Anita Brown (left) watches as a January fire took everything she owned, including her two beloved cats.

A Reno, Nevada woman has learned that even after a disaster, Charter Cable wants their money and will stop at nothing to get it, even if it means holding your personal e-mail hostage.

Anita Brown lost everything in January after a tragic fire, started by another tenant in her building who left a candle burning unattended.  While she watched nearby as all of her possessions burned in the fire, her only thoughts were for her two companions  — her beloved cats.

They didn’t survive the fire. Neither did a cable box, phone jack and broadband modem belonging to Charter Cable.

As Brown tried to contemplate starting her life all over again, the cable company found out about the fire and began demanding their equipment back.

Brown was stunned to find the local cable company so insistent about the matter, so she showed them a picture they requested of the “modern art” her cable box now resembled.  It literally melted in the fire.  She also presented the cable company with a copy of the fire marshal’s report showing the fire was not her fault.

Charter’s response?  Pay us $1,000 immediately for the damaged equipment or else.

Brown, who faced replacing every article of clothing she owned and locating a new place to live had other priorities for her dwindling financial resources.  Still, she offered to make monthly payments to cover the loss, if only to avoid Charter’s collection department and damage to her credit. They told her someone would be in touch.

That someone was a Charter technician who turned up a week later to disconnect her relocated cable service.  A payment of $25 made him go away, service intact.  A week later, while she was attending a family funeral, a technician returned and disconnected service anyway.  Then the bills started arriving.

Charter had subsequently reduced the amount owed for the damaged equipment to $500, still out of reach financially for the Reno woman.  She signed up with another provider.  Meanwhile, Charter keeps sending her bills demanding payment and Brown worries they’re on the verge of trashing her credit.

Brown's cable box literally melted in the fire

A local Reno television station reporting on Brown’s plight found Charter’s local employees less than helpful, refusing to work out a solution to the cable nightmare.  A national media representative for Charter was sympathetic, however, and the company may find its way to a mutually acceptable resolution soon.

It can’t come soon enough for Brown, who isn’t even sure she should owe a penny for a box burned in a fire she didn’t start.

Even worse, the only contact list of friends and family Brown has left is locked up in her e-mail box, now held hostage by Charter Cable, who refuses to let her access it until her current bill is settled -and- she promises to stay with Charter Cable.

Cable customers often discover they are on the hook for lost or damaged company-owned equipment.  Most cable company subscriber agreements hold customers responsible for replacement or repair costs for returnable equipment. 

Stop the Cap! strongly recommends consumers obtain a signature or receipt when returning cable equipment and hang onto it at least six months after disconnecting service.  That evidence will save you hundreds of dollars in case the company claims you didn’t return equipment.  With today’s digital cable requiring set top boxes, many homes have several.  The cost of replacing all of them could become astronomical.

If you rent, purchasing inexpensive renter’s insurance is a must to protect your possessions.  Your landlord insures the building you live in, not the things inside your apartment.  Many homeowner and rental insurance policies cover damaged cable equipment in case of a fire or other natural disaster.  Ask your insurance agent to check your coverage.

After a loss, don’t forget to claim the value of that equipment so you can reimburse cable companies that do not forgive these types of losses.

As for Brown, she is still waiting to find out if Charter has a heart.  The damage stories like this do to a company’s reputation may carry a price higher than the cost of the cable box.  Some Reno viewers saw the story and are taking their business elsewhere.

“Thanks for the heads up. We just moved here, and are weighing our cable/satellite options,” writes Diana from Sparks. “That makes my decision a bit easier.”

Kelly in Reno added, “Sounds about right for Charter – big corporate, heartless, money-sucking [profanity deleted]! What do they think is going to happen if they just void this bill, that everyone will start burning down their houses to get out of paying for equipment? Come on, have a heart Charter!”

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KOLO Reno Charter Cable Pursues Fire Victim 9-11-10.flv[/flv]

KOLO-TV in Reno told Brown’s story.  The ironic part of this story is that an advertisement preceding the clip was from none other than… Charter Cable.  (1 minute)

WMC-TV in Memphis compared rates among providers to check and see if mandatory Comcast service represented a good deal for Mid-America renters.

Mid-America Apartment Communities, a nationwide apartment management company, continues to unveil new mandatory cable service fees on renters — this time for eight Mid-America apartment complexes in Memphis, Tennessee.

Memphis renters began receiving word of the new required $40 a month Comcast cable package late last month and the controversy has sparked additional media attention.

