SubscribeI don’t have time to expand on this at the moment, but my only question is, what more hostility do you need to understand customers don’t want usage caps and they should be abandoned. Do customers have to self-immolate in front of the Road Runner kiosk at the cable store? Seriously. How many signatures, phone calls, cancellations, and protests will it take? Give us a number and we’ll be happy to oblige.
Thanks to Meghan, and others, for sending this along. Go read it, leave comments there and leave comments here. I will be back later this afternoon.
“Some of the population for whom the Internet buffet has been a very filling proposition are concerned,” he said. “We could charge everyone more, or create a plan that charges more to those who use more. The concept of paying for consumption is fair.”
Both Time Warner and AT&T stressed that the trials, though they have no announced end dates, are just that: experiments. They’ll be modified, or even abandoned, if they meet too much hostility, Dudley said.
“Overwhelmingly we’ve seen positive results, but we’ll see what happens. Presumably we’d retract it if there were enough outrage over it,” he said.
Other stories of interest:
What I find truly amazing is the striking similarities between the leadership of Time Warner and the soon to be bankrupt General Motors.
Both lost touch with their customers, and insisted on producing products and services that nobody wanted, just for short terms gains, which turned out to be more imagined than real.
We will soon see how the story ends for GM, and if TW doesn’t listen, then we will soon see how they will fare too.
Both certainly seem to have fallen into the “Let’s tell the customer what they will get, how much they will pay and they’ll like it.” way of thinking/doing business. Good businesses respond to customers in ways that are beneficial to both. TWC’s current response is not beneficial to anyone except TWC.
“Overwhelmingly we’ve seen positive results”? In ONE small test market? Where the caps were only placed on NEW customers and those who renewed with price locks?
What a freakin’ joke…
Just another pull the wool over over the masses eyes remark. Does anyone believe anything coming out of Alex Dudley’s mouth or Landel Hobbs? Give me a break!
This post really needed the picture of the Iraqi security general saying “there is nothing wrong here”.
It’s as if Google started charging $0.25 per search. Keep shooting yourself in the foot, TWC! I feel so sorry your executives are so incompetent. TWC is going to be the next corporate dinosaur. It’s gonna go a lil bit like this: Lehman, Bear Stearns, AIG, Washington Mutual, and….. TWC! And they’re not even a bank! Imbeciles.
Landel Hobbs = former Iraqi Information Minister
Such a terrible liar. TWC can definitely hire much better quality spinmeisters. Fire Landel Hobbs and hire someone who can lie and make me wonder whether they’re lying or not. Everything this douchebag says I immediately recognize as a lie.
How much more hostile can we possibly be? Do we need to start protests outside of Alex Dudley’s house? Post his address and I’m in.
Hey there is a protest march/rally this Saturday in downtown Rochester, maybe that will be “enough outrage”. If you can make it see this URL :http://futureunderground.net/
The information for the rally is at the bottom of the page.
I’d sincerely love to go, but unfortunately, I’m volunteering. It’s one of those things I cannot get out of, unless sick at death’s door.
I’ll be more than happy to sign the petition, though. 
The overwhemingly positive thing they have gained from these tests are the dollar signs in their eyes and more money they are taking from each and every customer.
Exactly. That’s what a company always means when they say they saw positive results.
I want to see/hear what the people of Beaumont have had to say. (both good & bad, or don’t care) I’ll bet it’ll be a lot of complaining.
Exactly. Beaumont is a totally different demographic from what I have heard. Its mostly retirees, not young families who will blow through bandwidth caps in no time.
Fight the Power!! Join the protest let our voices be heard THIS Saturday!! Of course unless its pouring out!!
Why would we have to pay more money if we do not go to a tier plan? Was 4 billion last year in profit not enough for being an ISP?
Oh poor TimeWarner!!! Boo Hoo!!!
At the rates you are charging now, you profit margin is what other companies dream about.
It amazes me the FTC has not investigated this “trial” under the Sherman Anti-trust Act.
TW has targeted an area where they have a monopoly on services. TimeWarner has the right to protect its interests but when it’s business practices directly sabotage its competition, ie Netflix, iTunes, Hulu.com, streaming movies or playing games on Xbox and PS3. It is unfair business competition practices.
Where are the Netflix’s, Apples, Microsoft, Sony on this? Has anyone contacted them?
“They’ll be modified, or even abandoned, if they meet TOO much hostility, Dudley said.”
So basically they’ve admitted that they know this is going to piss off their customers and that only bothers them when too many customers get pissed off and start getting organized like stopthecap.com.
Having the balls to try this is bad enough but to come out with such a blatant FU towards their customers is really quite astounding. Has America really fallen so far as that? I was going to wait till the caps hit my area before I dropped them but for them to treat people with this amount of disregard I am having thoughts of canceling them now.
Does anyone know how much resistance were there when they started this crap in Beaumont? I didn’t hear about this in Austin until I read it from Austin-American-Statesman. Do people in Beaumont simply don’t use internet at all or they are just docile and easily manipulated or may be they just moved out from the city? Wasn’t Beaumont good enough for trials? What’s the need to expand the trials? Is it working damn well there or it wasn’t working that they need to try it out on different cities? How many more trials we need???
I drive pass TWC office every day. Do they want me to stop by everyday and be ‘hostile’????
I hate them but I need them because I don’t have much alternative. Damn monopoly.
There may be good news after all… apparently they’re shelving their plans.
http://www.whec.com/article/stories/s882395.shtml?cat=565
Great news. Though I’d prefer if they trash or incinerate or nuke or whatever it needs to make sure this never happen again.
For me, shelving means they may do it again in the future.
It may only be Rochester, though. The only two sources I’ve seen so far (the other is http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/Time-Warner-Cable-Drops-New-Internet-Price-Plan/GAVd2LxnpE6vGyRySlvCOw.cspx) seem to imply that.
Bravo ! But I still may switch to Earthlink out of spite and for their 6 month offer…
CUBS WIN!! CUBS WIN!!!!!!
I’m still switching to Earthlink…
Here Time Warner… I’ll do some thinking for your CEO…
The way you should have done this is to increase the monthly rates (uncapped), and ONLY THEN, after several rate hikes, do you then switch to caps. You’re so stupid. DAMN IT.
Example:
January…$54.90 …+3 to all plans
April……..$57.90 ….+5 to all plans
August….$63.90 ….+4 to all plans
THEN you say prices have gotten so high, we shouldn’t be charging those who use less so much AND THEN YOU INTRODUCE THE MAGIC CAPS.
NO way are people going to agree to a hamburger for $3 when they were getting a friggin buffet before for $7.
“Overwhelmingly we’ve seen positive results” – should that read “Overwhelmingly we’ve seen positive profits”?
I’d be happy to share a lot of hostility. How much does Mr. Dudley want?
The more I read about this, the more it sounds like TWC is just frustrated with their loss of revenue on cable tv services since more users are downloading movies and watching videos online.
Why does this company refuse to innovate and compete?
- Losing revenue from people unsubscribing to cable? Offer packages with lower prices where people can pick and choose channels they want rather than having them pay upwards of $60 and having a bunch of channels they’re never going to watch.
- People downloading and streaming movies from Netflix? Offer services that are similar and just as appealing to the consumers.
Maybe even offer users a discount that keep their bandwidth low during peak hours. Or maybe for an extra fee, let people have higher bandwidth during off peak hours.
I know this is over simplifying things and there are more hurdles involved, but that’s what good companies do. They overcome challenges, create better products and keep their customers happy.