ATT cable modem hardware price

riiiiiiiiight ... thats the biggest crock of $hit i have ever heard... but can't expect much else from this company.

Are you kidding me? What a bunch of horse s**t! These modems are probably made right down the street in another Taiwanese sweat shop...probably on the same line as my damm sneakers. You can say what you want about how congressional leaders rip the public off and waste our tax money....but ...GEEZE LOUISE.... these utility companies come up with more hidden and outrageous fees than I've ever seen before.

Just a little message to those in charge... DON'T INSULT OUR INTELLIGENCE!!! WE, AS CONSUMERS, ARE NOT AS GROTESQUELY STUPID AS THOSE LAME-BRAIN IDIOTS THAT YOU HIRE IN THE 1ST PLACE!!!

That's funny... I have a shark fin modem and it's made by 3com.. and retailed for about 175.. good thing the satellite dish people don't do that. they never did come get mine and it's been 2 years. course, you can buy the whole thing from wal-mart for 49 dollars.

I cancelled my service with ATT some 8 months ago, but no one ever showed up to pick up the equipment. I had both Internet and digital cable TV with ATT. About a month ago I got a bill for $1,600. I was like what the? I called them up and the customer care person told me that all of the charges were for the equipment. I was so shocked. I too had the shark fin modem. I guess that’s ATT for you!!
To solve the problem, just return the damn thing even though it’s their job to come pick up their stuff to avoid these charges.

Umm, I think they were kidding about where the modems were made. Granted the price is pretty outrageous, but in the attbi forum it was pointed out that AT&T probably got to that figure by calculating the cost to get someone out there, court fees, etc if one was unwilling to return it.

This must be the Rolls-Royce of cable modems..NOT

said by AT&T:

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hand-made by top executives at a clean-room on the top floor of the AT&T headquarters

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Of course! It makes perfect sense! In the attic where they lock up illegal immigrants, chain them to their stations, and force them to get everything perfect, or get whipped by the guards. And they are "top executives". They are on top of the building, and if they miss one part on one modem, they get executed. See, and you all thought it was a bunch of baloney. AT&T tells the truth!

When u sign up for the service, and u sign the form when the tech comes out, you state that your responsible for the equipment since its in your possesion you are simply renting the equipment as part of your service, so its YOUR responsibility to return it....bottom line, why should they pay for it if you lose it huh ??? see what im saying, and by the way, it works ! they get back almost all there equipment and have good inventory control for this very reason-- if you had to pay for it if you were the co. ud do the same......-- retired Roadrunner Tech, (i now monitor the network and trble sht the cisco network)

Comcast wanted $400 for my forgotten modem..

I guess the level of quality is higher at AT&T?

I inadvertently packed my cable modem when we moved from CA to Denver. I called Cox and they sent me a box to return the equipment. The package was received and signed for in CA, but they claim the cable modem serial number is still not in their inventory system so they tried to charge me for it. Took me almost six months to resolve.

I'd view this more as an "Incentive Clause" than AT&T thinking their modems can walk on water. If they charged the $50 or so a used cable modem might garner on ebay, how many do you think they'd get back? Exactly. But, bill the former customer $650 for it and the return rate skyrockets.

Of course, the $650 price wouldn't likely stand up in court. But, it sure gets attention!

FWIW, I was responsible for returning my Cable Box to AT&T when the jerks cancelled my grandfathered-in Movie Package and I dumped them for DirecTV. Don't see why their Internet equipment should be any different.

Dave

I bought MediaOne service two years ago. Soon after it became AT&T, I took the precaution of buying my own modem and returning the silly 3Com modem to AT&T.

Saved me $10/month and avoids the danger of ever getting screwed by one of these charges.

Do it today--if you have a rental modem, buy a replacement (too lazy to go to the store? click www.warehouse.com or www.computershopper.com). It'll feel better, not paying so much $$$ to AT&T every month.

Just be sure to get a receipt when you give your old modem back to AT&T!

What a load of crap how can ATT charge that kind of money when they ask if you want buy the modem instead of lease it for $200????????????????

After a certain number of price-gouging months, the cable company should just assign equipment ownership over to the customer. If the equipment's only worth a hundred bucks or less, it's more of a headache to process returned equipment (which is generally obsolete anyway) than to just give it to the customer.

Of course, they don't think of that.

I think it was AARP that squawked at another division of AT&T for continuing to charge rental fees on 40-year-old phones installed at the homes of hundreds of thousands of nice old ladies. The telco finally sent them a letter saying keep the phone, we're not going to gouge you for it any more.

Somehow I suspect there will be more than one 90-year old still paying AT&T ten bucks a month (2002 dollars) for a 3com shark-fin modem in the year 2042.

ATT can't only claim the real worth of the modem. They can try and charge you $500 but it's so arbitrary, why not make it $1000. Unless the charge is stated in the contract...the amount falls to fair market value.

I noticed the date on this was last year; but I wanted to bring up something not being addressed here.

Depending on when AT&T bought that modem, it may well have cost that much. It was not that long ago when cable modems were very expensive, and if it happens to be a modem they bought even 2 years ago that cost could be close to valid.
(not the replacement cost, but the capital cost they'd have to right off on what they spent on that modem when they bought it).

Prices NOW are dirt cheap; but they were not cheap not too long ago.

