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Another rate increase letter from Time Warner Cable (click to enlarge)
For the second time in a year, Time Warner Cable is jacking up the rates on its Road Runner broadband service for residents in western New York.
Stop the Cap! reader Patrick in Rochester sent word and a screen image of a letter he received notifying him Time Warner Cable was raising the price on standalone Road Runner service to $54.95 a month, effective September 1st. Patrick, and other customers who are only interested in getting broadband service from the cable company, were paying just under $45 a month for Road Runner standalone service in early 2009. Today, standalone service runs $49.99 a month, but the cable company is back looking for another $5 a month starting this fall.
July 30, 2010
Dear Road Runner Customer,
We are writing to inform you that effective September 1, 2010, we will be increasing the price of our Road Runner High-Speed Internet product from $49.99 to $54.95 per month for all Road Runner Standard only customers.
If you are currently receiving Road Runner High-Speed Internet products at a discounted rate, your current discounted rate will continue until the term of your promotion is complete. Your rate will increase to the new retail rate noted above or the effective retail rates at that time.
This rate will also apply as of September 1, 2010 for those customers with two separate Time Warner Cable accounts at the same address. Please contact us if you’d like to combine these accounts.
Keep in mind there are many packages available allowing you to bundle our video and phone products together with your Road Runner High-Speed Internet for substantial savings….
Time Warner Cable, like many cable providers, wants to discourage customers from taking only one of its products, so it gradually increases prices to drive customers to its “better value” bundled services. As for broadband, Time Warner Cable executives have made it clear they can raise prices whenever they want.
Landel Hobbs, Chief Operating Officer for Time Warner Cable, told investors this past February consumers love their Road Runner service.
“Consumers like it so much that we have the ability to increase pricing around high-speed data,” Hobbs said.
At $55 a month, standalone Road Runner becomes increasingly difficult to justify for many consumers, but for residents in cities like Rochester, the only alternative is far slower DSL service from Frontier Communications, complete with its 5GB monthly usage allowance.
However, you can leap off the Time Warner Rate Increase Railroad by switching to Earthlink, which is running a promotion for six months of 10Mbps service for $29.95 per month. Earthlink service is indistinguishable from Road Runner, except Earthlink speeds do not benefit from “Powerboost” — Time Warner Cable’s very temporary speed boost during the start of large file transfers. Most customers will prefer the boost they receive from keeping the $25 difference in price in their wallets — $150 over the life of the promotion. At the end of six months, you can hop back to Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner service on a new customer promotion at a significant discount. No modem exchange is required — the switch to and from Earthlink can be done over the phone. Billing is done by Time Warner Cable for both services. Just be aware your Road Runner e-mail account will be closed when you change providers.
You can escape Time Warner Cable's Road Runner rate hike by switching to Earthlink service at a substantial discount.
RR’s speeds went up…to 10 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up, and now so do their prices.
You can also switch to the new Clear WiMAX service if you’re okay getting lower speeds at a lower price.
