Time Warner Tries to Pull a Fast One -- Good Read for NYC Condo and Apartment Owners

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 9/25/13 at 1:24pm

As the superintendent of a Manhattan condominium building, Mr. Hogan enjoyed a significant discount on his Time Warner Cable bill for more than a decade, a fairly standard perk for resident managers around the city. In exchange, he understood his role to be giving repair crews access when they needed it, calling the company when problems arose and doing other things of a ho-hum nature. Then, just a few months ago, he said, he finally saw the agreement in writing.

Mr. Hogan received his first contract for Time Warner’s Apartment Managers’ Program, he said. It required him to snoop on condo owners in his building to ensure they were not stealing cable, and demanded that he allow Time Warner employees access to promote new products in the building. “I looked at this and I thought, ‘This looks like double dipping,’ ” Mr. Hogan recounted. “I can’t do this.” He refused to sign, and his cable was cut off.

Some cable companies around the country have long offered free or discounted service to superintendents, and if anybody has vociferous objections to the practice in general, they are difficult to find. But in recent years, as Time Warner Cable has increasingly formalized these longstanding deals, concerns have bubbled up that parts of its program deputize the employees of apartment buildings to carry out Time Warner’s business, thus creating a conflict for building superintendents: Ultimately, which master will you serve?


NY TIMES ARTICLE