WASHINGTON — A Senate investigation of cable TV costs released Thursday criticized two major cable companies for consistently failing to provide refunds to customers they knew had been overcharged.
The Senate Permanent Investigations subcommittee found Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications made no effort to trace set-top box equipment overcharges and to provide refunds to customers. “Instead, their practice has been to just pocket the past overcharges,” a report on the investigation said.
Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications recently merged.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, the subcommittee’s chairman, called the overcharges a “rip off” and said thousands of Ohio cable TV customers were affected.
Kathleen Mayo, executive vice president of customer operations at Charter Communications, said a company audit determined that less than 1 percent of its customers using set-top boxes were overbilled. Mayo said the company will explain to customers that they were overcharged and give them a one-year credit.