Mid-America earns a significant kickback bonus from Comcast for mandating cable service on all of its renters.  That upsets many renters who choose not to have cable service, or subscribe to a satellite provider like DirecTV or DISH.  The $40 fee doesn’t go away if you don’t want the service.  Earlier in July, Stop the Cap! covered Mid-America’s mandatory cable service introduction in other parts of Tennessee and Texas.

Legal experts say the arrangement is perfectly legal, so long as it is not imposed unilaterally on renters.  Instead, Mid-America includes the mandatory cable clause in its new renter and lease renewal agreements.  If you don’t want to pay the fee, your only option is to move somewhere else.

The $40 Comcast package delivers 100 digital channels, 45 music channels, and one on-demand channel.  That appears to coincide with Comcast’s Digital Starter package, which normally runs $51.50 a month in Memphis.

Some current Comcast subscribers who rent from Mid-America do appreciate the discount and the convenience of paying cable charges as part of their monthly rent.  But others do not want to be compelled to pay for Comcast service they don’t want or cannot afford.  For them, the extra $40 a month charge is effectively a rent increase.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WMC Memphis Forced to Watch 7-26-10.flv[/flv]

WMC-TV’s ‘Investigators’ Team took a look at Mid-America Apartments’ new mandatory cable charges imposed on its Memphis renters.  (4 minutes)

Time Warner Cable faces an increasing number of subscribers cutting their cable television service off, choosing to watch their video entertainment online.

Now the nation’s second largest cable company is trying to mitigate the potential damage with a series of new applications designed to bring cable television and your computer, cell phone, and iPad together.

Time Warner is getting started with the iPad, developing an application that will help cable subscribers remotely control their DVR cable box to record and manage programming.  Away from home and want to scan a program guide and record an upcoming show?  The new app will let you do it.  Need to grab some video on-demand from Time Warner?  Not a problem.  You can even start watching on your iPad and pick up where you left off from your home.

Integrating the many devices consumers use as part of their daily lives with cable television could bring the cable viewing experience back front and center among at least some subscribers.  That reduces the chance customers will decide they can do without cable TV.  Since most of Time Warner Cable’s on demand library will only be available to current cable subscribers, cutting cable’s cord also means an end to online on-demand viewing of cable-licensed programming.

Time Warner Cable's prototype iPad app

Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt has repeatedly emphasized his interest in delivering cable services the way customers want, and claims the new generation of applications on the way from the cable company will provide just that.

Although Time Warner will start with the iPad, the application will quickly become available for the iPhone and iPod Touch series.  Additionally, versions for other smartphones as well as portable and home computers will soon follow.

Ironically, this integration process could drive data volumes on Time Warner Cable’s broadband network to new heights.  Video streaming alone will dramatically increase traffic.  Yet the same company that is ready and willing to provide these bandwidth-intensive services also complained about existing broadband customers “using too much” of their existing broadband service.  In the spring of 2009, the company sought to implement a 40GB usage limit on some its broadband customers and charge up to three times more — $150 a month for unlimited access.  At the time, Britt and other company officials blamed the burden of online video and other usage-intensive applications for spiking the demand on their network.

Customers may wonder whether Britt’s new enthusiasm for online video means he recognizes their network has plenty of capacity to support unlimited access or is looking for a new excuse to justify a return to Internet Overcharging schemes.

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Time Warner Cable iPad App.flv[/flv]

Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, CTO Mike LaJoie, VP of Web Services Jason Gaedtke and Director of Digital Communications Jeff Simmermon ponder their prototype iPad app and discuss the implications of integrating cable TV with other electronic devices.  For Time Warner Cable, it’s a matter of preserving cable TV subscribers who might contemplate cutting the cable TV cord and watching everything online.  (13 minutes)

Tens of thousands of Oceanic Time Warner Cable customers across Hawaii were without Internet, cable, and phone service for up to 14 hours after an undersea TW Telecom fiber cable was cut near Lanai at around 1:10am Tuesday.

While broadband users on Kauai and Oahu managed to be rerouted after a two hour outage, residents on Maui and the Big Island endured more than a half-day outage for all of Time Warner Cable services.

The affected cable experienced an outage off Lanai Island

The impact of the fiber cut also disrupted over-the-air broadcasting — many feeds to Hawaii’s translator stations, which extend signals from Honolulu across the Hawaiian Islands, were also sent over the affected cable.

When Time Warner customers in Hawaii woke up Tuesday morning, many were left with fewer than 20 cable signals still working — those delivered via satellite, and no phone or broadband service.

The affected fiber cable is laid in water 3,000 feet deep, which means it will take weeks to manage repairs.  The cable company managed to obtain alternate connections, and some criticized the operator for not having backup service available immediately.

Restoration of services were complete around noon Tuesday for the Big Island, with Maui County getting phone and Internet service back by 3pm.

