On Tuesday morning, we received a rather unremarkable e-mail from Gary Underwood, spokesman for Time Warner Cable North Texas, in which he noted that the company's main customer care telephone number (972-PICK-TWC, and how adorable is that?) was kaputs. Few hours later came another missive: Service has been restored. Only, it wasn't really, as customers kept getting busy signals for another 24 hours. Why come?
Well, last night came yet another e-mail from Underwood in which he wrote that the line went out of service Tuesday morning "as a result of a telephone company error" having to do with the phone number being assigned "to a T-Mobile cell phone user on T-Mobile’s behalf," which was then "improperly 'ported' to that cell phone number by AT&T." His full explanation's after the jump, but someone at AT&T or T-Mobile might wanna keep an eye out, as Lockwood caps his missive with: "We are working with our telephone vendors to ensure this never happens again and will pursue legal action if we determine this was an intentional act." Cable, how adorable. --Robert Wilonsky
To all customers of Time Warner Cable North Texas,
On Tuesday, August 5, at 8:30 a.m., our main customer care line -- (972) PICK TWC -- was terminated without our permission as a result of a telephone company error.
We continue to investigate what occurred, but our early findings indicate that this telephone number was incorrectly assigned to a T-Mobile cell phone user on T-Mobile’s behalf and was improperly "ported" to that cell phone number by AT&T. There is a clear and standardized process designed to prevent active telephone numbers from being released to another user - it is unknown why it failed in this case.
The number was restored back to Time Warner Cable by 3:55 pm Tuesday. However, customers experienced frustrating busy signals for the next 24 hours as we waited for AT&T to complete a reconfiguration of the "phone pathing" process that routes incoming calls to Time Warner Cable. We are now operating at normal capacity.
We are working with our telephone vendors to ensure this never happens again and will pursue legal action if we determine this was an intentional act. Thank you for your patience this week, and we sincerely apologize for this inconvenience.
Respectfully,
Time Warner Cable North Texas
