SubscribeRelax today because the work begins again tomorrow.
Starting this week, we will begin some carefully coordinated pushback against Time Warner Cable’s changes to their Subscriber Agreement, because despite company claims that they’ve not implemented any Cap ‘n Tier system at this time, the writing is on the wall in 1000pt type, readable from space. No company changes their legalese “just because,” and CEO Glenn Britt’s public statements late last week make it patently obvious which way this road is heading.
Here are the things YOU need to do today so you are prepared to act when we need you:
- Bookmark this site and check it daily. A Call to Action is most effective when everyone starts moving on it around the same time. It’s less helpful to arrive here a week after the fact. Everytime an article is posted here, our Twitter channel sends out a tweet. You can follow us on Twitter from the stopthecap channel. Just insert the text stopthecap in the box on that link and you’ll find us. I am still working on finding a good e-mail notification system that will let you subscribe and be notified in e-mail when new items are published.
- You will be asked to write, phone, and e-mail elected officials. In all such communications, remember the three P’s rule: Be polite. Be persistent. Be persuasive. I will, when time allows, provide you with sample letters or talking points to use. Elected officials are wise to pre-formatted, automated contact campaigns, so I do not use them here. You will always be expected to communicate in your own words, because elected officials will pay attention to those. They toss out those online petitions, automated pre-written letters, and other communications that look automated. It will literally take less than five minutes to follow through on most Calls to Action. If you leave it to someone else, and they leave it to you, nobody picks up the phone or writes the letter.
- Get educated. A great deal of information and background material is already here. You can follow specific company actions, cities, or policies from the menu options along the top of the screen, as well as in the search box. If you have a question about an article, write it in the comment section. I try and read and reply to many of them, along with others here.
- Continue to pass along news tips, suggestions, or other pertinent material through our Contact form. I try and credit people as often as possible, and some story ideas may appear later on, so don’t be discouraged if yours doesn’t turn up as an article in short order.
- If you find value in what we do, consider making a contribution. I am going to begin crediting our contributors (first names by default) here to thank them. Your contributions pay for server expenses, a post office box, software expenses (this WordPress theme for example), and will also go towards mailing and printing expenses as we start educating elected officials on our issues. Telecom companies just spent nearly a half million dollars in North Carolina alone to stop municipal broadband there through campaign contributions. We have to rely on actual facts and a substantially lower budget to fight back!
Good advice, and I would like to add a suggestion about what we say when communicating to others about this situation: Don’t overlook the non-monetary costs.
I’m convinced that for the average overworked, stressed out household, the hassle of tracking their ‘net usage, even with a handy dandy gas gauge from TW, EVERY MONTH is a much bigger deal than being charged an extra $10 or $20/month. Parents will suddenly have yet another activity of their kids to “police”, and they’ll have to be very careful about their own use, all in an environment where they (presumably) know their cap but have no clue, except through experimentation, what various sites or online activities cost in bytes transferred. Which sites automatically play a video clip when you browse them? Which are Flash-heavy? How many bytes/month do they spend in exchanging photos with distant relatives? How “expensive” is a Skype call? The list goes on and on.
And, as I’ve pointed out before, this is assuming that TW is 100% accurate in their billing. I had a major hassle with Earthlink (TW owned?) when they tried to charge me a $119 overage on a $20/month site hosting fee. The problem was, even by their own monitoring software I had not gone over my monthly transfer limit. It still took a long and very annoying call to a CS rep to get it straightened out. I would be stunned if TW doesn’t do something similar with broadband billing. Will they provide historical data so you can challenge your bill? Or will they reset it on the first of every month, leaving you no evidence to point to? Again, the potential hassle factor of this change to tiered pricing is high, much higher than many people may realize, and certainly much higher than TW is admitting.
I would also add a RSS feed and have it check this site for you (what I do). This site has RSS setup for you use it. This saves you time from having to ‘check the site’. It also will save BW on this site.
Also TELL others. I have already come across 3-4 people in this area (NC) who did not even know this was going on. Lets just say they were NOT happy. I tell others and tell them to tell others. Do not let up on TW. The points they start talking about are exactly what Lou says.
Also if you are capable setup your own ‘gas guage’. If we are going to get this shoved down our throats we need a way to keep them honest. Perhaps we should setup an area here on how to do this. There are a few options out there. I even setup my own web/dns caching server this last week. If every byte counts then this is needed. We also need to prep for if we do not get what we want…
Slight aside for this site. I like the new layout except for one thing. The 4 large pictures right at the top of the screen. It means the news is not at the top of the screen. The important thing for this site. Just for an experiment could you move them down the right/left hand side? Or make them smaller? Just a suggestion ignore me if it doesnt make sense.
[...] The Day Before the Storm http://stopthecap.com/2009/05/31/the-day-before-the-storm/ [...]
here in austin TWC is still planning to implement caps. heard thru neighbors that TWC had an october date to begin tracking usage. so checked in w/ customer support to confirm where i was in my 2 year contract and asked her to confirm if there were any such plans. she immediately stated that TWC would indeed be validating their new usage tracking “servers” and that going well, the usage cap pricing would be put in place (even to existing customers in the 2 year price lock contract). asked about that, she referenced the terms of use changes which permits TWC to make this modification to the “price lock” guarentee.
*blah*
If you could drop me an e-mail to phil at stopthecap.com or use the contact form and let me know as much detail about your conversation as possible, along with at least your first name, I’d appreciate it so I can document this further and publish it.
If possible, include:
1) the name of the person you spoke with, if possible.
2) the number you called to reach customer service.
3) if your neighbor had any special reason for knowing the date for usage tracking;
4) as much detail as you can recall about what you asked the TWC rep, and how she replied.
If anyone else in Austin can also try calling TWC and informing me about what you hear, that would be great.