BANGOR, Maine — Some Time Warner cable subscribers in Maine are upset with the cable and Internet provider for its decision to begin charging customers a monthly fee to lease modems, which until now were included in the monthly service charges.
“I called Time Warner to let them know I was displeased they were doing this, considering how much we’re paying already,” said Mary Cady of Orono, a retired administrative assistant for the University of Maine’s dean of libraries and an Army reservist. “They sent us a postcard back along saying they were charging us. Seriously? You’re going to charge for that?”
The fee is causing a furor in other states as well. Two class action lawsuits have been filed in New York and New Jersey that allege the charging of a “modem lease fee” of $3.95 a month is not in line with the company’s own customer agreements and violates consumer fraud laws in New York and New Jersey.
Time Warner Cable spokesman Andrew Russell declined to address the allegations included in the class actions, saying, “We do not comment on any potential or current legal proceedings. The same is true for customer data and information.”
But Russell did address questions regarding reasons behind the introduction of the fee, which he said is one that many other Internet providers have already been charging.
“There is a cost to maintain and manage the equipment that provides all customers with the best Internet service possible. Time Warner Cable wants our customers to have the best experience with our services,” he said. “The monthly lease fee charge will allow us to continually service the equipment and further enhance our Internet services.”
The lawyers leading the class actions are looking to attract plaintiffs from all affected states, including Maine. The company has more than 15 million customers in 29 states, according to the press release announcing the suits.
Richard Roth, one of the lawyers, told the Bangor Daily News it appears Time Warner Cable customers in Maine will join the class actions. “We will be signing up Maine plaintiffs, as several have contacted us,” he said, though he declined to release names.
He said it was too early to tell how many plaintiffs might join the class actions.
The suits seek injunctions to stop Time Warner Cable, the country’s second largest cable provider, from billing customers to lease its modems, which would generate an estimated $40 million a month for the company and push the company’s annual revenue above the $20 billion mark, according to the press release.
“It’s a massive hi-tech consumer fraud accomplished by low-tech methods,” Steven L. Wittels, the lead lawyer for the class actions, said in a statement. “Send customers confusing notice of the fee in a junk mail postcard they’ll throw in the garbage, sock them with a $500 million … a year rate hike, then announce on your website that customer satisfaction is your number one priority. That’s some way to deliver satisfaction.”
In the meantime, there are other alternatives for Time Warner Cable customers, who were notified in those postcards that they could choose to purchase their own modem at retail stores and not be subject to the monthly fee.
That’s exactly what Cady, who bought one at a local Walmart, has done already.
“It cost me $60 and I figure it’ll pay for itself within a year,” said Cady, who has three adult children all now living away. “It irritates me when I call them and it goes to a message saying, ‘Thank you for choosing Time Warner.’ We don’t have a choice. You have whatever cable system your town chooses to provide service.”
While checking into other alternatives, Cady said she discovered she does have a choice, of sorts.
“We’ve been Time Warner customers since they first came to Orono, but I’m actually thinking about going with satellite or another service,” she said. “FairPoint has an arrangement with DirecTV for TV and Internet service.”
I miss direct tv
I remember when USSB and Direct TV first started out. I didn’t mind the two bills, it cost far less TWC (THINGS WILL CHANGE.)
I just did battle with Time Warner on the phone yesterday, and got absolutely no where. The gave me the same attitude as mentioned in the article the…ho..hum…pay your bill and shut up attutude.
I told them to go pound sand when the rates went up for us the last time for the cable. I need internet for my work, and they are the only one for that in my area. It does’t sound like they have learned much. Waiting for a choice of internet providers. Until then, Roku, and high speed internet.
That’s exactly what i am waiting for as well. Wife needs the wired connection for security for her work, or I’d be gone.
Schoonerdog, chances are Direct TV is available in your area and the Fairpoint internet service is faster than TW cable modem.
last I knew fairpoint was still stuck at 1500kbps.. I’m getting over 15Mbps..
