Re-direct your cable bitching to Spectrum

Well, we can no longer complain about our Time Warner Cable service, which seems to be a favorite pastime of BJ folks.

Charter Communications swallowed Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks and calls the three-way Spectrum, although all three are under the Charter Communications umbrella. I’m sure consultants/researchers were paid mucho dinaros to come up with that name.

Spectrum is the fastest growing TV, Internet and Voice provider in the United States -- #2 nationally with 24 million custmers from New York to California to Florida, which pretty much takes in all of America. Actually, 41 states. 9 states escaped.

So says the company press release.

Comcast, which we get at Paula’s home in The Villages, Florida, is #1, in customers and complaints.

Charter moved from St. Louis to Stamford, Connecticut. Maybe the City Arches cast too big a shadow onto executive office windows.

Charter began in St. Louis with three former Cencom Cable Television executives who decided to spread their wings.

In 1995 Charter gobbled up Cable South. In 1998 Dallas-based Marcus Cable. In 1999, Stamford’s American Cable Entertainment and nine other cable companies around the nation.

In 2002, four Charter executives were indicted for fudging subscriber numbers to look more attractive. It cost Charter $144 million.

In 2009, Charter filed for bankruptcy, reducing its debt by $8 billion and getting $3 billion more to play with.

In 2010, Charter paid $18 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over technicians’ wage and overtime claims.

Other acquistions were made in 2008 and 2013. Now it’s your turn, as a Time Warner customer.

No price change, Spectrum assures, “at the time of the merger.” A few days later, though, look out!

Plus, in 2007 Charter was labeled by PCWorld as having the worst customer service among the then-14 largest cable companies. Be forewarned.