To the editor:
We live just outside the town of Washburn. We had digital satellite, when a man came and told us that we could “save $20 a month on our cable bill”. I said it would be OK, but my husband George made it clear he would not sign any contract. The man told us it was not a contract, just “permission to change and add new channels” — so George signed. The next month when the bill came was when we realized that we had actually changed our providing company. From the start, we were not satisfied with the new channel lineup, and we both noted that it wasn’t what the man had promised us.
I called to cancel, and the receptionist was rude and mean, demanding $180 to cancel the annual contract, and it was then that we understood the man lied to us about what we had signed.
We had more trouble, so I phoned the head office in Oklahoma and they agreed to cancel all, clearing the contract agreement with local contractors. Even after this, we were sent another bill for $20 from the local provider, and I returned it with no payment, but writing that it had been cleared by the office in Oklahoma. We heard no more from that company.
Next, we went to the cable company for television and telephone. At first, we were reasonably satisfied except for some problems of poor receptions and some channels going off the air quite often. We were put off by two technicians, after over an hour wait four separate times. The reception problem was blamed on our television set, and the technicians were only agreeable to relaying instructions to us, and we were just not able to do the adjusting. The television set was only one year old.
When the final technician told us that they could not be helped until a date over a month away, I told them to “forget it” and that we would get our satellite service somewhere else. In the anger of the moment, I forgot that our phone line was also through the cable company, and as soon as he had hung up, the plug had been pulled, and we had no phone service or television either. We made two trips in one day to the Presque Isle office, and got no help other than some advice on how to fix our television wiring. This was not reasonable to us who had no clue how to do any such repairing.
We are 68 and 76 years old and are both ill, with major health issues. George is on oxygen 24-7 and I cannot get to my wheelchair without assistance. I am also on LifeLine, which was not functioning due to no telephone service. We had to go outside of our home to contact the phone company for service, and were without a telephone for four (very long) days and television for five days. We were not overly concerned about television, but not having a phone or LifeLine services, made us both very nervous. Even now, we would be afraid to phone any company with a complaint for fear we’d lose service again.
By this letter, we are hoping that something can be done so that no other elderly person will have to go through this ordeal. We feel we were taken advantage of by the first salesman as well as some others along the way.
Washburn
