Few things are more annoying than getting notified by a collection agency that you owe money — when you don’t.

That’s been happening recently to hundreds of former Charter Communications customers across the nation. Charter’s billing system acted as if these ex-customers owed money for unreturned equipment when they didn’t. Fixing the problem proved frustrating.

The problem was caused by Charter’s conversion to a new billing system, but that happened two years ago. Only recently, though, were inaccurate bills for unreturned equipment sent out.

M.L. Bogan of Fort Worth disconnected her Charter service years ago. When she first received notice after her disconnection that she owed the company $25 for a modem, she explained that she had bought it.

Then last month, she started getting letters from a collection agency.

She called Charter to explain again, but a rep kept telling her to pay the $25 or return the modem.

“After going round and round in circles and getting nowhere,” she says, she finally got a supervisor who took ownership of her case. She learned that Charter actually owed her $4.81.

Case closed? Not that easy. A week later, she received another collection agency notice claiming she owed Charter $4.81. She made more calls to Charter.

She also called the collection agency, which told her there would be a $9.95 processing fee for her to collect her $4.81 refund, but if she paid the $4.81 to them, they would waive the fee. (Yes, I know that doesn’t make sense, but little of this does.)

She called Charter again and was told the company had to complete a form for her refund, then it would take six to eight more weeks to process the check. Her account with the collection agency would be cleared.

Then the Charter rep asked whether she wanted to stay on the line and complete a customer satisfaction survey. Really. (I would have!)

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

More Watchdog Nation News:

Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes

America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview

Watchdog Nation Debuts New e-Book and Multi-CD Audio Book

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

When Nancy Fitzhugh of Fort Worth ended her Charter service two years ago, she sent her modem back. In January, a collection agency demanded $33.

She says, “Their approach was ‘It’s only $33, and it would be easier just to pay it.’”

When she refused, an agent warned her, “We are not going away.”

Oh, yeah? I shared her problem with my Charter contact. The calls stopped coming. Then last month, she received an unexpected refund of $45 from Charter.

Richard W. Cree Jr. dropped Charter a few years ago, and he returned his modem. After that, he kept receiving letters asking for $25. Each time, he’d call and explain that he returned the modem.

“This went on for over two years,” he says. A month ago, he received a demand letter from a collection agency in Florida for $33.

He visited a Charter storefront in Keller. A Charter rep told him she heard the same story from other customers.

Turns out Cree had a $95 credit on his account that he didn’t know about. After he received his refund, he took $25 of that to use for a gift card for the Charter rep who had been kind to him. Classy.

Charter spokesman Kevin Allen says, “These accounts should not have been sent to the collector, and Charter corrected this as soon as we realized the error that had occurred.”

The company is changing its procedures to review equipment returns and compare them with a customer’s credit balance before collection agencies are notified, he says. He estimates that less than 1 percent of Charter’s customers were affected.

What do you do if you get caught in a similar comedy of errors?

The Charter spokesman suggests: “Keeping detailed records and receipts is key. In the example of Ms. Fitzhugh, she had maintained detailed records including her receipt for returned equipment, which made her situation simple for Charter to resolve.

“In addition, Charter’s associates at our sales and service centers are trained to research and resolve all situations that arise. Visiting one of our community offices is another way to resolve an issue such as this.”

The Watchdog adds that federal law gives consumers protection when they are served with false collection notices. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is the rulebook for these situations.

Consumers wrongly dunned need to send a letter to the collector challenging the debt. That starts the clock, giving the collector 30 days to prove that the debt is accurate.

It ends up a battle between your paperwork and theirs, and that’s why keeping receipts for returned equipment is vital.

Visit Watchdog Nation Headquarters

Like Watchdog Nation on Facebook

Watch Watchdog Nation on YouTube

Twitter @DaveLieber

Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is available in hardcover, as a CD audio book, ebook and hey, what else do you need. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip, and, usually, you can’t convince your municipal water company that its meters are bad. Water departments are notoriously stubborn. Their culture is built around the idea that water meters are supposed to be about 99 percent accurate.

But what about the other 1 percent?

Usually, it’s a duel between homeowner and water department. The homeowner swears on a stack of skyrocketing water bills that the family didn’t use nearly that much water. The water department counters that there must be a leak.

