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[TWC] Heavy Packet loss HIGH PING! Slow speed! ____CA & HI »
« [TWC] Odd 2/1 speeds in San Diego  
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aelfwyne

join:2004-01-28
Beaumont, TX
·RoadRunner Cable

 RR: When an Upgrade is a Downgrade: Pushing Caps & ETF Fees

I've been hit with a deluge of promotional material from TWC lately. I live in the Beaumont market where Caps are being tested. My account predates caps by several months, and I have internet only.

I have now received 4 emails and 3 fliers in the mail just in the last month trying to get me to upgrade to a new "Price Lock" bundle which promises to guarantee a low price for cable/internet/phone for the next 12 months.

Yet, in the fine print, of course, agreeing to the new bundle also agrees to the new caps - just like if I was a new customer. Emphasis in the fine print is mine.

Of course, anyone who didn't know about the caps and is a current customer might be lulled by this price lock promotion, and get caught out.

Also note that there's an ETF included as well! So if you sign up, realize that you don't want caps, you get SLAMMED for $150 if you try to get out. AND IT AUTO RENEWS THE CONTRACT AT THE END! So 5 years from now you could still get hit for an ETF if you leave TWC.

Talk about scumbags.

Following is the text of the latest promotion I received:

LOCK IN GREAT SAVINGS
ON PHONE, INTERNET AND CABLE
MONTH AFTER MONTH, GUARANTEED. Price Lock
Time Warner Cable
Announcing Price Lock Guarantee, our best value for preferred Internet customers. It’s the easy way to get 3 great services together and save on regular monthly rates. Just add Digital Cable and Nationwide Phone Service to your existing Road Runner Standard service - and lock in guaranteed savings for a year. It’s that easy. No complicated bills. No surprises. One package, from one company, on one simple bill.
Watch, click, talk — enjoy it all with no hassles.
Price Lock Guarantee makes it easy to get 3 great services together at a great deal—plus, it keeps saving you money. Switch now and say bye-bye phone company.
Digital Cable with free local channels in HD
• Get hundreds of On Demand choices in HD
• Free local channels and sports in HD — can’t get that with satellite
Road Runner Standard High Speed Online that’s superfast
• Blazing speed that’s 4x faster than DSL and 140x faster than dial-up
• Get special features like commercial-free Road Runner Radio
Digital Phone with unlimited minutes
• Unlimited calling to the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico
• NENAKeep your current phone number, and there’s no equipment to buy
Get Digital Phone for only $39.95 per month. Call 1.888.892.1886
*Digital Phone discounted rate available only with a Price Lock Guarantee Triple Play Package two year agreement and is valid for residential customers in Digital Cable, Road Runner High Speed Online and Digital Phone serviceable areas only. $39.95 price per month is for the first 12 months. In month 13 there will be a $5 rate increase which will be valid for the next 12 months. Offer requires Digital Cable, Road Runner High Speed Online 7Mbps/512Kbps and Digital Home Phone Nationwide calling service. Road Runner Standard package provides 7Mbps service and includes an Internet usage consumption allowance of 20GB per month. Although the initial 20GB plan is price locked, Internet usage above the consumption allowance is not and will be billed at $1 per GB per month. If qualifying service(s) is terminated prior to the end of the 24 month commitment period, a prorated early termination fee of up to $150 will apply. Price Lock Guarantee program will automatically renew for up to two additional 24-month commitment periods unless customer contacts Time Warner Cable to cancel automatic renewal of program prior to the 24 month term. Offer is not transferable and may not be combined with any other offer. Digital Cable includes all Standard Service analog channels, the Digital Value Tier, access to all Pay-Per-View channels, all On Demand channels and Digital Music channels. Customers with Digital Cable may receive some channels in analog format. To receive all services, Digital Cable, remote and a lease of a Digital or HD receiver is required. Receivers are available at an additional monthly charge. HDTV set required for HD service. Pay-Per-View events and Movies On Demand are available for an incremental charge. Digital Phone does not include back-up power and, as in the case with an electric powered home cordless phone, should there be a power outage, Digital Phone, including the ability to access 9-1-1 services, may not be available. Additional charges apply for installation, taxes, fees, Directory Assistance, Operator Services and calls to International locations. Actual Road Runner speeds may vary. Not all Road Runner products and services are available to customers using the Microsoft® Windows Vista™ or Macintosh operating systems. All services may not be available in all areas. Some services are not available to CableCARD customers. Time Warner Cable reserves the right to discontinue any feature or offer at any time. Some restrictions apply. ©2008 Time Warner Cable Inc. "The Power of You" is a trademark of Time Warner Cable Inc. All rights reserved. TM & © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (s08)

--
If it ain't broke..... You didn't overclock it enough.


Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1
clubs:

1 edit
i just used over 30,000 megabytes today up+down

20gigs would go too fast for me


Xizer

join:2004-02-05
New York, NY
reply to aelfwyne
Get ready for this ass raping fellow Road Runner customers!

These caps ought to be rolling out around the rest of the nation by the end of the year.


Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
·Time Warner Cable
·Time Warner VOIP


2 edits
twc will faillllll

if the area has other options such as:

fiber
VDSL
ADSL
ADSL2
Wireless ISP
Other "WISP" (3g)
other: open access point

West side has
FIOS/DSL/WISP

east has

WiFi ISP 1.5/1.5
ADSL+ 7/?
VDSL (10/1.5)
att Wifi in some areas 1.5

Angelus

join:2002-10-01
Beaumont, TX

reply to aelfwyne
Personally I would not upgrade my cable or Roadrunner in Anyway because I'm afraid If I did they'd apply the caps

I think there looking for any reason to put me in the new costumer bracket

if it wasn't for fear of the caps I would consider more premium channels or upgrading to RR Turbo


aelfwyne

join:2004-01-28
Beaumont, TX
The wording of this promotion is clear - touch your account, and it gets slapped with caps. Not just "new customers".
--
If it ain't broke..... You didn't overclock it enough.


Xizer

join:2004-02-05
New York, NY

reply to aelfwyne
Do we know if they're applying caps to their Home Business Class service down there in Beaumont?

Honestly I'd rather put up with AT&T's NSA-spying ass than put up with these caps.

I have 15 Mbps Road Runner right now. I would rather go down to 3 Mbps which is what AT&T DSL offers than put up with these bullshit caps.

69742511
Premium
join:2003-08-09
Costa Mesa, CA

reply to aelfwyne
I will SERIOUSLY, and I MEAN S E R I O U S L Y SERIOUSLY; be looking at alternatives to RoadRunner Internet if these atrocious and archaic caps even THINK about touching my account. Or else they will get an email inbox and voice mailbox full of "language" from me.

Baseline

join:2001-02-26
Buffalo, NY
reply to aelfwyne
The only places that are going to be getting mandatory caps are areas where there is little to no competition.

Any area that has any decent DSL or wifi alternative won't have to worry. People will gladly take half the speed to avoid caps.

JusticeDun

join:2004-10-15
Okeana, OH

reply to aelfwyne
I'm afraid to say this, but every ISP is going to implement some sort of usage plan in the near future so you might as well bend over now and get ready because it's coming...
Hmm, with all this usage cap stuff coming from the ISP's lately, it kinda sounds like a little bit of "collusion" taking place don't you think.


djrobx

join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
reply to aelfwyne
Please be sure to call TWC and complain, and try to get the pricing without the cap. They need to know you find those terms unacceptable.
--
Laser eye surgery rocks! I love frickin' laser beams.

Baseline

join:2001-02-26
Buffalo, NY

reply to aelfwyne
Well then a lot of people are going to start looking for alternative means to getting their internet access if all of the major ISPs resort to caps.

People will start buying big WIFI antennas and start sitting on open networks.

Either way, with the present and more-so the future of the internet, people aren't going to be paying $60 / month for 40GB caps.


Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
·Time Warner Cable
·Time Warner VOIP

reply to JusticeDun
said by JusticeDun See Profile :

I'm afraid to say this, but every ISP is going to implement some sort of usage plan in the near future so you might as well bend over now and get ready because it's coming...
Hmm, with all this usage cap stuff coming from the ISP's lately, it kinda sounds like a little bit of "collusion" taking place don't you think.
i WILL move to japan!

jimk
Premium
join:2006-04-15
Raleigh, NC
·AT&T Southeast
·RoadRunner Cable


2 edits
reply to aelfwyne
This is just amazing (not in a good way), especially with the auto renewing part.

It sounds like someone is trying to rig the test. Get people stuck on the new plan with no way out that doesn't involve spending a lot of money. Then, announce the results as an amazing success and introduce the caps nationwide.

