The Calabasas Communications and Technology Commission addressed numerous complaints residents shared about cable television providers Time Warner and Charter Cable during its Tuesday meeting.

Resident Alvin Lindenauer spoke about his dissatisfaction with Charter.

 "Charter has a long history of being less than competent in providing cable service," he said.

Lindenauer's complaints with Charter included misleading advertising, poor customer service and, most prominent, "improper billing practices."

He said he received several erroneous notices of past due payments that resulted in forced late fees.

Lindenauer referred to Charter as "corrupt and deceptive" in its business practices.

He proposed that the commission hold Charter Cable more accountable for its service and reduce the city's long-term contract with the company.

Several members of the commission shared their personal experiences with poor customer service by Charter.  

"Customer service is extremely important to us," Del Heintz, Charter Cable's director of government relations, told the commissioners. 

"Charter Cable meets all state regulations and standards for business practice," he continued.  "[Our practice] is certainly not 'corrupt or deceptive.' We constantly work with our customers to assist with any financial issue they may have."   

Since the meeting, Heintz' team has been in touch with Lindenhauer.

The commission said state laws mandate the regulation of cable providers, and that the city of Calabasas has little power to oversee them. 

The commission, however, did agree to investigate Lindenhauer's specific case and to file a formal complaint for him. 

"We will continue to work until [Mr. Lindenhauer] is happy, which is always our ultimate goal," Heintz said. "We want to reach out and take care of the customer we may have dropped the ball on."

The cable complaints review also included several issues with Time Warner. 

Poor cable box performance was a major concern for many customers.

Several people asked why Time Warner has not changed from Motorola boxes to the supposedly less troublesome Scientific Atlanta ones.

The Motorola cable boxes have had problems with freezing up and with using video on demand.

The most common issue reported was "tiling," a digital malfunction that makes channels appear broken up like a jigsaw puzzle.

A Time Warner representative told commissioners at the meeting that the tiling problem was a software, not a hardware, issue. He also said that the Scientific Atlanta boxes are not compatible with the software "footprint" Time Warner uses. 

He said that the company is working on the software to correct the problems.

The commission pledged to continue monitoring the software and customer service issues. Members suggested that both Time Warner and Charter become more proactive in their efforts to curb customer complaints.

Commissioner James Daugherty concluded by saying to residents: "If you've had [a poor] experience, you're not the only one.  We'll do what we can."