TWC rates go up?

[Tivoman44]

Did anyone get their TWC bill for November?  I noticed mine went up by $10.00, and the only real explanation I got on the bill was how a fee went up one penny, oh but I almost forgot (sarcasm) the cable card rate was lowered to $2.00 from $2.50.  But my gosh they have done nothing with their produce except deliver a few more usless HD channels such as OWN.  I would expect this rate increase in picking up the NFL network. I also noticed how some internet pricing went up where RR lite is now 30 bucks.  I think it's time to fire TWC.

[PONIES]

Did anyone get their TWC bill for November?  I noticed mine went up by $10.00, and the only real explanation I got on the bill was how a fee went up one penny, oh but I almost forgot (sarcasm) the cable card rate was lowered to $2.00 from $2.50.  But my gosh they have done nothing with their produce except deliver a few more usless HD channels such as OWN.  I would expect this rate increase in picking up the NFL network. I also noticed how some internet pricing went up where RR lite is now 30 bucks.  I think it's time to fire TWC.

Hey. I like OWN. Everything on the channel has high production values and is native HD except those stupid Dr. Phil re-runs. It's one of the channels that really benefits from having a HD feed since all its material is shot in HD. With two daily talk shows, Oprah's new daily show, and several other original series like Lisa Ling's "Our America" documentary series and "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" it has less recycled content than many of the cable channels.

But I'll agree that Oxygen HD was a rather worthless addition. This is a channel that airs old crappy movies in standard definition most of the time and occasionally a native HD trashy show. At least it has HD content... rarely... though. TCM HD is the biggest waste of space on Time Warner's system. A HD channel that has never aired a single piece of native high definition content. And it's not like the movies they air don't have HD transfers available. Many of them do.

I was surprised to see Time Warner lower CableCARD fees. The cable companies hate it when people scrap their $18 a month DVR rental fees for cheap CableCARD replacements.

So I find it very strange for Time Warner to be making a move which seems like it would encourage CableCARD usage? It's not part of any FCC mandate that the fee must be $2. Verizon charges $5 a month to rent CableCARDs on FiOS.

As for the other rate increases, well, this is what happens when AT&T Shitverse is the only other game in town. AT&T's monthly prices are outrageous too and their atrocious HD picture quality will send you running back to Time Warner in a heartbeat.

Make no mistake that these rate increases are not because of the new channel additions. It's because of the lack of competition in this market. Time Warner is testing the waters here to see how far they can push the average TV subscriber. They can't get away with this in New York City where they have to compete with Verizon FiOS and Cablevision. In NYC they offer over 150 HD channels (!), and their equivalent of our regular digital + digital variety tier? $50 a month. Over here in Wisconsin, with many less channels? That same type of package is now over $80 a month.

If you want a preview of what channels will eventually be making their way to Wisconsin, just look at Time Warner NYC's HD channel lineup where everything gets launched first. They have had OWN HD since March.

You have a few options at this point:

-Get rid of EVERY Time Warner DVR and receiver and get a CableCARD tuner. Removing those massive $18 a month DVR rental fees from your bill is a big help. Take advantage of that $2 a month CableCARD rental fee! Just look how much better than Time Warner's Navigator software a CableCARD tuner is! Why everyone hasn't replaced those crappy Time Warner units with a CableCARD solution yet is beyond me.

-Drop everything except Digital + Variety. I temporarily subscribed to the rip-off "Digital Choice" tier which is $5 a month to check out Crime & Investigation Network HD. It has a tiny handful of not particularly interesting channels. C&I HD is the only HD channel exclusive to it. And they are raising the monthly fee of this worthless tier to $6 a month now. I will be dropping this.

-Threaten to go to DirecTV and see what deals they can offer you. Typically up to $20 a month savings from retentions here. They've been stingy lately unless you actually cancel however. You may have to actually cancel service, wait a few days for a call back from retentions, and they'll have a much better offer on the table for you. We're talking "save $50 a month" types of offers.

[Jack 1000]

We went up by about $4.00, but are on a price lock contract.

Jack

[Jack 1000]

TCM HD is the biggest waste of space on Time Warner's system. A HD channel that has never aired a single piece of native high definition content. And it's not like the movies they air don't have HD transfers available. Many of them do.

I told the AVS forum all of the films were not native HD, just upconverts, and some don't believe me!  Why can't they show the HD versions of the movies if they have them?!

The only thing is that instead of letterbox, it fills the screen, if it is an HD upconvert, and the picture on 1276 TCM-HD looks better than SD channels 60/276, which is usually letterboxed.

Jack

[Jack 1000]

Hey. I like OWN. Everything on the channel has high production values and is native HD except those stupid Dr. Phil re-runs. It's one of the channels that really benefits from having a HD feed since all its material is shot in HD. With two daily talk shows, Oprah's new daily show, and several other original series like Lisa Ling's "Our America" documentary series and "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" it has less recycled content than many of the cable channels.