Homeowner hires a plumber. That bill is often very costly, whether there’s a leak or not.

How do you get a water department to listen? As readers of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Dave Lieber Watchdog column first learned, we met someone who figured it out. Carolyn Fobes could teach a class on how to fight — no, make that convince — city hall. She’s a four-time cancer survivor who says: “I don’t give up easily. I play to win.” These days, that’s an art all its own.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

More Watchdog Nation News:

Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes

America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview

Watchdog Nation Debuts New e-Book and Multi-CD Audio Book

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Her first student could be Letha Wood of Fort Worth, Texas, who told me last week how her monthly water bill jumped from its usual $50 to $104, then to $119, $176, $288 and $329. She and her husband didn’t figure out until months too late that they had a leak.

The plumbing repair job cost $2,200. Fort Worth reimbursed the couple some $180 under its leak adjustment policy. (The city credits an account for 50 percent of the excess water use for up to two months based on historical usage.)

That was a difficult experience for Wood and her husband, both almost 90 years old.

Fobes can relate. Her bill jumped from $66 to $194 in one month. Of course, she was told that she had a leak, too.

“After paying $800 to a national plumbing company, we were told we had no leak,” she recalls.

“We paid the water bill, even though we believed it to be erroneous.”

Then her bill spiked again from one month to the next — $61 to $195. Guess what the water department told her?

This time, she visited the water department “in person,” she says. She requested a bill adjustment. Denied.

She put her request in writing and was again denied. She sent her protest to the mayor and public works director, too. Since the same thing had happened twice, she reasoned that either the equipment was faulty or her meter was misread.

Two months later, she received a robo-phone call announcing that her water was going to be turned off because she hadn’t made her entire payment.

She called the city manager’s office and requested a meeting. She was referred to North Richland Hills Assistant City Manager Karen Bostic who — wait for it — took her seriously.

Bostic recalls what happened:

“She did a lot to help herself. She continued paying her current bill. … She didn’t get angry and say, ‘I’m not paying a dime.’

“She wasn’t going to play the game of ‘Well, if I can’t get my way, I’m just going to stop paying all my bills,’ which I’ve seen happen before.

“It’s easier to work with someone when you know there’s no game playing. A number of people run into financial trouble and instead of calling the water department, they just stop paying bills. They get on the cutoff list, and their water is cut off. If they would just call when they start having financial problems, 99 percent of the time we’re willing to work with them.”

The city allows for adjustments when there is evidence of a leak and receipts can prove that repairs were made. In Fobes’ case, nobody knows what happened.

That didn’t stop her. Bostic said she was impressed by Fobes’ tone: “She was very reasonable and logical. She had all her information at hand. She wasn’t argumentative. It’s tough to work with someone when they try to strongarm you as soon as you get on the phone. I’ve had people who don’t have all their ducks in a row.”

Good water metaphor. That’s how Fobes originally got my attention. She wrote me: “I’m getting hosed.”

Her clear presentation of her problem is impressive. “I was a journalism major in college,” she says, “but have spent most of my life in accounting. Both professions require research and organization skills.”

Don’t forget true grit. Fobes has that — and a victory. “My tenacity has paid off,” she says.

Bostic totaled Fobes’ water usage for six years, deducted the highest and lowest, calculated a four-year average, then deducted what had already been paid. (Kids, see why math is important?)

The city cut almost $200 from her bill, though officials still don’t know what caused the spikes. Bostic called them “very odd.”

“All is right with the world,” Fobes says.

Visit Watchdog Nation Headquarters

Like Watchdog Nation on Facebook

Watch Watchdog Nation on YouTube

Twitter @DaveLieber

Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is available in hardcover, as a CD audio book, ebook and hey, what else do you need. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

How to fight your electric bill

People complain about high electricity bills. Often they’re ignored. Here’s how a prosecutor shows you how to take care of bad customer service reps who don’t care.

A Texas “power” story

Power plants across Texas fail. People have to cope with rolling blackouts. That makes Watchdog Nation long for the good old days when people complained about smart meters and their bills going up. Good old days? That would be before the great ice storms of 2011 in North Texas.

Although The Watchdog can’t solve the rolling blackouts, we will continue to shine a light on the Texas electricity system.