$650 is still a bit much regardless; but like buddy was mentioning above it is an incentive for you to return the equipment.

Think about this. If you lose a movie from a video store you have to pay the 89.95 suggested retail cost.

If you lose a book from the library you have to pay the suggested retail cost.

You could go to a discount store and buy these items cheaper. This is how companies ensure that they will get their return on their investment if a customer loses or breaks it.

Just my 2 Cents--Flame Away

it wouldnt have cost them 650$ EVER.. i bought my cable modem from AT&T 2 years ago (was mediaone then) like a dumbass.. anyways, it cost me 250$... so, it deff. didnt cost them 650$ a year ago.

said by boom4u:

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so its YOUR responsibility to return it

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When I had Comcast@home my modem died. I told them that I would return it and pick a new one up, they said no, you have to wait for the next available dispatch (which was 3 days). They said they don't allow customers to pick stuff up at their local office. Of course when I canceled a few months later they asked when I would be able to stop by their local office to drop the equipment off. Needless to say I made them do a truck roll to pick it up.

said by skedatl:

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ATT can't only claim the real worth of the modem. They can try and charge you $500 but it's so arbitrary, why not make it $1000. Unless the charge is stated in the contract...the amount falls to fair market value.

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Exactly, we practice the same with customer's when we lease them equipment when we set-up their OC-3, etc...

The fees we charge customers when they cancel their telecommunications contract (or let it expire) and refuse to let our techs take the multiplexers are much higher than what we buy the equipment for.

Mostly it's to recover leased equipment because most customers won't pay the insane charges.

Most courts won't let us hold the charges to the customer, but issue an order to force return of the equipment.

After all, they leased it from us, therefore we still own it.

These companies love to RIP PEOPLE OFF.

I got the Motorola Surfboard modem from @HOME when they were still in business.

I signed a contract for $10 a month for 24 months for the modem. My contract states "If the service is cancelled, customer will still be responsible for the duration of the purchase contract."

They specifically told me I am BUYING not RENTING the modem, and that if I cancel my service, I still have to BUY the modem, they won't take it back.

In essence,

I am paying $240 for the modem.. Not bad.. And if I cancel now, I still have 12 more payments to go at 10 bucks a month.. Also not bad, seeing as how I can probably put it on ebay if I decide to get DSL...

Speaking of which, I wonder if someone would trade me a DSL router for my cable modem.. hehehehe

There is a reason that the corporate logo for AT&T is the Death Star. The Corporate executives all follow the dark side of the force.

I agree with you wholeheartedly, but often times, AT&T specifies that it is their responsibility to pick up the modem. If they never do, then are you liable?

I also understand that most people aren't home during the day when tech's are out installing new modems and collecting old ones, so this is kind of a grey area....

To avoid paying 650 or whatever the hell it is buy the thing up front and pay 10 a month instead of 20.

Are they supposed to pick it up, or is the customer supposed to drop it off?

I have heard people talking that at least with Comcast (my cable provider), if you cancel your account you have to drop it off yourself at the nearest cable office.

Thing is... the customer still has the modem in their possesion, right?

It's not like the modem is lost or something. I wonder how much an insurance company would give you if it was stolen; it's probably not worth stealing anyway.

Sounds like just a plain old simple lack of communication; customer could probably go drop it off and have the fee waived.

said by VindictiV:

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Depending on when AT&T bought that modem, it may well have cost that much. It was not that long ago when cable modems were very expensive, and if it happens to be a modem they bought even 2 years ago that cost could be close to valid.

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The price drop happened in 1997. I have a Motorola Surfboard model 1000 gathering dust in my basement, delivered to me in November 1997 by a company called CAI Wireless. (When they got out of the business, they sent a letter to customers reassigning ownership of the cable modems to the subscriber.) That model was worth somewhere in the $250-$300 range five years ago.

I saw my first cable modem two and a half years before that, at Boston's Museum of Science by Continental Cable (did I run into any of you other DSLR readers at that event--it was well-attended). At that point, a cable modem consisted of a PC-sized case plus a second box, and cost over $2000. The presenters conceded even then that the price had to go below $500 before the service could be deployed widely.

It's been quite a while, though. $650 is out of the ballpark. If they're going to charge penalties on top of the replacement cost of the cable modem, then they need to spell that out in their rental agreement. In any event--you should be able to pick up a shark-fin modem on eBay and return that (after informing them of the new serial number).

[text was edited by author 2002-03-07 14:37:05]

Thats right because I believe they contract out installation. So the modem did not even belong to them.

Mine died too. Im considering buying a modem since if I can get one for $100 I can be saving doe in a few months. But Its so volatile and I got screwed by NP that I just cant bring myself to do it...

BULL S*H*I*T, my mom worx for a different part of sharkfin which manages modems and thats plain crap.

All these "bullshit" posts I'm seeing are a joke. That's a corporate trick to get people to return their equipment. You make the "punishment" so insanely high, they're almost guaranteed to get the CPE back.

If you think that's bad, the DTV personal gateway costs you only $24.95 to ship to you. If you don't send it back if you cancel after a certain period of time, $500 off your credit card.

They could have started by sending out a prepaid ARS label, had them put the modem in a box and ship the damn thing back before charging the customer $650 for a $200 item. The whole things stinks. They could even bill the label and all the handling charges to the customer.