My cable bill has jumped substantially (about $50) this month, and I'm interested in knowing if anyone else has had success in talking them down to a better deal. I'm currently paying for:

- Digital Cable and Roadrunner
- +1 cable box (not DVR)
- HBO
- DVR service

Whereas this was $116 per month, now it's $166 since the last promotion I was in ended and my wife didn't mention this to me when the bill was paid. Ugh. I had argued with them the last time that I was gonna go to U-Verse, and I'd do it in a split second if only AT&T would get their shit together out in my neighborhood. After a year, still no go.

If you have comparable service - either with TWC or satellite - what are you paying for yours, and how'd you get a deal (if you did)? I really, really hate TWC and would be happy to get away from them if I could get better service for a better price.

4/13/2010 7:02:48 PM

Oh look, it's another one of those "I'm tired of TWC, I think I'll make a new thread on TWW" threads.

Happens about once a month. Try the search feature.

4/13/2010 7:05:17 PM

go for a walk around a lake

read a book

problem solved.

4/13/2010 7:35:40 PM

i pay about $140 and I have roadrunner, one of the higher up digital packages (i don't get every channel, but I get most), 2 HD DVR boxes (one of them is the main box) and I have HBO, Max, and Showtime.

I was paying $120, but the deal ran out. although, I should say that that price didn't originally have the second dvr. It went up to like 135 when i added that. When they raised it, it went to a little over $160. So, I talked them into lowering that by about 20mo, for just a $5 increase. I had to wait them out though. The entire call with all of the transfers and holding took close to an hr and half. I just kept the phone on speaker and did stuff that I was already planning to do at the computer.

If whoever you talk to at the retention center won't play ball, ask for their supervisor. They'll probably put you on hold for a really long time. They'll check back in on you, ask if you still want to wait, and then make you wait even longer. Then they'll come back with some shit like "my supervisor is still busy; you can keep waiting or I can give you x, y, z. which will bring your total down to $abc."

4/14/2010 4:32:29 AM

ha. another victim.

4/14/2010 7:58:59 AM

look, it's simple. If you like their service pay them for it.

If you don't call U-Verse and give them a spin. Or Dish, or DirectTV.

4/14/2010 8:28:30 AM

There have been plenty of reports on blogs lately of people just calling up threatening to go to U-verse and they will negotiate pretty easily. They CAN lower the price but it might take you asking 3 or 4 times to get it done.

4/14/2010 8:56:16 AM

listen, okay

i had digital cable, 1 HD cable box, 2 cablecards, showtime/hbo, and roadrunner standard (the 7/384 plan)

my bill was $82.somtething/month after i used some social engineering.

if i can do it, so can you.

4/14/2010 8:58:30 AM

threaten to leave and go to dish/uverse/direct-tv/ etc. Tell them that you can get xyz cheaper if you leave and go there, etc. Last time i did this i dropped fro 140 to 96 bucks (i did give up one of the hd channel packages that i don't use and planned to drop anyway but that was only 6 bucks) The catch was i agreed to a 2 year price lock but the fee for breaking it compared to the drop in my bill meant that 3 months was my break even point and after that even paying the contract break fee would be less then i saved up until that then.

4/14/2010 11:31:47 AM

Thanks for the helpful and current information. As mentioned earlier, I'd love to go to U-Verse, but after almost a year of waiting, I have no indication when it may be reaching my neighborhood. I really don't want to go to a 2-year contract because I'm still hoping that it'll eventually happen. I already threatened this last time and got them to go down a little bit, but not much. I wonder how aware TWC is of which neighborhoods actually have competition with U-Verse?

evan, I'd love to know more about what kind of social engineering you used on them.

4/14/2010 12:45:20 PM

Dont threaten... actually leave and go to Dish.

I can't tell you how happy I was/am when I left TWC. Fuck those crooks.

4/14/2010 2:58:36 PM

^^ even with the 2yr contract, the break out cost will should be less then the savings you make on the lower bill in 3-6 moths depending on how far you talk them down. If U-verse gets into my neighborhood tom0rrow and i break the 2yr and pay the fee I'm still up over 100 bucks already.

4/14/2010 3:18:01 PM

I think i might just straight drop my tv service. No one offers packages with the ~10 channels i want, and i dont see the point in paying so much extra for crap i dont watch.

[Edited on April 14, 2010 at 3:23 PM. Reason : ;]

4/14/2010 3:23:01 PM

I wish I could just choose a package of about 12 channels and pay for only those.

4/14/2010 3:24:53 PM

When we all have fiber to the home, that is what we will do. Until then, the content producers have us customers by the balls.

4/14/2010 4:54:56 PM

Whatever you do, do not sign up for any services from ATT.

4/14/2010 6:52:21 PM

Last time it did take me a couple of reiterating that I wasnt going to pay that much for them to finally come down, but they will. First time they will try to convince you to lower your bill by getting a slower internet package (I have internet only with them). Eventually, youll get a deal (I have $34.95/month for standard...$20 less than what they were trying to charge). Just keep saying "BLAH BLAH BLAH U-Verse BLAH BLAH Dish Network BLAH BLAH MASN BLAH BLAH NFL Network BLAH BLAH I dont care about your shitty digital phone" and they will do what you want.

