Michelle wrote StoptheCap! to remind us that we’ve all been here before.  The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle takes us back:

About 75 of Rochester’s leading businessmen, merchants and bankers gathered at the mayor’s office on Oct. 28, 1886.

They were not happy. Not one bit.

The Bell telephone company had announced a rate increase. And many of the businessmen felt betrayed.

As F.J. Amsden put it, “the business men of Rochester had been encouraged to use the telephone so that it had become almost a necessity in the conduct of business. They (telephone company) have appropriated our streets and the roofs of our buildings (to string their telephone lines), and now when the system has become of general use they demand an entire change and the adoption of the toll system.”

To be sure, the rate change was substantial. Instead of paying a flat fee, as in the past, customers would pay according to actual usage. Those within a half mile of the downtown telephone exchange would pay $50 per year for 500 calls, and six cents for each call beyond that. Customers more than a half-mile from the exchange would pay an extra $20 per mile.

To angry customers, this was not only “unjust,” it was “extortionate.”

Hmmm… sounds sort of familiar, doesn’t it?  So what did people do?

J.H. Stedman, one of the angry businessmen who met in the mayor’s office that October day, urged telephone customers to unite and “refuse to use a phone.” And that’s just what they did. They went on strike.

“On November 20, 1886, they united in an action that is unparalleled in telephone history. At noon that day every subscriber removed his telephone receiver, with the understanding that it would not be replaced until the company came to terms,” according to The Great Contrivance.

The strike went on and on as customers simply canceled service, and in some cases formed their own cooperatives to provide alternative service in different areas.  Bell finally threw in the towel 18 months later and restored flat rate service to customers.

Rochester never entirely trusted Bell again, and by 1899, Rochester Telephone Company, an independent provider, was granted a license to serve the area and compete against Bell.  They promised and delivered flat rate service to customers, and maintained a reputation of excellence for decades, with one of the nation’s largest local calling areas at a cost of less than half charged by Bell in nearby Buffalo and Syracuse.

Bell eventually threw in the towel as more and more customers chose Rochester Telephone for their respect for customers and their delivery of an essential service at a fair and reasonable price.  Bell exited Rochester several years later altogether.

A lesson a certain cable company needs to remember, because consumer empowerment to cancel service is something not limited to Rochester.

It seems some in the cable industry aren’t only out of touch, they are out of this world.  Todd Spangler, from Multichannel News, a cable industry trade publication, lets an unnamed cable industry exec go all X Files on us when he gives column space to this whopper [thanks to Dave for pointing the way]:

A cable industry insider pinged me last night with an interesting conspiracy theory:

Rep. Eric Massa (D.-N.Y.), who this week blasted Time Warner Cable’s bandwidth-metering plan as “monopolistic” and inflicting harm on middle-class Americans, is based in Corning, N.Y. — the hometown of the world’s biggest fiber-optic supplier, Corning Inc.

The implication: That Massa is railing against Time Warner Cable because a big Corning customer is Verizon Communications, which has bought thousands of miles of fiber-optic cabling for its FiOS buildout.

And here is where I exert the tiniest effort to collapse this ludicrous nonsense.  Hey, clueless cable guy: your theory only works if Verizon was the phone company that sought to wire Rochester with those fiber optics.  They aren’t, and as disappointed residents have come to learn, they have no plans to bring their FiOS service into this area.  Oops.

Spangler’s own remarks suggest he isn’t on board this flight of fancy, but manages a few shots at the congressman anyway.

None of this is surprising of course.  We’ve been listening to the propaganda parade all weekend from Time Warner, trying to convince consumers who have never seen a rate change from the cable company that didn’t end up eventually costing them more… much more.

The cable television industry just cannot fathom why cable subscribers might be outraged about paying up to three times more tomorrow for a service they enjoy today at rational, profitable prices.

Why is it shocking to discover a member of Congress that is actually thinking about his constituents, instead of just cashing telecom lobby checks and shrugging shoulders saying there is nothing that can be done. Do I believe the congressman has all the answers?  No, which is why consumers will fight back against this on many different fronts.

Spangler offers his own bad analogy:

One wonders if Rep. Massa would summon the same level of outrage if, say, Corning Inc. had been selling strands of glass for a fixed, all-you-can-eat flat rate (surely something it has never done) and shifted to charging by the mile.

If Corning had, through decades of lobbying influence, successfully established itself as a de facto monopoly supplier of the kind of fiber necessary to deliver the fastest possible service in a community, and decided to “experiment” tripling the price in just that captive community, I’d suggest we would hear from the congressman, local, state, and federal officials, and angry customers.  I suspect we may not hear too much protest from a trade publication that exists because of the advertising, subscriptions, and goodwill of the industry it covers.