If you want to be a plaintiff email Mr Roth at rich@rrothlaw.com
DONT GET FAIRPOINT!
We got our modem at Best Buy for only $100
Where do I sign up to help the fight?
A judge has to approve it before you can sign up and that has yet to take place.
Someday the American people are going to wake up and realize that big corporations have been stepping all over their quality of life for a long time.
You only live once, why let Greed step all over you?
rich@rrothlaw.com
Here is the contact information and they responded immediately to my email with advice and will be in touch regarding suit. Hope this helps.
Richard A. Roth, Esq.
The Roth Law Firm, PLLC
295 Madison Avenue, 22nd Floor
New York, NY 10017
Tel: 212-542-8882
Fax: 212-542-8883
Cell: 914-484-5555
http://www.rrothlaw.com
Even if you do purchase your own modem you continue to get charged until you drop off TWC modem @ their store, the only store in Maine is in RUMFORD !!how do I sign up for the class action suit ?
There is a store in Bangor…
They have an office at the below location.
444 Perry Road Bangor, ME 04401
(207) 420-8649
Not true at all there is a store in Bangor or can ship it back… don’t just say things
Rockland – Old County Rd.
got to say, I do love my fairpoint bundle;^)
I feel bad for you.. there internet was too slooooooow..
Fairpoint is horrible such an inferior product to just about everything out there.
true, your better off with time warner then fairpoint
I disagree. I have been using Fairpoint for a number of years now and am completely satisfied.
Yeah but there speeds are so slooooooow…………
Pretty dorky picture.
I’m surprised she could even get it uploaded without her service crashing
They might get my first $3.95, but no more… Just waiting to install my new modem..
Is this just for the internet modem? Those of you in one-person internet-use households, keep in mind that you can instead buy a cell-based service for less money, and you won’t need a wifi connection at all. Cell-based is super fast, if my iPad is any indication.
Not everyone can use cell based internet service, as they live in an area without cell service. For those that CAN use it though, it may be a good alternative.
Not really because it’s not very dependable… the ping you get with inter over cell is just as bad as satellite
It may be good for tablets, but it’s just as slow as satellite and the ping is awful
I dropped TWC over a year ago. I now have DSL via OTT and while it is not as fast as TWC it always works and is only 30 dollars a month. Yes, large downloads take a tad more time but I started BBS’ing at 1200 Baud so I truly know what slow is.
On a side note a decent cable modem will run you at least 100 dollars and it will take you two years to recoup the cost. If your modem breaks you have to purchase another instead of simply going to the office and getting a new one for free. If I still had TWC I would simply pay the fee for that reason alone.
What’s OTT,?
http://www.ottcommunications.com/
They have a local office in Bangor at 890 Hammond Street.
Used to be Mid-Maine Communications, until they sold out to Otelco, a company from Alabama a few years back and just recently rebranded the company after acquiring Pine Tree Networks to “OTT Communications” sounds rather lame but whatever floats their boat, don’t use them if you don’t have to
Why not use them? My DSL has never dropped out in over a year. I have a constant connection for 30 dollars a month that works great and if I want to increase my speeds I can. I just enjoy the 30 dollar plan that does the job.
Maybe things have changed, just during one of their multiple change overs I kept loosing service at the time went to Verizon, then ended up with TWC. If I called OTT sometimes I would get a tech on the phone who woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something or his morning coffee didn’t have enough milk. I kind of gave up and pulled away from them as I did have much success before their changes and buyout
I have never had to call their tech support number since my DSL was installed so I have no clue if they are good or bad.
I feel bad for you. I have TWC 30mbps down and 5 upload very reliable and super fast! plus we have our own modem
I don’t feel bad at all for having a DSL connection that has never dropped out once in over a year, ever.
When I had TWC my cable modem would drop offline at random times just for the fun of it. After many trips to my home and many cable modems I said enough is enough and left them.
