Mediacom cable bill question

[scottlr]

The Verizon overcharging thread brought this to mind.

My wife pays the bills each month, so I rarely see the statements, unless she leaves something sitting out. Last week she left the Mediacom statement sitting out, and I had a look at it while having lunch. I noticed they charged us $5 for "modem rental." The day we signed up for their broadband service, I bought my own modem and router at Best Buy, where I also signed up for the service. I haven't talked to my wife regarding this yet, but I guess it's possible they have been charging us for this for years. I find that hard to imagine, though. My wife went round and round with them over the HD box rental charges a couple of years ago, so I know she looked at the statement then.

When I figure out just how long they have been adding this bogus modem rental fee, what can I do about it? Anything more than making them remove it from future statements?

[Trout]

Originally Posted by scottlr

The Verizon overcharging thread brought this to mind.

My wife pays the bills each month, so I rarely see the statements, unless she leaves something sitting out. Last week she left the Mediacom statement sitting out, and I had a look at it while having lunch. I noticed they charged us $5 for "modem rental." The day we signed up for their broadband service, I bought my own modem and router at Best Buy, where I also signed up for the service. I haven't talked to my wife regarding this yet, but I guess it's possible they have been charging us for this for years. I find that hard to imagine, though. My wife went round and round with them over the HD box rental charges a couple of years ago, so I know she looked at the statement then.

When I figure out just how long they have been adding this bogus modem rental fee, what can I do about it? Anything more than making them remove it from future statements?

haha I just got my refund from them, they nailed us for several months for the same charge.

It seems sometime back they decided to charge for modems again, unfortunately they never documented who they gave modems to.

In their infinite wisdom they decided that all users had mediacom modems and started charging everyone.
Unless you call and dispute it, they will continue charging for it.

I would guess you are due somewhere between 9 & 11 months refund, I forget the exact date they started billing it..
If memory serves, it was announced in April and appeared on the May 2011 bill/statement.

There have been multiple threads on the topic.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/mediacom
&
http://mediacomcable.com/CustomerSupport/forum.php

Edit, They WILL refund the overcharge though several users have had to argue extensively over it.

[scottlr]

Thanks, I just forwarded your reply to my wife. She absolutely loves to take on CS depts over this kind of stuff.

[Trout]

Originally Posted by scottlr

Thanks, I just forwarded your reply to my wife. She absolutely loves to take on CS depts over this kind of stuff.

You are very welcome sir,
I actually enjoyed reaming them myself

Good Luck!

[scottlr]

Yea, Mediacom needs a good reaming every now and then. Robbers they are! $150 a month for just TV and internet. 160 or so channels with about 6 that actually have shows on them after 9pm, the rest are infomercials.

We are in an area that the regular free broadcast doesn't reach us. If it did, we'd have canceled the TV years ago. I can't do without the internet, though.

[Trout]

Originally Posted by scottlr

Yea, Mediacom needs a good reaming every now and then. Robbers they are! $150 a month for just TV and internet. 160 or so channels with about 6 that actually have shows on them after 9pm, the rest are infomercials.

We are in an area that the regular free broadcast doesn't reach us. If it did, we'd have canceled the TV years ago. I can't do without the internet, though.

I know the feeling, were out far enough that Broadcast TV is marginal at best. In the 8+ years we have lived here we have had nothing but problems with our service, ESPECIALLY internet.
They oversold the nodes here causing constant problem.
They call it "Utilization Issues" which is their roundabout way of saying or not admitting they oversold the nodes.
We often get speeds of less than 1meg down but our service is supposed to be 12meg. They do not even have their 50 meg service here yet!
Recently they lost their exclusive contract with our village due to everyone making a stink about it at board meetings.

Comcast has begun installing in part of the village though I suspect it will be at least 2 years before we see it in our subdivision.

[scottlr]

Well, talking to my wife, and she has already reamed them. We are getting a 9 month refund of the "mistake," as they put it.

So lets say they have 1 million customers that own their own modem. They would be netting $5M a month! Bank that and collect interest, then just deal with the ones that complain. I wish I could make money that easily. And you can just imagine that is exactly how it went down in a board room somewhere.

[Trout]

Originally Posted by scottlr

Well, talking to my wife, and she has already reamed them. We are getting a 9 month refund of the "mistake," as they put it.

So lets say they have 1 million customers that own their own modem. They would be netting $5M a month! Bank that and collect interest, then just deal with the ones that complain. I wish I could make money that easily. And you can just imagine that is exactly how it went down in a board room somewhere.

Yep, what a scam huh?

And they will not give you interest on that $5.00 per month. In fact, they will not actually refund anything, it will appear on the bill as a $45.00 credit.

No wonder they are one of the lowest rated ISP's in the US.

edit, go look at their customer support forum, it is actually pretty funny & sad both at once.

[MrTAteMyBalls]

I used to work customer service for Centurylink. I had a customer call in once about a "phone rental" charge on her bill for 7.00. The farthest back that I could research was 8 years and it was on her bill even then.

Turns out, when she set up service in the 1960's, she rented a phone from the company. I called her back and asked about that, and she sd the phone died shortly after getting it and she just threw it away instead of returning it. She never called to tell the company. She had been paying 7.00 a month for nearly 40 years for a phone she hadn't used for 39 years....lol. To be nice I gave her a credit going back only a year, since she admitted that she threw the phone away instead of returning it. She was happy with that resolution.


Also, don't be mean to the customer service reps. They do NOT make the rules, and are monitored very strictly. They are peons barely making enough to get by and have no control over what the company is doing. I've been called every name in the book. SO glad I dont have to do that for a living anymore.

[sleepingtiger]

Mediacom is the worst! It seemed like they went out of their way to lose me as a customer! The people there were great...the company sucked!

Tony

[jefesq]

Class action

[Trout]

Originally Posted by jefesq

Class action

The only problem with that is then the lawyers will get $4.89 and the customer will only get 11 cents.
So basically the customer gets screwed twice.