Moments ago I called Time Warner Cable to tell them that I was considering cutting my cable unless they could cut me a sweet deal. I currently get cable and internet services through the company. I use the internet every day, but seldom do I watch TV. According to my first cable phone representative, I’ve been paying around $220 a month even though I believe that he jacked up the number a bit so that he could offer me a lower rate (close to what I’m actually paying).
It was then that I decided that I was throwing my money out the window on the cable end. After being transferred a number of times, I finally ended up talking to a customer service agent in what sounded to be India. I explained that I was paying $77 a month (internet) and $143 (cable), and I was hoping to drop my cable entirely. The guy told me that if I did, chances were that my entire bill would be even higher according to the current package that I had in place. I asked him why I would be paying a higher internet bill if I dropped cable and stuck with internet, and he corrected me and said “higher monthly bill”. I suddenly realized that he was threatening that I might have to pay over $220 for my monthly internet usage. That’s when I lost it. Even though I was not exactly sure what I would do, I told him that I knew that Time Warner had a stranglehold on the Buffalo market, and that I would do everything in my power to ensure that they never got another penny from me.
I decided to fight the madness and told my India rep to axe my service altogether, even though by that time he said that he just looked into it, and it turned out that I would only have to pay $20 more for my monthly internet (so that I wouldn’t drop my services). I was so PO’d that I spent so much time getting nowhere with the issue, being handed off further and further down the line, only to be threatened with possibly having to pay more for slashing the majority of my services. I’m sure that most people would have given up and simply hung up the phone, which is exactly what Time Warner was probably hoping for. Instead, I stuck in there and waited until every option had been exhausted. I dropped everything. Now I’m left scrambling to figure out an alternative plan by this coming Monday.
If Verizon FiOS had come to the city, this would not be a problem, as we would all have options. Instead we are stuck with what appears to be a monopoly on cable and internet. I don’t even want to think about all of the money that I have thrown out the window in previous years, hanging on to cable to watch the occasional cooking program with my wife. Today I decided to throw Time Warner out the window and take my chances. If worse comes to worse, I have numerous internet cafés within walking distance of my house. Unfortunately, while Buffalo is hitting some serious high notes these days, we are still left with dated service options when it comes to phone/internet, and transportation (lack of Uber), among others.