CableOne Wants Fire Victims To Pay For Burned Gear

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Talk about adding insult to injury, CableOne is demanding payment for equipment lost in an apartment fire that destroyed 62 units. How much are they asking? As much as a thousand dollars per customer. :eek:

CableOne's general manager said, in a phone call, that they'll work with customers on a case by case basis. It will be based in part on their payment history, and the depreciated cost of older equipment. They won't charge for modems or DCTs, but they will for DVRs, which are worth $500 when new.
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That's what renters insurance is for. I mean it sucks for the people who lost their homes but why should the cable company be out anything because of it? It would probably be a good PR move to forgive them (and they might now that it's got some coverage) but they certainly shouldn't be obligated to.
 
its my understanding that renters insurance should cover this so shouldn't really be an issue.
 
I had insurance and it was still a crazy hassle with my two DVRs from dishnetwork demanded payment from my house fire nightmare.

I will NEVER be a dish customer again.

God bless those poor fire victims. It is a life altering event that companies never appreciate.
 
Oldie said:
That's what renters insurance is for. I mean it sucks for the people who lost their homes but why should the cable company be out anything because of it? It would probably be a good PR move to forgive them (and they might now that it's got some coverage) but they certainly shouldn't be obligated to.
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We had a house fire that destroyed a cable modem in 1999, the cable company demanded that we pay $750 to replace the modem. I found out a few months later that the company's insurance covered their end user leased equipment, but we were never able to get that $750 back.
 
ryan_975 said:
We had a house fire that destroyed a cable modem in 1999, the cable company demanded that we pay $750 to replace the modem. I found out a few months later that the company's insurance covered their end user leased equipment, but we were never able to get that $750 back.
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Why would you? Because you paid they had no loss.
 
I can understand the business aspect of it, but they should show some "heart" with those customers.

The mom & pop cable companies I ran wouldn't charge victims of house fires for lost converter boxes(we didn't offer digital). We also gave them a free install when they came to apply for service again.
 
If I'm renting a box I expect the company that still *owns* the box to have insurance for it.
 
I'm sorry but that is pure greed on their part.

And this is another reason I NEVER rent equipment. renting a DVR or modem is just plain dumb. I've had my cable modem over 8 years. (that would have been $480 in renting it). If you plan on using the equipment a year+ lease/renting is a waste of $$.
 
Yet another reason to give the cable companies the boot. Why pay for something I can get online directly from the networks? I certainly wouldn't pay for service like this.
 
The renters could turn around and go after the complex owners for it as long as they aren't the ones who started the fire, maybe?
 
I know it's easy to hate on cable and telco companies but it's hardly their fault that their equipment was damaged by a fire at the customers home. The customer is ultimately responsible for those damages.

Now there is no way a 500 dollar DVR was still worth 500 at the time of the fire so depreciation needs to be brought into play with a more reasonable charge and they **could** extend an olive branch here to good paying customers but they are certainly not obligated to.
 
tikiman2012 said:
The renters could turn around and go after the complex owners for it as long as they aren't the ones who started the fire, maybe?
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Any lease I've ever signed has stated they are not responsible for losses to your personal belongings.
 
I have to assume the cable company has insurance on their company owned equipment.

Is the cable company going to charge the apartment complex for "damaged cable" running through the walls?

I mean it's one thing if you bash their stuff with a hammer, quite another if the "damage" was not of your doing.
 
4330thgink said:
Insurance companies are just legal, state sanctioned, organized crime in my opinion.
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QFT ... I hate everything about insurance.
I wonder how many thousands of dollars I paid, just because it is the law, and received no services or goods other than another bill.
peace of mind? hardly ...
 
it is always a pain to claim something on your insurance
be it
renter insurance or car insurance or health insurance
such a pain
I mean you pay for the service
then they question you on this and that
 
The real accountable entity would be where the fire originated.

If it was a building infrastructure failure (boiler, furnace, etc...) then the owner of the building should be the one billed, and they should have insurance.

A simple renter, who did not start the fire, should not be accountable.

IMHO
 
Kenai said:
QFT ... I hate everything about insurance.
I wonder how many thousands of dollars I paid, just because it is the law, and received no services or goods other than another bill.
peace of mind? hardly ...
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I got to say, the moment you have something happen, that money you spent won't bother you one bit.

But had you not spent that money and something happens, you are shit out of luck and it can wreck your entire way of life.
 
The moment this went to press, you can be sure that the insurance company either alerted law enforcement authorities for insurance fraud, or declined to insure any of these units.

Double dipping IS outright illegal in cases like these. And no matter what, cases like these always come back to bite the company in the ass.
 
This company is always in the news locally for bad business practices. They also have a deal set with the city of Fargo that blocks any other cable companies from setting up shop here as well. Currently we have MidContinent in the area, but they can only do business with people in West Fargo or Moorhead. They also love to jack prices up on people as well. I personally would never bother with them, my DSL has been the same price for years with increasing speed. But for those that want a simple all in one cable package, they are the only choice for Fargo, where this fire occured.
 
