Doesn't it make you mad when you can't make sense of your bill? You'll remember all the confusion when Frontier took over Verizon accounts in April.
One grandmother says her bill went up for the same services after Spectrum took over Time Warner. How can that be?
"It was very confusing," said 76-year-old Hannah Kuhn of Simi Valley.
When Spectrum took over Time Warner Cable last fall she spotted a price jump of $46.
"That's a big amount of money for people," she said.
She had a few questions for Spectrum customer service. When it didn't get solved, she called the NBC4 I-Team, like a lot of consumers noticing changes on their new Spectrum bills. Then Kuhn got a surprise: she says Spectrum shut her cable off.
"They gave me no explanation," she said.
Several calls later her service is back. But what's going on with those bills?
When you see a great deal for cable and Internet, that's a promotional price to reel in new customers. After 12 months, they have the right to jack up the cost to what they call regular price.
"In most cases the price won't change until the contract expires," said Steve McFarland of the Better Business Bureau.
McFarland says bills can be confusing, especially when you sign up for service over the phone. The BBB recommends you ask to record phone calls with your cable providers — but please note this is illegal to do unless you first get the customer service agent's permission.
"If you record your conversation and of course with their permission, in California you would need it, you can go back and stipulate those terms back to them," McFarland said.
After the I-Team got involved, Spectrum gave Kuhn one of its promotional rates, saying "the customers who contacted you had one-year promotions that expired."
Satisfied for now, Kuhn says she'll re-evaluate her cable service next year.
"It was a very strange experience, i don't hope to repeat it," she said.
