Thanks to one of our readers who also happens to be a TWC employee, here is the latest update to Charter/Spectrum’s list of first year promotions, taking effect in California and Texas (9/20) this month.

We expect it will be rolling out to other TWC and BH regions over the next few months. Unless you are compelled to change packages, if you are on a current Time Warner Cable or Bright House promotion or retention deal, we recommend you keep it until it expires. You can then enroll in one of these promotions, almost certainly at these prices, extending the length of your savings.

We expect Charter’s retention department to deliver a tougher line on retention packages and promotions than Time Warner Cable gave customers. Once these promotional prices expire, your rates will step up each year for two years thereafter until you reach the “rack rate” — Charter’s regular pricing. Your ability to secure new customer pricing again will probably require you to bounce between providers or cancel/come back as a new customer. I am told by long-time Charter customers that Charter’s retention prices are usually not as good as new customer pricing.

We have some corrections to our earlier coverage on this last month: broadband-only customers will pay a promotional rate of $39.99 a month for the first year for 60Mbps service, $79.99 a month for 100Mbps service (100Mbps or 300Mbps in existing TWC Maxx territories), not the $60/99 rack rate. We have received word Earthlink will continue to be another option for customers to consider for broadband service, which can be a good way to secure extended promotional pricing. Another change: phone service is now an extra $10 a month, not $20, as part of a triple play package. We notice Charter only lists free calling to U.S. numbers on this sheet. Time Warner Cable includes free calls to Canada, Mexico, China, Hong Kong, India, The EU, Norway and U.S. territories. We are unsure if this represents an omission or a downgrade. Also, the Wi-Fi fee is waived for Spectrum Ultra, which corrects our earlier piece where we thought this fee would apply to both broadband packages. Multi-DVR service pricing is still confusing on this chart. We’ve heard Charter intends to ditch TWC’s Whole House DVR service and give subscribers the option of multiple standalone DVR units instead. DVR pricing is: $4.99 for each DVR box + an $11.99 DVR service fee (if you have only one DVR). If you want multiple DVRs, they are each $4.99 a month with an all-inclusive monthly service fee of $19.99, regardless of how many extra DVR boxes you rent.

Obviously, we will be looking for money-saving opportunities for our readers once we get a better handle on Charter’s way of doing business.

Plan on downgrading your Rogers cable, phone or Internet service? Be ready for messages injected into your web browsing sessions by the cable company trying to win back your business.

Daryl Fritz from Toronto decided to cancel his Rogers’ home phone and television service and downgrade his Internet service. Fritz soon found this banner intruding on every web page he tried to visit:

Your decision to leave Rogers is not something we take lightly. We value your business and care about how happy you are with your Rogers experience, so we would like to extend a special offer* in the hope that you will reconsider your decision. Please call 1-855-410-7589 (M-F 9am-9pm/Sat 10am-6pm ET) before your service disconnects to let us know why you are thinking of leaving Rogers. We appreciate your time and consideration. Please click on the “X” in the top right hand corner to acknowledge that you have received this message.

*-Offer available for a limited time for the account indicated (non-transferable) and subject to change without notice.

The banner usually disappears after the customer acknowledges receiving it. Stop the Cap! has learned the number directs callers to Rogers’ customer retention department where customers are pitched special discounts to change their mind. The prices are comparable, if not better, than new customer promotions found on Rogers’ website. Rogers is far less annoying than Comcast is when it faces losing a customer. If a customer rejects the offer (or never calls in to hear one), they are not bothered any longer and the representative thanks them for their time.

Rogers retention offers are often extremely aggressively priced, especially if mentioning you are leaving for a competitor (especially Bell). Rogers reps can slash prices, put you on a high usage broadband plan at prices lower than what regular customers pay for slower speeds, waive usage caps for a few dollars more, lock in rates for up to eight years, and offer heavy discounts off almost everything.

One current example for cable television:

• 30% off basic cable ($28/mo instead of $40)
• TFC ($15/mo)
• NextBox 2.0 set-top (free) NextBox 3.0 ($2.50/mo)
• Digital Services Fee (eliminated)
• CRTC LPIF (it’s the government — $0.50/mo)

This can knock your Rogers cable bill down to $46/month before GST and other taxes.

