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mwhitson
join:2010-03-04

mwhitson

Member

[Boston] Refused BYOM discount - RCN KB article misleading

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:

»help.rcn.com/ikm/questio ··· rvice%3F
quote:
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:

»RCN Forum FAQ
quote:
•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?

Pacomartin
join:2013-03-18
Bethlehem, PA

Pacomartin

Member

said by mwhitson:

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?

My bill has a single charge for:

Basic Cable Service, Basic Voice Mail, Cable Modem Rental, Call Waiting, Call Waiting Id Deluxe, Caller Id Deluxe, Digital Converter Rental, Mach 25 Modem Service 25Mb/2Mb, RCN Home Networking, Showtime/TMC, Signature Cable Service, Starz, Three-Way Call, TiVo
Whole Home Bundle, Unlimited Local Calling, Unlimited Long Distance Plan, Unlimited Regional Calling

So I guess I assumed that line item billing was a thing of the past for RCN.

TDRCN
@ptd.net

TDRCN to mwhitson

Anon

to mwhitson
There are different packages, some people do get charged the monthly modem rental fee and others do not depending on the package they have (current promotions at the time of sign-up). Since you have no modem rental fee, there would be nothing to credit back. Had you been paying the monthly fee, and decided to go BYOM, then you would no longer be charged that fee.

The price you are paying for data was not increased at all with the "modem included", its just a promotional offer for you not to be charged.

Hope this helps and I will submit feedback on the article to see if it can be noted that you need to be charged the fee, to receive the discounted price for BYOM.
mwhitson
join:2010-03-04

mwhitson

Member

Thanks much. Yeah, I'm now clear that there was no modem rental fee to discount in my package; mostly I'm looking for the info out there (both on RCN's official site and here on BBR) to be updated to reflect reality more accurately.

Right or wrong, many people expect that switching to BYOM will provide a monthly savings, and the language of the various FAQs doesn't really make clear that there may be cases where there's no discount to be had.