But I'll agree that Oxygen HD was a rather worthless addition. This is a channel that airs old crappy movies in standard definition most of the time and occasionally a native HD trashy show. At least it has HD content... rarely... though. TCM HD is the biggest waste of space on Time Warner's system. A HD channel that has never aired a single piece of native high definition content. And it's not like the movies they air don't have HD transfers available. Many of them do.

I was surprised to see Time Warner lower CableCARD fees. The cable companies hate it when people scrap their $18 a month DVR rental fees for cheap CableCARD replacements.

So I find it very strange for Time Warner to be making a move which seems like it would encourage CableCARD usage? It's not part of any FCC mandate that the fee must be $2. Verizon charges $5 a month to rent CableCARDs on FiOS.

As for the other rate increases, well, this is what happens when AT&T Shitverse is the only other game in town. AT&T's monthly prices are outrageous too and their atrocious HD picture quality will send you running back to Time Warner in a heartbeat.

Make no mistake that these rate increases are not because of the new channel additions. It's because of the lack of competition in this market. Time Warner is testing the waters here to see how far they can push the average TV subscriber. They can't get away with this in New York City where they have to compete with Verizon FiOS and Cablevision. In NYC they offer over 150 HD channels (!), and their equivalent of our regular digital + digital variety tier? $50 a month. Over here in Wisconsin, with many less channels? That same type of package is now over $80 a month.

If you want a preview of what channels will eventually be making their way to Wisconsin, just look at Time Warner NYC's HD channel lineup where everything gets launched first. They have had OWN HD since March.

You have a few options at this point:

-Get rid of EVERY Time Warner DVR and receiver and get a CableCARD tuner. Removing those massive $18 a month DVR rental fees from your bill is a big help. Take advantage of that $2 a month CableCARD rental fee! Just look how much better than Time Warner's Navigator software a CableCARD tuner is! Why everyone hasn't replaced those crappy Time Warner units with a CableCARD solution yet is beyond me.

-Drop everything except Digital + Variety. I temporarily subscribed to the rip-off "Digital Choice" tier which is $5 a month to check out Crime & Investigation Network HD. It has a tiny handful of not particularly interesting channels. C&I HD is the only HD channel exclusive to it. And they are raising the monthly fee of this worthless tier to $6 a month now. I will be dropping this.

-Threaten to go to DirecTV and see what deals they can offer you. Typically up to $20 a month savings from retentions here. They've been stingy lately unless you actually cancel however. You may have to actually cancel service, wait a few days for a call back from retentions, and they'll have a much better offer on the table for you. We're talking "save $50 a month" types of offers.

What do they have in NYC for HD that we don't?  That's one thing that I have been impressed with, I think that TWC's HD line-up is great!  The only three big names missing are:

NFL Network HD
HD Net Movies

Jack

PS.  I have a great friend in Syracuse who said his channel line up however has no "put a 1" before the number for HD version organization at all!  He wants a Guide Filter so bad!  I don't know his exact channel numbers but Food Network could be 81 and the HD station could be 764 for something.  He hates that!

[budda]

We went up by about $4.00, but are on a price lock contract.

Jack

I can't get TW. But was wondering how come it went up $4.00 if you are on a price lock? Isn't a price lock, a price LOCK. I can see if the FCC added something or a Gov fee. . What went up? Just curious.

[Tivoman44]

I apologize, you point out valid points of why OWN is good.  Oprah herself, while I disagree with her on a lot, is a very intelligent woman.  The only real thing that bugs me about her is her elite attitude of not doing stairs.  


You guys are right regarding how AT&T is really the only other choice around her.  Dish or Direct TV is out of the question as the landlord won't let me, Uverse is the only other option.  I like TWC internet, think it works well, however has anyone noticed them throttling.  I am supposed to have 15mg, and websurfing and downloading podcasts are awesome, but I noticed Youtube and netflix get really slow.  

I also don't understand how Charter has an office in Milwaukee but you can't get Charter here.  

I kind of remember asking about any other ISPs around here such as Earthlink, or Metropsc, I may look for a more second tier company.  

I know I have gone back and fourth between OTA only and Cable, and currently have two Tivos with 2 Cablecards and TA, I'm just trying to save as much money as possible and this price increase has made me think twice.  This economy scares me and companies like Netflix and TWC have every right to raise prices as to what they think we are willing to pay for, but we also have a right to say no to them.

[LoadStar]

I also don't understand how Charter has an office in Milwaukee but you can't get Charter here.

Charter has an office in Milwaukee?

[PONIES]

What do they have in NYC for HD that we don't?  That's one thing that I have been impressed with, I think that TWC's HD line-up is great!  The only three big names missing are:

NFL Network HD
HD Net Movies

Jack

PS.  I have a great friend in Syracuse who said his channel line up however has no "put a 1" before the number for HD version organization at all!  He wants a Guide Filter so bad!  I don't know his exact channel numbers but Food Network could be 81 and the HD station could be 764 for something.  He hates that!

