Are Promotional Ads Misleading?

Last September, Warren and Cynthia Beyer decided to make some changes in their communications set-up. Living out on Cape Horn, outside of Bayview, Idaho can present problems since not all options are open at affordable prices.

They heard about a promotion that Time-Warner Cable was offering. This consisted of telephone, Internet and television in a package that cost only $107.00 for all three services. Cindy called the number listed, only to be directed to an 800 number. She called and the sales person on the other end, in California, explained the package and promised to have an installer out in a few days.

The sales representative didn't seem to comprehend that the end of service was 260 feet away at the neighbors House, even though Warren stated that several times. They paid the installation fee at that time, in advance of service. A technician snowed up in a few days and switched the phone service off from Frontier, then stated a crew would have to come out to dig the trench for the connection at the neighbor's home. They were now limited to a cell phone that "sometimes" worked if they were on the deck outside and atmospherics were cooperative.

Two week went by, so they called again, asking where the installation crew was. Well, it turns out nobody turned in a work order for the project. Several days passed without results. Still no phone service, with anxious parents calling without results.

Desperately, they called Frontier asking that their previous phone number be reinstated and hooked up.They were told that they no longer owned that number and couldn't reinstate it. Eight weeks from the beginning of this travesty, Time-Warner decided to send out a crew which dug the trench. During the next call, she was told a technician would be out the following week to hook everything up.

Week nine! The installer came out, tried to install dial up for Internet, which was unacceptable. Her then stated he had no order to install a phone. At that point Warren essentially threw the guy out cancelling all of the services that were or were not about to be installed. Currently, the Beyers are shivering out on their deck whenever a phone call comes in.