The Time Warner dance over annual rates.

I received a letter today from TW that my bill is going up. It says I currently pay $150.95. The new rate “should be” $262.80, but because I am a long term customer, they are going to give me a “special rate” of $175.97 per month, which is a $25 per month increase.

I currently have:
1 DVR
2 digital cable boxes and two other TVs on plain, analog cable service.
Unlimited domestic phone service and 20 Mg internet which is a step up from the basic service.

We have HBO & Showtime, although I can rarely find anything to watch on Showtime except Ray Donovan and Nurse Jackie. Both services were supposedly thrown in free at the time for some other bitch I had about something else.

Anyway, I call today to use my usual threat to cancel service because the bill is just too high. After the “I you sure you want to cancel” script he reads and I answer yes, I'm switching to DirecTv, he then asks if he can take a look and see if we can make some “adjustments” to my bill. After ‘looking” he comes back with an offer of $148.95 for the same service I have now. A savings of $2 per month with all the same services I have now.

I know there are other, possibly cheaper (?), options available, but having lived in the country for ~12 years w/o cable & high speed internet, I am quite happy to pay $150 for the bundle. There are no fiber or Uverse options where I'm located, just DirecTv.

I have to think there are people who receive the price increase notice and just pay it? Otherwise, why would this little game exist??

 

I called TWC when they tried upping my rates. After arguing with the Tier 1 support that they were not competitive with the Direct TV offers and AT&T Uverse mailer I threated to drop my service and setup a disconnect at end of month.

Once I got to Tier 2 "Save Team" they started wheeling and dealing. Bottom line, they knocked my bill down $10 from current rate, and gave me all the premium channels for as part of what they call a "custom package".

I figure next year I will have to do the dance again, but everything is negotiable as long as your willing to walk.

 

I don't have Cable TV ( live between Chicago and Milwaukee, more channels than I could want) but I do use Time Warner for internet.

I have a turbo connection, but my bill has increased every year, up to $75. I never thought of cancelling. Now I might even do it before we meet in Vegas on Fri. Feb. 7 at the 2 PM at the Boar's head bar. I'll tell you how much money I saved!

 

My hubby does the same song & dance with TWC every year & it gets old. Yes, I'm sure some customers do not question, just pay the new amount but can't understand ANYONE not questioning a huge increase.

 

Same thing with U-Verse. I called after a year when my rate went up and asked if it could be adjusted. She basically prompted me to say I was going to cancel and transferred me to that guy. The only reason for this song and dance, like Joe said, is that there are people who just roll over and pay the new rate because they don't know this is an option. It's very off-putting.

 

Yeap, same here with Time-Warner. I call every 6 months when their so called promotional rate ends and tell them I no longer need all those channels and they put me on hold and come back with another promotional rate.

XM Sirius does the same thing when their plan expires.

 

Played that game, had comcast for years, pulled same stunt, after contract expired bill went to 200+, this was 2 years ago. went to Verizon, last month verizon pulled this now contract up raise the fees, I threatened to dump them, they didnt care, they called my bluff, I went back to comcast on new cutomer package save 50 a month, took them 2 hours to switch over service , everything was there from last time, only pain is changing Email address to all who need to find me

 

I'm guilty of this. I pay my mother's bills and have them all on autopay and never pay attention. I posted a thread a little while ago about my headache in switching her bundled cable service since I wasn't the actual account holder. It had gone up to around $240/month and I'm pretty sure it started under $150 as well. She needs some foreign language channels that are always expensive. When I finally did cancel it a couple weeks ago they did offer to beat the price I was getting from Verizon.

I know in the past for my own service I would do things like call to cancel after promo periods, but this was back when there was less streaming service and I wanted all the premium channels like HBO and Showtime. Now with streaming services like Netflix I barely even use cable. I still have it but consider it largely a waste, the only time I use it is for some news, sports, and to DVR Jeopardy.

 

Time Warner and especially Comcast can go eff themselves. I loathe Comcast and if I didn't need them for my internet I wouldn't have them for anything.

I have DirecTV because of the Sunday Ticket and MLB package. So my bill is routinely $250-$300 a month because of them. The only premium channel I have is HBO and I don't have the highest tier programming, I have the second to highest.

However when I had Comcast back in Philly I was paying high $100s and I didn't have all the bells and whistles. Plus Comcast in Philly is loopholing the FCC rule on all channels being made available to satellite customers. So I cannot see Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia on DTV because of those assholes.

 

Comcast is still doing this loophole, and the Phillies just signed a new TV contract with even fewer "over the air" broadcasts on Channel 17.

I have Verizon Fios and it has been pretty awesome, fast internet and lots of channels, unlimited calling in US and Canada. I can't remember when we had a service outage. With that said, I am paying $200 for HD service on one set and three additional non-HD sets, HBO; Internet; Phone service.

I think its time to call Comcast and do the dance.

 

Yep and what is crazy is apparently the loophole was supposed to be closed but those dopes at Comcast are dragging their feet. They KNOW as soon as that is closed that their monopoly is gone. There for awhile I had both DTV for Sunday Ticket and Comcast. I used a splitter and would have to flip over to CSN for all the sports and Daily News Live and then DTV for all else.

Freaking crooks.

All I wanna be able to do is watch PhillySportsLive (liked when it was DNL better) down here in Houston.

Speaking of which...Comcast is doing the same thing in Houston. I cannot see the Astros or Rockets games.