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Bill Shock
Time Warner Cable’s fastest broadband speeds come to those willing to pay a stiff installation fee — $67.98, covering a required in-home installation.
Stop the Cap! readers have been sharing their experiences calling Time Warner to set up installation appointments for the DOCSIS 3 cable modem swap required to obtain the cable company’s top broadband speeds — 30/5 and 50/5Mbps.
Although one reader was quoted $29.99, the majority are sharing their surprise at a stiff $68 fee just to install the faster Internet experience they crave.
“I’d rather just swing by one of their stores and pick up the modem and install it myself,” writes Jon from Perinton, N.Y. “All they are going to do is check the line — something they can do remotely — and hand me a new modem, and charge me half of my normal month’s bill for the effort.”
But it could be worse. One downstate customer shared his experience with an even higher install fee when DOCSIS 3 was introduced in metropolitan New York: $40.95 for the truck trip and a $50.00 wireless activation fee (the new modem was part of a wireless router) – take it or leave it.
Stop the Cap! called Time Warner Cable this morning and learned there is a way to a lower price – be a new Time Warner Cable customer. Those just signing up for cable, telephone, and DOCSIS 3 broadband service pay just $29.99 for installation of all three services, and we talked them down to $19.99 — the price charged to transfer a phone number to Time Warner’s “digital phone” service.
But they won’t budge on the $67 fee just to upgrade their existing Internet customers.
If you are still paying regular Time Warner prices, perhaps now is the time to cancel service and then return as a “new customer” under a price promotion, also scoring a dramatically lower installation fee in the process.
yep ; sort of a bummer they are charging $67.98 for RR Extreme or Wideband installation (at least in Webster, NY). I can’t believe they want to screw over their existing customers like this.
TWC in SC just agreed to provide the new router/modem for an install fee of $20. The kicker is the price of the internet service only went up $3 per month.
It may be because Austin, TX doesn’t have DOCSIS 3.0 fully rolled out (Extreme is only 20/2 here right now until “later this year”), but I was able to request that the ‘Truck Roll’ not happen and I just went to the local TWC and picked up a new cable modem. I was also quoted $39.99 for the service and not $67.98. My beef was that there wasn’t just a cable modem option, but they force a modem/wireless router combo on you. I’m not getting charged extra for it, but I had to go online and find the login information… Read more »
Coming from AT&T, they charged me a $42 installation fee but that was only because I was getting Internet, 30/5 Wideband, and not a TV package. If I got a package, the installation would of been free,
Really? I ordered the RR Extreme in Perinton, NY last week and they didn’t charge me anything for a truck roll, just the monthly fee. It’s being installed Wednesday.
Watch that bill, Lance. If it does show up, holler at them to take it off because they didn’t tell you.
Yeah, I signed up online. Says installation was free, but it wasn’t–they charged me anyway…I spent so many hours on the phone, but nobody has access to the receipt I was told to save/print after completing the online process, and so nobody was willing to believe me. After completely giving up, I decided to wait a bit for my first mailed bill to show up, and then take all the documents to a TWC store location. I made one last call to TWC before that and FINALLY spoke to a normal person, who agreed that I should only pay for… Read more »
I ordered Road Runner Extreme today and because the rep had difficulty finding the order code, he waived my installation fee and extended my promotional rate. My new monthly charge will be about $63/Month for 30 Meg down and 5 Meg up and includes my two public IP addresses as well.
I am only seeing 12 down post installation on a regular basis. TWC has identified the issue is on their end… awaiting a resolution and service credits.
After numerous tech visits and support calls, mysteriously I started getting 30 down and 5 up. I am now awaiting the bill to ensure that my installation fee was waived as promised and that my service credits are as epxected.
Which speed test site(s) are you using? Did any TW techs make a return visit and, if so, did they have PCs capable of verifying the higher speeds?
I have used Time Warners, Frontiers, and Spekeasys speed test sites to verify speeds. I have had some repeat and some different techs visit. Some blamed it on my equiptment, others Time Warners head end. There were techs who were able to get 30 out of the modem on their laptops, and I was also able to get 30 on my equipment at that time.
The truck rolled for me last night in Perinton. I was the two techs’ first. (A third stopped but apparently just to bust chops.) Spent about an hour. Tested line, replaced some F connectors that they had previously crimped with compression connectors. Spent a lot of time on hold and then waiting for service to turn off new modem’s wireless networking (which was never accomplished). It was decided that it would be best to continue to use my existing router with wireless. Initial speed test with new modem was 12/1 which I commented seemed like my old Turbo speed. Techs… Read more »
What site did you use to test speed?
When I test on TW’s site, I’m seeing the 30 down number (http://speedtest.nyroc.rr.com/), but when I test at speakeasy or other sites, I’m only seeing around 12mbps.
Techs primarily test within TW’s network. Rochester & Syracuse. TW NE has been running lows 20s/5.
One of the techs did a a Canadian test and got lows 20s too. He though that was pretty good for Canada since he says he does a lot of gaming and normally they’re pretty slow.
I get about 12-20/4-5 on two computers just now when using speakeasy.
Are you happy with the Extreme service so far?
My experience has been awful. I’m seeing slower speeds than my old regular service, half loaded web sites, complete stalls.
I’ve changed the DNS servers on my individual PC to OpenDNS to try to improve things. The new cable modem has the DNS servers hard coded. It didn’t help much, if at all.
I’ve basically paid $20 extra a month for slower internet.
I’m going to be calling TW soon to see what, if anything, can be done. If nothing, I’m moving back down.
This seems to be a common refrain in other cities where the service has been introduced until they get the bugs worked out. I abandoned RR’s DNS servers forever ago. Remember Google offers theirs at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. It’s not bad.
The hard coding issue is above my pay grade.
did you try taking off flood protection in the motorola router settings?
I called TW this evening, and they changed the modem into Bridge mode. I then setup my own router to dish out DHCP addresses and my own DNS.
The service is now perfect…fast and responsive.