Should cable or satellite companies reimburse for outages?

I have this vague recollection from when I was a kid in the late 1960s of watching a football game between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets. During the last minute of the game when the Jets were ahead in the score, the network broke away from the game to begin the scheduled broadcast of the movie version of "Heidi." This was in the days before the internet or social media, so it took a while for those of us who had been watching to learn that Oakland scored two touchdowns in that last minute to win the game 43-32. Apparently the final score was announced during the movie, but I didn’t watch the movie.

Fans who were watching missed out on an exciting conclusion, but aside from collectively grousing, there was no real way to compensate for the lost viewing time.

I was reminded of the incident after receiving an email from a reader I’m calling Fiona, who had been watching some live proceedings of something or other on television recently and then had her cable service go out before the proceedings ended. The "Heidi" game was broadcast in pre-cable-television days when advertising rather than monthly fees paid for the broadcast. Now that cable and satellite-dish users pay for their service, Fiona wants to know if she’s right to believe her cable provider owes her a rebate for the time her service was down.

“I pay a lot for monthly service,” wrote Fiona. “Shouldn’t they reimburse me when they can’t provide that service?”

Fiona is not the first reader to raise such a question. Do I believe cable or satellite companies should prorate monthly fees if they can’t provide service? Yes.

Many service providers, however, include language on the agreements we sign off on that ask us to agree that they are not liable for such periodic service interruptions. That likely covers them legally from being expected to reimburse customers even if it doesn’t feel right to have to pay for something we don’t receive.

Some service providers do provide for reimbursement for outages but place specific parameters around what’s covered, when it can be reported and how old the outage can be before it’s no longer considered for reimbursement. Few if any make it as clear as it could be to users about what they should do in the event of an outage when it comes to seeking reimbursement.

The right thing for cable and satellite-dish companies is to make their policies clear and as simple as possible for users to use. But while users are waiting around for their providers to do this, the right thing for them to do after experiencing such outages is to contact the service provider to report the outage as soon as possible and to ask for reimbursement. Even if a company representative points to where its contract indicates no outage reimbursements are made, there are times when a service representative might have some leeway to keep a loyal customer relatively satisfied.

If access to television is limited by a power outage, that’s not the cable or satellite company’s fault, and they shouldn’t be expected to reimburse in such instances. But when it comes to its own services, if the company can’t provide the service, the right thing is not to charge for that time it can’t.

Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.

Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com.

Follow him on Twitter @jseglin.

(c) 2022 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

 

Should airlines make baggage check fees consistent?

Like many other people, I had put off traveling by airplane during the pandemic for as long as I could. The idea of long lines at the airport and cramped seats never had much appeal to me, but even less so when various strains of COVID-19 were being spread. After more than two years with my feet planted firmly on the ground, however, I traveled from Boston to Denver last weekend to visit my oldest grandson and his wife, who are stationed near there.

Ticket prices are higher than before, check-in processes remain byzantine, and airport lines as joyous as ever. But a question about the right thing arose concerning checked baggage from fellow passengers sitting at the gate waiting to board.

A public address went out announcing that the plane was full (oh joy) and that anyone who wished to check their carry-on baggage could bring it to the desk and check it for free. “I paid $35 for each bag I checked ahead of time,” a passenger seated next to me in the waiting area said. “How is that fair that I paid to check my baggage and now they’re letting others check it for free?” A discussion ensued about what would keep prospective travelers from bringing their bags with them to the gate rather than check them ahead of time to avoid the baggage fee.

Different airlines have different policies and different fees for checked bags. (We were flying on United.) A traveler could try to game the system and bring his baggage to the airport to try to get it checked for free rather than pay ahead of time, but since airlines are inconsistent in making such offers, he runs the risk that no such offer to check it at the gate will be made. On our return flight, for example, no such offer was made on an equally full flight. Airlines also run the risk of incentivizing passengers to try to drag more carry-on luggage onto the plane to avoid paying bag fees.

Is it fair that airlines charge some passengers for the bag check service and not others? No. Is it legal? More than likely it’s as legal as different passengers paying different amounts for the same seat depending on when they booked and through what site or service.

The right thing ultimately is for airlines to try to make their baggage-checking policies as clear as possible before passengers head to the airport. If there’s a chance that baggage-checking fees might be waived at the gate or if passengers might be charged extra for trying to bring a bag that’s too large onto the flight, airlines should make that clear. Some passengers might always be willing to risk having to lug their bags around in hopes that they can get their bags checked for free at the gate. As long as they know and accept that risk, they’ve done nothing wrong.

Fewer passengers did seem to check their bags so our wait for ours at the baggage claim area was shorter than I remember it being. Waiting for passengers to find and remove their bags from overhead compartments made the wait getting off of the plane longer.

While the inconsistency in charging for checked bags might be unfair, the visit with our grandson and his wife remained priceless.

Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.

Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com.

Follow him on Twitter @jseglin.

(c) 2022 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Acts of kindness can soften the blow of a rotten day

It’s time again to ask you to share moments of kindness you’ve experienced. Let me start by sharing my own recent experience.

 

The Thursday after this year’s July 4 Monday holiday, I was running an errand to look for an inexpensive desk chair for someone. None of the local stores had any in stock. Instead, I decided to check to see if the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which sells donated items, had any in stock. I made the drive, parked in the lot and looked around the store, but I didn’t find any office chairs.

 

When I got back into my 16-year-old truck that had just passed state inspection the week before, I turned the key in the ignition and absolutely nothing happened. I kept the hood up so AAA road assistance could find me in the ReStore parking lot. One of the volunteer workers at ReStore came out to tell me I could wait in the air-conditioned store if it got too hot outside.

 

Over the course of the 45 minutes or so it took the first AAA person to arrive, three different customers saw my hood up and offered to give me a jump if I needed one. I thanked them but told them AAA was on its way, which it was. When its representative arrived, it became clear it was not a battery problem, since the battery seemed fine.

 

“Likely a starter issue,” the AAA rep said. So he called for a tow truck and I called the service that had worked on the truck in the past to make sure we could tow the truck to its lot.

 

“You can bring it in, but we might not be able to get to it until next week,” the receptionist told me, pointing out how busy they were after the July 4 weekend.

 

Two hours later the tow truck arrived, brought the truck to the auto service lot and dropped it off. The manager of the service took my information and then walked out to the truck to take a look and listen with one of his mechanics.

 

“If all it is is your starter, we’ll try to fit it in this week,” the manager told me.

 

The following morning, I got a call letting me know the problem was a corroded wire to the starter rather than the starter itself. They also changed out the terminals on my battery, which showed some corrosion. Parts ran about $36 plus a couple hours of labor.

 

Those several hours of inconvenience I hadn’t anticipated included several moments of people showing genuine kindness when it would have been far easier to ignore me. Granted, my mechanic was doing his job and elevated my loyalty, but he easily could have put off the work for a week and sold me more than I needed and I likely wouldn’t have been the wiser.

 

When I have the opportunity, I like to believe I do the right thing by showing the same type of kindness to those in need.

 

Now, it’s time for you to share some acts of kindness you’ve experienced. Tell me who and where you are and email your stories to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com. I will try to share some of your stories in the weeks ahead.

Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.

Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com.

Follow him on Twitter @jseglin.

(c) 2022 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.