SubscribeMore from the Re-Education camp. They want to take some time and let us understand their plans, so that we can reject them out of hand all over again later this year. Except next time, the protests and push back will be even greater than it was this spring. That’s because we’ll also be educating customers about what tiered pricing will mean for their bill, both now and into the expansive future for the Internet. Time Warner forgets Rochester Telephone’s disastrous attempt to get rid of flat rate home phone calling back in the 1970s and the firestorm that caused. This is going to become more or less the same thing. Even people without computers who don’t understand the Internet do understand one thing: they don’t trust Time Warner as far as they can throw them. The company already forces channels on customers they don’t want, but have to pay for, and they also know this universal fact of life: cable bills always go up, never down.
So when Time Warner comes a’knocking and says they have a plan to save you money, people will slam the door in their face. Their claims that “they” found a lot of customers could “right-size” their plans when people realized they weren’t using that much is amusing, especially in Rochester where you can find the Road Runner Lite plan on the back of milk cartons bannered “Missing.” That’s because the company makes it next to impossible for those light users to find the Road Runner Lite plan they already offer. And when customers learn they can save money and never fear paying overlimit fees on their Internet under the existing plan, you can be sure they won’t be snake oiled into accepting the new one that has overlimit penalties that would make Bank of America blush.
Frontier isn’t fooled either. Ann Burr, Chairman and General Manager, Frontier Communications of Rochester, might have a problem saying “inconsistency,” but her company is making hay out of the PR nightmare Time Warner put itself in, signing up new customers.
Fun Trivia: Ann Burr should know. She used to be president of Time Warner’s Rochester division!
“We have a listening process,” says Time Warner spokeswoman Robin Wolfgang. Yes, and here it is — Customer: “I want to keep the same plan I have right now and not pay three times more for the exact same Internet service I have today.“ Time Warner: “No.“ That about sums it up.
Other stories of interest:
- WROC Rochester Covers Time Warner’s Pricing Change Plan
- R-News – Schumer: They’re Not Going to Use Rochester for Tiered Pricing, Period
- WROC Rochester Package on “Revised” Time Warner Plan – Check Out the “Loyalty Program”
- WROC Rochester: Time Warner Says “Nevermind”
- Rochester Business Journal Survey Finds Western NY’ers Overwhelmingly Opposed to Tiered Pricing Plans
Quote, “We didn’t think our customers were educated very well”.
What a bunch of arrogant jerks. I hate Time Warner. We need Verizon FIOS in this community.
Their usage cap is nothing more than a huge price increase disguised and wrapped in Time Warner marketing propaganda.
How does $150 a month for no usage caps save money?
Instead of time re-educating the consumers/public, TWC should invest in re-educating their executives.
I really hope to see an executive release a humbling statement addressing the mistake and stating caps are dead, forever. But I don’t trust TWC would do that. Instead, I think that they will try to wear us down, mark us as a vocal minority, and proceede with a new coat of paint and doom the internet as we know it.
One of two must be abandonded – Consumption based billing or my TWC services. TWC, you get to choose.
First a general comment regarding the media clips. Would it be possible to label these with the date that they aired?
I think one thing that we should try to do about the misinformation that Time Warner is to publish the actual pricing and availability of Road Runner (Lite, Basic, Standard, Turbo). Make people aware that if they don’t use the internet a lot (or don’t need it really fast) that they can save some money without usage caps.
I think we should also try to find out when Time Warner’s current franchise agreement has to be renewed.
I have tried to do that when possible, but a lot happened over a very short period of time, and I have been trying to spread some of these clips out, mostly so they’ll be archived in our content library for future reference. This one was from 4/17. When I have time, I’ll see about going back and re-labeling those that I can find dates for. All of them are from this month, however.
I think the media clips are going to be dropping in quantity very soon, at least for Time Warner, because they are going into their stealth mode.
If you would like call TW for pricing in your area and report back, that would be info I’ll add here. Franchise agreements are for each town, so I’d have to grab someone who’d like to volunteer to contact and compile that information and we’ll put that in the library as well. Tnx!
