Charter Spectrum → [Telephone] Yet another Annual Increase...

This is for anyone really in the "Know". So my Bill shows my Spectrum land Line monthly fee will be increased by $3.00. I always thought providing Phone Service to Customers that have Spectrum Internet....was a very low to zero cost basis for an Internet Provider. It is not the same, but almost like going to an Internet site and getting information back...it travels over the Internet that you pay for. This $3.00 Increase therefore makes me feel that this is not because the Increase is needed to support the phone service, its because "We can".....

Just seems this is becoming an annual routine, lets see what we (Spectrum) can increase fees on not that the Increase is justified and needed, it is because we can.

I have cut the Cord on Cable TV because I was tried of feeling I was being dumped on Annually to keep Cable TV. Now I am beginning to feel that way about Telephone. I know all local Providers except Spectrum offer Cable TV (others offer Cable with another provider); it appears Phone will go this same way. But again, providing Phone service when the customer has your Internet I would think would be an extremely Low Expense on the carrier.

By the way; so much for being in a Promo Bundle for 1 Year; that no longer means anything.

Now I know Spectrum knows this, and maybe they are targeting similar Phone charge.... Frontier and WOW Unlimited Phone Monthly are in excess of $40.00 which is a signal to me neither frontier or WOW is really interested in being a Phone Provider to match their already non-interest in being a cable TV Provider....

Consumers just cannot Catch a Break...

Consumers just cannot Catch a Break...

What is with you and your elitist attitude when it comes to this stuff? You parrot the same crap over and over about '90s style grid TV' and landlines.

I think cell phones are stupid, I think the quality is poor and I think landlines are superior. It has nothing to refusing to let go of the 20th century, it has everything to do with not thinking the newer way is better.

I pay $20 for Spectrum Voice, I did not get the $3 increase, I'm still paying $20.

a cell phone, by all means..... it is your money. But I would rather just pay or ONE service that takes care of my voice needs, not two or even three. My cell phone carries with me wherever I go, it can do whatsapp, signal and facetime calling as well which I often use to communicate with my family in Europe, and it does not rely on the internet connection at home nor electricity as it has its own internet source and battery. Sure you can get a backup battery for your landline, but if you have a fancy cordless handset set with a base and a few phones spread around the house..... guess what isn't going to work when the base loses power? Most people actually forget about that part, plus they don't really want a big UPS battery just to keep the power going on the base, for a while.

In short, if you do not have a phone that is only powered by the 90v that comes through the phone line and nothing else, your phone will be as dead as a doorknob when the power fails.

A cell phone lasts at least the full day, probably a day or two or three if you don't use it all the time, and it can be charged in the car if you want.

But yeah.... if you want to pay for TWO phone services that essentially do the same thing, by all means. I just do not see the point anymore in these days.

There is a reason why cable TV literally loses millions of customers each year, and why people are ditching the landlines. They don't want to pay for a landline AND a cell phone, and they don't want to pay for cable TV AND streaming, so they pick one and save money.

This post has morphed a bit, but back on topic... There are many costs involved with providing telephone service (as with any service), so an increase could be triggered from many services. Not only does telco require a connection from a premise to a CO, there is the long-haul to the called party, their CO, and then to the called party themselves. Some COs impose a termination fee to receive a call. I haven't heard anything lately, but there were some podunk COs that charged exorbitant fees, all of which gets paid by someone.

Back in my merchant days I was shocked by all the fees associated with taking credit cards. All those cash-back dollars, program rewards, etc, gets dumped on the merchant and vary greatly. As a merchant, our only choice was to spread those costs out to all of our customers in price increases. Could you imagine our price charts if we chose to call out all the different cards and associated fees?

Moral of the story, there is so much going on behind the scenes it's rarely as simple as you might want to think.

Took a Look at Ooma Telo. You make a One-time Purchase of the Ooma Telo Device...starting at $79.99...and up and connecting that device to your Internet Service you have the same VOIP Phone service that a cable provider provides. The Difference, there are no charges thereafter. So when you are paying $13.00 a month to Spectrum for Home Unlimited Service....and you buy the least expensive Ooma Telo device....in about 6 mos you have recovered the upfront Expense of the Ooma telo device. Here's what concerns me, what stops Ooma telo from deciding to charge a monthly Fee....? I am sure the agreement you most likely sign has a clause that at Ooma telo discretion they can levy a monthly Fee. Or worse yet, you sign nothing and when Ooma telo notifies you they will start charging a Monthly Fee...you have nothing at all in writing to maybe protect you from the Fee.....

"By the way; so much for being in a Promo Bundle for 1 Year; that no longer means anything."

Yeah. I called to complain about the price increase, totaling $13. This included the Voice increase, a decrease in "bundle discount", and increases on the STB and CC. (They called the STB increases a "secure connection fee". What the hell is that?)

Anyway, I also talked about how I just started this promotion package in January, and was told it would stay for at least a year. Their repeated answer to that was, "You are still getting the same discount, just the fees were increased." WTF, that is the same as a price increase on a package that I was told would be good for a year.

Of course, they also give me the BS of how they have to increase the prices "to give me the best service possible". Yeah right. Seems to me that service stays the same or is worse, but the price just keeps going up. I get that costs/prices generally increase, but don't try to tell me that it is done to better serve me.

And it is true. They are obsolete technologies. Just like when we moved on from tape reels and cassettes to CD's and DVD's, it was a step in technology that many people feel is the right step to take.

You are 100% in your right to keep wanting to wait till a program is on at "8/9c" on a Thursday so you can record it and then skip through the commercials when you do. If that is your preferred method of watching something in TV, by all means..... I won't stop you paying for it.