You could try escalating by contacting their CEO (link).

I'm not very good at composing letters, but you have my sympathy MGL. How frustrating and infuriating.

If it were me, I would get on the phone once again, pronto, even if it is tiresome and frustrating. Ask to speak to a supervisor. I would inquire as to why it so difficult to have continuous, reliable service when your payments are directly withdrawn from your account.

Then compose your letter with all of the necessary ingredients: times of calls, the persons you spoke with, photocopies of payment, all on an attorney's letterhead. ;)

Incompetent idiots. The world is full of them.

Good luck.

I feel your pain, mygothlaundry. Talking to telecommunication companies.... I'd rather pull all my teeth out.

Oh, and here's a guide to writing a complaint letter if that helps too. It sounds like you've been spinning your wheels talking to the same people and its time to speak to higher ups (even higher than just the customer service rep supervisors, as you have already done).

Also, if you get really adventurous, you could try to pull off an executive email carpet bomb.

Good luck!

i wish i could help mgl, we have similar angst here with qwest vs. comcast. they both mega suck. i totally suck at writing complaint letters too because i can't be arsed to stay succinct and professional with that nonsense.

look! look at the pretty flowers! hope this helps produce the proper zen-like contemplative mindset for composing businesslike FUCK YOU letters to the unholy hosebeasts of commerce.

slay them dragons, babe.

Ugh.

First of all, write to The Consumerist, or just point them to your post. They love this kind of story and I know that many company public relations departments read their website. The Consumerist will recommend that you write directly to the CEO.

As you said, it's probably best if you go down there and straighten it out. Hopefully once and for all.

And if it's any consolation, I have BellSouth DSL. It's been relatively problem free for our household.

The executive email carpet bomb sugested by fallenposters has worked well for me on two occasions.

Excellent, y'all. I sent a letter to the CEO and copied it to the Consumerist. Thanks!! Let's all hope this works. I spoke for another 45 minutes this morning with another customer "service" supervisor named Cynthia who told me the same exact thing all over again and then told me that well, there was nothing she could do and there were no phone numbers or email addresses she could give me and, basically, tough shit, lady. This whole thing is driving me frigging berserk.

Here's the letter. I'm going to mail it to their local office and I already emailed it to their CEO.

Over the past two weeks, I have been attempting to fix a large mistake made by Charter on my account. The situation is actually quite simple: I moved on May 15, 2007 from one address in West Asheville to another. Before my move, I notified Charter that I wished to transfer my service from my old address, , to my new address: I also informed them that I wished to continue the direct withdrawal from my checking account that had been ongoing for several years. I also told Charter that I wanted to add cable TV to my already existing cable internet service. They assured me that this would all be taken care of. On Monday, May 21, a charter technician (who was very nice, actually) came to my new house and installed cable TV and cable internet. Everything worked fine for several months. Money was still being removed from my bank account on a monthly basis and I assumed that everything was fine.

At some point during the first week of August, however, my cable internet stopped working. I called Charter on Friday morning, August 3, only to discover that it had been disconnected due to non payment. I spoke at some length with the billing person about this mistake and she told me that my cable at the old house had never been discontinued, direct withdrawal had never been authorized and that as far as Charter was concerned, I had never paid a bill at the new address. She also intimated that I was probably receiving cable internet fraudulently at two addresses. I was – and remain – absolutely furious at this accusation. After some length, she said that the whole matter had been sorted out and that my account would be credited with the money that had been withdrawn from my account since May. She also transferred me to a technician who said that my modem had never been registered at the new account either and, again after some time on the phone, the internet began working again. I thought the matter was closed.

Imagine my surprise when, two days later, my internet was again disconnected. I called Charter again on Sunday, August 5 and had the exact same conversation with yet another billing representative who, again after about an hour, assured me that it was their mistake and would all be taken care of. That would have been fine if my internet had not then been disconnected yet again by Friday, August 10.

