CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Less than a month after the West Virginia Public Service Commission fined Suddenlink and its parent company Altice USA $2.2 million, now a Charleston lawyer has filed a class action lawsuit against the company.
Attorney Rusty Webb lauded the work of the PSC and said although the fine was the most substantial he could ever remember, it still wasn’t enough.
“That’s not going to affect a company that big. It has to be substantial money to get their attention to upgrade their services and their customer service,” said Webb.
Webb believed it will be easy to find members to join his class with people who’ve had problems with the company’s cable, internet, or telephone service through the years. He said already they’ve heard from close to 32,000 people just from announcing the lawsuit on social media.
“Regardless of our differences in this state or our country, we all have one thing in common and that is we hate Suddenlink,” he said.
The investigation by the Public Service Commission included testimony from dozens and dozens of individuals who noted frustration they experienced trying to get their problems fixed. The problems were wide ranging. Some complained it took long hours on the phone to get somebody to handle the complaint and when they did finally reach a live person, they had a hard time understanding their dialect. Others complained technicians, while polite, were often themselves frustrated with inadequate training or lacked proper equipment to get problems repaired.
“The frustration is, as everybody knows, when you call them all they do is apologize for their issue, but they never resolve your issue,” Webb said.
The lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in Charleston. Webb said the next step will be the company’s legal response. He expected the wheels on the case would turn very slowly.
“When corporation takes over smaller companies it becomes profit over people. They’ve apparently bragged about how much money they make and how they’ve cut costs. That equates to poor service for the customer,” he said.
Altice officials responded to the PSC’s investigation and fines saying they intended to improve service and were already in the process of making better efforts to attend to the needs of customers. Webb said the response was mere lip service and he didn’t buy the claim.
“I didn’t buy it and I don’t think anybody else did either,” he said.