Keep in mind though ClearWire’s WiMAX is subject to a data cap (5 GB/month I believe) – be sure you read the fine print before you sign up. Also due to the technology, I’ve found it doesn’t do a very good job of penetrating walls and coverage in Rochester is somewhat spotty. Clear’s WiMAX is the same service Sprint’s 4G offers through the HTC EVO Android phone and I’ve only seen 4G/WiMAX working in Henrietta near Best Buy and Greece. Everywhere else has been something of a let-down. At this point, I don’t consider ClearWire to be an alternative –… Read more »
The usage cap is for their 3G customers. The 4G network is uncapped. Ironically, Road Runner’s version of Clearwire has zero caps on either service! I think most of the reports I’ve seen from around this area note that 4G is a little hit or miss downtown, perhaps because of signal blockage issues, and much better in places like Henrietta. Most are seeing 4-6Mbps service when they do get a good signal. That’s certainly not bad — better than Frontier DSL ever gave me here in Brighton (3.1Mbps). I used to recommend Cricket for inexpensive wireless broadband, assuming you lived… Read more »
I went to Earthlink Cable and looked at their prices – $29.95 for up to 7Mpbs downstream. However I was not able to find info for upload speed. There was a live chat function so I asked the rep and he kept insisting that he needs my name, address, etc. I refused to give him that information. All I wanted to know was the upload speed and it’s such a freaky simple answer! So I told him that if you can’t answer a simple question, you’ve lost a potential customer. I’d rather pay more for RR than to do business… Read more »
Earthlink and Road Runner’s standard services offer identical speeds, which means both are 10/1. Earthlink uses offshore customer service agents and the speeds they sell vary market by market. Their website’s advertised 7/1 service is out of date and wrong for Rochester. That’s why they kept pestering you for your address — they need that to figure out which division of TWC you are in so he can talk about speed. In reality, all Earthlink is doing is reselling Time Warner Cable broadband and plastering their own name over the top, but they also have their own tech support, e-mail,… Read more »
Are you sure it’s wrong or just a different level of service? When I went to http://www.earthlink.net and entered my phone number and street address the pricing I got was the following: Cable Up to 7.0Mbps $29.95/mo. (First 6 Months*; $41.95/mo. thereafter) Satellite Up to 5.0Mbps As low as $59.99/mo. (depending on service plan selected) Cable Up to 10.0Mbps $51.9/mo. So it seems the 10/1 is $52/mo while the 7/? is $30/mo. If I’m reading this right, after the first 6 months the price of 7Mbps will go up to $42 and the price of 10/1 service is already more… Read more »
Here is an informative thread for those in Rochester who already switched to Earthlink about their experiences:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r24096977-RR-50-in-Rochester-NY
The standard Earthlink service speeds are 10/1. Their $51.90 service now offers 15/1 service and is equivalent to the Road Runner Turbo product, which really isn’t worth the price considering it only gives you an additional 5Mbps downstream speed boost and absolutely nothing on the up-side.
TWC seriously needs to reconfigure Turbo to offer 15/2 service in Rochester. Otherwise, why spend the extra ten bucks for a minimal speed boost?
I got this “notice” of ripoff last night. I will definitely look into this option.
At first glance I think Stop The Cap just saved my wife and I a bunch of money. The regular rate after the promotion is $42…still cheaper than RR. Is 7 Mbps fast enough to watch a movie through Netflix online or watch a missed TV show on the networks websites?
The speeds are identical to Road Runner. Standard Earthlink speed is 10/1 locally, despite what their website says.
You just saved my household about $230 over the next year. Thank you.
Consider making a donation. 🙂 When we finally run out of server space for all of the videos we host around here, we’ll probably be asking everyone to think about kicking a few dollars our way. Stop the Cap! is among the few websites fighting for better broadband that receives zero industry money and carries no advertising. Remember when your Earthlink promo expires, you should be able to inquire about switching back to RR on a new customer promo at around $30-35 a month for a year, depending on the level of service. Then you can always go back to… Read more »
Phillip, thank you for the detailed explanation! I needed to know the upload speed due to Video Relay Services and this information would be a great PA for deaf people in Rochester.
Not only am I calling an end to the rip off gravy train with TWC’s RR for my family, I am going to have my parent’s look into the switch as well. They’re retired and don’t even watch video online. It’s strictly simple web surfing, email and ebay for them. But they do have digital cable and might be bundled. I’ll have to look into it and see what they are paying to see if it’ll save them some money.
In Rochester, there are no term contracts so customers can change services anytime. If you threaten TWC with dropping service because of costs, they might extend special promotional bundle pricing for up to a year to convince you to stay. It cannot hurt to ask.
Road Runner Lite is also available for less, which is suitable for basic web browsing.
BTW, don’t bother calling Earthlink to make the switch because they can’t do it. Just call Time Warner and explain that you need to switch to Earthlink’s $29.95 intro offer. TW can take care of it – they don’t even need to send someone out to the house. We’ll see if TW gets my changeover done correctly. I think they’ll be getting a lot of practice. And expect that TW will tell you that unless you maintain TW $55/month service, you won’t be able to stream video. Based on Phil’s notes (above), I rather doubt that this will be an… Read more »
I’m not sure, but my new price (arrived in the mail yesterday) may be a little lower. I do however have the basic cable plan.
