Recently, a message from Spectrum popped up on one of my TVs, instructing me to give them a call. The automated messaged led me to the brink of madness when I heard it was going to cost me $5 to speak to a live person, so I headed to the cable office in Moody. I admit, I’m not a patient person with companies that believe everyone likes the automation age. And I guess I just simply don’t like the cable company.

On the way over, I realized I hadn’t seen a cable bill since Spectrum took over. After waiting for the representative to finish entertaining the person at his workspace, I was able to get his attention.

I provided my name and number. He read off an address I hadn’t had in two years. I stated that it appeared that ever since Spectrum took over, my bill was most likely going to my old address. He said that was my fault! Granted, I should have been more aware of a missing bill, but it rankled me to be told I was at fault when Time Warner previously had the right address.

He said I had a back payment of $237.74. I quickly calculated my normal monthly payment by two and came up a bit shy. It seems Spectrum increased the cost of lousy service and programming by $10.95 in two months.

I admit I had a less-than-friendly demeanor during this interaction, but the rep one-upped me by sliding my credit card across the counter, saying he didn’t want to do business with me and to go someplace else. He evidently weighed the potential fallout of his statement and took my payment.

Time Warner Cable was bad enough to deal with, and now we have to put up with another “uncontrolled” cable company that’s worse!

Stanley Goldberg

Wells