Time Warner to begin charging monthly fees to use their modems

This is what happens when government makes people feel entitled…First I read some person on his forum suggest that we should break time warners modem in protest…now I’m reading about people sueing…Jesus Christ its OUT of control…This is a private company…if you don’t like it, DONT HAVE CABLE! What fucking losers. Guess what? The day you get a letter that says your payments are going up you cancel the service and not incur the extra money…STOP WHINING about EVERYYYYTHIINNNGGG

I gotta agree with this ^^. I’m fine with the $4/month so long as they use it for the reasons they state (bettering the network).

Cable is a want, not a need.

Wow, this all seems to fly over people’s heads. Whats OUT of control are people being walked all over in society and accepting it as the “lesser of two evils” when they put up with it time and time again. Enjoy the trend, while I will try to find ways to step aside and keep the foot prints off my backside. It has nothing to do with who owns what, what they sell, what you buy, needs or wants, none of that was anything I was arguing. The point was when you accept a service, and the terms of that service, those terms can’t just change on a whim from the owner(s) discretion. It’s like me selling you a year’s supply of oil changes from CRC for a flat set rate, then 6 months into decide I will now charge $4 a month for the little reminder sticker I provided you on your windscreen or something.

And it has nothing to do with a private company. What if they got away with this, and then NYS DOT decides that they want to charge EZ-Pass customers $5 a month for the fucking little white box? SAME SHIT DIFFERENT POCKET.

You have all of what 3 tv providers in the area? What happens when all those guys piss you off to the point where you “STOP WHINING about EVERYYYYTHIINNNGGG” and just cancel your services? But you still want TV. Now what??

If they can pitch, and prove to consumers your $4 a month will actually contribute to a quantifiable addition to service… ANNNND you can somehow prove it yourself to make sure they are not bullshitting you. AWESOME! Why not just make it a plan option, or when you renew your terms include the price hike for said better service. Masking a charge like this as “better service” isn’t good business practice.

People are so out of touch with what a free economy is…Did you sign a contract? I bet you signed something that says Terms may change, so in fact it is up to Time Warner cable to change their terms…since its their company. You have the option of cancelling your service. Just like they can’t MAKE you buy their cable, you can’t MAKE them charge what you think is fair…thats up to them.

Being walked over? What are you talking about? The way it works is, if you don’t like something about a business…you don’t buy their products. I’m sorry if you like TV…your choices are pay the fee, or cancel the service. If enough people CANCEL i bet they change their minds about the leasing.

Lastly, I wouldn’t worry about the government charging to have the ez passes, I’m sure one day that WILL happen, however I don’t see how ime warner leasing their modems has anything to do with the gov’t…but just for fun, even if the gov’t DID lease the boxes, YOU have the option of not having ez pass, you also have the option of NOT using the highways.

People complain about all this stuff when noones forcing anything on them. Cancel the service or stop bitching.

Just called in to TWC. Got my payment reduced, but also got an explanation. I think it’s more BS than anything, but it was at least an explanation. Basically they are supposedly charging the fee to update their infrastructure - yeah OK - but they apparently they are also upping the maximum internet speeds for everyone across the board to some number that’s I guess roughly 50% higher than what you receive now… probably only on the Download side though.

I also know we were one of the last to receive this modem “lease” fee, but it can’t mean that much to them up here given we haven’t paid a lease fee in, well, ever. It’s a private industry, so you either want it or you don’t I guess. I’ll probably buy my own modem because I’m a control freak… and I like new toyz

yeah you sign a contract:

http://www.tosback.org/version.php?vid=1108

(j) Since tax and regulatory rules are subject to interpretation, we have complete discretion in deciding what fees, taxes and surcharges to collect from you. You waive (in other words, you are not eligible to receive) a refund of any fees that we collect from you and pay to any government or agency. You can receive a list of the fees, taxes and surcharges we collect from: Time Warner Cable, 7800 Crescent Executive Drive, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28217; Attention: Subscriber Tax Inquiries.

The lease of the device is neither a TAX nor a regulatory rule. But it could be considered a surcharge I guess. BUT because they lead with “Since XXXXXX,” tax and regulatory rules are what they say are dictating said fees, taxes and surcharges. So since a lease fee isnt a tax or regulatory rule… it doesnt qualify or have anything to do with the rest of that section. (I think, I am not a lawyer)

INFACT, it also says:

“If you are under a promotional or other offering with a set price for a period of time, you are assured only that you will be charged the set price during the time specified.”

in other words the agreed upon set price I have been paying for when I was “locked in” puts me in that clause righ there. YET I still am being charged a “new” fee for the modem. Which doesn’t seem to jive with that agreement i signed.