I can assure you that your web pages don’t load that much faster than mine and I don’t do a lot of heavy downloading so I’m very happy with the speeds I have. I do not miss TWC at all and have zero desire to move back to them.
You probably needed a new cable drop line… we had the same problem… and that seemed to solve it no issues at all.. we use to have DSL and it was unreliable also
The problem was not the drop. It was an issue at the pole that they refused to fix. Each time someone came out I heard the same excuse and I would ask them why they won’t fix it and each time they gave me another excuse.
Before TWC took over I never had the issue and had great speeds. When TWC did take over I didn’t have a bill for 4 months because of all their issues.
oh well we haven’t had issues… that’s weird
I will admit TWC is not great at times, but I will give them credit for running a new line up my driveway to resolve a problem, that actually worked, now on the other hand just a couple of months ago, they disconnected me in error at the pole and I was out two days, that didn’t make me none to happy and of course TWC does not have their paperwork together, I get a tech that shows up and wants to get in my house and I told him to hook up outside and see no signal coming in, they saw it, couldn’t believe I got disconnected at the pole and of course if TWC had their act together, I wouldn’t have gotten disconnected, and a tech would have known to just go hook it back up when I called in and they confirmed that is what happened to me. I feel bad for some of their techs, they get hardly anything for information in the field
There repair people are very competent
I didn’t say they wasn’t, I emphasized I felt bad for their techs, because TWC never has any information right for their techs.
I was just agreeing with what you were saying
Thanks for clarifying
All give you rep though at-least you don’t use Fairpoint
I worry they will upgrade and the modem will be obsolete and unsupported. So will anyone save any money purchasing their own modem?
Sorry about your pole issue. :(
I will never forget a person at an end node. The very edge of their node and supposedly everything looked ok. A newer upgraded modem worked fine. I bet it was a software conflict, as the network was in the process of upgrading, or the old 5-4-3 rule. One can have 5 segments of network, with 4 repeaters, but only 3 segments can have computers and be functional, like the old modem couldn’t desifer the message, i.e. too much noise, but the newer one may have used a different technique to filter noise? Signal is good, just garbled? Now, No one will ever know now……..
Depending on the level of service that you buy from TWC, good cable modems can be bought from numerous sources for as little as $55, and at that price it’ll pay for itself in 12 or 13 months. Cable modems are generally very reliable and failures that can’t be corrected by rebooting the modem are rare as evidenced by the many TWC customers who’ve used TWC-supplied modems for many years without a failure. Because of [the high level] of modem reliability the $4.00 per month represents a disguised rate increase.
Time Warner is losing customers daily with choices of Satellite and other viewing, internet and phone services cutting into their market. Therefore they raise costs several times a year on their smaller customer base with fees and rental charges of equipment. They are trying to achieve same profit margin with less customer base so I see no change in the future. Each person must pay or change services which is what is happening. Eventually Time Warner will have no customer base in Maine and they have only themselves to blame. I have found options that seem like these services are almost free and they all work just fine. Cost comparison shopping is the only savior for this problem. Time to wake up as consumers and also as providers as to what is most effective for all.
The funny thing is Satellite internet is sloooooooow…….
I dumped cable and satellite 3 years ago.
Get Roku. Add Playon application. Add dozens of Netflix-like movie channels[commercial-free] to the Playon application. — I can watch virtually every movie and every TV show ever made. I can watch -live- virtually ever channel on TV,including WLBZ news. I have channels that show Marathons: James Bond 365/7/24 , Rambo 365/7/24, Star Trek 365/7/24 , John Wayne 365/7/24 …more
Cost? Playon about $2 a month
Look at some of the Netflix-like movie channels:
http://www.playonscripts.com/?w=popular
I used Roku and PlayOn a while back, dumped the Roku because of a firmware problem and just ran straight off a PC hooked to my TV. I thought of going back to PlayOn but in my area, an antenna is hit or miss for getting WLBZ, or any other Bangor Station. I was really hoping for better live TV scripts too but each one I used there was always one that was never working, bad quality, etc. Never could find anything to satisfy my livetv demands. Otherwise was great for everything else including Hulu.
