CARY, N.C. — Hundreds of Time Warner Cable subscribers claim they may have paid too much for basic service.

Nancy and Edward Fugee discovered they were paying $12.50 for basic service rather than the new rate of $8.45. They live in Lochmere and say newcomers to Cary may not know how much they should pay.

"This not only reflects the individual pocketbook of the homeowner, but it also affects the taxes, franchise taxes that are part of the town of Cary," Nancy said.

Cary officials heard from citizens about the fee discrepancy after a rate reduction in February.

"We knew that we had a pretty big problem on our hands or that Time Warner has a pretty big problem on its hands," town spokeswoman Susan Moran said.

Moran said a third-party audit will begin this summer.

"We're going to have them review Time Warner's subscriber records as far back as Time Warner has held the franchise which is to 1996," she said.

Time Warner Cable officials said it will cooperate and they are already working in the problem.

"We are working with the town of Cary very closely so that we can rectify the situation and do the right thing for our customers," Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Virginia Yopp said. "We are going into our database and changing the addresses and the franchise fee number assigned to them."

Time Warner Cable has about 27,000 subscribers in Cary and pays the town of Cary about $1 million a year in franchise fees.