Charter Watcher

Charter screws a father, but rewards the CFO. Surprised? (updated)

July 10, 2008 3:48 pm Jesse Bad guys (and girls), Utter BS

A while back Charter held a Father’s Day contest, promising a 65-inch television to the winner. A fellow named Mike Lewis won the prize when his daughter wrote in to the company explaining why he deserved it. Unfortunately, like most other promises, Charter completely failed to honor the 65-inch television. They sent him a 19-inch TV instead.

But why exactly didn’t they deliver the promised prize?

From the article:

“When I asked if he had gotten the form, he said he hadn’t gone through his mail yet. He asked if Misty Wade, his associate, had called me,” she said. “Then he started talking about the TV and said something about someone in Georgia and that the expense was too much and that they wanted to give me a 19-inch instead but that he was working on getting me a 42-inch. He said he would call his boss and call me back.”

That’s right. Charter Communications ran a Father’s Day promotional giveaway of a 65-inch high definition television, but when it came time to deliver decided that it was too expensive and chose to offer a 19-inch television instead. One would think that Charter is in dire financial shape if they can’t even afford to give Mike his promised prize. Dire shape indeed.

But even though they can’t seem to come up with a couple of grand to honor their promise to Mike, they still managed to throw a $25,000 raise and a $100,000 bonus to their CFO this week. Former Chief Marketing Officer Robert Quigley also got $100K, and he has already resigned to make room for our friend and douchebag of the year Ted Schremp.

So let me get this straight. Charter can’t come up with the money to deliver on a promise made by the marketing team, but the heads of both the financial and the marketing departments both got the equivalent of fifty 62-inch TV’s each? Does anybody else see the idiocy in this? The heads of the department responsible for setting aside cash with which to buy the TV and the department responsible for delivering the TV both said there was no money to follow through with the promise immediately prior to receiving huge checks themselves

I swear, nothing surprises me anymore with these people.

UPDATE 7/14/08: A comment left by scoosdad provided this link, which includes updated information about this matter. Apparently Mike Lewis did not win the grand prize, but rather an honorable mention, which means that he was never eligible for the 65″ television in the first place.

From the article (and a letter from Charter Communications Director Marty Richmond):

“The details presented to the family were about a 19-inch HDTV honorable mention prize, not the grand prize 65-inch HDTV. Regrettably, this was not clearly communicated.”

Here’s the problem. Apparently Charter Communications didn’t communicate with the family very well, which totally screwed up their understanding of their prize. Perhaps they didn’t win anything except a 19″ TV, but they thought the prize was something much, much different, and everything I’m seeing says that they thought this to be the case based on what they were hearing from Charter. Maybe Charter is to blame and maybe the Lewis family is to blame. Either way, it’s still not surprising to hear that Charter found a way to screw up something so simple as a contest.

There’s clear evidence that Charter Communications wanted a W-9 tax from from Mr. Lewis, which means that his winnings would, by law, have to exceed $600. Either Charter intended to give him the nicest 19″ LCD on the planet, or they screwed up and thought he had won more than a simple honorable mention.

Moreover, an email from Charter’s Jeff Thatcher stated “Also, if you can think of a couple of days/times next week that would be good for us to come out and deliver the TV, I will get with my team to verify and we’ll get your Hi-Def set up!” Obviously Jeff Thatcher thought that Mr. Lewis had won the grand prize, and it sounds to me like he communicated just that.

Maybe the whole situation isn’t exactly as it sounds, but it’s certainly no picnic for Charter. Incompetence has a way of getting you into trouble with more than just advertising, it would seem.