Here's the HD channels Time Warner carries in NYC in addition to all the ones they carry here that I've noticed:

Africa Channel
Bloomberg
C-SPAN
C-SPAN 2
C-SPAN 3
Eternal Word Television Network (please don't add this here TWC!)
Galavision Cable Network
Gospel Music Channel (oh gross don't add this one either)
MSG-HD
MSG+
New York 1
Ovation
Reelz Channel
Sportsnet NY
TV Guide Channel
TV Japan (coming in November)

HBO Latino
HBO Zone
Starz Edge
5 Star MAX
AtMAX
OuterMAX
ThrillerMAX
WMAX
Showtime Beyond
Showtime Extreme
Showtime Next
Showtime Women
The Movie Channel
The Movie Channel Extra

You can see Time Warner NYC's complete lineup here.

This doesn't include the On Demands, of which they have many more too. They even carry Bright House's HD On Demand channel in NYC! (Bright House is a Florida cable operator and Time Warner negotiates TV carriage agreements on their behalf)

The recent HD channel adds here were good because they brought us more in line with the NYC market. I'd still like to see the C-SPANs carried over. I've been looking at their schedule and they don't just show boring sessions of Congress. Apparently C-SPAN airs a lot of documentaries which look interesting. I'd also like to see TV Japan HD and NHK World HD (which TWC carries on their Hawaii system. The only HD channel TWC NYC doesn't seem to have) but I know that'll never happen here. Sigh...

Time Warner also re-encodes all our Switched Digital Video channels in this market to ~14 Mbps MPEG-2. In New York City, the bitrates are ~12 Mbps MPEG-2. They don't look good. This is the one thing I hope Time Warner doesn't bring more in line with NYC. Kill our analog channels and leave our bitrates alone, Time Warner!

[klwillis45]

Yup. TWC is raising prices on practically everything in November. I called to see if I could get any promos & they shot me down. Now, Uverse is scheduled for install on the 8th.

I would have stuck with TWC if they were willing to work with me but they were not. I'm not going to beg or keep calling. Instead, I'll just use this as an opportunity to take another provider or 2 for a spin.

[PONIES]

Did you make sure to tell them you were leaving for AT&T because of high prices when you signed up for U-verse?

Let us know if you get a call back in a few days from retentions offering you a better deal to come back...

[MrZMaster]

If you want to play hard ball with TWC, definitely call their "Account Retention Services" department at 1-866-892-0019 (M-F, 8 AM-7 PM). They are a bit smarter, though, and if you say you will be leaving TWC for AT&T, they will quickly point out to you that Uverse's DSL is just a fraction of the speed of RR. That's the cold, hard truth.

My TWC bill in September was $132.35 before fees & taxes for the "Digital Double Bundle", Cable Card, HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and RR Extreme. November's new bill was for $158.34. Ouch. I knew that my pricelock was in its grace period, and it said on the pricelock letter that my service would only go up $5 the first year and $8 the second year. So this increase of $25.99 is ridiculous. I called their main billing line and the rep verified that I Was indeed in my price lock guarantee's grace period and the reason my bill increased so much (according to him) is that my last year's promotion on HBO/Showtime/Cinemax just ended, which is "outside of the pricelock", as is a slight increase for Extreme RR.

I told him this was ridiculous, that since I received the letter in the mail about my pricelock guarantee I wasn't expecting to see an increase over $5 on my current bill. He apologized and applied a new promotion to my account, bringing HBO/Showtime/Cinemax back down to $19.95 for the three. He also gave me the # for Account Retention Services and told me that I would have to call them if I wanted to negotiate a better deal. They weren't willing to budge much, even when telling them I was looking at quitting for AT&T. TWC knows how much better their TV and Internet services are than AT&T. I do too. The Retention rep told me that TWC no longer has a "price lock" and that I have been "grandfathered" into it. She told me that I have one of the best deals possible for the services that I am getting. She read my bill back down to $144.80, which is only $0.58 more than I was paying previously. I guess I can't complain too much after that...

[Jack 1000]

Yup. TWC is raising prices on practically everything in November. I called to see if I could get any promos & they shot me down. Now, Uverse is scheduled for install on the 8th.

I would have stuck with TWC if they were willing to work with me but they were not. I'm not going to beg or keep calling. Instead, I'll just use this as an opportunity to take another provider or 2 for a spin.

You could still call TWC Customer Retentions and see if they can give you a better deal.  Tell them you have scheduled a U-Verse appointment and ask if there is anything TWC can do to keep you as a customer.

Here is the number for Customer Retentions@ TWC:

1-866--892-0019.  When you threaten to cancel TWC, they will offer you deals that the regular CSR's cannot.  TWC's HD picture is much better than U-Verse.  Let them know what channel package you are getting from U-Verse and see if they can match or beat the deal.  Let us know how it goes!

Jack

[klwillis45]

Thanks for info guys but I'm not interested in sticking with TWC right now. I gave them a shot to keep the status quo & they were not interested so it's time to see other people.

Uverse gets the first crack since they offer tv & internet & have no contract. If that doesn't work out I'll probably give the sat providers a whirl.

I may end up back with TWC someday but now it's time to play the field.

[Tivoman44]

@ Loadstar, I can't remember the exact address, and I think it may only be an office that processes payments and the like but they do have a presence in Milwaukee.