Heck, even with the current 10/1 plan from TW I regularly have to wait for Netflix or other video streams to buffer in the middle of a show.
I really wish that TW / Frontier would get their business in line with what the customers want. I for one would likely spend significantly more every month to get a fast and reliable net connection and a-la-carte video services.
I just got off the phone with TWC asking them a few questions about the rate increase. I went through the standard conversation with the first CSR I spoke with and eventually got to the point where I told her that I wanted to cancel my service before the rate increase took effect. She then passed me along to a retentions specialist who went through a similar spiel, offering me various packages for phone/cable/powerboost, along with my internet. I basically told him that I was satisfied with my level of service, it’s just that $55/month for internet is outrageous. It… Read more »
The $34.95 a month price is the standard retention deal and new promo for Road Runner-only service. You can get them down to $29.95 a month for Road Runner as part of a package promo. But it’s still better than the alternative all-new ridiculous standalone price.
756-5000 is the local TWC customer service number, but don’t be surprised if you talk to a rep in Buffalo and a lot of calls end up there.
I refuse to touch Earthlink, has Scientology Ties, the founder of Earthlink is a Scientologist, so ill stick with Time Warner for now even though the price increase sucks, and no way to frontier dsl they can shove it.
link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Dayton
I don’t see how TW, or any other Cable co to that matter, can keep doing these price increases so often. It is getting ridiculous to say the least. Eventually, something is going to have to give, and whether that includes government intervention on a monopoly, I guess we will have to see.
When TWC announced the cap last year, I was one among several of my friends who immediately switched to Earthlink. When my internet works fine, you get same speed as TWC. Although I bought 7 mbps, I’ve always had closer to 10 mbps. Upload is around 0.9. One thing I have to warn people is that Earthlink went one step beyond offshoring customer service. They simply don’t have any. You can try them, but if you have any problems with your internet, I suggest you simply switch back to RR. Their website “chat” is a joke, they ask for just… Read more »
Back during the usage cap nightmare in 2009, we almost hired a private investigator to find ANY management at Earthlink. We could not get in contact with any U.S. based Earthlink employees to ascertain if Time Warner’s then-cap proposal would also impact Earthlink. There simply wasn’t anyone around… ever.
The bad news is, we’ve since learned that Earthlink is imposing Comcast’s 250GB cap on Earthlink customers who are using Comcast cable lines to obtain service. That’s a safe precedent that any future usage limits visited on customers of Time Warner Cable would also impact Earthlink users.
I called and was actually told that the price for their service “is what it is”. Wow! That’s real customer service they have. I go the distinct impression the customer service rep I got didn’t give a sh!t about me calling to cancel my service. And he did nothing to try to retain my business at all. After telling me the price was what it was he said just bring your modem and power cord to an office store and they would cancel the service. I was really offended by the complete lack of customer service. I mean really come… Read more »
it’s not as easy as just calling earthlink and switching. I called earthlink and rep told me that I have to first cancel service with twc and then setup an account with them I can use the same equipment if I want but a tech would still have come out. I don’t know why I can’t just switch especially if i am using same equipment but thats what the rep told me I called twice and talked too two different reps just to be sure.
I just called Earthlink and got the same information. I called TWC before to try to get a price concession. They were only interested in pushing bundles.
Since I do not want to be without internet for the weekend I will call Sunday to TWC and cancel. Perhaps then they will offer the deal I want to keep me.
Your results may vary is definitely the way it works with retention deals. You should be asking to cancel service when you call and then they should send you to the retention department. Don’t accept their first offer if it doesn’t meet with what you need. Usually the more serious you are about dropping service, the better the deals get. I’d tell them you have narrowed down to two options — Switching to Earthlink — Accepting a matching/close deal on STANDALONE broadband service from TWC. Tell them you aren’t interested in phone or cable as part of a bundle. Others… Read more »
Like many here, by talking to customer retention (just call and say you want to “cancel services” when it prompts you) I was able to get an offer of $35/month for 10mbps or $40/month for 15mbps with powerboost. This is for 12 months and averages out to the same exact pricing as Earthlink.
