Cooper
RALEIGH, N.C. (Legal Newsline) - North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced Friday that a telecommunications and cable company serving western North Carolina has agreed to pay additional credits to consumers who experienced lengthy service outages last fall.
Morris Broadband, based in Augusta, Ga., purchased cable and telephone operations for several western North Carolina cities and towns from Mediacom in Feb. 2009. Technical problems following Morris' take over of services caused a significant number of consumers to lose service. Affected areas included Hendersonville, Nebo, Sylva and Franlin.
Based on calls and complaints received by Cooper's Consumer Protection Division from consumers who experienced service outages, a letter was sent to Morris Broadband in October. Consumer complaints alleged telephone, cable and Internet services that were lost for several days. Some consumers were unable to make 911 or other emergency calls during its time and businesses were left without Internet access.
"When a business falls short of your expectations, my office wants to know about it," said Cooper. "Thanks to the people who contacted us, we were able to get the issues resolved and win credits for consumers."
Morris Broadband, as part of the agreement, will issue $60,000 in credits to the remaining households and businesses that were affected by the service problems. The credits following $68,000 worth of credits already issued by the company.
Morris Broadband estimates that approximately 1,800 telephone and 8,000 Internet subscribers were without service during the disruptions for as long as 10 days.