4/15/2010 12:35:23 AM

When I was cancelling DishNetwork this month, the reason I gave is I can get everything I want to watch on Netflix and I don't mind waiting til the season of a TV show is over to get it. The guy on the phone first tried to convince me that the service really was worth it, then he started offering free HBO, Showtime, Starz, Cinemax, then a couple free PPV. For some reason DishNetwork absolutely will not budge on the price of their programming tiers.

I wasn't interested though because I really did want to cancel.

4/15/2010 4:34:06 AM

^^^ huh?

4/15/2010 7:57:52 AM

twc has terrible customer service but once you finally settle on a plan their shit is pretty good.

4/15/2010 8:32:18 AM

Quote :

"Whatever you do, do not sign up for any services from ATT."

wat? ATT UVERSE is great and I'd recommend it to anyone

^false. their TV and Internet service is horrible.

[Edited on April 15, 2010 at 8:47 AM. Reason : .]

4/15/2010 8:47:09 AM

Well, their internet is pretty good, and on special it is all really affordable compared to U-Verse. But their HD content is over compressed and I dread ever going back to TWC's DVR.

4/15/2010 9:43:28 AM

Their Internet service is really hit and miss. I know plenty of people, including myself, who had TWC and basically hardly had Internet service. Aside from abysmal upload speeds, the connection was constantly dropping and being bogged down. We went 6 months with the Internet dropping completely out at night (from ~6-midnight) - no Internet at all, none. I called the first day it happened. 6 fucking months later they finally fixed it, after more than 10 calls from me alone. After that it was slower and still dropped nearly daily (just not for the entire evening).

4/15/2010 10:34:43 AM

I just got a $180 bill, and I have no movie channels and none of the sports, etc. packages. I have internet, DVR, and digital cable. I'm unhooking my box and taking it to them and cancelling asap, fuck the "well what if we give you this" speech.

4/15/2010 2:10:57 PM

Do you have any premium channels or high-tier cable?

4/15/2010 2:25:12 PM

^^ did you make sure the bill is accurate/there wasn't a mistake/nobody ordering porn? $180 sounds crazy for the service you have.

4/15/2010 2:38:12 PM

i didnt have to fight at all to get may rate lowered once the promotional offer expired

first step is realizing that you were paying for a promotional rate.

but anyway, i just called up and mentioned that my promotional term was expiring and I have been pleased with the service but I would like to keep the price somewhere around the promo rate


with no fuss the dude put me through to the customer retention center, and kept me at the same rate, just for a two year contract. which you may or may not want to do, but I have no real qualms about TWC and it services everywhere i could possibly move to so i took it

pretty simple really, i got on the phone expecting to have to fight and threaten to leave TWC

Quote :

"Their Internet service is really hit and miss. I know plenty of people, including myself, who had TWC and basically hardly had Internet service. Aside from abysmal upload speeds, the connection was constantly dropping and being bogged down. We went 6 months with the Internet dropping completely out at night (from ~6-midnight) - no Internet at all, none. I called the first day it happened. 6 fucking months later they finally fixed it, after more than 10 calls from me alone. After that it was slower and still dropped nearly daily (just not for the entire evening)."

you should be aware that you can request a different cable or different equipment, sometimes they just hook up your devices with whatever happens to be in the truck, and at the end of the day that could be very slim pickins, but there are optimal cables and connections for different equipment and having the wrong one leads to some "packet" loss (whatever the hell that is)

i guess ive been fortunate enough that ive had technicians from time warner that explained this to me before they left.

[Edited on April 15, 2010 at 4:41 PM. Reason : f]

4/15/2010 4:38:09 PM

Quote :

"you should be aware that you can request a different cable or different equipment, sometimes they just hook up your devices with whatever happens to be in the truck, and at the end of the day that could be very slim pickins, but there are optimal cables and connections for different equipment and having the wrong one leads to some "packet" loss (whatever the hell that is)"

the in house equipment was fine. I know how to check the basics/that equipment. the problems were:
- some dumbass trying to "fix" a local box outside of our complex installed the wrong equipment
- an underground box/node that feeds several complexes around here is under water. yes, underwater. and TWC refused to fix it.

4/15/2010 9:06:48 PM

Quote :

"first step is realizing that you were paying for a promotional rate."

Very true.

In my case, i didn't know the promo was going to run out before my 2 yr contract. I signed up online, with an agent through their chat program. I asked her how much X, Y, and Z would cost. She told me, I said how much more of such and such, she told me and I took it. She said you have to commit to a 2yr contract to get that pricing, I said no problem. She never mentioned that the deal would run out after just 1yr of my 2 yr contract with them.