Playon is not perfect, but its essentially ‘free’. I find it worth putting up with the minor issues then paying $100 a month to watch ever-more commercial cable or satellite. VIP box… red sox games,hbo ppv,
Also, many movies are now near Blue ray quality.
Incidentally, Playon made a script especially for me for WLBZ
Incidentally again ROKU “2” is out. Roku 1 has been fine for me though
Oh nice, that they made a WLBZ script, I inquired about that to a developer (not working for PLayOn) if they would make one, they said they would look into and I never heard back. I am retrying it though to see if I can get along with it more, but didn’t realize a WLBZ script had been made because that would really put me a step forward for some local broadcasting, the one thing I kind of missed when I first tried PlayOn
Cable and both satellite companies are about to announce price hikes coming up in january
Just out of curiosity was that WLBZ script ever published anywhere that you know of or did they create it and email it to you type of deal, I was looking through play on scripts and didn’t see it there with some of the other local scripts they got
I emailed playon, they send a link to a script
check the WWITV.COM scripts in 2 weeks. i will ask them to add it
Awesome thanks! I will check it out!
Glad to see this, CEO’s and their need for making their bank accounts bigger. They went all of these years, I am not paying $3.75 for a better internet experience, that is what my bill and taxes cover. TWC always going up somewhere, they recently hiked my internet bill almost $10 and now they want to charge for leasing the modem when I never entered in any leasing with a fee to begin with. Downside is I got their phone service, and have not found how I can work that out if I buy my own modem. THe funny thing is too, they send it on a post card, and I got my post card, last week. Nice notification TWC, you guys manage to get the bills on my doorstep pretty easy, but not the memo on how you can get more money. They plaster all of our bills with the notice that our account number was changing, but they couldn’t be bothered to put the modem fee at the very least, on a bill
I want in on this. in oct i increased my speed and a wireless modem was included in the price of the upgrade. then a few weeks later they sent me a bill with a rental fee. I called and asked them about it and they said i must be mistaken and they cant find the internet conversation i had with them.
Just call and tell them to shut it off an they will do the same as they did with us for 2 year deal. cable and internet. $69.95 plus tax comes with a DVR box another box. It took them two days to call me. I told them shut it off the end of the month. Never happened they called fast.
We switched to Dish after Time Warner jacked up my cable bill by $59.00 a month. When I called to complain and told them I was going to change carriers, I was basically told to, “go ahead!”
You all should consider yourselves lucky. I live 5 miles from the University of Maine and yet I cannot get cable tv, cable internet, or DSL. I am forced to use satellite for tv and internet. Satellite internet is terrible, the speeds are close to dial up. I cannot stream video, or music. Skype is also out of the question. If you think you feel helpless, you should put yourself in my shoes…
Have you checked out GWI
I just got my bill the other day,I’ve noticed $3.95 surcharge for the modem that was provided to me when I joined the service.
I called them up I explained to the lady.
I said listen how come you charge me for something I already had with your service when I joined?
I understand when I joined if you dont have your own wireless modem they would enable their wireless thats an additional $4,95.But I choose my own .
I said how do you expect me to use your service without the equipment ?
Its like calling a plumber when he gets to your house wants to use your tools.
This is not fair for previous customers that already had a service now they decided to charge for a modem that was giving in the first place.
I guess they realized everyone have their own modems they want overcharge their customers…
This is bullshit man! I cant believe they are getting away with it.
I dont have a contract with them..But i like their service.
The modem that they gave me is the top of line modem sgb6580 its $150 modem .
You only get this modem if you have Xtreme package which I have 30 MB per second freaking fast..since I stream 2 Xboxes and PS3 2 Apple TV and 10 apple devices in my house.