Customer service is questionable

Today’s victims, er, electricity customers: John and Mary Brasher of Wichita Falls. John Brasher is a 25-year veteran prosecutor in the Wichita County district attorney’s office who handles appeals. After his smart meter was installed, his next bill came in four times higher than the previous month’s. So the couple launched an appeal with TXU Energy.

As readers of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Dave Lieber Watchdog column first learned, Mary Brasher called customer service. She got no help. “I knew I was talking to someone overseas. His phrases didn’t sound right. I felt like he was reading me a canned answer. He kept repeating the same phrases over and over,” she said.

Next, the couple wrote TXU. They even diagnosed their own problem, telling TXU that their old meter reading was most likely inaccurate.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

More Watchdog Nation News:

Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes

America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview

Watchdog Nation Debuts New e-Book and Multi-CD Audio Book

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Difficulty communicating

Here are excerpts from their ensuing correspondence.

TXU: “Dear Mr. Brasher … the meter was accurately read.”

Brasher: “Did you even read my last email? … Where is the old meter? Can it be tested?”

TXU: “All bill dates and due amounts are continuing as normal.”

Brasher: “You are absolutely wrong. … That is crazy, and I do not appreciate your canned answer one bit. I am notifying the Texas Public Utility Commission. Additionally, I would appreciate a chance to review and read the old meter myself. I am sure you have it stored some place. I expect to receive a real answer from you, not a canned answer.”

You can be an electricity company prosecutor, too

That didn’t happen, so John Brasher filed a complaint with the PUC: “TXU will provide us no information about whether the ‘old’ meter can be located and read. … We would like a reasonable explanation, rather than the arrogant and condescending responses we have been given by TXU.”

The prosecutor continues, “If, in fact, the old meter can no longer be read merely because it has been removed, then that is a loophole that needs to be closed. Otherwise, TXU can claim any electrical usage it wants to without the consumer having any recourse. We can only assume that this is in fact what TXU is doing, since it will not provide any answers to us.”

His PUC complaint got everyone’s attention, and finally the facts came out.

Who is to blame?

Oncor Electric Delivery says its reader misread the Brashers’ meter two weeks before the old meter was swapped for the smart meter. Oncor realized the error and notified TXU. But TXU didn’t tell the Brashers.

Turns out the old meters are stored in a warehouse, and photographs are taken showing the final reading. Until PUC got involved, though, nobody bothered to tell the Brashers that. “Seems to be a straightforward question,” Mary Brasher said.

TXU spokesman Michael Patterson accepts blame: “Obviously, we fell a little short. … There was a disconnect here, and I know that’s frustrating to the customer.” (Yes, he said “disconnect.”)

“The rep that responded didn’t connect the dots that maybe there was an issue when they changed the meter.”

TXU is tracking the error, he says, and spreading the word among its personnel about what went wrong. As for taking the complaint to the PUC, he adds, “We certainly don’t want that for a number of reasons.”

The Brashers’ bill is now reconciled. But the couple and TXU aren’t. The Brashers say they’re switching electricity companies.

There’s good news here. If part of the problem is, in fact, canned answers from overseas customer service reps who don’t always understand the complexities of the company they serve, TXU offers a better solution: The company has announced that it is adding new call centers in Abilene and Lubbock and expanding a call center in Irving. The moves are supposed to create and save 500 jobs.

Where are the remaining TXU customer service jobs?

“We don’t disclose specific numbers for our customer contact centers, but with this reconfiguration, the company will have a 70 percent domestic, 30 percent Latin America mix,” Patterson said.

Watchdog Nation has previously reported that TXU call centers were situated in Bangalore, India; Krakow, Poland; and the Philippines.

Those overseas outposts are gone — replaced, Patterson says, by what TXU calls “near-shore operations.” These, he said, are “in Spanish-speaking regions, and they consistently provide us with cost-effective and high-quality service for our customers.”

The Brashers say they don’t care who answers the phone as long as they get correct and honest answers.

