Locals tired of Time Warner

Time Warner Cable, Costa Mesa’s major provider of cable, Internet and phone services, will be the subject of intense scrutiny sometime next month, when residents will air their grievances with the company during a City Council meeting.

City officials were encouraged to take a closer look at Time Warner after many residents complained about the cable company’s service.

Some residents, like Lloyd McDaniel decided not to wait and took their business elsewhere. McDaniel, a retired computer expert himself, has been making the case against the telecom giant for months. He eventually switched phone companies and to satellite TV last November when Time Warner servicemen placed what he said was the final straw on his back.

“They started to leave, and I noticed my home security system wasn’t working,” he said. “I said, ‘Well, you aren’t getting out of here until I’m sure my home security works,’ and they said, ‘Well, it’s not our problem.’”

As it turns out, McDaniel claimed, it was their problem — a tech team from his security company said they had crossed the home’s wires, causing the system to malfunction. After months of frustration, McDaniel said he’d had enough.

“Time Warner had to fork over $270 for the service call, and I said, ‘You know, if you don’t have enough information to know how to repair the box on the outside, and don’t know how to work with existing customers who have security systems, you’re not sophisticated enough to care for all this stuff,” he said.

Costa Mesa’s cable plan, developed in the 1980s, has always allowed residents to switch providers, City Manager Allan Roeder said.

While satellite options are available — at the cost of local networks and some channels — don’t expect a second cable company to swoop in and pose any serious competition to Time Warner any time soon.

“The city is open to any company that meets the minimum requires of our ordinance — they can come into the city, make an operation, construct and operate a cable franchise,” he said. “What has happened nationally is the huge consolidation of cable companies, to the point where you’ve got kind of a handful of companies that own all the franchises. Consequently, there is not a lot of competition in the sense that you will see one company go in and try to overbuild or construct in a community where there is an existing franchise.”

Time Warner and Comcast agreed to exchange certain franchises in order to consolidate markets in 2007, including franchises in Southern California.

“We’ve always been very fortunate, from the inception of our cable franchise, in having the cable operator located locally here in town,” Roeder added. “Part of what we are experiencing, and what we heard last council meeting, was the function of major changes in the cable industry nationally, with different cable companies buying up different franchises.”

Nevertheless, McDaniel said residents should not sit and wait if they are dissatisfied with their service.

“The problem is: When are we going to get Costa Mesa to wake up to what Time Warner is doing?” he said, encouraging residents to switch.

Attempts to reach Time Warner representatives for comment were unsuccessful.

CHRIS CAESAR may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at [email protected].