Broadband customers can grab a 50% discount off plans like Hybrid Fibre 150 (GTA), normally $86 a month, but $43 on a retention plan. Customers get 150Mbps and 350GB of usage. If you don’t want a cap, demand a deal to remove it (it regularly costs $25/month extra for unlimited). The modem rental is included.

If you still want Rogers Home Phone, you are paying too much if it costs over $20 a month. Home Phone Favourites, including Call Display and one other calling feature of your choice is $15/month on retention. Add 500 long distance minutes for $5/month extra.

All three services combined should cost no more than about $104 a month before GST, which adds $13.52 in Ontario. Provincial taxes vary.

New Rogers customers can also get very aggressively priced deals. This week Rogers is selling 30/5Mbps Internet service (includes 270GB allowance and free modem) for $54.95. Regularly, it’s $61.99 with only a 70GB monthly usage allowance. That is still outrageously high by American standards, but isn’t bad for Rogers. New customers should call 1-800-605-6678 to ask about current offers.

Nearly two million people have listened to the Comcast customer service call from hell since it went viral earlier this week.

Comcast quickly decided it was best to apologize:

We are very embarrassed by the way our employee spoke with Mr. Block and Ms. Belmont and are contacting them to personally apologize. The way in which our representative communicated with them is unacceptable and not consistent with how we train our customer service representatives. We are investigating this situation and will take quick action. While the overwhelming majority of our employees work very hard to do the right thing every day, we are using this very unfortunate experience to reinforce how important it is to always treat our customers with the utmost respect.

Setting aside all that, we decided to investigate why Mr. Block was willing to subject himself to 18 minutes of phone hell to cancel his service.

At one point, we learn he is switching to Astound, a provider of cable TV, broadband internet, and telephone services on the West Coast, serving over 325,000 residential and business customers within communities in the San Francisco Bay area. Astound is an overbuilder, which means it is one of those rare instances where Comcast faces head to head competition with a company that can deliver more than DSL.

Although Comcast’s rep swore Comcast had the fastest Internet speeds (it doesn’t) and can deliver maximum savings (also wrong), it turns out Astound offers both cheaper and faster Internet service. We’d probably switch too, although we wish Astound would dump its 1TB monthly usage cap. How many customers even come close to that isn’t known, but it is likely under 1%, which makes us wonder why they bother with a cap at all?

We collected pricing information from both Astound and Comcast’s websites and here is what we found:

• Astound: 110Mbps for $65 promo, $80 regular;
• Comcast: 105Mbps for $90 promo, $115 regular. (fixed link!)

Stop the Cap! will include this incident in our formal filings with the FCC and New York State Public Service Commission in opposition to the merger of Time Warner Cable and Comcast. Comcast customers tell us Mr. Block’s experiences, although extreme, are not uncommon when dealing with Comcast’s customer retention department.

Is your promotion with AT&T U-verse coming to an end? Are you actually paying regular price for Internet, phone, or television service? Why?

“AT&T will do whatever we can to keep your business,” an AT&T customer retention specialist tells Stop the Cap! “If you seem serious about canceling service by quoting us rates from one of our competitors, we will give you an even better deal to stay with us with faster speeds and a lower price.”

AT&T has been attempting to improve its “promotional churn” numbers — the percentage of customers who switch to AT&T U-verse with a special deal only to cancel after the promotion ends. So far, it seems to be working, especially in the Midwest where AT&T’s pricing has been so aggressive, Time Warner Cable admitted it has had trouble keeping customers and winning former ones back.

Providers are especially vulnerable when promotional packages expire and rates reset to the regular retail price, often $30-80 or more a month, depending on the number of services. When the first bill reflecting non-promotional pricing arrives, a lot of customers with bill shock consider their options and some leave for a better offer elsewhere.

Time Warner Cable handles this by offering a less generous, follow-up promotion when the original one expires. AT&T usually waits until customers try to cancel service before a “customer retention” specialist goes to work to save the account.

An AT&T customer service representative working in AT&T’s customer retention department talked with Stop the Cap! this week about AT&T’s current pricing and promotions, but requested anonymity because she was not authorized to speak with the media.

