2005-12-06 Webmail to Time-Warner Cable

Notes

I sent the following to Time Warner Cable after paying my cable internet bill (2 months, apparently late); the message explains the circumstances.

Message

Some issues with the billing.

1. Email notification of bills due tends to be iffy. I apparently didn't receive an email notification of my bill last month or this month, and was only alerted to the problem when your automated phone system called to tell me that I needed to call you for some unspecified reason.

IMPORTANT NOTE: As a policy, I do not call anyone back unless they tell me why they are calling. "Important information about your account" is not sufficient.

Fortunately, it occurred to me that I hadn't seen a bill from you guys in some time, so I checked the payment system (here) and found that 2 months' worth were due (which I have now paid).

Instead of having a robot call me to tell me that there was a message for me but that it couldn't tell me what the message was, it would have been a lot better if you could have sent an EMAIL (and then followed up with a printed letter if there was no response in 48 hours).

Also, why didn't you send out an email as soon as the bill was late? Followed by a printed letter if there was no response?

2. The new PayXPress is an UNimprovement over the old one. WIth the old one, I could see individual bills, keep track of which ones had been paid, etc. With this one, I can't even figure out when the next bill is due.

I wanted to set myself a monthly alarm on my computer to remind me to pay the bill, since I apparently can't count on you guys to tell me, but I can't even figure out when I should set it for. I'll have to guess that the next one is due in about 3 weeks. If you could tell me more exactly, that would be helpful.

Also, the old system kept my credit card information on record, so I didn't have to enter it each time; this has apparently been discontinued. This makes the payment process take about twice as long.

Thank you for your attention to these matters.

Automated Response

Thank you for sending us your inquiry, Nick. We have received your inquiry, and will be responding within 4 days. Your tracking number for this inquiry will be 65687. Please keep this email for your records and refer to the above tracking number when contacting us. Thank you, Time Warner Cable.

Human Response 2005-12-10

We are aware of some customers not receiving the monthly email notifications and have not been able to locate a central reason for this. We are forwarding your information to our corporate offices for analysis. Thank you for your patience while we investigate this. Your bill is due on the 26th of each month. If you have any other questions please reply to this email or call 1-866-489-2669 for assistance.