Investigation into pay-TV providers TWC, Charter, Dish Network, DirecTV, Comcast and Cox examines billing practices
A U.S. Senate hearing this week focused on billing practices for five major pay-TV companies serving some 71 million subscribers. Senators honed in on overcharges from Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications.
A joint report from the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found, based on TWC estimates, the company over billed 4,232 subscribers in Missouri a total of $44,152 in 2015. Charter estimates it has annually overcharged 5,897 customers a total of $494,000 each year.
Sen. Claire McCaskill commented: “We found that customers are being charged a host of fees that are not included in advertised pricing, some of which are for programming that used to be included in a customer’s video package. We also found that, just as many customers have long believed, some of these fees, like the HD and DVR service fees, aren’t a true reflection of the cost to the company of the service, but rather are based on the revenue goals of the company, and the price a customer is willing to stomach. In fact, some of these fees are charged to old customers while new customers get the same services free of charge.”
Sen Rob Portman, speaking of TWC overcharging some 40,000 Ohio customers more than $430,000, said: “And rather than correct the mistake by refunding the overcharges, the company just kept the money.”
The joint staff report made several primary findings:
- “Throughout the time period examined by the subcommittee, Time Warner Cable and Charter made no effort to trace equipment overcharges to their origin unless customers specifically asked them to and did not provide notice or refunds to customers.
- “Second, other MVPDs have invested effort and resources to prevent overcharges and provide refunds or credits to customers who have overpaid. Comcast and DirecTV provide automatic refunds or credits to overcharged customers, while Dish’s billing system is designed to prevent these types of overcharges from occurring in the first place.
- “As a result of this investigation, both Time Warner Cable and Charter have taken steps to address these issues. Each month, Time Warner Cable performs an audit comparing its billing records with service records. Going forward, the company will provide an automatic one-month credit to anyone who is identified in the audit as having been overcharged. Time Warner Cable will not, however, investigate when it began overcharging customers unless customers bring specific concerns to the company’s attention, nor will it provide a full refund dating back to when the overcharge began. Similarly, Charter will provide customers with a one-year credit for any equipment overcharges. Charter has also implemented systemic controls that it says will prevent equipment overcharges in the future.”
The five companies involved – Comcast, TWC, Dish Network, Cox Communications and AT&T’s DirecTV – have about 71 million customers.