So where can i sign up for this complain?
Cable TV is a rip off. Rates in the US are among the highest in the world, by far. Providers package the services in such a way that consumers pay for numerous duplicate programs and far more channels than they may wish to have. Why have porn channels listed on the program screen if you don’t want to access them? Why have channels 1-500 when you never watch any of them? I would happily pay a reasonable premium for being able to select just the 10 or 20 channels I want. Remember Reagan’s telecommunications deregulation act? That’s what permitted the sort of opportunistic cable and cell-phone pricing schemes we now live with.
Do what I did. Buy a Roku or other media device, pay $16/month for netflix and Hulu plus, and ditch the cable company. Did you guys know you can get a free land line with unlimited USA calling using a OBi110($50) and google voice? Check it out!
You need internet service to use that though. This is just about internet and nothing to do with cable T.V
I’ll just dump them and go with DSL. It will surpass cable soon.
Only if you have Fiber Optics, but I wouldn’t hold your breath
try pioneer wireless….my daughter has them and they are good…high speed
i can’t change to Direct Tv or dish where i live is section 8 housing and i am not allowed to have dish or direct tv and Time warner internet at the time i got it was cheaper so i went with that. if i could change to another cable internet company i would do it in a heart beat
What are you complaining about?,your getting it for free in section 8 housing , your not footing the bill anyhow! The hard working people who pay your bills will be picking up the tab for the extra $3.95 a month while you sit on the couch and hit your bong.
Gee, Rooster, why so testy? He said he went with the cheaper option which seems to imply that he is paying for his service. Also, living in Section 8 housing does not mean Matt sits on his couch all day doing bong hits. That is your prejudiced opinion. Are you just an AOWM who shakes his fist at clouds and shouts at the children playing in the neighbor’s yard? Bye the bye, your bluster is likely compensation for the fact that you are more a capon than a rooster!
um excuse me sorry yes i get section 8 housing i also am a part time college student about to graduate with my associate degree and i do work as well but only part time while still being able to have section 8 housing so rooster you are wrong about me sitting on my butt doing nothing. Oh yeah i am paying for my bills as well so your wrong about that
oh and another thing rooster i also coach as an assistant at a middle school and if you want to know what i do for work if you think i sit on my butt i am a substitute teacher
Time Warner Cable is horrible. I moved my home office to a new location and was told that I would be charged a “Business” rate – $200 per month for internet instead of the $60 I had been paying at home. I tried to explain that I would be doing the exact same thing with my internet connection that I had been doing at home for the past 3 years but no luck. I asked what improvements I could expect for my $140 per month and was told, essentially none. No increase in upload or download speed. I was given a vague description of some private, more secure network that business customers’ data is transferred through but that really doesn’t benefit me at all. Thanks a bunch TW.
You do have to keep in mind that Viacom owns Time Warner,they just bilked Direct T.V.subscibers so they can take in another 1 billion plus a year and now their doing it to T.W…..Begining to sound an awful lot like a Monopoly to me,Even the Gov.stepped in to break up Ma Bell.hey there the reason Terrestrial t.v. went away from analog t.v. and stuck us all with these stupid boxes that dont work in most places,well,they will if you cut all the trees around you down in a 100 ft.radiaus.Here they go again,fixing something that was never broken in the1st place.
Not much of a choice when a cable company buys the previous company, and the deal was between comcast and Time Warner. I’m not sure where or how local governments were involved in the decision making process?
It may be cheaper to buy a new modem anyway. Time Warner could just turn around and charge a higher rate instead.
I was thinking the same thing, but for people that have there own modem they shouldn’t be charged; too bad they can’t just include the modem in the price
Time Warner is a crooked company. I once had computer and phooe with them and they shut my service down in the middle of the night, lied to me and said it was broken and I had to wait a few days for a technician. He blamed fittings, but after my neighbor told me he saw they shut it off and I confronted him, he admitted they were lying. Some kind of feedback came form my house at midnight interfering with others tv reception. No offer for a credit. I went to Fairpoint for my phone and computer, and have never had a problem since.
