TAMPA, Fla. -- Bright House cable customers could see an increase in their cable bill as the company makes the switch to Spectrum and promotional prices run out.
Ivan and Linda Sordo's typical bill of $141 shot up to $305 overnight and without warning. And Lillian Rehrig's normally $123 bill more than doubled to $305.
Rehrig says calls to Spectrum got her a partial reduction but no real relief. Her next Spectrum statement came in $120 higher than her old Bright House bill.
What happened in these two cases turned out to be a billing error which was corrected by Spectrum's owner, Charter Communications,.
Still Charter admits the majority of its one million customers will face rate increases of $20 to $30 on average.
So how can a company that promised not to raise rates do just the opposite?
The company told RTV6 sister station WFTS in a statement:
“Bright House Networks routinely offered existing customers promotional pricing, often year after year. The change in their monthly bill isn't related to the merger. Literally every day of the week, many customers' promotions expire, and their package price rises to the regular monthly price of those services.”
Charter estimates the majority of the 1 million households it inherited in the merger were under a promotional package.
Shannon Martino says her family cut the cord rather than pay the high cost of cable.
In the living room the Martinos use their Xbox to stream Netflix for $10 a month. And in the master bedroom the couple use a $150 dollar Apple TV box to watch their favorite network shows. The family went from a $200 monthly cable bill to $70 a month bill, which includes internet service.
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