Time Warner Cable has a reputation for providing bad customer service, which isn't unusual for a cable company. But TWC promised to fix its shortcomings in an open letter to customers published in major newspapers this past weekend.
"We get it. We know how you feel about cable companies. We’ve seen where Time Warner Cable falls on customer satisfaction surveys and we know the 'cable guy' jokes by heart," the company said.
TWC yesterday reprinted the letter on the company blog and issued a press release describing some of the improvements it has made and plans to make. "We hear you loud and clear. We’re changing," the press release said.
Time Warner Cable's pay-TV service ranked last in customer satisfaction in the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index ratings, behind even Comcast. TWC also had a below-average rating in Internet service customer satisfaction, behind AT&T, Verizon, and others.
While many customers merely complain in anonymous surveys, others have made the company's shortcomings public. In one case, Time Warner Cable changed a customer's billing name to "Cunt Martinez" after she contacted the company about a cable box problem. In another, Time Warner Cable placed 163 robocalls about an unpaid bill to the wrong person. The person who received the calls sued and was awarded a judgment of $229,500.
“We’ve seen where we’re ranked in customer satisfaction surveys and we’re familiar with the perennial jabs from the folks at ‘Saturday Night Live,’” TWC CEO Rob Marcus said in the company's press release. Marcus said that TWC has "made profound changes over the last two years to better respect [customers'] time [and] provide more value for what they pay us," and the company plans more changes.
TWC began promising one-hour arrival windows for service calls in New York City and Los Angeles in 2013 and rolled that system out across the company's entire service area nearly a year ago. TWC says the one-hour arrival windows are available days, nights, and weekends.
TWC said it's committing to provide service visits on the same day or within 24 hours of any disruption that can't be solved remotely. A new "TechTracker" service for managing appointments will be fully rolled out by the end of the year, and mobile app upgrades let subscribers schedule customer service phone calls and check the status of equipment in their homes.
TWC also said it is boosting Internet speeds, adding on-demand and HD video content and allowing for "more local and cable channels streaming to multiple devices in the home" at no extra cost.
"We know we still have a long way to go and we’re determined to deliver even more amazing things to you in the future," the company's open letter said.
Time Warner Cable is the second biggest cable company in the US, after Comcast. While a Comcast/TWC merger was blocked by US regulators this year, a Charter/TWC merger is now being proposed.
“Some may question why we would do this now, when we are in the middle of a pending merger with Charter,” Marcus said. “Merger or not, our customers expect and deserve the best customer experience we can deliver."
Oh, and Time Warner Cable is also apologizing to customers in video form. Here's one of its new commercials:
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