From: tiburon@byron.u.washington.edu (R. Ketchsky)
Subject: Class Action Against TCI Cablevision
Reply-To: tiburon@u.washington.edu
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Distribution: uw, seattle, pnw
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 19:39:00 GMT


Greetings Victims of the Cable TV Monopoly,

By now you've probably heard about the latest scam perpatrated by
the cable companies.  They bought up the rights to the Olympic 
games and they are broadcasting the events on a "Pay-per-view"
basis.  That means you get a garbled signal, and for some amount
of money you get to unscramble the particular event you want to 
see.  They thought they were going to reap a bundle on this scheme,
but I've heard rumors that it's turning out to be a flop.  The fish
ain't biting.  Thats about the extent of my understanding of it, 
although I don't really care about the details--that's not the scam 
I'm talking about.

The SCAM is that, in order to make space for all these scrambled 
broadcasts their normally scheduled broadcasting has been preempted.  
Meanwhile, they continue billing for their service, even though they 
aren't delivering the goods.  In other words, the programming we 
subscribers paid for were pulled so that they could resell the same 
channel space to a second time.  Is that a scam?

Well, the word has hit the street, and now TCI Cable is offering
a 95 cent refund as a gesture of appeasment (only to those who
complain of course).  I think this is a farce so I've filed a
complaint with the Washinton State Attorney General's Office,
demanding reasonable compensation.  Let me explain my reasoning:

We subscribed with TCI cable for one reason, to receive the Spanish
language broadcast (Univision).  (My wife is a native Spanish 
speaker and I'm a Latino culture aficionado).  This pay-per-view
thing runs for 15 days, during which time TCI has cut off the
Spanish language broadcast (at least during the afternoon and
evening, which is the only time we are home to watch it).  Since
we're not really interested in the other cable TV offerings, this
represents a total interruption of service during this period.  
(They might just as well cut off our service all together, but
then they'd want $40 to turn it back on again!.)  When 
I asked TCI to refund 1/2 my monthly bill for this half month
interruption in service, they just thumbed their nose at me.
(Loosely paraphrasing, "We're a monopoly and your just and ant so
take your 95 cents or nothing.")  

So when I talked to the Attorney General's Office, I asked if this
shouldn't be handled as a class action suit.  I'm sure there are
lots of other people who got screwed the same way.  They told me
they would file a class action suit if they get enough complaints.
So what I'm getting at is this: if you feel like you've been screwed 
by your cable company, 

     CALL YOUR WASHINGTON STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE!

     SEATTLE PHONE NO: 464-6684

Describe your complaint and they will send you a complaint form to
fill out and return.  Tell your friends and neighbors.

Everybody's situation is unique, of course.  In our case we figure
that our service was interrupted 100% because they cut the only
programming we're interested in.  When you send in your complaint,
you might thing about what percentage of your usual cable viewing
was disrupted and prorate your monthly bill by that amount as a
basis for your claim (that is, if you figure it's more than
the 95 cents refund which TCI is offering).  Explain your reasoning
on the complaint form.

If this posting has a vindictive tone, I should explain that I've
suffered a lot of abuses from TCI cable all the time that I've
been a customer, and I know a lot of other people also have.  This
one really takes the cake; it's just sheer greed.  I'd really love
to see our Attorney General stick it to them in a big way, to pay
them back for all the times they screwed us little people. 


ketchsky