Class Action Lawsuit Challenges Optimum Service Cancellation Policy [DISMISSED]

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A former Optimum customer has filed suit against Cablevision Systems Corporation and Altice USA, Inc. over a billing policy change that allows the phone, cable, and internet providers to charge customers for the entirety of their current billing period no matter when they cancel their services.

According to the lawsuit, the defendants prior to October 2016 considered the termination of services effective on the precise date the customer contacted them to cancel service. The companies would then credit the customer’s account for services past that date on a pro rata basis, according to the suit. In October 2016, however, the companies reportedly changed their policy to reflect that service cancellations would be effective “on the last day of the then-current billing cycle.” In effect, the change has allowed the defendants to charge some customers for almost an entire month of services they were unable to use, the suit says.

At the center of the suit is the claim that the defendants violated New York and Connecticut law by failing to provide separate written notice of the change in their billing policy prior to when it became effective. Moreover, the case argues that the change itself violates a New Jersey law that requires cable companies to prorate bills after final termination of service.

The plaintiff says he called the defendants on January 26, 2019, to cancel his Optimum cable and internet services. The same day, the case explains, he returned his equipment to an Optimum retail location and was told that he was responsible for paying for his service for the entire current billing period, which had only begun three days earlier and would end February 22. The man claims he would have canceled Optimum earlier had he been informed that the defendants would continue to charge him for services he could no longer use.

The lawsuit seeks to cover a proposed nationwide class of consumers who subscribed to Optimum services before October 10, 2016, canceled their services before the end of their then-current billing cycle, and were charged for the entirety of the final billing cycle. The lawsuit also proposes to cover subclasses of New Jersey and Connecticut residents.