What is totally outrageous is that each town is monopolized by ONE Internet provider. I’ve been waiting for 3 years for TDS Telecom to hook me up with DSL and have had to use satellite in the meantime — which sucks the huge one — it’s only slightly better than dialup. There is NO competition and no alternative except for dialup here, only 18 miles west of Bangor. Monopolies are unAmerican and only hurt the consumer while enriching the bottom line of “providers” that aren’t providing. We need a class action lawsuit about THAT.
gwix
I bought my own cable modem for $50. It works better than the one Time Warner wanted to lease to me. Go buy your modem – do not join this class action. Only the attorneys win in class action. Subscribers might get a voucher for a free movie and that’s about it.
Blame the State of Maine Pubic Utilities Commission. They could have compelled Verizon to stay here. The healthy competition between Verizon Fios, (tv/data/voice), would have actually forced Time Warner’s prices down. Significantly. The lowering of price of cable tv service happens everywhere Fios is introduced. The incumbent cable tv companies always have to lower prices after penetration of Verizon Fios. This healthy competition helps the consumer. (the Maine citizen). The PUC screwed us. Verizon would have been compelled to spread Fios, or bleed red ink, just like Fairpoint does. Without an effective triple-play, you will lose to the incumbent cable tv company, and the dominant player, Time Warner, is free to run roughshod all over the Maine consumer. Verizon would have had to spread Fios. Thank you PUC. Thank you. Oh….and give Fairpoint the bid for the 911 system, even though other better companies bid significantly lower. It’s the FPUC.
Fairpoint Public Utilities Commission.
What a horrid company
I cut the cable 20 years ago when they started trying to charge me to watch commercials. I got a sales call on my cell phone the other day. That will go in the trash next.
Too bad for you
I am confused Kirk. Are you defending the cable companies charging you to watch commercials or the telemarketers using up your minutes that you pay for to pitch you crap you do not want or need? Which is it?
I have a DVR so I don’t mind it
I have battled with Time Warner since the day I signed up with them… Please keep the Maine public informed…I will gladly sign up….
Thansk for calling Time Warner. Your call is very important to us. Please stay on the line as we find a helpful representative to assist you. All our representatives are currently busy assisiting other complainers eh we mean customers. Your call will be processed in the order it was received. Click.
After being a TIme Warner customer for a few years, I got tired of the increases, sudden changes in terms and packaging and went with Direct TV. I’ve been with them since, no complaints. I would not go through FairPoint unless they are giving a discount on DTV to bundle it. You can just as easily get it separately.
Don’t even mention Fairpoint
I usually refer to them as “unfairpoint”. Useless……….
I know there service is so outdated
I’ve just signed up for Time Warner because I’m sick and tired of TDS (Terribly Disgusting Service) and Time Warner is my ONLY other choice….TDS has horrible service and I’d rather take my chance with Time Warner.
It was just a matter of time for people to get ticked off at TW & start saying “enough!” My special bundle creeped up from $99 to $159 in 3 years. I finally reduced myself to basic cable & internet for $59 mo & signed up for NetFlix for $7.99 mo. It’s not ideal but until something cheaper comes along it is all I will pay. My Mom & many other elderly are struggling to pay the increasing fees TW charges, their lives have slowed down & it is a pastime they enjoy & are no longer able to afford. TW is so greedy they can’t give the elderly a discount.
I’m ready to jump on this I cant stand tiemwarner! They offer promos to only new customers but If i were to cancel and then resign up i would get it lower. They treat their customers like crap! I have been with them for a long time only because their aren’t many options for our area! I think we should all come together by a certain day and cancel service together! Maybe make a facebook page and all plan to cancel at once!!! One person at a time we dont matter but together we do! Also they dont announce it but on days that your service does work for example hurricane sandy and other days I call in and get my credits! I’m paying for service so if its not working I will get my credit!
