New York Attorney General's lawsuit lays out years of Time-Warner "fraud" against their customers


The New York AG's lawsuit against Time Warner Cable (now a division of Charter) lays out a damning set of accusations of fradulent conduct, including "f sky-high prices, chronic service outages, bait-and-switch plan offerings, lower-than-advertised internet speeds and other indignities."

The AG says that Time Warner was able to get away with it in part because there wasn't enough competition in the cable market, so customers often had no choice but to send Time Warner their money, even though they knew they were being ripped off.

A 16-month-long investigation conducted by Schneiderman's office found that Time Warner Cable executives allegedly knew that the hardware devices the company leased to its customers, including "deficient" modems and wireless routers, were incapable of delivering the promised speeds—and yet the company promoted the services anyway.

For example, the investigation found that Time Warner Cable leased wireless routers to over 250,000 subscribers who had been promised speeds of 200 Mbps and 300 Mbps, despite knowing that these routers were incapable of delivering internet speeds faster than 100 Mbps.

"Even now, Spectrum-Time Warner Cable continues to offer internet speeds that we found they cannot reliably deliver," said Schneiderman.

The lawsuit seeks civil penalties, restitution for New York consumers, and "injunctive and equitable relief appropriate to redress" the company's fraudulent conduct.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK,
by ERIC T. SCHNEIDERMAN, Attorney General of the
State of New York,
Plaintiff, SUMMONS
-against-

CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS, INC. and SPECTRUM
MANAGEMENT HOLDING COMPANY, LLC
(f/k/a TIME WARNER CABLE, INC.),
Defendants.
[SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK]

Here's How Time Warner Cable Was 'Ripping You Off' All Those Years
[Sam Gustin/Motherboard]


(Image: Go To Jail, Ken Teegardin, CC-BY-SA)