TechLarry said:
The real accountable entity would be where the fire originated.

If it was a building infrastructure failure (boiler, furnace, etc...) then the owner of the building should be the one billed, and they should have insurance.

A simple renter, who did not start the fire, should not be accountable.

IMHO
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The cause of the fire is irrelevant (unless it was arson) because any housing rental agreement you sign will say something along the lines of you are responsible for your personal property in the house.

It sucks if the people didn't have insurance to cover their losses, but the cable company shouldn't have to foot the bill because their customers failed to insure leased equipment. Renter's insurance (at least when I rented a few years ago) was less than $100 a year for complete coverage of everything I owned.
 
So many people hate on Comcast, but I would gladly take Comcast's service instead of Cableone. The neighborhood I live at has had "Static" in our lines for the past 3 months with Cableone, which causes DC's (very inconvenient for online gaming, Netflix, or anything the internet is made for).

The only way to get credit is to wait for them to come to your house (ie take a day off work) so they can test your equipment--- which they have done 4 times).

I would switch but there is only one other alternative in South Mississippi which is not much better.
 
"Agreements" are found to be invalid and unenforceable every single day in the courts.

A company can't just say "we ain't responsible" and think that will be the end of it. It rarely is.

weuntouchable said:
The cause of the fire is irrelevant (unless it was arson) because any housing rental agreement you sign will say something along the lines of you are responsible for your personal property in the house.

It sucks if the people didn't have insurance to cover their losses, but the cable company shouldn't have to foot the bill because their customers failed to insure leased equipment. Renter's insurance (at least when I rented a few years ago) was less than $100 a year for complete coverage of everything I owned.
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I don't really see what the big deal is here. Yeah it sucks for the people who live there, but like others have mentioned they should have had insurance. Legally, even if someone else is at fault in a situation like this, unless you can prove negligence then you are responsible for any damage.
 
I pay an extra fee of $2.00 a month for anything that may happen to my equipment. Whether it is my fault or not, they will replace it no questions asked. I have used it twice now. Once after a lightening strike took out all of my equipment. The second time, I spilled a glass of ice water on the DVR when I was working behind my entertainment center.

If there is one thing you can count on, it's the never ending greed of people and their organizations. I bet those things are insured. I'm thinking HydroBuds is dead on here. There is just no way they can field that amount of equipment without some kind of insurance.
 
This is why you have insurance... The cable company is doing nothing wrong. They are out 62 units and need to recover that cost. They are depreciating the value, I don't know what else they could do...
 
CableOne should have insurance which covers this sort of thing.
 
Nothing to see here. It's a business, not a charity.

You either have insurance to cover you butt in the case of an accident, rather or not it is the fault of your own, or you get screwed. Same with auto insurance, same with renters insurance, medical liability insurance, etc, etc. I have little sympathy for a person without renters or home owners insurance. It's required by law where I live.
 
Chances are Cableone DOES have insurance for this. They are just trying to get the customer to pony up.
 
xorbe said:
CableOne should have insurance which covers this sort of thing.
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When you lease a vehicle, who is responsible for the insurance? If your car gets in an accident and you decide not to replace it, you still owe the car company the residual cost and any remaining payments.

The problem with cable modem rentals, of course, is that you never pay it off. Still, mine has been upgraded twice (and DOCSYS is on its way) so I'm probably ahead in the deal.
 
MrValentine said:
I'm sorry but that is pure greed on their part.

And this is another reason I NEVER rent equipment. renting a DVR or modem is just plain dumb. I've had my cable modem over 8 years. (that would have been $480 in renting it). If you plan on using the equipment a year+ lease/renting is a waste of $$.
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Unless you have a way to use their service without their equipment, then you're forced to rent. I had the same problem with FIOS, when I didn't want to use their shitty router, but I have too. They made it so you'd have to use their router. The only alternative is to buy some adapter online, so you could plug in the coax for the TV guide. I'm not a big fan of paying, so I just deal with the router.

One thing I've learned is that when companies want you to pay for ridiculous shit, just don't pay. What are they gonna do, take you to small claims court? Lower your credit score? Put a lean on the house? It's usually too much wasted time and energy for them to go after you.

I can guarantee you that if the news spread to HardOCP, that CableOne is going to drop the charges anyway. That's what always happens. Bad PR is more expensive then the amount they're asking for.

The key to winning against companies is to be pursuant, cause they usually can't afford to do so themselves. Even better, go to one of their stores and complain as loud as you can. Even if the store claims they can't help you, then just stand in the store and use your cell phone to talk to their representatives. At this point you're being a dick, but that's the point. Cause dicks fuck assholes, and most companies are assholes.
 
TechLarry said:
"Agreements" are found to be invalid and unenforceable every single day in the courts.

A company can't just say "we ain't responsible" and think that will be the end of it. It rarely is.
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Renter's agreements are very cut and paste affairs and no tenant would ever be able to successfully invalidate a contract they signed because the lessor did not insure personal property of the lessee.
 
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