OT - Funny Response From Time Warner Cable Regarding Modem

[DerbyDad03]

I received a postcard from Time Warner Cable today informing me that as of November 1, I can either pay $3.95 per month to lease my modem from them or I can purchase my own.

I started a chat session with TWC to ask some questions about how troubleshooting would be handled if I purchased my own equipment.

Here's a excerpt from that chat session. Something tells me Jean hit the wrong key before transferring the session.

*** Begin Chat Excerpt ***

Jean: It seems that this issue needs to be escalated to National Road Runner Chat support. We will transfer you to that support group. Do you have any further questions before I transfer you?

Me: No, thanks.

Jean: Trouble call charges are determined on site by the technician depending on the circumstances surrounding the work to be done. If the issue is our lines or equipment, no charge will be assessed.

Use the above statement only if a customer asks about the charge, do not provide the statement proactively.

Jean: Please be online while I transfer your chat to the right department.

*** End Chat Excerpt ***

I do hope Jean doesn't get into any trouble. ;-)

[Lerry the Cable Guy]

So why did you publish this private chat then?

[gpsman]

No worries, "Jean" is a 'bot. Software or administrator glitch. -----

- gpsman

[G. Morgan]

Oops! Lol...

I would have had fun with her on that one.

[Jeff]

With projected additional $350 Million more in their coffers because of this _lease_ fee, I wonder when they will start leasing the cable to us, which runs to the house!

[clare]

Rogers cable has been "renting" the modems for years. They are trying to get everyone to buy them so when they fail YOU need to replace them, instead of the cable company.

[DerbyDad03]

Holy cow...you're right! I should realized that her supervisors are more likely to find that excerpt here in a.h.r than in their own chat logs. What was I thinking?

[DerbyDad03]

Actually, once they finally got me to someone who actually made sense (the third person I chatted with) he made sure that I was aware that any modem that I purchased from the approved list would work with the *current* features and speeds. However, should TWC upgrade their hardware and/or programming, those of us who own on our modems would have to purchase another.

The tone of his chat was decidedly leaning towards the lease option.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Sure, they get $48 a year from you. Most modems will cost less than that and last 10 years. I had the same offer from the phone company for DSL and chose to buy. Never needed tech support either.

[trader4]

Cablevision used to charge for modems too. Now they are free. I don't see why anyone would pay $4 a month to lease one. You can buy your own and as you say, in a year or so it's paid for itself.

I have a Tivo instead of Cablevision's DVR/cable box too. They charge $10 a month for their DVR. And instead of a cable box, the Tivo uses a CableCard, which you get from Cablevision. The CableCard has a monthly fee that is $3 less than they charge for a regular cable box. So, I'm saving $13 a month. At that rate the Tivo with lifetime service is paid off after about 3.5 years. And the best part is that the Tivo, with it's advanced features, is an order of magnitude better than the crappy cable company DVR.

[George]

Comcast has jacked their modem rental fee up to $7 earlier this year. I bought a cable modem when they first started the rental fee @ $3. I could have purchased four more since then with the money we saved.

[George]

In the case of comcast the modem rental is $84 a year. So not even after the first year you are ahead.

[krw]

I generally lose a DSL modem every couple of years. No ESD or lightning strike, it just stops working. AT&T no longer rents them. They do spread the cost ($75, IIRC) over three months, if you want.

I never understood the rationale for renting a router or buying one from the ISP, though. They want a lot of money for something that's dirt cheap online.

[Han]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

It's my understanding that Verizon uses some kind of modified proprietary software. There is no modem rental - you get a router as part of the package. My ActionTec MI424-WR has functioned since the very beginning of FiOS (well, the first one's radio quit in a week, but the second one has worked ever since). The radio of the router is now weak and doesn't get everywhere, so I have wired a DLink in the living room from the upstairs router to give us WiFi and more ports here. Some time Ineed to upgrade to a gigabit router and wiring, though.

[krw]

AT&T gives the option of a modem or router+modem. Actually, the third option is to use your own modem. I bought their modem to minimize problems (the installation in my AL house is a PITA and I have to call them if I touch anything). Adding a router is usually pretty easy (though in the above case...).

Why? AFAIC, 100Base-T is plenty. Actually my WiFi is enough for what I do over the network. DSL is way slower than it.

[Moe DeLoughan]

In my area, the cable company and the phone company are engaged in a broadband subscriber war. Result: phone company is providing a free modem, free install, and a bunch of other freebies. No price increase for five years guaranteed with no contract required.

They made it easy to choose them over Comshaft.

[DerbyDad03]

Actually, the cheapest modem on their "approved" list is $54. I'm sure the $3.95 x 12 has some taxes and "surcharges" added, so it may end up being about 1 year wash. Even if I had to buy a new modem every year to stay up to date with any new features they add (which won't happen) it makes sense to buy, which is my plan.

[Han]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

At the moment things are OK. I now have FiOS, and the speedtest just now on speedtest.net says 40/33 Mbps up/down. Some time those speeds are going to increase further (I think I started with 5/.75 or so). Then the traffic between computers here is going to get more intense, so I expect that I am getting close to occasionally get to the limits of 100BaseT. Not this year or next, perhaps, but I need to keep my eyes open for an upgrade to my ActionTec MI424-WR .

[krw]

I get 3Mb/.3Mb on a good day (much better than .7Mb/.02Mb I get in my other house), so a string and a tin can is good enough. But wireless can easily get to 30Mb. What do you do that you need >100Mb between computers? I don't think I've even connected mine together more than a half dozen times.

[Han]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I have a network attached storage system for backup. An older system, My Book World Edition from Western Digital. It's nice to have it accessible at speed.