I just got this notice as well and the Earthlink suggestion is a great idea since there is no change in equipment. I’m also a T-mobile customer and my first thought was to try their HSPA+ data service. I know Rochester already has the tower upgrades for HSPA+ so we can get at least 10-12Mbps down. (In Henrietta at least) I’m under the impression that the back-haul bandwidth is there or close to it. The only minor issue is the 5GB cap, but I expect their speeds to get better in the next 6 month so it could offset the… Read more »
I have never seen anyone locally report anything close to 10-12Mbps from T Mobile. Sprint’s 4G/Clearwire network is currently the fastest wireless broadband in Rochester, but coverage is not rock solid in the city and suburbs.
Both T-Mobile and Sprint have limited coverage south of the Thruway and in some suburbs, so check those coverage maps carefully.
If I switch my Internet to Earthlink will I still get the cable/internet combo price that TWC offers since Earthlink is TWC from what i’ve gathered?
I called on a week day and said I was going to cancel service and go to Earthlink. They gave me the current new customer price without even blinking an eye. They did tell me about and offer the bundled services which we didn’t want. Step 1.) Call on a weekday. Step 2.) As soon as the voice prompts ask you what you are calling about, say “Cancel Service”. Step 3.) Tell them you like the service but due to the price increase you’re going to switch to Earthlink. Step 4.) Reject any bundle offers. Step 5.) Decide if you… Read more »
Terri,
I followed your steps and was able to get promotional pricing for another year. Thanks so much. However, in the conversation, I was warrned that if I switch to Earthlink, I could not switch back from and be eligible promotional pricing (This was information was provided unprompted).
That is nonsense from a CSR that is probably tired of people finding away around their rate hikes. They think they are sly but so am I. If push comes to shove, when your six months is up, just put the service in your spouse’s name. Or, threaten to cancel the whole thing and call it a day. Their retention department will come around once you start jingling your car keys warning them you are on the way to the nearest cable store to drop off your equipment. Of course, if they didn’t game the pricing this way, people wouldn’t… Read more »
A big part of the reason they game the pricing that way is to keep retention rates high. It may seem more sensible to you or I to simply switch to the service that just gives you the cheapest price and doesn’t game you for it, but the research I’m finding now in my workplaces database indicates that Cx’s are easily fooled into thinking they’ve found a superior rate/package if they just get the ordinary retention package, and HAVE to call in for it. For certain values and markets, charging the average Cx more and keeping the fair pricing for… Read more »
I agree with Phillip it was either a CSR who was tired of people ‘trying to get a better deal” and fed you a line to keep you in line or you have threatened to leave before and they previously gave you a promotional “retention rate”. As I understand it, you cannot be considered a new customer with TWC in their Terms of Agreement more frequently than every two years. In the intervening year you can usually get a promotional rate by (politely) arguing that you are unwilling to pay their ever-increasing rates and they (usually) offer the retention rate… Read more »
Well now, it has been quite some time since I have been here. Sorry about that Phil.. RE: the Earthlink discussion, we switched to EL a few months ago and my current plan is that if they don’t offer me promo pricing for RR when I call them in November, I shall cancel all TW services and then have my wife become the owner of the account for this address. There are always offers at this site… http://www.roadrunneroffers.com/ Outside of that, I am totally happy with the Earthlink service. It is RR without the Powerboost gimmick. I get 10/1 speed… Read more »
I currently have Earthlink and have for the past 3 years. For some odd reason, my prices are now the same as TWC even though I have earthlink which is bs. My only other option is ATT which I hate as well, but at least there pricing $20 lower for about the same speed I’m getting. Honestly, something really needs to be done about these ISPs. They just keep jacking pricing up more and more and its bs, especially since the rest of the world has faster speed at a lower cost. I swear I’m about to move to Europe… Read more »