Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2009 > April > 13 > Entry
(UPDATED) TWC update: Price Lock Guarantee not so price-locked after all?
I reported on this blog last week that Time Warner Cable’s new tiered broadband pricing will not affect its Price Lock Guarantee customers.
Did I speak too soon or did TWC simply not tell me the whole story?
After a reader sent me a link to this blog item (go to the very bottom of the post), I did some Googling and found what appears to be an early version of last Thursday’s Time Warner statement via a Google cache.
At the bottom, under Answers to Your Questions, we find the following text:
How will this impact my Price Lock Guarantee?
The plan will not impact your Price Lock Guarantee price, but it could mean a small incremental fee that will vary by month depending on how much you exceed the megabit usage that goes with your level of Road Runner service.
“Incremental fee,” huh? Not good, Time Warner.
Not good.
Waiting to hear back on whether this was some sort of mistake or if that fee is still part of the plan.
Edited to add (3:55 p.m.): Melissa Sorola of Time Warner Cable called me and said that there absolutely will not be incremental fees for Price Lock Guarantee customers and reiterated that PLG customers will not be affected by tiered pricing.
Curiously, the page is no longer the top search result in Google when you enter, “plan will not impact your price lock guarantee but could mean small incremental fee” and seems to have disappeared. Now the top result is this blog post. But the Google cache page still exists if you click the link earlier in this post and still appears to point to the official Time Warner Cable Web site.
The date of the Google cache is Friday night, which places it after the statement was released on this site, but possibly before it made its way to the official Time Warner Cable site.
I’ll let you know if I get back an official word on how that text made its way online.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Internet
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By maggie
April 14, 2009 11:30 AM | Link to this
Between this internet nonsense and the whole TimeWarner/ NBC debacle of the fall, Time Warner cable is really pushing its subscribers to cancel their service. Next up, I'm sure something with the land lines.
By Bryan
April 14, 2009 7:31 AM | Link to this
As of Monday TWC is completely out of my home - Digital Cable, Phone and Internet all switched over to other providers. I encourage each of you to do the same. I'll be calling on Monday to inform them of why they lost my business when I cancel all services. I also recommend writing your US House representative and telling him/her to support Eric Massa in NY who plans to put forth legislation addressing this matter.
Omar: Any confirmation/refutation on the earthlink issue yet?
By Rogelio
April 14, 2009 12:25 AM | Link to this
I just spoke with "Victor" at Earthlink (India??) and he assured me that Earthlink WOULD NOT be capping their usage, regardless of what Time Warner does with RoadRunner. I asked him if he would guarantee me that, and he said absolutely.
So, for what that's worth, as of 12:24am 4/13/9, Earthlink claims they won't be a part of this.
Stay tuned.
By Jay
April 13, 2009 10:43 PM | Link to this
The way to get out of this is to _NOT_ contact your state rep. It's none of their business as to how TWC does business. What you can do is vote with your pocket book and cancel your cable and go with Grande, AT&T, Dish, or any other provider in your area.
By Jeff
April 13, 2009 9:46 PM | Link to this
I didn't save the chat window (bad nerd!), but in a chat with Earthlink I was told that they would not be changing their billing structure. Sure, it's still TW's network and name on the envelope, but I feel a little better.
By Price-locked!
April 13, 2009 8:57 PM | Link to this
Luckily, when AT&T hit my area, TWC gave me a great price lock with RR Business class. 15MB down and no cap and no overage? Haha. The 15 months I have left are going to be fun! (And yes, I signed up for Giganews after TWC 86'd Usenet...)
By Keith
April 13, 2009 8:41 PM | Link to this
I ditched TWC because they violated the price lock guarantee. They want you to abide by it and pay if you want out of it, but god forbid if they break it and you expect to be able to get out of it due to their screw up. If you have TWC, you better get away from the at all costs....you will hate yourself if you don't
By Daniel
April 13, 2009 8:31 PM | Link to this
Guys the only way we're going to be able to fix this is to contact our state representative and let him know we are NOT going to stand for this. The US rep in New York is already standing up for his constituents and ours SHOULD TOO! Contact LLoyd Doggett from his website or call him and tell him he needs to enact legislation to stop tiered pricing from a broadband company that currently holds a monopoly in Texas
By Scot
April 13, 2009 8:29 PM | Link to this
Would violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act apply here? Call the AG.
I called DirecTv for my service. I like the NASA feed, and DirecTv has the direct NASA feed
By Sue
April 13, 2009 7:23 PM | Link to this
I am an EarthLink customer who gets cable service through their partnership with Time-Warner. The billing is done directly through Time-Warner. I recently asked them about being more competitive with the rate I pay ($41.95/mo) for high-speed internet. They told me that my rate through EarthLink was better than what RoadRunner customers are paying, and that I should stick with it. Don't know if Time-Warner jacked up the rate for EarthLink or not, but it's worth checking out. You set up your account directly with EarthLink, and then they connect you with Time-Warner to finish.
By Merk78
April 13, 2009 6:32 PM | Link to this
One of the many reasons I cancelled service with them and joined up with AT&T. Better service and no more unannounced price increases... hopefully.
