Looking for ways to cut back my monthly outlays, thought I'd look into switching to my own cable modem for long-term savings. Googling for "RCN own modem" turns up RCN article Kb-2718:
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help.rcn.com/ikm/questio ··· rvice%3Fquote:
What is RCN's Bring Your Own Modem (BYOM) service?
The BYOM service gives RCN cable modem customers the option to purchase their own modem, reducing the bill for any modem rental charge.
quote:
Can I have BYOM within a bundled package?
Yes.
The next non-duplicate result is the RCN FAQ on this site:
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RCN Forum FAQquote:
What is RCN's Bring Your Own Modem (BYOM) service?
The BYOM service gives RCN cable modem customers the option to purchase their own modem from an RCN approved list of modems, reducing their bill by $3.00 for the usual modem rental charge.
***IMPORTANT***You may ONLY use an RCN-approved modem.
Where is BYOM service available?
BYOM Service is offered in every RCN market with the exception of digital phone customer in Chicago.
How much is the BYOM service?
The BYOM service is $0 charge; it replaces the modem rental $3.00 charge.
Note: You will be charged the $4.00 rental fee then credited back the $4.00 on the same statement.
Can I have BYOM within a bundled package?
Yes. The discounts will remain the same; the package will just be less the $3.00 rental rate.
We have adjusted all the bundled packages so that the rental is no longer discounted and we have moved the discount that was on the rental to the modem service code to accommodate and keep the discounts/pricing consistent.
Sounds straightforward. Purchased a SB6141, installed, went through auto-provisioning, up and running. Auto-provisioning dialogs warned me that I would continue to be charged a $5/mo modem rental until I returned the old hardware. (Okay, so various sources have now cited $3, $4, and $5/mo.) Returned old hardware to RCN location this morning, and got told that there was
no BYOM discount, as "the modem is included in the package", and there was no "modem rental" line item in my statement. (This is correct: my statement on myRCN only shows a single line item for the Internet product.) When I showed the staff a hard copy of the above KB article, they had no clear answer, vaguely referring to "the Internet can't tell what your package is" and "that's for other markets like Pennsylvania". Grudgingly accepted a replacement RCN modem. Now I get to return the purchased modem (though the RCN service person did toss me a modest account credit "because of my wasted time", which will at least cover return shipping and restocking).
So my question: Is it in fact current RCN billing policy that there is no BYOM discount unless a customer shows a separate line item for modem rental in their statement? And if so, is there a useful route to getting RCN's KB article (and BBR FAQ) updated to reflect reality so other customers aren't misled?