RB council addresses cable concerns
Metrocast representative Jerry Morris addresses Red Bay city council about cable problems. | Nathan Strickland/FCT
RED BAY- Citizens who are having problems with their cable reception and charges will hopefully have a time-table for solutions set by the end of the month.
Metrocast representatives Jerry Morris and David Von Dolteren asked the Red Bay mayor and council for just a little more time before considering other actions Monday.
Morris claimed that even though their call center receives 2,000 calls a day there really hasn’t been many reports from the Red Bay area.
Morris claims “atmospheric conditions” is what causes people to have bad reception.
“We have not had that many people to complain,” he said as he addressed the council.
“We have done some major changes to our platform as channels have finally switched over to digital and we have had decent feedback since the switch.”
Councilman Brad Bolton said the reason they haven’t had the complaints come to their call center is because people kept being put on hold and then after they were talked to, the person would seem like they were reading off of a note card, which doesn’t help anyone.
“You have given us letters saying you have done this, that and the other but the benefits aren’t coming,” Bolton said. “It is hard for us to explain issues when it has been 17 months and nothing has been done. Folks in Red Bay are fed up.”
Morris said the charges going up is pretty much out of their hands, claiming programming costs are to blame.
“A little over 50 percent of all bills are due to programming costs,” Morris said. “We are doing our best to keep rates the same, but we have had difficulty with contracts from networks charging us and in return making bills rise.”
Bolton said representatives had estimated things to be fixed by the middle of summer, but that has come and gone.
“We are almost done with summer and its still not fixed,” Bolton said. “We have got to have a time frame. If we have to go through the FCC to speed you along then I’m all for that.”
Representative Dolteren approached the council and apologized on behalf of his company and admitted they had not done their homework on some things.
“When things went digital we sent out 8,000 converter boxes that had flaws,” he said. “We should have done more testing, but that is our fault and I want to apologize on behalf of Metrocast, but we are finally getting a handle on the problems that exist.”
Dolteren has been in charge at the Booneville, Miss., Metrocast center for five years and explained the distance to Red Bay is the farthest they have ever had to service.
“We are getting closer to the light at the end of the tunnel to reach an agreement with Comcast and their fiber optic lines,” he said.
Bolton told the representatives things would go a lot smoother if they would just be open and honest with the citizens and be here instead of the council having to “summons” the every time there seems to be problems.
Councilman Mike Kennedy said there needs to be action instead of conversations.
“This conversation will just be full of wishes and it will continue to drag on forever it seems,” he said. “To clear it all up where it needs to be is that the agreement needs to be signed and get some timelines setup.”
Kennedy suggested Red Bay attorney Roger Bedford should get involve and meet with Metrocast attorneys and draw up the paperwork leading to a solution.
Bedford told council members that the FCC likes to see a “paper trail” and it would probably be in their best interest to keep up with all documentation of complaints and meetings with Metrocast representatives so that if the problem still exists in the future, further actions can be taken.
Dolteren told council members he would go back and give everyone a heads-up on what is going on and be back to give an update on July 30.