Visit Watchdog Nation Headquarters

Like Watchdog Nation on Facebook

Watch Watchdog Nation on YouTube

Twitter @DaveLieber

Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is available in hardcover, as a CD audio book, ebook and hey, what else do you need. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

By Maggie Dwyer [This review originally appeared on author Maggie Dwyer's Two Cents At A Time website here.] Yankee Cowboy Publishing, Keller, Texas, 2010, Second Edition (Revised & Expanded) $20, and worth every penny. ISBN-10: 0970853025 ISBN-13: 978-0970853028 I’ve been meaning to write this book review for a while, and kept putting it off. Partly because I was busy using the book myself. Since I started following these tips of Lieber’s closely I have changed my phone company, my electric company, and my Internet service. In those few acts alone I’ve paid for the book several times over. But the thing that set me to writing finally was a story a friend told me last week that made me want to kick something. Like a crooked roofing contractor. My friend has been living in straightened circumstances for a number of years, getting by, but putting off a lot of things that needed doing. Finally, he could no longer put off having his flat-roofed Frank Lloyd Wright-style bungalow re-roofed. I had a real good one to recommend, who has done work for me a couple of times, and came to me via a contractor friend who has also worked for me a couple of times. My neighbors have also used and liked him. Word of mouth and satisfied customers is a good way to find a roofer. But my friend was trying to cut corners so he took the lowball bid from a guy who knew someone he knew. . . not a great introduction. That job was slow, it was sloppy, and when torrential rains during the job got the house wet, everything turned musty and damp, and tar dripped down spots the inside walls. They didn’t finish promptly, they actually didn’t finish it. The rocks that need to be taken onto the roof are still in the side yard. The roofer had no insurance to pay for the damage to the house. The worst (you mean, that’s not bad enough?) was discovered last week. The roofers (the only people allowed in this otherwise locked yard with very tall fences and gates) stole several expensive items. The theft was disguised by simply leaving behind the boxes and cases. A new pool pump, a good circular saw, the only evidence of their original habitation there are their empty boxes. Had my friend followed my recommendation, he would have had the job done for about the same quote as this fly-by-night roofer. And he wouldn’t have been out the hardware around the house or all of the time and expense of repairing the house now. I’m sorry I didn’t write this review earlier, because I would have sent a copy of it to my friend and said “Do what Dave suggests – look at the local reviews, check with the BBB (Better Business Bureau), get personal recommendations from people you trust.” The bid price isn’t a bargain if the job isn’t done right, isn’t done at all, or is done so wrong as to cause more damage than a simply leaking roof will do. I’ve sent copies of pages of this book to people. My brother received the pages (114-15) to do with complaining to the post office. It turns out that you CAN complain, you don’t have to take the desk clerk’s shrugged “that’s tough, you only paid for Priority, it wasn’t insured,” when you complain about something that went wrong that was under their control. (It seems the Artesia, CA, post office has a special drop-kick-and-thrash machine for both envelopes and packages, and special delay of weeks on delivering Priority mail.) There was a woman at Lowe’s hardware in Fort Worth, TX, who was buying fans, and mentioned, “I have to set up an electric company in this new house. I suppose I’m stuck with TXU.” The clerk and I simultaneously said “NO!” but I was the one who was able to tell her how to do a good search to make a choice – “Go to Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation (watchdognation.com) web site and look for his articles about how to choose an electric company.” Dave Lieber is the consumer advocate columnist with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and he solves this kind of problem and shares the whys and wherefores with his readers for a living. This guy is good. He’s smart, he’s efficient, and I bet when he phones and has someone by the short hairs because of their company’s poor customer service, he’s a bit of a pain in the ass (though I do believe him when he says he tries really hard to be super polite, because he records his calls and if he needs to use them as evidence, he doesn’t want to sound like the bully in the conversation). And that old honey versus vinegar thing. I wish I had his discipline – I’ve had to hang up on some of these folks, telling them “I’m so angry at you I can’t be polite any more. Goodbye.” At least I learned from Dave to stop before I became rude, not slog forward and accomplish little. Early in the book Lieber notes that 15 minutes a day to solve some of these problems may be the way to pace yourself, to not feel overwhelmed if you have several issues to solve. That’s a good strategy. And keep a separate folder and page of notes for each business and each call. Take names, real names, if possible. I’ve glossed over a few of the tricks that Dave Lieber discusses in this little gem of a book. You’ll have to read it to find his descriptions of how to make these techniques work. His chapters are each no longer than a typical newspaper column, so you can read through this book a short chapter at a time, or read through it cover to cover in one sitting. I still have work to do – my local Fort Worth cable company has the most obtuse billing system and the most inefficient customer service clerks I’ve ever encountered. Just try to get a credit to show up on your bill. They apply it to the “taxes and other charges” but it never seems to actually make the balance drop. So I’m still working on that. And on that, my best contact method is another one of Dave’s recommendations (and at least they’re pleasant to talk to, if their efforts still go for naught) is to type my frustration regarding this company into a line of my Twitter feed. Use the pound sign (hashmark) # with no space before the company name to make it easier for them to find your remarks. They’ll usually figure out who you are and actually call pretty quickly. I’ve heard from them within 30 minutes. Who knew? One of the other really important things Dave comments on is to say “thank you” when it due. I’ve used tweets and written blog entries where appropriate to do just that. So this book review is also a blog entry and a “thank you” to Dave Lieber for a job really well done. I’m happy with the choices I’ve made, but I don’t feel obligated to stay with these companies forever and ever, if they do me wrong. That’s a good lesson! Now, go ask a bunch of questions! # # # Maggie Dwyer of Fort Worth, Texas is a writer and web designer at University of Texas at Arlington Library. She’s a former park ranger naturalist and an avid organic gardener. Follow Maggie Dwyer’s blog here. Follow her “A Woman of Many Parts” blog here. Follow Maggie Dwyer on Twitter @Maggie_Dwyer

