SubscribeTime Warner Cable’s Rochester, New York division has been playing hardball in Frontier Communications’ largest metropolitan service area for years, running ads that attack Frontier’s term contracts, inconsistent broadband speeds, hidden “extras”, and the fact customers might sign a contract today and be dissatisfied with the service tomorrow.
This morning, Time Warner Cable upped the ante with new ads, telling Frontier’s Rochester area customers who would prefer phone or broadband service from the cable company that they’ll cover up to $200 in fees Frontier charges for exiting a term contract early.
[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/TW-Frontier Ad War 6-22-09.flv[/flv]
There is, of course, the fine print:
Offer expires 6/26/09. Up to $200 one-time credit available to current Frontier phone and/or DSL customers in a contract with a disconnect penalty who provide their Frontier bill evidencing early disconnect charge. Credit will be applied to Time Warner Cable account after customer is installed with Digital Phone Nationwide and/or Road Runner Standard Service and within two weeks after customer supplies copy of Frontier bill to TWC showing the applicable cancellation penalty. Credit will be equal to the amount of the early disconnect charge, not to exceed $200. One credit per qualified household. Customer must keep TWC services for a minimum of 12 months or the up to $200 credit will be charged back to their TWC account.
What Time Warner Cable has just effectively done is to get the subscriber out of one term contract with Frontier, and into another… with them.
It’s always “caveat emptor” in these situations. Is anyone here honestly surprised that TWC would employ a minimum length of service instead of just handing out $200 checks to people to leave Frontier for 2 weeks and then go back $155 richer? When it comes to service providers and car dealers you always have to look for the catch (usually found in the fine print). I feel pity for anyone who actually does this switch only to discover they’re locked into a 12 month contract with TWC during which time they may institute CBB and end up costing those users… Read more »
I’ve seen this happen with Time Warner, Cablevision, and Comcast against Verizon’s FiOS as well. It’s not a surprise to see this happening one bit.
I wonder if this was a way to get people to come back to TW. This is the first time that TW has done a contract in the Rochester area that I am aware of.
This really makes me wonder how much business they lost with their cap announcement in this area, and knowing that people signed a 1 or 2 year agreement with Frontier.
And so they get their Frontier customers back, and then drop the CBB like the atomic bomb and now consumers are not only responsible for the $200 Frontier termination fee, but TWC’s termination fees also! Gee, I think the Cable Company likes this double whammies!
People, get this right. Time Warner does NOT charge termination fees.
Yes they do! If you are in a contract that states you have a termination fee for cancelling, then there is a termination fee. I was very specific when I cancelled my TW service and asked if I was under any contract with them, the customer service person had to look it up to make sure.
It depends on the service area, Andrew. Many TWC service areas do have “price protection agreements” with early termination fees. Rochester is not one of them, except if you do take advantage of this particular offer, do not remain a customer in good standing for one year, the credit you initially received will be charged back to your account. Frankly, it would be the leftover Frontier penalty you’d be stuck back with in this case.
Guess its time for frontier to ditch their term contract concept. Only people that hate it worse are cell phone users.
“Stay because you want to… Not because you have to.”
Blatant false advertising. If you break your contract with TWC, not only will you be charged the $200 Frontier credit, but will have to pay TWC’s early termination fee as well. This isn’t “freeing yourself” from anything….just compounding the penalties.
TWC does not have early termination fees (or contracts), and hasn’t for as long as I’ve known about them. This was very handy when I canceled by RoadRunner and Digital Cable service and switched to OTA and DSL when I heard they were planning on instituting caps. For that matter, you can get DSL without a contract from Frontier, but you’ll pay more for it (I opted for a contract). What Time Warner is doing here makes sense, and its not really a contract. Basically they’ll pay your disconnect fee if you keep them for a year. This is nothing… Read more »
I understand their rationale for doing this and don’t really have a major problem with it, as long as it’s well disclosed to consumers up front. It’s designed to keep someone from jumping to TW on some promotion and then jumping back to Frontier to score another one of their new customer promotions. TW probably shouldn’t pay for a customer’s ETF if that customer jumps ship on them straight away. Customers will ping pong back and forth riding on new customer promotions, and this is designed to keep TWC from eating $200 for a customer who will jump back to… Read more »
> This would be a better deal if the one year commitment was “12 months, or the remaining number of months left on your Frontier contract, whichever is less.” Well, of course then you could be switching to them with only a month left on your contract. Then you end up paying 1 month of TW’s fee instead of $200 to Frontier. I can see someone doing that if they were moving. It’s primarily a gimmick, with enough protection that they won’t lose money on it. I can’t see someone switching to TW just for this though, they probably want… Read more »
Well I think that this is a very fair offer. The bottom line is that TW has the best internet service in town and easier to understand bills ! LOL.
Mazakman: Yes they are the better option right now so I saved your
comment in a text file and in fun if they do cap im going to ask you
about how you feel then.
That will be fine Uncle Ken. If I was in an agreement right now with Frontier and wanted to get out…I would jump at this offer. As I have documented elsewhere… Frontier cannot compete with RR in this area if you compare the fees and taxes associated with their services. If RR caps, then guess what… we still may choose them as our provider and bite the bullet. If and when that happens, I shall compare the relative offerings and cost of each and then decide who to go with.
If TWC institutes caps that imact my bottom line (i.e. it costs me more for the same or lower level of service) then I will seriously consider working with who I have to go strongly push for a private/public municipal broadband partnership. I say private/public in order to get around the opposition to a public option “run by the government”. I think it would be very cool to start a non-profit broadband service working in partnership with the city of Rochester to compete with Time Warner at cost. The startup capital would need to be raised without the use of… Read more »
Why do the caps have to hurt your bottom line before you support something wonderful like this? Isn’t the whole idea of caps/anti-net-neutrality enough motivation?
Because quite frankly it would be the straw the breaks the proverbial camel’s back. I don’t have a lot of time or money to put into an endeavor like this, but caps would fundamentally impact my life and my routine (I am *very* dependent on Internet access to pay bills, keep in touch with family and friends, and generally unwind). If I were retired and/or had a lot of time and money for this, then yes I’d probably start it right away. Necessity is the mother of invention as it’s said (can I fit any more cliches into this?). But… Read more »
I recently switched to DSL. I have been having some troubles with the lines (I previously had no phone service, the line was actually bad!), but aside from that, this has been my experience: * I was paying $50/month to TW (I don’t have cable TV, and I had standard RR), I’m paying frontier $41.36 * The extra fees on both seem comparable, though they should really advertise that it’s $40, not $35. TW includes the modem charge in their advertised price (though it is separate on the bill). * I have a 3MB down/400KB up connection. Compared to my… Read more »