IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED
Dear Cox Communications Collections Department:
I am in receipt of your URGENT letter dated April 23, 2012, that threatens to disconnect my service unless I pay the amount of $140.98. The letter goes on to further threaten reactivation or reconnect installation fees if my service is interrupted.
Give me a break.
Not only are your threats offensive to a loyal customer who has paid her bills on time for the past five years, but your information is inaccurate.
When I received my bill for May services, I was appalled to see charges of $140.98 and immediately called your so-called customer service number to find out what was going on.
I spoke to a Cox representative on April 24, 2012, who told me her name was April. She explained the payment I made for the April monthly bill did not properly go through. Rather than send a check as I usually do, I decided to try your suggestion to “Go Paperless!” and pay my bill online. It obviously is not as fun and easy as it may seem.
Since my bank account has enough funds to cover the monthly charges, which should have clued you in since I have been using the same account to pay your bills for the past half-decade, there must be some type of error in the transaction.
Rather than alert me right away that the payment did not go through, however, you decided to wait nearly a month before bringing the matter to my attention. This ensured I would be penalized with a late fee as well as a “returned payment” fee.
I paid the amount due for April services over the phone in the amount of $53.99. Your representative April said she would waive the usual phone payment fee and put in a request to waive the $25 returned payment fee as well as any late payment penalty fees.
Your representative then told me that cleared up the problem and left me with a balance of $53.99 due May 16, 2012. That is the balance enclosed, which brings my account balance current with no additional money owed by me until my next monthly bill due June 16.
It is unclear where the initial error lies, yet it seems clear that instead of trying to repair the situation your only interest is piling on additional fees, not updating my account when payment is made, and sending out notices threatening disconnection.
I would be happy to speak with a representative to provide further details on the matter, although that does not seem to work all that well with your company. My beau had an issue with Cox earlier this year when he closed out his account and you owed him a credit. Rather than paying the credit, as he was told would happen from a representative on the phone, he was sent a bill saying he owed Cox money instead of the other way around.
I would also be happy to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and other consumer protection agencies to alert them of your unethical and unfair practices.
I am already posting a copy of this letter on my blog to alert other consumers what may be in store if they choose to go with Cox Communications.
Have a nice day,
Ryn Gargulinski
Writer, artist, performer
Disgruntled Cox customer
