I\u2019ve had the same internet service provider for decades – ever since I moved away from dial-up networking to high-speed cable internet.\u00a0 That first plan was called OBEN – Ohio Broadband Education Network as a partnership between The University of Akron and Time Warner Cable.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That became just Time Warner Cable and then eventually Spectrum cable. The legacy account keep me shielded from price increases for a while since it was too complicated to sort things out, but they updated things when I moved. \u00a0 And over the past few years, they have increased the price. There’s also been an occasional increase in performance – but this is strangely never tied to an increase explicitly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was $85 for a while, then they bumped it up to $89, then $90. Seems high to me, but it was worth not having the hassle of changing.\u00a0 Plus, the competitors had data caps or less reliable service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, out of the blue, I got a bill for $100. It had jumped another $10 with no notice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I girded my loins and got on the phone – looking for a reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, I had to get through the automated system. They told me the amount of the pending bill, then asked if I had any questions. I clearly asked \u201cwhy had the bill gone up?\u201d and the system noted that it had increased by $10 to $100 and then gave me the due date. I tried a few variations on the question and kept getting the same answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frustrated, I then asked for a representative, which it reluctantly transferred me to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the human got on the line they verified my name and address, then wanted my security code.\u00a0 This used to be on the bill itself, but that was too easy and convenient for the customer.\u00a0 I had written it down before they took it off the bill, but didn\u2019t have that in front of me.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They could text it to me, but that seemed really dumb since they would be texting it to the phone I was calling them from – and I asked them to hold on while I went to find the code.\u00a0 I knew where it was so it only took me a few minutes – but I was still annoyed about it and mumbled loud enough for them to hear that it was a dumb step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now verified as the account holder, I asked why the bill had gone up by $10 dollars. They noted an increase to \u201clegacy\u201d accounts from the middle of last month – though I didn\u2019t get any notice of that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I grumbled a little about that, but before I could really get my dander all the way up the rep said they might be able to lower that and asked if I could hold on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was, of course, more than willing to do so. And while I waited, I thought that it was an odd way to show loyalty to loyal legacy customers. But, really, it\u2019s all about nickel and diming the people that don\u2019t want the hassle of change. This might have been the last straw for me – data caps be damned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rep came back on the line and said she could reduce it to $80 and asked if that would be okay. I agreed immediately and thanked her for checking. She said that I would have to pay the full current bill – billing cycles and what not – but that the next bill would be for $80. She said I would get a confirmation email but that it was essentially set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thanked her again for her help and I\u2019m assuming just calling was enough to put me in the \u201cwe\u2019ve got a runner\u201d category. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I got the email confirmation I read the fine print (\u201cYour immortal soul\u2026\u201d) and noted that there was a catch. It was really down to $85 dollars – with an extra $5 off for a promotion for a year. So, it will go back up again and I\u2019ll have to make another call. Or just live with reliable service and no caps for $85.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was polite even when I was irritated and appreciative of the help. I don\u2019t really feel like it was a win, but I at least held my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a side note, I did get a notice that we were being moved up from 400 mbps to 500 mbps download speed. That didn\u2019t seem to be a factor, but I was ready to try and find a lower plan if it had been. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, that\u2019s that and I remain online. And fighting another day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve had the same internet service provider for decades – ever since I moved away from dial-up networking to high-speed cable internet.\u00a0 That first plan was called OBEN – Ohio Broadband Education Network as a partnership between The University of Akron and Time Warner Cable.\u00a0 That became just Time Warner Cable and then eventually Spectrum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"1","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3398,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397\/revisions\/3398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}