The videos are now rather dated mostly old data already known. The game changes just about every hour? Every day? Another protest here is needed now. It has to be much bigger with more speakers, more media coverage, and more elected officials. There seems to be a pull out in some sections but when they get that new $200 TWC bill they may think twice but by then it’s too late. Local media’s 10 second clips just do not cut it so it needs independent video coverage as well. Watching old video from 10 stations each with their own options leaves everybody thinking of 20 new questions to ask and what to think. Im my opinion this site is becoming fragmented from all these videos. Let’s work on Rochester first because we do not have much that can be done in other states unless elected officials come together from all the states affected. Some will say government should not become involved in private business but they just did with a company like Chrysler. The internet should be a nation interest just as a car company. Millions of jobs are at steak at a time we are hurting and don’t need it. For a fee every media company will give you everything in any format you want it. I was sent down to various media companies on a request from the boss because he wanted every second. Anybody can do it is public record then tape now Cd or DVD. Im truly disappointed of the pull back of elected officials in this area. TWC does not need to play these games they can just change their TOS take 20 or 40 gig divide it by a month your new top speed. And if your on 24/7 you wont hit the cap. We do not need to be a test tube because there is nowhere else to run.
This is hilarious. TV Anywhere…i.e. TW says, we’ll let you download CABLE via the Internet. Does anything smell like net neutrality exploding over this one.
How in the world would CAPS interface with what I’ve snipped below.
http://www.itvt.com/story/4307/time-warners-bewkes-says-company-working-several-distributors-tv-everywhere
During Time Warner’s Q1 earnings call, Wednesday, the company’s chairman and CEO, Jeff Bewkes, provided an update on “TV Everywhere,” its initiative to make programming that pay-TV customers have already paid for through their cable, satellite or IPTV subscriptions available to those customers on broadband and mobile platforms. “The idea is simple,” Bewkes explained. “If you subscribe to a TV channel at home you can watch it for free on broadband from any provider, wherever and whenever you want, on-demand. With over 90% of US households already paying for television, programmers will be able to give consumers even more for their money,” he continued. “There is a tremendous level of interest in TV Everywhere across the industry, and we’re working with several distributors on a trial slated for the second half of this year.”
Bewkes also pointed out that Time Warner has already developed what he termed an “example” of the TV Everywhere concept for its HBO premium programming brand, in the form of a service called HBO Go (which he showcased at the recent NCTA Cable Show): “HBO Go…is an online extension of the HBO service for HBO subscribers,” he explained. “It will use a quick and easy authentication process and offer over 650 hours of programming–that’s about three times as much content as is available through HBO On Demand.”
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People need to tell everyone they know about this blog. TW has unlimited ad money and an unlimited supply of reporters willing to Pravdaize at the drop of a dime. “Swine Flu was caused by you using Road Runner too much”-Lauren MacDonough
“Swine Flu was caused by you using Road Runner too much”- Lauren MacDonough
Sigh. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Thanks for that JR, made my day.
Swine Flu caused by using the Internet? HAHAHAHAHAHA that’s too funny. The Internet helps stop the spread of Swine Flu in a sense if used at home.
I like the lady in the the news clip for TWC saying, “People don’t realize that 5GB is a lot…”. LOL, not nowadays it isn’t. Downloading 1 Netflix movie will blow that cap just about. That lady is funny…
It’s less than a Steam game.
Tell me about it. I just finished reinstalling Left 4 Dead on my machine. It was a 4GB download, enough to blow right past a 5GB Cap if you count all of Steam’s Overhead as well as general web use and gaming.
Thanks everybody the word needs to get out to everybody. A $300 cable bill they are not going to collect ever. No body has it. The new protest does not need 30 people rather 30,000 people. That will get national attention. This virus needs to be killed. As a regular person you can ask for a hearing in congress. Better have a new suit and tie but you can do it.
FLASH MOB
If there was some sort of protests in charlotte, I’d go every single day.
[...] Time Warner Cable promised that one day, they could be back with the same schemes, after “educating their customers.” Stop the Cap! has spent the last year assembling [...]