It was a huge surprise when I got my bill after that year and it was like $40 plus higher than usual. I called, they told me it was a promo and I told them I didn't know that it was for just one year. They questioned it, i said "well, I had the chat log emailed to me and I don't delete email... so let me pull it up." And I also pointed out that it was a 2yr contract and I assumed that meant I stuck with them for 2yrs and they stuck by that price for 2yrs. Sure enough, she never said it would expire in a year. They were more cooperative at that point, but it wasn't instant. And I was as polite as can be.

It really depends on who answers the phone. You get someone in a bad mood, you may just be shit out of luck. You get someone in a good mood, you may have an easy experience.

4/15/2010 9:09:38 PM

Is there one kind of hd dvr thats better than the others that they offer? I know they used to have different kinds of boxes and you just got whatever they had in the truck that day.

4/26/2010 6:49:53 AM

i think he current" best" are the new samsungs (black boxes)


lol "best". that like trying to pick out the most adorable slug.


uVerse ftw!

4/26/2010 10:33:31 AM

My TWC internet signal has dropped prolly 4 times in the last 4 years....

4/26/2010 12:26:04 PM

^^Well thats what I meant I have uverse right now but its not available at my new place

4/26/2010 6:23:03 PM

The problem with calling them is that you'll have to call them every six months until you switch to another provider. It becomes increasingly annoying with each call. You might as well switch now and save yourself the hassle.

4/26/2010 6:48:55 PM

Quote :

"If whoever you talk to at the retention center won't play ball, ask for their supervisor. They'll probably put you on hold for a really long time. They'll check back in on you, ask if you still want to wait, and then make you wait even longer. Then they'll come back with some shit like "my supervisor is still busy; you can keep waiting or I can give you x, y, z. which will bring your total down to $abc.""

Quoted for almost impeccable foresight. I had a conversation with 1 "retention" department tech and then 1 supervisor, and my call went just like this. After about an hour and a half, they dropped my rate to exactly what it was previously without my having to cut back on anything. Thanks to everyone for all of the tips. Being polite and cordial but unwilling to drop services worked very well.

5/17/2010 6:26:16 PM

isn't there some guy you can call that get you the a good deal on Time Warner? I remember calling some guy's number that was posted on TWW 3 years ago, and he gave me an awesome deal. Try a search in the Lounge.

5/17/2010 10:35:38 PM

^ i need to find that... thank god i'm moving in a few months...

5/19/2010 4:16:59 PM

My bill had been ~$70 for digital cable + sports tier and RR Turbo until my initial promotion ended this month and the bill jumped to $114. I called TWC and told the first person that the bill was too much and I was interested in canceling my cable service. She told me to turn in my box and was done with me. I called back, spoke with a retention supervisor and was immediately offered my previous rate for 12 months. Time Warner rules!!

11/15/2010 12:51:43 PM

Quote :

"Time Warner rules!!"

11/15/2010 12:54:18 PM

^(the shitter)

11/15/2010 1:10:23 PM

i pay for nothing but internets

is good

11/15/2010 2:13:53 PM

cable television blows. just get netflix.

11/15/2010 3:03:12 PM

I cant get NESN w/out getting the full package. its so gay.

11/15/2010 3:07:50 PM

That package costs $3, bro

11/15/2010 3:29:26 PM

$3 + digital tier price maybe.

11/15/2010 3:58:46 PM

yeah they jacked my internet bill (the only service I have with them) up to 59.99 from 34.99. I got on the phone, demanded to know why, and then told them if I didn't get the 34.99 price back, I was going to switch to AT&T U-Verse on the spot.

I got that 34.99 on it now. In another month or so I'll see if I can haggle for something cheaper.

11/15/2010 4:06:01 PM

I had a "promotion" price of $29.99/mo for the internet that's between shitty and Turbo. TWC said it would go to $70 when the promotion ended. I just called asking about what I could bundle it with, and they gave me a $34.99 "deal" for the next year, with optional $10 extra for Turbo.

11/15/2010 7:07:13 PM

has anyone gotten a letter in the mail saying that their bill is going up $10 next month? we've had the pricelock which has been ok, but this is kind of ridiculous. guess we'll be calling and bitching shortly

11/15/2010 9:45:06 PM

I ditched cable for directTV. Unfortunately in SW durham where I live, Roadrunner is the only game in town.


well, there's DSL, but only a fraction of the speed.

11/15/2010 10:15:48 PM

Quote :

"first step is realizing that you were paying for a promotional rate"

paying true full price for cable is just for the lazy or meek. "Promotional Rates" are just jargon they use to make people feel like they are getting a good deal. Cable companies already make money off of all the customers paying the "promotional rates" anyway. They just use that term so they have a reason to jack up the cost and triple their profits and they realize that a lot of people won't do anything about it. That is why it is often so "easy" to get your price to stay the same (depending on the person you get on the phone).

For every person who calls about getting lower rates or keeping them the same, there are probably 20 that just say "oh well, promotional rate is over, I'll just keep paying the full price" and they rake it in off of them.

11/16/2010 9:44:21 AM