The protest against Time Warner in Rochester on April 18th attracted approximately 30 people, which was significant for an event many people assumed was canceled after Time Warner shelved their cap program temporarily 48 hours earlier.  But the point needed to be made that many people in our community don’t believe Time Warner has actually scrapped anything.  They’ll be back with the same kind of tiering program by the fall, trying to convince people that paying a lot more for the same thing is a good idea.

The Triad protestors were smaller in number, but still effectively made the news on several stations in the area.

Time Warner’s latest statement indicated the “company was actively working on [pricing] that would meet everyone’s needs.”  Of course, they already have a range of packages which meet the overwhelming majority of customers’ needs.  The problem is, light users aren’t being sold Road Runner Lite, which is available and less expensive than standard Road Runner service.  Another safe bet is asking people to pay triple the price they pay now for their existing service is not meeting anyone’s needs, except the bean counters at Time Warner headquarters.

Amusing in some of the informality, such as when the anchor asked people to call her up and explain what a “gigabyte was.”  Many customers are in the same position, not having a clue.  The sad part of this, of course, is that Time Warner wants to force them to learn, and had punitive tiers with substantial overlimit fees to spank those who didn’t learn enough.  It’s a plan designed to make you fear how much you are using, with the hope that you will use substantially less to avoid going over your “ration” for the month. April 18, 2009

More from the Re-Education camp.  They want to take some time and let us understand their plans, so that we can reject them out of hand all over again later this year.  Except next time, the protests and push back will be even greater than it was this spring.  That’s because we’ll also be educating customers about what tiered pricing will mean for their bill, both now and into the expansive future for the Internet.  Time Warner forgets Rochester Telephone’s disastrous attempt to get rid of flat rate home phone calling back in the 1970s and the firestorm that caused.  This is going to become more or less the same thing.  Even people without computers who don’t understand the Internet do understand one thing: they don’t trust Time Warner as far as they can throw them.  The company already forces channels on customers they don’t want, but have to pay for, and they also know this universal fact of life: cable bills always go up, never down.

So when Time Warner comes a’knocking and says they have a plan to save you money, people will slam the door in their face. Their claims that “they” found a lot of customers could “right-size” their plans when people realized they weren’t using that much is amusing, especially in Rochester where you can find the Road Runner Lite plan on the back of milk cartons bannered “Missing.”  That’s because the company makes it next to impossible for those light users to find the Road Runner Lite plan they already offer.  And when customers learn they can save money and never fear paying overlimit fees on their Internet under the existing plan, you can be sure they won’t be snake oiled into accepting the new one that has overlimit penalties that would make Bank of America blush.

Frontier isn’t fooled either.  Ann Burr, Chairman and General Manager, Frontier Communications of Rochester, might have a problem saying “inconsistency,” but her company is making hay out of the PR nightmare Time Warner put itself in, signing up new customers.

Fun Trivia: Ann Burr should know.  She used to be president of Time Warner’s Rochester division!

“We have a listening process,” says Time Warner spokeswoman Robin Wolfgang.  Yes, and here it is — Customer: “I want to keep the same plan I have right now and not pay three times more for the exact same Internet service I have today.”  Time Warner: “No.”  That about sums it up.

‘There is no reason to protest — we’re listening,’ says Time Warner, according to this report.  The company was responding to planned protests which continued despite the decision by Time Warner to temporarily shelve usage caps and tiered pricing.  That’s because most of those doing the protesting don’t believe for a second that Time Warner is listening to anyone but themselves.  Customers overwhelmingly rejected the “experiment” force-fed on people in four cities, but the company has never been willing to admit it was wrong, and give up on the idea for good.

A long history of endless rate increases, forcing people to pay for channels they don’t want, and a general sense of mistrust has become near-automatic for even under-informed customers.  But when we learn the facts about just how profitable Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner service is, they get hoppin’ mad.

I found it interesting WGHP also mentioned the protests in Rochester.  Melissa is here at least admitting, for the first time, they underestimated the impact of the “experiment.”  They also misunderstand the fact almost nobody wants this.  One of the news outlets needs to bring up the fact that Road Runner Lite is already available for those light users at a substantial discount, without ever worrying about overlimit fees under the tiered rate system they temporarily shelved.

The take-away message from this 30 second report is the confirmation that “thousands” of customers protested the cap experiment program.  We had not heard any actual numbers about how many people were in contact with Time Warner about this ordeal, but now we do. It goes into our library.