Charter Communications Charged $1874 EARLY TERMINATION FEE MADISON, Wisconsin

In August 2012, I signed up for Charter Communications Internet & Phone service after seeing their television commercials in my area.  I signed up on the internet and it showed an approximate billing of $130 per month with Internet + 2 Line Phone System.  It took almost a month for them to install the service after going back and forth between my local people and the national call center.  After it was installed the phone service was a nightmare - you have to have a college degree in computer science to figure it out - never could get it to work as advertised.

After my bill changed the next month to an even higher monthly amount, I decided to cancel the service and go back to Knology.  I received a final billing which was again high then a day later received a final final bill which included an Early Termination Fee of $1874.78.  NO ONE - not even cell phone providers have an early termination fee that high.  I called in to customer service and she said my contract was for 24 months - which the printout I had from initial signup was for 12 months and I find NOTHING on what my employee signed and what I printed off the internet showing early termination fees.  She said there was nothing she could do about it and the full bill plus this outrageous early termination fee was due immediately.  She wasn't willing to discuss it at all.

So, in the mean time she turned it over to collections - thats a joke.  They added their fees to it and refused to deal with it and referred me back to Charter for dispute.  And they kept calling until I sent them a certified letter showing that we were in dispute and that Charter isn't willing to explain this, isn't willing to send me documentation signed by any of my employees or myself, isn't willing to send me copies of what I agreed to on the internet - which is apparently different from what I have printed.  The customer service woman stated she didn't have anything but the employee's name that was on site the day the service was installed and now they are calling his home and cell phone in an attempt to collect this debt.  She said they don't have an EIN or SSN associated with this account.  This was clearly a business account - not a personal account.

I am NOT going to pay $1874.78 in EARLY TERMINATION FEES.  That is clearly above and beyond any legal fees a company can charge.  And the early termination fees are shown on 4 lines of the bill simply as Et Fee (3 Lines @ $500 & 1 Line at 303.78) because the woman says their system wont let them put in anything above $500 on a single line.  Huh?  And the other $71.00 is a wired router charge that will be returned when Charter wants to get realistic about their charges.

As for the commercial -Total BS - Get a $500 Pre-Paid Visa Card when you sign up - ONLY and ONLY if your monthly total is over $1000 - So that means only if you are a large business that has money to throw around.
Downtime - about 10% weekly (especially if the weather was raining) A phone system that a college professor could not figure out.