As I work my way through the e-mails that we’ve received, I thought that those of you looking for ideas on how to write your own complaint might get some ideas from this particularly poignant letter one person shared with me.  I have omitted names and made a few minor changes for privacy reasons.

By the way, if you submitted a Letter to the Editor that didn’t get published, send us a copy and we’ll publish it.  Newspapers often only print a small representative sample of the letters they receive on a single subject.  We have more space than they do, and it may help inspire you in your own letter writing efforts.

These are real people facing real struggles in this difficult economy.  There is no money for movies, trips, and adventures when people are having enough trouble just meeting the very basics.  In tough times, people tend to stay home and look for entertainment and escape from the stress and anxiety we are all coping with, wondering what could possibly go wrong next.

And it turned out to be a cable company that honestly feels that preserving unlimited access to the Internet requires at least a $75 rate increase in overage fees and that is somehow fair and equitable.  Perhaps to someone living in a Manhattan penthouse, but not out in the real world.

Message to Time Warner:

Hello,

As someone who recently lost my job of nine years, the internet has become my connection to the outside world. I have had to cut back on my spending substantially, but have kept our three-in-one package because the all-inclusive plan has kept me in contact with the family that I cannot drive to see on a regular basis anymore, and the television is a source of education for my children and stress relief for my husband and I. Most of all, the internet has been my savior in a time where I have felt the most unconnected, stressed and depressed about the future.

I spend hours on the internet job searching, finding healthy recipes for my family, and researching ways to save money elsewhere. In the efforts to not spend money on entertainment, we now have a Netflix subscription. I owe it to Netflix and the internet for introducing me to my new passion of organic gardening and learning about other environmental matters. I have also recently reconnected with friends I haven’t seen in over 15 years thanks to Facebook. This whole new world has opened up to me, and now you’re going to take it away? My husband has been wonderful about taking care of all of our expenses while I cannot seem to find a job in my field and while I stay home with the kids since daycare costs so much, but my husband’s salary only stretches so far in this economy. I will no longer be able to justify my internet usage if the costs go up, which will be the case if you choose to make this switch. It’s more important to put food on the table and clothes on my children.

We currently have the Time Warner 3-in-1 package and are in the trial period for DVR. I have been your unofficial spokesperson on how great your services are up until now. If you make this switch, we will have to start making considerations to lower bills again since we’re living on one salary. I very much like having a land line with unlimited phone calls, unlimited internet and cable usage for one somewhat reasonable price but of course the best deal always wins. You have gone from being a reasonable company to a greedy company in my eyes. In a time where many people only have one connection to the outside world, and some are even living in tents, is it really the time to change a good thing you have going for you and potentially disrupt your bottom line?

If you want more customers during this time of economic crisis where people are making difficult decisions about what they need opposed to what they want, a more educated approach to gain customers (and profits) would be to launch an empathetic PR campaign. I found your commercials highlighting the fine print of Frontier services to be very productive. Instead of alienating current customers, why don’t you find empathetic ways to reach out to new customers to increase profit?

Please reconsider this approach to profit. The internet is a wonderful place for educating myself when I’m stuck home and trying to save gas, but I can go back to educating myself through books from the library instead if necessary. I love your 3-in-1 service, but we will have to look at the need for it more closely if you chose to make this switch.

Sincerely,
A Loyal Time Warner Customer for over 13 years

I heard the event with Rep. Massa went very well, with some news media showing up and the folks at one of the local political blogs here evidently recorded much of it. I hope we can embed the resulting video here on StoptheCap!

I have elected to spend the rest of this evening catching up on e-mail from everyone, and there is a lot of it. I am working my way from oldest to newest, and considering I’ve had about six hours sleep in four days, it’s remarkable I am still typing away. Your e-mail has been important to me, and I want to give it the attention it deserves.

Our thoughts also go out to reader Rachel, who had a family member require emergency surgery tonight. Here’s to a speedy recovery!

Finally, about five people have asked me why I don’t Twitter. The answer has always been “I don’t know.” I guess in my mind, I can’t imagine why anyone would care what I was doing or thinking at any particular moment. But if you think it would be interesting to have an idea of what I am working on or doing, maybe I’ll start. Leave your thoughts in the comment section.

I will be producing more content here all weekend long. I hope you have a good one.

Congressman Massa is holding his second town hall meeting in the district tonight.  WROC-TV is rumored to be there, so if you are passionate on this issue, and you can go, please do so.  I cannot be there tonight, but by now you guys know what needs to be said.  This may also be the first opportunity to learn about the new legislation he is proposing.  Feel free to report back on the meeting and any links to any uploaded video and we’ll get them up over the weekend.

Friday, 4/10/09 7:30-9:00 pm
Henrietta Fire Dept Training Center
60 Erie Station Road Extension (corner of E. River Road)
Henrietta, NY 14586