Friday, October 24, 2008

Can I vent?

Can I please vent and ask for some advice?

We decided about 3 years ago to try out cable. Apparently they were running some kind of special at the time where the service came with a "free" DVR player.We ended up cancelling after about 6 months. We just didn't use it that much. When John cancelled, he asked what we should do with the DVR player. They told him just to keep it. OK. Sounded strange to me too. We didn't really want to keep it but we didn't know what else to do with it.

So that DVR player sat on the top shelf of the guest room closet for two years, and we eventually sold it at a garage sale. We priced it at $5 and we took $1 for it.

So when we moved 2 months ago, we had to cancel our internet service too. Apparently this flagged the cable company that we still had their DVR player and we have received a couple of messages saying that if we don't return it ASAP or pay $350  they will turn us over to collections.

Long story short, after several phone conversations, and being unable to "prove" that the customer service guy told us to keep it, John finally paid the $350 yesterday. I was so upset. Not so much at John but more at the cable company, who would not back down. John is so very honest and has such integrity, he would rather pay the $350 that he doesn't feel he owes than to cause strife, be turned over to collections, have bad credit, etc. He has a good name and good credit and for good reason.

I have been so upset over this though. I can think of so many other places I would like to see $350 go than a cable company who clearly has a flawed process to wait over 2 years to collect their equipment that they told us to keep.

Since I've gotten great advice on this blog in the past, I hope somebody has some brilliant idea to help us out of this situation. It has already been charged to the credit card. Is there any getting out of it? Is there anything else we can do? Should we really have to pay this?

16 comments:

Shelley said...

I don't know if there's anything you can do at this point to get your money back. But at the very least, I'd write a letter of complaint to the company, explain the entire siuation and politely tell them that not only will you not use their services anymore but you will be advising others to steer clear of them due to their less than honorable customer service.

Anonymous said...

I am not sure either. Since you don't have "proof" of their previous statement of keeping their DVR then unfortunately, I don't think you have any recourse. However, 2 years might be some sort of time limitation????? I am not an attorney, so I am not sure. However, since you already paid for the $350, you might not be able to get it back. Sorry about this yucky situation. Maybe God will restore the $ in another area. He is so faithful.

Jeremy and Melanie said...

We had a similar situation when we moved. We cancelled our service and nothing was said to us about needing to return the DVR box. A month later our credit card was charged almost $400! Thankfully Jeremy had kept the DVR box and we were able to return it. I hate feeling so manipulated by these companies - phone companies, cell phones, cable, internet services - CRAZY!!

Anyway, I would write a letter as Shelley suggested, but also point out that your cable service was cancelled 2 years ago!

Tim Rovenstine said...

Write a nice letter to your brother Joel Walter, email him, put a link to your blog, and tell him to get this taken care....is it with DirecTV? Cox Cable?

liesel said...

It was Cox, unfortunately.

June Berger said...

Sorry I don't have any advice for you, but these companies sure do have questionable policies sometimes!

Arizona mom to eight said...

I agree that writing a letter is a good idea, after 2 years, you would think they would know you still had the box, ridiculous to make you pay for equipment that has likely been upgraded since and there are probably hundreds in a back room.

orphans4me said...

Charissa,
It is always fun to visit your blog, see your kids and especially see Ava's progress. My goodness-look at all that strength in her arms. I'm sorry about the DVR
Joy,RR

Carson's Mom said...

I am sorry too. Cox is the company that helped us decide we needed DirectTV and we have never been sorry. If you haven't paid the bill you may still be able to question the charge with the credit card company. You can check with them to see. If you have already paid the credit card bill there is little you can do. Like Kris said, this is crazy since a 2 year old DVR is worthless. We have had 3 in that same time period because they don't last that long and many have now been upgraded to high definition. Contact someone higher up than you were speaking to before. Good luck!

Kayla

kirsten said...

If you wanted to make big noise about this I think channel 2 "news for you" does small clips on their news channel about public issues- where people have been taken advantage of etc.

Dalene said...

I vote with Kirsten.

Shea said...

I'm with Kirsten too. Satellite companies never do this. We have so many old boxes lying around. Now you have me scared to throw them away lol.

little dalene said...

I hate Cox Communications with all of my heart!

Pan Cratius said...

Gon on Ebay...buy one similar, and take it to them, and ask for your money back.

jennifer... said...

Can't someone dress up as a cable box so you can get your money back?

Amy said...

Hi Charissa!
I would check on ebay or Craigslist and see if you can find a similar one! You might also try Freecycle to see if someone has one to give away....
I would write the letter - make sure to put a cc on the bottom to the Better Business Bureau...

Good luck!
Amy