Palm Desert man wants Spectrum to pay for damage caused by electrical arc
Bernie Skoboloff pointed to the electrical outlet at his home that he says a Spectrum cable repair man removed the cover from during a service call May 20th.
He says accessing the outlet caused an electrical arc, which damaged electronics in the home.
“My reaction was, how stupid, they should have turned off the electricity,” said Skoboloff.
Skoboloff says the arc caused about $1,700 in damage, destroying electrical components in his 50 inch Panasonic TV, blowing the speakers on his 32-inch television, blowing the speakers on his phone, and destroying an Amazon Fire Stick.
“That is a lot of money for me to take out of the bank to replace the equipment that they damaged,” said Skoboloff.
Skoboloff says the arc happened when the Spectrum repairman pulled the TV cable out of of the hole, near the lower left corner of the outlet.
The grandfather says the cable was installed that way before he and his wife purchased the place.
He says since the tech caused the arc, Spectrum should pay for the damage.
“They’re trying to intimidate us to go away and that to me is not the right way to do business,” said Skoboloff.
After filing written claims with Spectrum, and getting nowhere, and after filing a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, the retired small business owner asked CBS Local 2 to stand for him.
“I’m feeling taken advantage of and I’m feeling there is only one side to the story, and it’s their’s,” said Skoboloff.
We contacted Spectrum and asked why the telecommunications giant would not reimburse Skoboloff, and we received an email response from a company spokesperson, which read, in part:
“it’s clear from our investigation any damage to Mr. Skoboloff’s electronics resulted from faulty electric wiring. This wiring was not performed by Spectrum and occurred before our technician arrived.”
Assuming that Spectrum does not change its position, and pay his claim, Skoboloff says his next step will be to take Spectrum to small claims court.
“I’m not looking for pain and suffering or anything like that. I just want my 50 inch TV back,” said Skoboloff.
Skoboloff also contends a Spectrum supervisor told him that the company’s service techs are not authorized to remove electrical outlet covers.
But, in two emails we wrote to the Spectrum spokesperson, we asked “are Spectrum service techs authorized to remove the panels that cover electrical outlets on a wall?”, and in both instances, the Spectrum spokesperson did not respond to the question.
Adding to his frustration, Mr. Skoboloff says the Spectrum tech didn’t even fix the problem he was called out for in the first place, which was intermittent internet service.
We’ll continue to keep track of Mister Skoboloff’s efforts to get spectrum to pay for the damage.
Based on customer reviews, the Better Business Bureau gives Spectrum communications a rating of “F”.
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Noticias en español: Telemundo 15