By Adam Dorris, Exurgent Text LLC
April 13, 2009 5:28 PM | Link to this
In case anyone is interested (and with Omar's blessing), I'll post the full text of the irate email I just sent to Time Warner, after hearing Omar's piece on NPR:
--------------
Time Warner,
I just heard on NPR about your hideous scheme to distort your rates for broadband internet usage, and I've been in the tech industry long enough to recognize propaganda and doublespeak when I hear it (your "rationales" and your inane restaurant analogy). So let's dispense with the deceit: You think you've got an infrastructure monopoly, and you're simply greedy enough to see if you can get away with exploiting it.
It's despicable, and I, for one, won't stand for it.
If or when you bring this appalling scheme to my area, I'll take my business elsewhere -- literally. I'm the owner of a small web company, and we have no intention of being gored in this fashion by your greed. We are happy to pay a reasonable rate for internet access (and do) -- but this is a far cry from "reasonable." Your scheme is nothing more than a proposal to steal revenue outright from those of us who help to make the web a compelling and useful venue -- the whole reason you have internet customers in the first place.
You've got enough competitors these days that I'll be happy -- eager, ecstatic, overjoyed -- to award my business to one of them, but in any case, I'd sooner relocate the company than succumb to a heist such as the one you're proposing.
Of course, I can't help considering that perhaps, counter-intuitively, you are in fact intent on driving down web usage. Perhaps you're terrified of web-based competitors for your other services (which are mediocre, in my opinion -- your other services, that is); perhaps you think you've found a ploy to shut them out.
How terribly American of you. Maybe you should focus on providing content that people care about instead of further upending the economy.
The original charters from the FCC stipulated that the communications and media companies it licenses are merely stewards of critical infrastructure that is held in trust on behalf of (and for the benefit of) the public at large. If that's so, it applies to internet infrastructure as much as any other.
Which compels one to ask just what sort of steward Time Warner is? Seems that "malfeasance" and "abuse" are more apropos than "public trust" and "public benefit."
We intend to protest loudly, often, at length, and to all who will (or must) listen, including our chamber of commerce, our state and local representatives, and our media outlets. (Now go ahead and email me one of those trite auto-responses telling me how grateful you are for my feedback and business.)
Conclusion: Shame on you.
--Adam Dorris
-- Adam W. Dorris | Text + Web | Exurgent Text, LLC | adorris.extext@gmail.com --
By Dale
April 13, 2009 5:13 PM | Link to this
For those of you who don't know the TWC limits, here they are (from Omar's link):
Caps of 10, 20, 40 and 60 GB for Road Runner Lite, Basic, Standard and Turbo packages, respectively. Package prices will remain the same. Overage charges will be $1 per GB per month.
100 GB Road Runner Turbo package for $75 per month. Overage charges will be $1 per GB per month....
Overage charges will be capped at $75 per month. That means that for $150 per month customers could have virtually unlimited usage at Turbo speeds.
By Adam Dorris, Exurgent Text LLC
April 13, 2009 5:09 PM | Link to this
As the owner of a small web co., I just sent TW a testy missive re: their ploy to hijack revenue from those of us with web-based livelihoods. Here's an excerpt:
"The original FCC charters stipulated that communications and media companies are merely stewards of critical infrastructure held in trust on behalf of (and for the benefit of) the public at large. If so, it applies to internet infrastructure as much as any other.
"Which compels one to ask just what sort of steward Time Warner is? 'Malfeasance' and 'abuse' seem more apropos than 'public trust' and 'benefit.' "
By Omar Gallaga
April 13, 2009 4:38 PM | Link to this
Andrew -- that information came from SOMEWHERE. If it originated from TWC's site and was originally part of that statement (but was later deleted), I think it's still worth noting.
I think it would be fair to say that some things about the plan have already changed and are likely to change some more before October. I'm just trying to keep you informed and I've pointed to plenty other Web sites who are also digging for info and posting frequent updates. Feel free to visit them.
John -- I linked to both of those sites in an earlier post this morning.
By John McElhenney
April 13, 2009 4:38 PM | Link to this
Omar, thanks for doing your part to make Time Warner to GET REAL about their Broadband Cap Program.
Two sites of note, working to network the blogosphere are
http://meterthis.net
http://stopthecap.com
Thanks again for doing your duty.
@jmacofearth
By Curtis W. Rendon
April 13, 2009 4:28 PM | Link to this
One of the things that annoys me about TWC's new tiers is tat they will be charging me extra for channels they won't carry.
Despite repeated urgings to carry NASA's (free!) channels, they refuse to do so, so I continuously stream them. This obviously runs up my usage, so I will get to pay extra for channels they don't carry.
By Andrew
April 13, 2009 4:16 PM | Link to this
Thank you for spreading some more FUD about this whole mess. Posts like these should be verified before you post them. If I'm fighting against this I want to make sure I'm arguing the correct points.
By Susan Lee
April 13, 2009 3:37 PM | Link to this
Omar: THANK YOU for doing such a great job following this story. I am a work from home employee. My employer just informed me they would no longer be paying for my internet account, so this is a critical time for me to be "in the know." You're making it much easier, so thank you.