At least the cell phone providers give you something for the contract (discounted/free phone) and now most of them prorate the ETF, and none of them I know of automatically renew the contract.

For some reason, they aren't offering this "price lock" in areas without the caps, at least I never got anything about it in Raleigh.

This makes me glad I moved to DSL. When I called Time Warner Cable to cancel, the person I talked to had no idea about the caps in other markets and said he couldn't understand why Time Warner Cable would want to limit peoples usage. This indicates that not enough people have called to complain about the caps.

Edit: Complain even if you aren't in a market with the caps. They need to know what people think.


MacLeech
The one and only
Premium
join:2001-07-14
SoCal


4 edits
There are 2 different things going on here.

1. The "price lock" is a contract plan some customers want or are interested in and it's used to compete against similar contracts from DBS, DSL, U-Verse, Fios, etc. A quick Google search shows it's available elsewhere: »www.google.com/search?q=TWC+%22p···0lock%22

2. The metered bandwidth trial in Beaumont, TX. Not available outside the Beaumont, TX area.

One didn't cause the other. You can get the metered bandwidth plans with out the "price lock" plan in the trial area and plenty of TWC customers all over have the "price lock" without the metered bandwidth plan.

P.S. There isn't a massive backlash against this from general TWC customer's (not even in the Beaumont area) because IT HASN'T COST THEM ANYTHING EXTRA YET. Let's see the complaint threads when Karl posts the first report of a customer with overage charges caused by the bandwidth metering. I think even with the limits as low as they seem, only a few percent of TWC customer's in the Beaumont area will get hit with overage charges anyway. A couple of users will get hit with $100-200+ overages in a couple months and that'll be the headline.


hayabusa3303
Over 200 mph
Premium
join:2005-06-29
clubs:
·QuantumVoice
·AT&T Southeast
·RoadRunner Cable

reply to aelfwyne
Everyone in Beaumont, TX should just protest about this and you might get a spot on CNN about this. Or everyone you know tell them to switch to dsl because of what Tw is doing. Flood the Tw office there full of cable modems and digital boxes.

Get the media involved again and see what Tw does then. Backlash starts they are screwed.

Im in sc asked the guy on the phone about caps here he said there are none. CSR love to lie also.

Beachie
Stranded in paradise

join:2001-07-12
St. Pete, FL
·Bright House
·RoadRunner Cable


1 edit
said by hayabusa3303 See Profile :

Im in sc asked the guy on the phone about caps here he said there are none. CSR love to lie also.
How can the CSR be lying if there are no caps in SC? As MacLeech said, it's in Beaumont, TX only.


MacLeech
The one and only
Premium
join:2001-07-14
SoCal

reply to aelfwyne

Select Plan feedback.
If you really want TWC to know what you feel or think about thier "Select" plan, use this link and fill out the form:
»www.timewarnercable.com/GoldenTr···ack.html
--
Don't mind me, I'm just trying to help...

Baseline

join:2001-02-26
Buffalo, NY

said by MacLeech See Profile :

If you really want TWC to know what you feel or think about thier "Select" plan, use this link and fill out the form:
»www.timewarnercable.com/GoldenTr···ack.html
Really? You mean they'll honestly value the comments they get on how caps suck?

Cute.


hayabusa3303
Over 200 mph
Premium
join:2005-06-29
clubs:
·QuantumVoice
·AT&T Southeast
·RoadRunner Cable

reply to Beachie
said by Beachie See Profile :

said by hayabusa3303 See Profile :

Im in sc asked the guy on the phone about caps here he said there are none. CSR love to lie also.
How can the CSR be lying if there are no caps in SC? As MacLeech said, it's in Beaumont, TX only.
i know where the caps are AT. noticed the word ASKED.

CSR love to Lie to you so they can make a spiff on you on the upgrade. Example : 2 months ago i called CSR told me my balance was 0 woke up 2 days later to find internet and digital box locked. made a phone call and i got every excuse but why i was turned off. 1 hour later and 4 CSR later found out what someone had did, Some how they didnt see it when i moved they didnt bill me from my last address ( is that my fault?). They had lied to me on more than once. first i dont owe a balance and 2 days later i owe a balance.

Anyone tells me csr dont lie i laugh at them. But now i get there name so it will fall back on them.
-
Forums » US Cable Support » Road Runner[TWC] Heavy Packet loss HIGH PING! Slow speed! ____CA & HI »
« [TWC] Odd 2/1 speeds in San Diego  
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