I spoke with a billing rep again on Sunday, August 12 about this matter. She was extremely rude and very unpleasant. She agreed to reconnect my internet service – only to discontinue it again in one hour. She also hung up on me. I am extremely angry and very frustrated with the level of customer “service” I have received. On Monday, August 13, I spoke with Monica, a supervisor at your billing number. I had to go through the entire story again since apparently none of the three other customer service representatives I spoke with was capable of taking notes. Monica assured me (yet again) that this matter has been dealt with and that the money withdrawn from my bank account since May has been transferred to my current account, leaving me with a credit of some $21. She said that the transfer would be in effect by 3:40 pm on Tuesday, August 14 and my account would no longer be considered in arrears.

On Thursday, August 16 I came home from work to discover that my internet had yet again been disconnected. I called this morning (Friday, August 17) and spoke with the customer service supervisor Cynthia. She said that the transfer had not yet taken place and that she would request it again but that there was really nothing she could do to ensure that it had taken place. I am at a loss to understand why she is unable to correct this situation and, in fact, why it has not already been corrected. She claimed that Charter had been trying to reach me; unfortunately, I don’t seem to have any record of that on my phone.

To resolve this problem, I would appreciate a phone call, email or letter stating that my account has been properly credited. I can be reached at work: Monday – Friday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. I also want my internet service restored and I feel at this point that I am due some credit for interrupted service. My internet has been disconnected, on and off, for two weeks total and I want credit for that time applied to my next bill. I also estimate that I have spent at least 8 hours of my time on this problem and quite frankly, I have never encountered rudeness, incompetence and apathy like this with any other company.

I am looking forward to hearing from you immediately. I am also seeking help from a consumer protection agency and, if this is not resolved soon, the Better Business Bureau.

Great sounding letter MGL. Hopefully it will get you somewhere. Let us know how it works out.

Good grief, MGL... I knew some of this story from following along on your blog, but that is freaking INSANE. Here's hoping the letter works.

Your cable company has a franchise agreement with your city. Complain to your city's department that deals with the cable tv franchise. In my town, it is the telecommunication committee. You and your fellow townsfolk could cause a lot of pain for the cable company if what they are doing is a violation of the current contact. And it would affect the cable company's chances for renewing the contract. Of course, the replacement company will probably be just as bad.

Nice letter, mgl--you might consider asking a mod to remove your work phone number, though.

Yeah, I just emailed arse_hat about that. Drat, I knew I'd leave something in. Hey, now y'all can all call me at work! Hee.

done.

Some others to try:
jessica.lowe@chartercom.com
mmoehle@chartercom.com
mfawaz@chartercom.com
nsmit@chartercom.com
rquigley@chartercom.com
joe.stackhouse@chartercom.com
anita.lamont@chartercom.com
dblack3@chartercom.com
tfoushee@chartercom.com
suzanne.curtis@chartercom.com
cfl.regulatory@chartercom.com
regulatory@chartercom.com

and chris.robles@chartercom.com is President of the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals St. Louis Gateway Chapter (I need to check my business contacts but I think I may have met Chris Robles. Small world)

Wooo!! Success!!! I just got a call from someone named Andre at Corporate who got my email and says my internet is back on and my account is all credited. Now, let's just see if it sticks. . .

Try to get employee ID numbers the next time you call, in case they're giving you a fake name (which we were instructed to do when I worked in tech support). And like birdherder said, if your city or state has a Public Utilities Commission, give them a call and file a complaint so the next time their contract is renewed, they'll (hopefully) get some shit for it.

Yay! I hope it's all straightened out, mgl.

And that was a very good letter - clear, concise, you let them know you were very angry and upset but didn't froth at the mouth.

In the future, mgl, it's best NOT to let companies directly draw money from your account to pay bills. You don't have any record of what account number those payments are being applied to, or even if those payments are getting through on time. Many banks let you set up automatic payments through the bank, which is much better than letting some company have access to your accounts! A lot of the complaints I read on Consumerist are in some way related to automatic payment options through the company.