“When a customer calls in and asks to cancel service, those calls are automatically passed on to our department to change the customer’s mind,” says our source. “We take calls of all kinds including profanity-laced, ‘one-way’ conversations from angry customers upset about poor service, those fishing for a better deal, and those that have already set up an installation appointment with a competitor.”

“We are trained to resolve customer concerns, so the guy who loses U-verse service during Sunday football doesn’t need a lower rate, just a serious effort to stop those outages from repeating,” says our source. “We’re worried the most about customers who can quote our competitor’s best promotional offer and are prepared to switch immediately. These customers are clearly price shopping so we have to find ways to lower our price, improve our service, or a combination of both or the customer will walk.”

With U-verse still being a relatively new product, AT&T invests a considerable amount of money to provision service to new customers. To recoup that investment, AT&T needs customers to maintain service for at least a few years. If a customer cancels as soon as their promotion expires, AT&T will lose part of that investment.

“It is actually better for us to upgrade your service and even cut your price than to lose your business, so we do exactly that,” our source says. “That is why our best retention offers are not available to new customers. That is actually a good thing in my view because we’re treating our current customers better than those who are not,” she adds.

Stop the Cap! has assembled a guide to help current AT&T U-verse customers snag one of these retention deals and save. However, please be aware your results can vary based on a number of factors including: your past payment history (chronic late-payers will not qualify for the best offers), the level of competition in your area, the customer service agent you are dealing with, and the perceived seriousness of your threat to cancel service.

We have focused most of our attention on the broadband part of U-verse, but those with bundled service can also get some attractive retention deals.

“It doesn’t hurt to ask even if you are still on a contract,” says our source. “Although we won’t give contract customers the best deals, we can often offer a free speed upgrade through the customer retention department.”

What about U-verse’s 250GB usage cap?

“It’s not enforced in most areas and I’ve never seen a customer call to cancel because they had overage fees on their bill,” says our source. “If they did, I’m sure we’d just credit them. I don’t see us losing a customer over this.”

Getting Prepared

You will be calling AT&T. Do not bother using their online chat support, e-mail, or snail mail to ask for a better deal. You will not get one. AT&T’s approach to customer retention requires a specially trained representative to speak with the customer by phone.

Visit the website(s) of the cable company and any other competitors serving your area. You will need to have specific pricing and service details handy when asking AT&T for a better deal. “Don’t make it up, because we will likely take a look at the same information you found and point out any fine print that might make a competitor’s deal less attractive,” says our source. “We are asked to document these details in the notes we place on your account. These are available to any other representative that looks at your account.”

Think about what is most important to you, upgraded service for the same price or a lower bill. The representative will have a few different retention offers to choose from, and in some cases a supervisor may need to authorize the better-priced deals. Most will require a one-year term contract.

Making the Call

A lot of customers want a better deal but don’t want to feel stressed out asking for one. Don’t worry. In most cases the entire process will take less than 15 minutes. But it helps if you can call when you are free of distractions or pressured for time. Hold times might vary and in some cases a less-than-helpful representative might require you to start negotiations over with someone else.

Have paper and pen ready to take notes. You will want to write down the name and extension of the representative and details about the types of retention plans being offered, especially if AT&T manages to ‘lose the paperwork.’

Do -not- call AT&T’s regular customer service number. Instead, call 1-800-288-2020. You will be prompted to select your state, asked for the phone number associated with your account, and offered a menu of choices to proceed. You need to say or select the option to “cancel service.” This will route you directly to a customer retention specialist.

Making Your Case

You: I am calling to cancel my U-verse service. I have been offered a better deal with the cable company.

AT&T: Really? We don’t want to lose you as a customer so let me pull up your account. Can you tell me what our competitor is offering?

At this point, you want to quote the deal you found on the competitor’s website and quote the offer. Let the representative know you are switching because of the price and/or features.

An alternative approach that has also proven effective:

You: I just received an offer from my cable company that has made me seriously consider switching but I wanted to reach out to AT&T to see what you could do to keep my business. I’d like to learn what promotions I might qualify for.

AT&T: Let me check. Tell me what the competitor is offering you.

You: (Describing the offer) There are certain things I like about the offer from the cable company but I could be persuaded to stay with U-verse. I am just concerned because for the amount you charge for broadband service, I can get faster speed at a lower price with the cable company. Are there any promotions that can boost my speed and offer me a better deal?

