO James Dolan to get cable company representatives to stop recommending the service, which Fox claims is “illegal, and perhaps criminal.”

WINNER: Verizon & Satellite Dish Companies

Many subscribers fleeing Cablevision for competitors have probably left for good, especially if they scored substantial discounts and promotions during their first year or two of service.  Verizon FiOS always faced resistance from customers not wanting to devote the time needed to install the service, and when customers have been with a cable company for 20 or more years, change does not come easy.  But die-hard sports fans already inconvenienced by earlier channel interruptions pulled the trigger just to get away from the endless programming disputes.

Verizon scored new customers over the dispute.

LOSER: Comcast-NBC Merger

Lawmakers set to either applaud or introduce roadblocks to the proposed merger between Comcast and NBC saw first hand what can happen when big media companies duel it out over money — millions of customers can be left in the middle with nothing to show for it.  Bloomberg reports the dispute could force significant concessions to prevent or limit such disputes in the future.  U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, said the Fox-Cablevision spat made her “increasingly concerned with the potential harm” if a dispute arose between an enlarged Comcast and competing video provider. In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski last week, she called for “substantive and enforceable conditions” to preserve competition.

WINNER: NFL Networks – Where is Our Binding Arbitration?

Cablevision’s demands for binding arbitration to settle their disputes with Fox rang hollow, if not hypocritical, for NFL Network officials, who have been calling on Cablevision for the same binding arbitration the cable operator demanded of Fox.  The NY Post quoted an unnamed executive at the cable network: “Cablevision has been urging Fox to agree to binding arbitration — the same strategy we’ve been offering Cablevision — but we continue to get sacked.”

LOSER: The Federal Communications Commission

Despite demands from most consumer groups and Cablevision to intervene in the programming disputes, the FCC delivered a rebuke telling all sides to stop with the stunts and start with serious negotiations.  Beyond that, the agency did what it has done best under the Obama Administration: sit on its hands.

THE BIGGEST LOSER: You

With the grandstanding by both sides finally over Saturday — the shouting and expensive publicity campaigns wrapped up and put away for next time (KeepFoxOn.com now renders a blank page) — the person left standing with the bill in hand was you.  Fox wrapped the costs of its expensive publicity campaign into the rate increase Cablevision finally conceded to paying.  The bags of money to be handed from the Dolan family that owns Cablevision over to Rupert Murdoch will be filled from your pockets.  And there is no end in sight to future disputes raising programming costs even higher than ever.

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Bloomberg Cablevision Fox Dispute 11-1-10.flv[/flv]

Bloomberg News delivers three reports detailing the impact of increased programming costs on cable bills, inaction by the FCC, and whether Americans are fleeing cable TV for online video instead.  (10 minutes)

Advertising money cannot buy: a technical problem helped Maine viewers get acquainted... real acquainted with independent candidate Shawn Moody.

Viewers of Bangor’s CBS affiliate watching on Time Warner Cable were treated last week to a one and half hour endorsement of independent candidate Shawn Moody thanks to a technical snafu.

A Time Warner Cable spokesman said an equipment failure caused WABI-TV’s signal to lock up at around 5:40am last Tuesday.  At the time, an ad for Moody was on the air and a frozen picture was delivered to viewers until the problem was fixed at around 7:30am.

“The hour and a half ad for Moody was the biggest exposure this candidate has received all year, all because of a cable company equipment failure,” writes our reader Stefan from Bangor.  “Although the picture was frozen, the sound worked normally so the whole thing was surreal.”

The cable company apologized for the failure and noted there was no implied endorsement of the candidate.

“The signal freeze had nothing to do with the content,” said company spokesman Andrew Russell. “It just happened to be what was on the screen when it happened.”

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WABI Bangor Time Warner Fixes Glitch 10-28-10.flv[/flv]

WABI-TV explains to its viewers what happened when a political ad got stuck on their TV screens for an hour and a half last week.  (1 minute)

Stop the Cap! reader James dropped us a note to let us know Cablevision customers calling to cancel their cable service are scoring $20 a month off their cable bills for two years if they decide to stay with the cable company. It’s all because of the ongoing dispute between Cablevision and Fox over programming fees.

That $500 goes a long way towards compensating Cablevision customers for at least a year of petty programming disputes between executives who think of $500 as tip money.

So if you are a Cablevision customer, here is how to get your money back:

1. Call Cablevision at this number – 1-800-918-2581, which takes you directly to the customer retention department.
2. Tell the representative you wish to cancel your cable service because of the ongoing dispute with Fox and your loss of local and cable channels.
3. When they argue with you about why you should stay, tell them you are tired of being put in the middle of these disputes and forced to pay for programming you are not getting.
4. They may offer a $20 credit for just 12 months.  Tell them that is not long enough and if the representative won’t do any better, hang up and call back.

Be polite, persuasive, but persistent.  Customers on existing promotional deals may not qualify for this, but if you are paying regular Cablevision prices, you do.

The sooner you call, the better as word is getting out about this deal which could be withdrawn at any time.

Recently, the FCC issued a report claiming Americans are often only getting half the broadband speeds they are promised by providers.  KTVX-TV, the ABC station in Salt Lake City, recently investigated whether that held true for local residents.

The results?  Most Salt Lake City Internet users don’t always get a good deal from providers that often deliver inconsistent speeds, even on premium priced plans that can cost up to $130.

Ookla, which has been compiling speed test data as well, reports the United States was in 11th place globally when it comes to being honest about what broadband speeds providers actually deliver.  Don’t get too excited — we score 30th on the download speed index.  More than two dozen nations deliver faster service.

Which nation scores at the very top of the honesty chart?  The Republic of Moldova, a largely-Romanian speaking former Soviet Republic.  In fact, ISPs in Chişinău, the capital city, are too modest, claiming speeds lower than they actually provide customers.  The rest of the top-10 honesty ranking contains a number of countries in eastern Europe — countries that blow the United States out of the water when it comes to telling the truth about broadband speed:

1. Republic of Moldova, 109.21%
2. Russia, 98.65%
3. Slovakia, 98.64%
4. Lithuania, 97.97%
5. Ukraine, 97.58%
6. Hungary, 96.80%
7. Switzerland, 96.72%
8. Bulgaria, 95.96%
9. Latvia, 94.83%
10. Norway, 93.97%

Five states manage to score high marks on the honesty chart, most of which are served by Verizon.  We suspect FiOS may be a major factor in why these states lead the others:

1. Delaware, 100.85%
2. Massachusetts, 100.07%
3. Maryland, 99.56%
4. Rhode Island, 98.83 %
5. Virginia, 98.36 %

KTVX found that the area’s incumbent cable company Comcast did manage to deliver promised broadband speeds, often when most customers are not using the service.  Speeds were far lower in the evening — prime-time usage hours — sometimes as low as 3Mbps.

“Qwest’s DSL is best forgotten,” says Stop the Cap! reader Sangi, who writes from the city of Roy.  “It’s so bad a lot of us think of it as dial-up on caffeine.”

Sangi used to receive DSL service from the phone company, which is planning to merge with CenturyLink.

“When we moved closer to town, cable was an option and that made Qwest something we could live without,” Sangi says.  “They never came close to the speeds they marketed and when we complained, they claimed we wouldn’t notice the difference when browsing web pages and checking e-mail.”

“Apparently Qwest considers the Internet good for little else, at least how they deliver it,” he added.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KTVX Salt Lake City You Are Getting Half Your Promised Broadband Speed 10-22-10.flv[/flv]

KTVX-TV in Salt Lake City investigates broadband speed claims and finds residents don’t always get what they pay for.  (3 minutes)