I am done with arguing the free market ideas you have, which I actually understand fully, because you guys are just straying off the concept here and using that as a fall back to win a point.

I wil comment on: “People complain about all this stuff when noones forcing anything on them.”

But they are forcing it on you, thats the point. Customers agreed to a service and expected the “billable contents” to stay the same, UNTIL THEY CANCLE THEIR SERVICE FOR WHATEVER REASON. Adding a new line to the invoice is NO DIFFERENT than asking for an oil change and being charged for extra shit you didnt agree upon. If they tacked on $4 a mo to the fucking bill, we would all chalk it up to rise in price for the services rendered and none of this would even matter. BUT they tried to hide it behind smoke and mirrors. Hence, the lawsuit!

Youre talking like cable service fees fall under the same rules as rent control in NYC. So your saying if you get time warner cable in 2000, dont change anything, NOTHING can be increased in price if you still have it in 2040? Theyde be out of business.

They aren’ forcing it on you, your obsession with tv just makes it seem that way…you can easily cancel cable…see thats a choice.

2x posted somehow

If every year for 40 years when they called back and you said “Yes I would like another year at $133 for TV Internet and phone” and they say ok great you are locked in, thank you for the biz. Yeah the price wouldn’t increase, BUT like the part of the agreement I quoted says, if the taxes and regulatory charges THEY ENSUE, can be passed on to the customer. So, if my bill is set in stone at $133 in 2000 at a NYS tax rate of 8% my total due is $143.65. If in 2040 they raise the tax rate to 12% my total due is $148.96. Get it?

Thats the point of buy in, locked rates, and “contracts”. They bank that you will A cancel early and they make money on said fees, B pay your bill every day for that term, and C FORGET to re-up when the term ends and they jack the bill to the “normal” rate making a touch more hoping you dont notice because its probably auto-paying and its been the same for 12 months so you forget to even look for it. Times millions of customers, penny’s add up man.

Once again, finish your rebuttal with the only thing you have left to cling to. “Mehhhhhhhh if you dont like it look away” My obsession with tv :rofl you know me so well. In fact I canceled my cable and phone from them 2 months ago, after being sick of paying $166 a month for a phone that we never use, and TV that I spend 30 minutes watching a week, IF that. Such a giant waste of money we pissed away in the last few years. We have RR standard, pay like $40 something a month and $10 a mo for hulu through a media center pc I built a while back if the wife wants to watch tv.

Its not the only thing…but its the only one that matters. Wah, 3 bucks a month, wah its a conspiracy to start leasing ezpasses

Silver, you got too much money or something? Things like that tend to add up, especially when everyone starts doing it. What if it wasn’t $4 a month, what if it’s $40? Where do you want to draw the line, when it starts hurting YOUR pocket? The rest of us prefer to do it a little earlier.

was gonna cancel my tw service due to the extra $4 a month…

But i went to starbucks instead and paid $4.50 for a iced coffee that made my breath smell like i just ate a bag of farts.

it has nothing to do with the $ ammount. Oleg, thanks for understanding the point, join Gundam and I on this side of the fence.

The rest of you can enjoy the walk around in the dark.

LOL just received my notice of this “FEE” from time warner on Saturday!! hahaha fucking crooks can’t even send out the notice ahead of time, not 17 days into the month. Also the notice was on a small post card like paper with TINY writing that would easily be overlooked and thrown out by the average person.

/\ of course. I mean its not such a big deal, why make every effort possible to explaine fully to the customers whats going on with their bills.

Its not a very moral decission when the board meetings have charts with projected lost customers due to diss-satisfaction, how cheap we can make the legal notice, and how hidden they can make it to get by legally with the notice. And if people dont think thats how it happens, I L_O_L at you!

So I installed my Motorola SurfBoard SB6141 modem today and got it all set up with TWC.

Speed tests before and after are very similar, but the ping is quicker by about 10-12ms.

CSBC

(cool story bro cossey)

TL,DR

where did u get your modem cossey? im looking into this now and what did u pay

Amazon, it was like $120. There is a list on TWC’s site about what modems are approved, so check that if there’s a cheaper alternative you may want. I know the SB6121 is $80 and is approved as well, but the SB6141 I got replaced that, so I dunno. They also have wireless modems as well so you could get rid of your router too if you wanted.