Austinist: Prepare to Pay More, Austin Road Runner Subscribers

kelsoATX

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:51:14 -0600

I called to disconnect my TWC roadrunner service yesterday but instead dropped the rip-off turbo plan back down to standard, and then got them to drop the $40/mo. plan by 15% for the next 6 months. I'm still switching to Grande though, the 40GB cap at the rate they're proposing is insane. TWC is vastly underestimating their customer base. Even my 56 year old parents are aware that the 40GB cap won't be enough for their YouTube and video poker habits and these are people who I couldn't convince to stop paying for AOL email accounts until a year ago. Good luck TWC, trying to go against the tide of technology won't work.

k

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:08:43 -0600

well i had grande for over a year and hated it. but i guess my experience isn't the same as everyone else's. it could be equated to getting a lemon as a car i guess. if time warner's prices are out of control, i'll be going to grande regardless.

RonB

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:47:00 -0600

Generally pointless, this online petition at least can be used to gauge what kind of backlash TWC can expect. I am leaving them as soon as my roommate and I work out the details. http://www.petitiononline.com/nocap/petition.html

sheeshoo

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:42:01 -0600

via @melissaTWC_TX on twitter http://twitter.com/melissaTWC_TX/statuses/1439340076: Time Warner Cable wants to hear from you about Consumption Based Billing in Tx email us at realideas@twcable.com

seth

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:24:34 -0600

k, What you've said about Grande absolutely doesn't match with my experience. Their support is a lot better than Time Warner's and they are a local company (San Antonio-based, I think). Seth

k

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:22:53 -0600

hm weird. i wonder why it happened to me. maybe it's just a random thing and then they watch the same person over and over? i also had a lot of problems with my dvr box with grande. where i would call and have to reset it constantly.

Trancereducer

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:58:17 -0600

k, I disagree with your assessment of Grande. My son was doing some bit-torrenting and I thought they might be throttling our connection, so I found an online tool to test for such shenanigans. It turned up negative.

k

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:19:55 -0600

i would love to get uverse but it's not offered in my area. that said, grande really stinks too. if you download things, even legally, they will block or limit your bandwidth. it's happened to me multiple times.

boilerissues

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:51:00 -0600

How does this work for businesses that offer free wifi service? Will they now monitor their users in order to keep their bill down? Is this really going to be the new way to bill for internet service? I am perplexed I suppose. With Hulu, Netflix and others offering so much free streaming video, what is the point if TWC is going to stifle the use by charging the customer for it? To me, it seems like a huge step backwards and a incredibly bold move by TWC.

MrMichael

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:22:58 -0600

UVerse is going to get a lot of business. Yes AT&T is going to eventually put in caps also but their caps are going to be a lot higher than this 5,10,20,30 and 40GB limits TW is doing. TW says there will be a 100GB cap tier, yeah but how much? 40GB is going to be what $54 something. So what will 100GB be, 99.95? Screw that. Go Uverse max 18 for internet and then direct tv for tv service. The total ends up being cheaper than what I've got now.

Barney Noodles

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:02:51 -0600

you can expect at&t to eventually moved to tiered service, as well.

Donatella

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:57:13 -0600

Time Warner is the worst company with which I have ever dealt. I cannot wait until my contract is over so I can finally drop this piece of shit service.

fighted

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:13:49 -0600

well time warner and i are will be breaking up now after a rocky relationship over the past few months. it all makes sense as to why my service was shut down two times by them in the past few months due to the claim of "excessive" bandwidth use. i was being used as their ginni pig. it's quite sad as to how arrogant this company and their people are. i know two people that work for roadrunner and they basically think that caps are a genius idea and think that heavy users need to be punished. what they fail to realize is in such a tech and student heavy city as this it will just drive customers away. i'm certain at&t and grande are thrilled with this announcement and i'm crossing my fingers that verizon fios will be coming to us soon too i see the caps working in a laggard city such as san antonio, but i give this program a year at most here, it's ridiculous to think that streaming 5 high def moves through netflix in a month will eat up all most all of your data allowance for the month. they are hemorrhaging cable tv subscribers who just watch tv via the internet now and think this will get them to come back. time warner must realize that by screwing your customers is not how you keep them or get them to give you even more money

kelsoATX

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:13:09 -0600

I'm not sure that I'm even going to wait til this rolls out to switch over to Grande's internet tubes. I've been pretty disappointed with Time Warner's so-called 'turbo roadrunner' which is not even close to the speeds they advertise and it can be very slow at times. I quit buying overpriced cable almost two years ago by using the internet as a substitute and I've never looked back. This type of plan is just a way to garner more revenue from heavy internet users like myself.

cymblue

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:49:10 -0600

I've really enjoyed AT&T Uverse. Their cable offerings are really good, and I have their internet (one level up from the "slowest" speed), and I stream and download tons of content regularly. No complaints here.

davetx

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:42:42 -0600

If I had any alternatives to TW, I'd switch, but I'm stuck. What this essentially does is stack the deck in favor of TW's own on-demand service, effectively taxing other movie download services - Netflix, Apple, VuDu. Lame to the nth degree.

Elizabeth S.

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:07:56 -0600

Statement from Time Warner released (since this is getting a lot of press now): "Consumption based billing will enable customers to choose a tier that makes sense for them. The vast majority of our customers will see no difference in their monthly bill. When this does roll out in late summer, all customers will have access to a “gas gauge” that will enable them to track their consumption against their current plan. They will have three months to get comfortable with the gauge before bills hit. This three month grace period will also allow customers to gauge their monthly usage to find a plan that fits their needs. We don’t want our customers to have any unpleasant surprises." Whatever that means.

seth

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:56:50 -0600

Time Warner is garbage. Grande is where it's at. Time Warner doesn't send techs out on weekends to restore service. Grande does. Overall, Time Warner's support sucks compared to Grande. My current package through Grande is 8mb bandwidth, 300 digital cable, and hard-wired local phone for $94 / month. Seth

davetx

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:51:39 -0600

This blows.