I received my Time Warner Cable bill in the mail yesterday and my jaw hit the floor. $180?! And I hadn't even gotten any pay-per-view last month!
Yes, it's true that I have triple play, and voicemail, and wireless, and DVR, and HBO...but seriously. This is just silly. So I called TWC and asked, "can you lower my bill please?" The guy on the line noted that my triple play alone was up to $134.95. It used to be $119.95 just a few months ago...but I digress. So he offered me a rate of $129.95 for the triple play IF I signed a 2-year contract. I asked, "so what's the catch?" Turns out that if I cancel TWC or move to a city where TWC isn't available, I will owe them a cancel fee of up to $150. "OK, no" I said...saving a mere $5 a month sucks to begin with..."that doesn't cut it." So he passed me on to the sales department (I am still wondering what department he was in) and I asked the woman on the other end of the line, "OK, so what can you do to lower my bill?" She replied, "well we can offer you a triple play rate of $99.95 for 12 months." Again I asked, "so what's the catch?" "No catch."
So I took the new 12-month rate, which is THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS cheaper a month. Which means that I will save $420 over the course of the year.
Am I the only one who thinks it's a little bit effed that the price I was paying isn't the actual lowest price and that I had to force my way through two layers to get a more reasonable rate? I mean they just RAISED my rate a few months ago...but the real rate is actually much less?
So two lessons:
1. Call your cable or phone company and ask them to lower your rates. They will likely do it because they don't want to lose customers.
2. We should be marching in the streets against the corporate fraud we endure on a regular basis. Between our tax dollars going to multi-billion dollar bonuses on Wall Street, and now this, I wonder where the tipping point is for middle class Americans?
Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Enjoy it on your giant HDTV.
Showing posts with label cable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cable. Show all posts
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Cable Installation: Learning the Hard Way
So in my efforts to upgrade my living space I decided to throw caution to the wind and go for the Time Warner Cable Triple Play (with wireless) package. They agreed to come to my palace on the day after Christmas to install it. I was so looking forward to entering the 21st Century with 250 channels, DVR, wireless Internet connection, and so on.
So I rushed back to NYC on the 26th, and the guy shows up on time - a seemingly good sign. He then proceeds to spend much of his time in my apartment trying to convince me that I need to rearrange my apartment so that he won't have to wire anything into my bedroom.
Examples:
1. He told me I should really move my entire PC/printer from my bedroom to my living room. When I said no, he then...
2. ...Told me that if he tried to drill a hole through the wall between the living room and bedroom the walls were weak (which is not so) and the hole may end up being as big as SIX INCHES IN DIAMETER.
3. Upon further discussion, he suggested that he install the Internet in the living room and then I could buy a wire to plug into the modem and run through my living room, into the kitchen, through the hall way and into my bedroom. You know just have a wire running through the entire house to trip over. Nice.
4. He also told me to buy a new phone that would allow me to keep the base in the living room but get a "wireless" second phone that I could keep in the bedroom. Again so that he wouldn't have to wire anything into my bedroom.
He was more than a piece of work.
So he left and I now have a phone, phone modem, Internet modem and huge cable box all piled up next to my TV in the living room - a very attractive set up. And then if that weren't enough after he left I discovered that no HBO channels were working, and whenever I would click on one, the cable would freeze and reboot itself.
Cutting to the chase, I called Time Warner to complain and asked them to come out and fix the HBO situation, as well as wire my Internet connection into my bedroom. A different TWC guy showed up on Dec. 31 and in three seconds assessed the problem:
THE GUY DIDN'T INSTALL ME.
What?! You might ask...
He just plugged my TV into an old wire on the outside of the building that isn't even supposed to be working AT ALL anymore, instead of wiring me into the actual cable system within the inside of the building.
So now I have to get re-reinstalled this coming Saturday. Pretty much starting from zero. But! At least two good things should come out of this experience:
1. I will get the installation the way I want it, not the way the first guy wanted to do it so as to get out of actually working.
2. I learned that the first guy was a sub-contractor, not a Time Warner Cable employee. I was told a little secret by the second, Dec. 31, guy who was an actual TWC employee: YOU CAN (AND SHOULD) REQUEST AN IN-HOUSE TECH. Had I known and done this, I wouldn't have to get my cable re-re-installed and sit around at home all day on a Saturday!
You just HAVE to love the utilities companies.
So I rushed back to NYC on the 26th, and the guy shows up on time - a seemingly good sign. He then proceeds to spend much of his time in my apartment trying to convince me that I need to rearrange my apartment so that he won't have to wire anything into my bedroom.
Examples:
1. He told me I should really move my entire PC/printer from my bedroom to my living room. When I said no, he then...
2. ...Told me that if he tried to drill a hole through the wall between the living room and bedroom the walls were weak (which is not so) and the hole may end up being as big as SIX INCHES IN DIAMETER.
3. Upon further discussion, he suggested that he install the Internet in the living room and then I could buy a wire to plug into the modem and run through my living room, into the kitchen, through the hall way and into my bedroom. You know just have a wire running through the entire house to trip over. Nice.
4. He also told me to buy a new phone that would allow me to keep the base in the living room but get a "wireless" second phone that I could keep in the bedroom. Again so that he wouldn't have to wire anything into my bedroom.
He was more than a piece of work.
So he left and I now have a phone, phone modem, Internet modem and huge cable box all piled up next to my TV in the living room - a very attractive set up. And then if that weren't enough after he left I discovered that no HBO channels were working, and whenever I would click on one, the cable would freeze and reboot itself.
Cutting to the chase, I called Time Warner to complain and asked them to come out and fix the HBO situation, as well as wire my Internet connection into my bedroom. A different TWC guy showed up on Dec. 31 and in three seconds assessed the problem:
THE GUY DIDN'T INSTALL ME.
What?! You might ask...
He just plugged my TV into an old wire on the outside of the building that isn't even supposed to be working AT ALL anymore, instead of wiring me into the actual cable system within the inside of the building.
So now I have to get re-reinstalled this coming Saturday. Pretty much starting from zero. But! At least two good things should come out of this experience:
1. I will get the installation the way I want it, not the way the first guy wanted to do it so as to get out of actually working.
2. I learned that the first guy was a sub-contractor, not a Time Warner Cable employee. I was told a little secret by the second, Dec. 31, guy who was an actual TWC employee: YOU CAN (AND SHOULD) REQUEST AN IN-HOUSE TECH. Had I known and done this, I wouldn't have to get my cable re-re-installed and sit around at home all day on a Saturday!
You just HAVE to love the utilities companies.
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