[This is written by Monty Snow, a guest columnist for WatchdogNation.com.]

I had a very unusual experience that ran counter to the norm, and I thought you might like to hear it.

My wife Rochelle and I had found this little lamp at IKEA that we just loved and couldn’t find anywhere else. Trouble was, they were out of stock. So, we tracked it on their website until, according to the website, it was in stock.

So, I drove to Frisco and guess what?  It was still out of stock.  I asked about it and they apologized for a computer glitch.  So, I drove home and waited a couple of weeks and checked it again.  Now it was in stock.  So, I drove to Frisco.

When I drove back to Frisco and found it STILL out of stock, I asked if I could buy the display model, but the woman who was stocking the lighting section told me that was against company policy.  I noted that they had two display models and what difference was it going to make if they had one or two, especially since a customer had been inconvenienced twice by their error.  She couldn’t violate company policy.

So, I sought out a supervisor.  I couldn’t find any offices.  It seems that all the supervisors at IKEA are working on the floor.  So, I asked a worker where I could find one, and he pointed to a guy across the floor who was standing in front of a computer while another guy was talking in one ear while he was answering his phone with the other.  I didn’t think there was any way this guy was going to help me, but I waited patiently, and when I got a chance, I told him my story.

He was a young man, quiet and polite, and as soon as I finished, he asked me to wait by the checkout, and he headed toward lighting, answering his phone as he went.  He was gone 10 or 15 minutes, and didn’t come back until he had found the lamp I had been looking for.  I was very impressed by his willingness to go out of his way to help a customer when all he really had to do was repeat company policy, so I asked him for his name and wrote it down.

When I got home I wrote a letter to his boss telling him how this supervisor had gone out of his way to provide service in what is pretty much a self-service operation.

Well, you know how I tend to overdo things, so on a whim, I wrote the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad – in Sweden.  This guy is the richest man in Europe and the fifth richest man in the world.  Never in a million years did I expect a reply.  So I was shocked when an envelope with Swedish postage arrived.  Here is the letter.

Dear Mr. Snow!

How very kind of you to take time and write about your experience in our IKEA store in Frisco, Texas.  You certainly make me feel very proud of our staff there, particularly Mr. Ruigu!

I apologize for taking so long to reply to your letter which had taken some time to reach me.

You point to the risk of impersonality in a business like ours, and I could not agree more.  We try to maintain the spirit of the small Swedish company we once were, and itis not always easy.  I often use the Swedish word “Tillsammans” – meaning “together” – to underline how very important each one of us are for the total result.  That is a lesson I learnt very early on the farm where I grew up in Sweden.  It has followed me ever since.

Again, my heartfelt thanks for you letter.  I wish you and your family a joyful Christmas and look forward to see you again in one of our stores.

Ingvar Kamprad

(The signature indented the back of the paper and appears to be genuine, rather than machine-generated).