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Time Warner charges Wright-Patt engineer $16.4 million for cable

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By Dave Larsen, Staff Writer Updated 1:40 PM Friday, March 25, 2011

BEAVERCREEK — Lt. Daniel DeVirgilio is being charged more than $1 million per team to watch the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, according to a letter he received Wednesday from Time Warner Cable.

The Beavercreek resident was informed that his credit card payment to Time Warner had been rejected for non-sufficient funds. The payment amount was $16,409,107.

“Had I known this I would have bought Showtime,” said DeVirgilio, an engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. “Five bucks more for Showtime is a bit much, but heck — $16,409,112. Who cares?”

Time Warner Cable Southwest Ohio officials on Thursday attributed the $16.4 million figure to human error. An employee typed in the wrong number for the amount owed, which caused the company’s automated system to generate the letter.

DeVirgilio didn’t receive a bill for $16.4 million, and that amount wasn’t charged to his credit card, a Time Warner spokesman said.

“We apologize for the inconvenience that it caused,” the spokesman said. “We are going to work with the customer to get this resolved.”

Time Warner Cable has 650,000 cable television subscribers in southwest Ohio, according to company officials.

DeVirgilio, 26, calculated that he would have to order an on-demand movie 1.6 million times or a pay-per-view fight 400,000 times to run up a $16.4 million monthly bill. His usual monthly automatic payment is about $80, he said.

DeVirgilio said he spent more than 40 minutes Wednesday on the phone with a Time Warner customer service representative who was “flummoxed” by the problem. He said he was optimistic that the issue would be resolved, but was concerned that it would affect his credit rating or cause his cable service to be disrupted.

“All I want to do is watch March Madness,” DeVirgilio said. “I didn’t really expect to pay $16 million to watch the Sweet 16.”

Contact this reporter at  (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen @DaytonDailyNews.com.

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