“The monthly lease fee charge will allow us to continually service the equipment and further enhance our Internet services.”
English translation: Increase our profits as there is virtually NO service required on the modem. It’s a little like the automobile “limited warrenty” for 100,00 miles that warrenty’s only the drive train, which hardly ever requires service.
I emailed Mr. Roth and he got back to me in five minutes……
rich@rrothlaw.com
For seasonals like me, there is a huge inconvenience factor as I’m not going to drive a 12 hour round trip to return my modem. Luckily, I have a friend that lives near camp who will take care of it for me (I’ll buy him a few beers next season). Already contacted the lawyer to be on their mailing list. My old modem that I bought in Mass when Charter used to charge lasted for over 10 years (and it still working, just outdated) with no problems and I expect the same for the one I’ll be buying (and recouping fees in about a year) instead of being gouged by TWC.
Since we a have our phone through TWC, we HAVE to keep our current cable modem / phone adapter box. If we don’t buy our own modem, and continue to use the TWC box for both data and phone, we have to pay the rental fee.
If we purchase and use the our own modem for data, we still have to use the TWC box for phone, but then we don’t have to pay for it.
Makes no sense to me. Either way we have to keep the TWC box.
Do what a lot of us TWC customers have done, BUY a modem, advise TWC to send someone out to pick up their modem. Problem solved.
Thats we did no problems at all
If you are looking for consumer protection, move to another country.
This is America, where corporations are people. Very greedy, very dishonest, people.
And they have the Congress and the Supreme Court in their pocket.
Suck it up.
So every time Gas goes up we should start a class action suit
Go on ebay and buy one, screw time warner.
TWC is a monopoly period. All I want is a high speed internet connection. I don’t want cable or phone – where do I find that? TWC should be dumped on principle alone – when consumers have no control and few options it is time to send a message to corporate America.
Count me in!
My suggestion, kids? Direct TV. Same price, more options and all the hype you hear about loosing service during rain storms is apparently just that . . . hype. During the recent encounter with the edge of the hurricane my service went out no more than 3 times and each time it was back on within minutes. I moved to an area in which I was unable to transfer my cable service, now I’m glad.
Count me in. If Time Warner is doing anything more than sending me electronic zaps when my modem kicks out, I’d like to know what it is and exactly how much that costs. I wasn’t happy at all about forking over another $4 or the option of buying my own modem. I keep developing schemes to save money but the prices of everything just goes up faster than I can manage to squirrel a few more dollars in my savings account every month.
Time Warner is an egregious example of Corporate Greed! Could not find the individual charges in my bundle on my monthly bill, tried to call local office — not possible — called the robo-number with no response — talked with tech support in Pakistan or India, but did get a nice person who was helpful and gave me real numbers.
End result? Returned the modem and opted for low level channels — who wants to pay $87 a month for Snookie and Honey Boo Boo? Dumped the landline, as did a good friend, and almost immediately got a postcard offering me phone service for a year FREE!
The whole process is saving me about $125 a month and was well worth it — even if it did a whole helluva lot of sleuthing to get answers and help! Thank you, TIme Warner — NOT!!
hi mary thank you for stick up for maine customers of TWC… glad to see some one willing to take a stand and help use keep the bill low…. all or some of say we pay tooo much for it already for cable and inter net….. once again thank you mary for sticking up for us….
I for one would like an alternative, but theres not much avaliable out here for data services.. I know that MIS has wireless, and ADSL, I don’t think I am in range of their wireless repeater tower in Thomaston. and their serivce is only 1Mb speeds, where I have 20Mb with TWC.. tough choices…
I am so glad something is being done with this company! I was a TWC internet subscriber and after I cancelled a credit card due to the account being compromised and I switched cards with them, they continued to charge my old credit card and then charge me when it was declined. It took 4 months to get it straightened out! Im switching to Fairpoint