It's hell to have cable!

Our favorite Marvin Zindler reported a consumer complaint story about how Time Warner Cable has introduced a one dollar surcharge for customers who pay their bill at one of Time Warner's stores. This was met with some reproach by low income clients who said they feel the pinch of the extra weight on their bills.

Zindler is known for airing consumer complaints (mostly against corporations), and coming out the winner, no matter what or how big the problem may be. In this case, however, Marvin didn't even get close to cutting that red tape, saying he "thinks" Time Warner should give 'em some slack - cable is not a necessity like telephones, certain cosmetic procedures, and KTRK, which comes free with the telly and an antenna.

Sympathies were not met by Time Warner, either, whose spokesperson used the reasoning that other utility companies have a surcharge, too (even if it is at the grocery store and all...).
According to Time Warner customer Geneva Hurst, "a dollar's a dollar, but you take it like that, that's 12 dollars a year and you have a lot of poor people paying cable bills." Indeed.

And, for the record, these bills can range from $44 to about $100 per month with all the bells and whistles.

Photo: ppdigital from morguefile.com