Do they honestly think we’re that stupid?

The sudden announcement by the cable monopoly known as Time Warner to not cancel–but postpone its Road Runner internet metering/pricing scheme–is not a victory by any means. If anything, this company ought to be downright ashamed at insulting the intelligence of its Piedmont Triad customer base.

The Triad area of central North Carolina stretches into a 12-county area engulfing mid-size metros of Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem, about an hour from Charlotte and Raleigh, respectively. And while this area is not a tech-heavy base, Time Warner, unfortunately, has a cable monopoly here. AT&T and Clearwire are other providers of Internet service, but are not as big players here as Time Warner.

And while we’re an area that’s been in major transition even before the recession started (with a dwindling economic base, double-digit unemployment and a huge brain-drain), for this company to pull the stunt it attempted to pull off was laughable.

Its customer base was furious, and the outrage it caused in this area was enormous.

But company officials still believes tiered pricing is the best option for customers:

Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Officer Glenn Britt said, “It is clear from the public response over the last two weeks that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about our plans to roll out additional tests on consumption based billing. As a result, we will not proceed with implementation of additional tests until further consultation with our customers and other interested parties, ensuring that community needs are being met. While we continue to believe that consumption based billing may be the best pricing plan for consumers, we want to do everything we can to inform our customers of our plans and have the benefit of their views as part of our testing process.”

The (Greensboro) News-Record quoted Time Warner spokeswoman Melissa Buscher:

“It’s clear from the response we’ve gotten from Greensboro and other areas that there’s a lot of misinformation out there,” Buscher said. “What we heard is no one knows what their usage is.”

To solve that issue, Time Warner is developing ways to help explain the fee structure and educate customers on their usage. Buscher said the company is working on a Web site that customers could go to that would monitor their Internet usage, similar to some utility company sites.

Do you think your Triad customer base is that “backwoods” and uneducated, Melissa? Are we that stupid?

For a company that just announced big losses and layoffs in its core cable television business not long ago, one would think that perception, customer service and respect would be a priority. Sadly, that didn’t happen. And as a commenter said, it was Time Warner that was just educated by its customer base — now a dwindling customer base.

It is also saying a lot when it takes a U.S. Senator from NEW YORK to open his mouth for something to get done in North Carolina. The leadership (and response) in North Carolina to this issue was horribly pathetic; the response among our local representatives was equally paltry.

And for this company to say it will postpone its plans tells us that they plan to roll it out once again, eventually. What few customers this company has left by that time will be ready…to bolt. My household is already looking at what few options there are to shelve (using their words) Time Warner in favor of another provider.

What’s needed? Competition. Plain and simple. Our customer base is not stupid, but this issue squarely points out that our local leadership needs to get wise and get techno-savvy very quickly.

Erik Huey is a local community activist, a local public education and local media analyst and a communications/political strategist residing in south Greensboro. Huey is a former journalist for the High Point Enterprise and Las Vegas Review-Journal newspapers, a former reporter for various airline business trade publications in Washington, DC, and a one-time Guilford Co. Board of Education candidate in 2008.  Huey now runs Triad Media Watch, which monitors the media across the Triad.

Road Runner service is once again intermittent here at StoptheCap! headquarters.  After another round with the National Help Desk, who got Tier 3 local Road Runner support on the phone, we’re hearing that once again we have about 50% packet loss.  The tier three people are monitoring the connection during the day — the last time this happened it seemed to improve as the day wore on.  A service call is scheduled for tomorrow morning, but might occur sooner.  The support people are conducting themselves professionally and have expressed concern for our problems, which is appreciated.  They are assigning a senior technician to our case.

Frontier has two service trucks out here beginning work on our DSL problems, so it’s going to be an interesting day. If Time Warner dispatches repair crews here early, then I’ll put a cooler with soda out back and they can share with the Frontier people.

Just another Manic Service Call Monday for us….

News 14 Carolina (Time Warner State Television) is back with another example of journalism excellence… if you lived in North Korea.  On News 14, there is always time for Melissa Buscher, Time Warner spokeswoman, to expand on her views about Time Warner shelving their trial in this second spectacularly one-sided piece.  Ms. Anchor is only too happy to volunteer that it was just like a cell phone plan (that nobody wanted).

I’d ask if anyone watching this, and other related pieces that include Time Warner officials, if it sounds like this tiered pricing plan is “shelved” or merely “postponed” until the Time Warner Re-Education Summer Camps open.

No customers are heard from, nor a single confirmation that the plan itself was radically unpopular with customers.  The Time Warner listening tour has never included them in the first place, so consistency is at least something you have to hand these people.

Wow….  “What displeasure with Time Warner Five Year Internet Plan to save comrades money who toil in the fields instead of using Interwebs?”

KBTV Beaumont broke the bad news to its viewers that despite the temporary reprieve in other Time Warner cities across the country, Beaumont was still saddled with the same usage caps and tiered pricing they’ve been dealing with since last summer. Time Warner elected to continue the “experiment” in rationing Internet service despite Sen. Charles Schumer’s announcement that the “experiment” was over.

KBTV produced this segment as part of an afternoon news roundup for April 16, 2009.  The Time Warner segment appears last.

[Updated 11:04pm EDT]