Hawaiian Telcom, Hawaii’s largest telephone company, said it wasn’t affected by the outage.

The Star-Advertiser reports the fiber cable is rented by Oceanic to communicate with their other cable operations throughout Hawaii:

Oceanic Time Warner rents bandwidth (data transmission capacity) from the fiber-optic cable, co-owned by Colorado-based TW Telecom and Wavecom Solutions, formerly Pacific Lightnet. TW Telecom was part of Time Warner Cable but became an independent entity in 2008.

Oceanic Time Warner is among 144 Maui firms that rent bandwidth from that section of the cable. That section went online in 1997, Miyake said.

When the cable was cut, Internet protocol addresses did not know which route to take back to the mainland. Oceanic crews had to reroute connections through alternate cables connecting the islands.

“We have a daisy-chain fiber connection that connects all the islands together,” said Norman Santos, Oceanic’s vice president of operations. “The main transmission point for Oceanic Cable is here on Oahu.”

Oceanic promises they will be developing additional redundancy in their network in the future to make sure they can restore service more rapidly in the event of a future disruption.

Typically, Oceanic Time Warner Cable does not give refunds unless service is out for a full 24 hours -and- customers specifically requests credit, but the company is debating whether to grant an exception this time.

“We’re going to make a determination as to if and how blanket credits will be authorized, if individual credits will be authorized, but we’re going to do the right thing,” Norman Santos with Oceanic Time Warner Cable told KHON-TV.

Customers can be in a better position to receive that credit by contacting Oceanic today and asking for it before you (and perhaps they) forget.

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Time Warner Hawaii Outage 7-27-10.flv[/flv]

Every major television station in Hawaii covered the extensive service outage.  Here is a compilation of reports from KGMB, KHNL, KHON, and KITV-TV regarding the outage, its cause and impact.  (14 minutes)

Lee, Massachusetts is located in broadband sparse western Massachusetts

Mark Williams is the kind of customer Time Warner Cable would normally love to have.  He wants the complete, super deluxe Time Warner triple play — cable, digital phone, and especially broadband service for his home-based business.

Time Warner wants Williams to have their service, too — but for a price.  Instead of charging the regular $35 installation fee, the cable company wants him to pay $12,000 to install his service, because, they claim, Williams’ driveway is 100 feet too long.  Time Warner says the $35 dollar installation fee is only for homes within 200 feet of the nearest utility pole.  Williams home is 300 feet away.  He doesn’t mind paying something extra to cover the additional 100 feet, but not $12,000.

The town of Lee, Berkshire County, in western Massachusetts, managed to wrangle a franchise agreement from Time Warner Cable that entitles every home and business to cable service if electric and telephone service are already available.  That’s unique for many smaller communities, who routinely have cable service available in town, but not in outlying areas.  Cable companies hate wiring rural density neighborhoods, where the costs to wire comparatively few homes takes too long to earn back from the few subscribers they can reach.

But Time Warner found themselves a loophole — a “long driveway” clause in the franchise agreement that allows them to charge more for installing service to homes set far back from the road.

Now, according to the Berkshire Eagle, Lee’s representative to the Five Town Cable Television Advisory Committee is calling out Time Warner, claiming they are misinterpreting the town’s franchise agreement and wants the Lee Board of Selectman to start imposing fines against the cable company if they don’t relent within 30 days.

Malcolm Chisholm says the real reason Time Warner wants to charge $12,000 is because Williams’ home is roughly a half-mile away from the closest Time Warner Cable subscriber, not because his driveway is too long.

“We just want to put pressure on them,” Chisholm said. “We’re just trying to get them to follow the agreement.”

Chisholm said Time Warner Cable “won’t talk to us” about Williams’ situation. The Eagle was also unable to get a response from officials at the company’s regional office in Albany, N.Y.

The newspaper decided that since Time Warner Cable wasn’t responding to its private inquiries, it would air its views on the editorial page.

If a Lee resident moved into a cave in October Mountain State Forest, Time Warner Cable might be justified in charging him $12,000 to run cable there so he watch the Red Sox on NESN and keep up with the Kardashians on VH-1. But the $12,000 the cable giant wants to charge a resident who lives near the Tyringham line is preposterous, and beyond that provides the latest evidence of the desperate need for expanded broadband service throughout the rural Berkshires.

Because Mark Williams lives roughly a half-mile away from the closest Time Warner subscriber, his installation fee escalates from the standard $35 to $12,000, which may as well be $120,000 it is so devoid of logic. Mr. Williams appears to be an eager customer too, one who wants the entire cable/Internet package Time Warner is regularly flogging.