Time Warner Cable apparently called Araceli King a total of 153 times in less than a year, trying to get in touch with a customer who had not paid his bill. Despite explaining to company representatives that the phone no longer belonged to Luiz Perez, who owed Time Warner money, the robocalls kept coming.
King placed several calls and complaints with Time Warner, but the calls continued to come. On several occasions she was told that she would be taken off of the list. And for brief moments, a week or two free of harassing phone calls, it appeared that King’s troubles were over. But eventually the phone started ringing again.
The calls were automated messages, so King could not complain directly to a person. The calls occurred between July of 2013 and August of 2014 before finally stopping.
$230,00 dollars is a lot of money for 153 calls. In fact, the damages break out to $1,500 per call. Time Warner Cable has remained mum on the decision, stating that it would take time to review the ruling.
Still, the company appears to have crossed a line this time around. The judge in the case noted that the company continued to harass the woman with robocalls even after she filed a lawsuit. In the judges’ eyes, the 74 calls that came after the lawsuit was filed were especially egregious, and suggest that Time Warner Cable simply didn’t take the lawsuit seriously.
Not surprisingly, cable companies are frequently rated poorly by consumer and customer satisfaction surveys. Time Warner Cable actually managed to secure the lowest score, 51, in the American Customer Satisfaction Index, narrowly beating out Comcast, which scored 54.