When the representative comes back on the line, they will usually offer a small discount or service credit ranging from $5-10. But better deals come to those who hold out.

You: My neighbor is getting a better deal than that. He received a speed upgrade and is paying something close to half the regular price for the next year. Is there anything like that available?

AT&T: Let me check. Yes there is, but I will need to speak to my manager.

“When we put you on hold to ‘speak to a manager’ this usually means we are putting notes on the account to justify the higher value retention deal we are about to offer,” says our source. “But if something unusual comes up, like a one-time credit or waiving an equipment fee, we may need a supervisor’s approval.”

Stop the Cap! has verified some valid U-verse retention deals that are commonly available throughout the United States. In some highly competitive areas, these deals are often sweetened with a $100 service credit instantly applied to your bill. You can always ask. Although AT&T might offer some of these for six months, most can be extended to 12 months upon request. Be ready to commit to AT&T for the next year to avoid any early termination penalties in the typical 12 month term contract that comes with these offers.

It is important to be flexible and don’t fixate on any particular element in an offer. A representative may not be able to waive surcharges like a modem rental fee (buy your own) or a Local TV Surcharge, but they can usually find a deal that more than compensates you with a much-reduced rate.

If the representative seems reluctant to extend an offer to you, thank him or her for their time and call back and speak with someone else. Some AT&T representatives are more helpful than others.

Frequently Seen U-verse Promotions

• Broadband-only service: 3Mbps for $14.95/mo, 6Mbps for $23, 12Mbps for $25, 18Mbps for $28, or 24Mbps for $33 (Buying your own modem avoids rental fees but if you plan to rent, ask if there are any promotions that reduce or waive the fee);
• Bundled TV/Internet Service:  The most commonly available offers bundle 18Mbps broadband with U300 service at prices that range from $101-103, although $104/month can upgrade you to 24Mbps with U300 in certain parts of Florida. (1-yr contract)

“We really aren’t routinely offering many deals for speeds above 24Mbps because too many customers don’t qualify for faster service,” says our source. “Offering something they can’t get only further disappoints them, which is something we prefer to avoid.”

Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt considers value conscious customers a nuisance, so much so the company has changed its promotions to make them less attractive to ‘big bang for the buck’-discount hunters.

Speaking at the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Global Telecom & Media Conference in London, Britt said the company had to beef up its in-house customer retention specialists to try and keep frugal customers who signed up for aggressive triple-play promotions in the last two years that the company now wants to reset to a higher price.

“It’s easy to generate a lot more customers by being very aggressive on price,” Britt said. “It isn’t clear that those customers are profitable. They tend to be lower income — people who tend to rent as opposed to own their dwelling unit. They move a lot and sometimes they don’t pay very well. The real trick is to create the optimum profitability.”

“Going back to fourth quarter of 2011, we pushed too hard on volume and we had very aggressive offers in the marketplace,” Britt explained. “These typically stepped up in price after a year and we kept those offers in place through most of 2012. So we got a lot of customers – particularly voice customers. That seemed good at the time. What we found is as we try to step them up to higher prices, that they are not very sticky. They have worse/bad pay characteristics than our average customers. So that’s all been a problem. Quite frankly we did not prepare our retention centers for the volume of people who are in this. We’ve changed our offers so they are less rich and we’ve stood up and enhanced our retention centers.”

As a result of the changes, Time Warner Cable lost more voice customers than it gained for the first time. That does not bother Britt, who sees selling faster broadband to customers more profitable than discounting phone service to keep phone customer numbers up.

Britt: The Sale is Over

Chief operating officer Rob Marcus told investors this week the company was hiring more in-house customer service representatives in the retention department to keep customers from defecting after their promotional price expires. Time Warner used to outsource many of those last-ditch retention calls, but has now staffed at least 500 new customer service representatives in four retention centers around the country. At least 400 additional hires are expected by the end of the year.

“What that enables us to do is route a greater portion of calls from customers likely to disconnect to these specialists, as opposed to sending them to either our care queue or outsourced reps who we think are less effective at handling those kinds of calls,” Marcus said.

Britt said the biggest segment of customers threatening to disconnect are TV customers who can no longer afford the cable package due to increasing programming costs. Britt does not believe online video cord-cutting is a major threat.