We present a week of cable companies acting badly….  They charge you top dollar and leave their cables hanging all over the place.  Learn how homeowners turn in frustration to the media to correct sometimes dangerous installations that are accidents waiting to happen.  Cable Week on Stop the Cap!

Norman Sullivan in Greenville, S.C.,  has lived with low hanging Charter Cable wires for nearly a year.  Despite making at least 10 calls to the cable company with no response, the cable line just keeps drooping lower and lower in his backyard, and Sullivan isn’t even a Charter Cable customer.

Sullivan’s neighbor, Joyce Kirskey, has the same problem and she -is- a Charter Cable customer, but her repeated calls to the cable company didn’t bring a response either.

“If I’m gonna be paying them every month, they’re looking for their money, I want some good service,” Kirksey told WSPA-TV’s Problem Solver.

Even worse than the low-hanging lines is the terrible reception she’s getting in her home.

“My TV has been going in and out, just blinking on and off all the time,” Kirksey said.

When WSPA notified Charter it was about to be featured on the 6 ‘o clock local news, the cable company finally got moving.

By that afternoon, a Charter crew was wandering the neighborhood fixing a variety of cable issues.  Charter apologized to all concerned, claiming it was an isolated incident and would continue working on the problem until it was resolved.

But Sullivan told Channel 7’s Problem Solver they wished Charter had taken care of the problem sooner.

“They are supposed to come out here and do their job, it’s what they’re getting paid for,” Sullivan said.

[flv width=”480″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WSPA Greenville Dangling Cable Line Worries Residents In Greenville 7-12-10.flv[/flv]

WSPA-TV in Greenville, S.C., has a Problem Solver segment to help viewers with stubborn problems they can’t resolve themselves.  Watch how the station managed to get Charter Cable out to fix a problem it ignored for nearly a year, despite more than 10 calls to the cable company requesting assistance.  (1 minute)

Comcast's usage meter is now available in 25 states

Comcast customers in at least 25 states have been notified that Comcast’s new usage measurement meter is now up and running.  Comcast introduced a 250 GB monthly usage limit in August 2008 after the Federal Communications Commission stopped the company from throttling usage-intensive file-trading applications.  Comcast has enforced the cap among those customers who regularly exceed it by wide margins, usually warning customers by phone or mail that they must reduce usage or face account suspension.  The usage meter application allows the company to direct customers to the self-measurement tool the company hopes will reduce the need for warnings.

Customers in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, and Wisconsin should have already or will receive e-mail from the company officially notifying them about the launch of the usage meter.

Since the meter was introduced, broadband usage and pricing has increased for many customers, but the usage cap has not.  While generous by current standards, an inflexible usage limit will increasingly trap customers who use Comcast broadband service for high quality video streaming, file backups, or file trading activities which can consume considerable bandwidth.

Informally, Comcast has allowed some residential customers to purchase second accounts if they intend to blow past their usage allowance, because the company currently offers no official provisions for those who exceed the limit.

Winstream provides 3,000,000 access lines in 16 states, and is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas

Windstream Corporation has announced a massive 9.4 percent dividend, one of the largest among S&P 500 companies.  Big dividends are a trait common with independent phone companies that have used dividend payouts to fuel their stock value, making shares valuable to income investors.  Michael Nelson, a Soleil Securities analyst told Investors Business Daily Windstream’s preoccupation with mergers and acquisitions has been the primary reason the company has been growing, even as landlines continue to be a dying business.

“The CEO is embarking on a roll-up strategy of smaller disconnected companies; there are literally hundreds of them.”

He adds that CEO Jeff Gardner has a history of successfully executing a strategy of mergers and acquisitions while he was the chief financial officer of Alltel, the company from which Windstream spun off.

By growing a company through mergers and acquisitions, even as consumers disconnect their core product – landline phones, providers can still demonstrate growth to shareholders.  But once industry consolidation slows, any evidence of a decline in revenue is likely to prove punishing to the stock’s price.

Windstream’s latest acquisition, NuVox, Inc., is preparing for significant layoffs once the transaction closes in early February.  Most of NuVox’s senior management are rapidly departing the soon-to-be-merged company.

The rest of the company’s 1,700 employees are concerned about their future employment.  Some 700 workers at the company’s headquarters in Greenville, South Carolina are likely to bear the brunt of downsizing NuVox’s administrative functions.

Windstream COO Brent Whittington told the Charleston Regional Business Journal that the company’s headquarters building and many employees will be retained, at least at the outset.

“How much will we need going forward, I don’t know,” Whittington said.

Much of NuVox’s IT and customer service departments will remain in place, though some administrative functions in Greenville, such as accounting and human resources, could be lost, Whittington said.

“What that will mean for the ultimate headcount in Greenville, I don’t know right now,” he said.

Most prior mergers have resulted in significant job losses as a result of consolidation, in an effort to realize “cost savings.” The worst losses occur in offices dealing with administrative functions, often deemed redundant by the new owners.

Orangeburg County, South Carolina has 12,000 Time Warner Cable customers

First North Carolina and now in South Carolina, Time Warner Cable has announced a statewide rate increase taking effect this December.

As has always been the case, Time Warner Cable officials blamed the increase on programming costs, particularly for sports programming.  The company also blamed local broadcasters, who increasingly demand fee-for-carriage arrangements.

Dan Jones, Time Warner vice president of government relations, told Orangeburg officials the price increases were given careful consideration.

“The value customers receive goes beyond the pure price,” Jones said in a letter to the city, reported by The Times and Democrat. “We’re offering customers more local programming, increased video on demand content, more high definition channels and enhanced cable television options.”

No explanation was provided for the increase in broadband pricing.

Orangeburg Mayor Paul Miller told the paper rate increases are out of the control of City Council.

Cable customers with the broadcast station package will see costs increase from $9.30 a month to $10.20 a month. The cable programming package will increase from $45.15 a month to $48.75 a month. Basic cable, which consists of both the broadcasting and cable programming, will rise from $54.45 to $58.95.

For Road Runner customers, the biggest increases come from Road Runner Lite, up three dollars from $24.95 to $27.95.  Other broadband package prices changes include:

• Road Runner Basic, bundled with cable or digital phone — from $32.95 to $37.95
• Road Runner High Speed online, bundled with broadcast cable, basic cable or digital phone — from $47.95 to $49.95
• Road Runner High Speed online, bundled with digital cable — no change
• Earthlink, bundled with broadcast cable, basic cable or digital phone — from $47.95 to $49.95
• Earthlink, bundled with digital cable — no change