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Charter Has Moved Millions of Customers To New -- And Often Higher -- Pricing (arstechnica.com)
After Charter closed the acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in May 2016, it moved 30 percent of the customers it acquired onto new pricing plans, resulting in many people paying higher prices. "Before the merger, Charter had about 6.8 million customers; afterward, Charter had 25.4 million customers in 41 states and became the second-largest U.S. cable company after Comcast," reports Ars Technica. From the report: Charter came up with new prices and packages, and many customers saw their bills rise when their previous discounts expired and they were switched to non-promotional pricing. Now, 30 percent of the ex-TWC and ex-Bright House customers are paying different -- and often higher -- prices. Charter CEO Thomas Rutledge provided the update in an earnings call last week (hat tip to FierceCable). According to a Seeking Alpha transcript, Rutledge said: "In June, we finished the rollout of our new pricing, packaging, and branding across our national footprint with the last launch of Spectrum in Hawaii. We now offer a simple, straightforward, high-value product using a consistent and uniform approach across our 50 million passings under one brand, Spectrum. The new product is succeeding with consumers across our footprint. In the second quarter, our customers and PSU [primary service unit] connects were higher year-over-year. And as of the end of the second quarter, 30 percent of Time Warner Cable and Bright House legacy customers were in our new pricing and packaging, up from 17 percent at the end of last quarter. In areas where we've had Spectrum in place for at least three quarters, 43 percent of our residential customers have Spectrum package products."
U.S. companies seem to be competing with each other to be more and more abusive.
everybody knows mergers increase innovation which lowers pricing while improving service. Charter told me so before they merged.
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Charter came up with new prices and packages, and many customers saw their bills rise when their previous discounts expired and they were switched to non-promotional pricing.
Clearly, the nature of cable conglomerates is chaotic evil, but it seems likely on the order of tomorrow's sunrise the same customers would've been subjected to rate increases at their original cable providers when their promotional discounts expired.
We're talking about an industry where the only sure method of getting discount rates involves switching providers. No one gets great rates staying with their current provider.
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> Charter came up with new prices and packages, and many customers saw their bills rise when their previous discounts expired
So, just like Comcast, then.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Simple. Call and cancel service. They'll put you through to the retention department. That department offers the best discounts. I cut my $120 cable bill to $70 that way.
many customers saw their bills rise when their previous discounts expired and they were switched to non-promotional pricing.
FFS, the whole point of promotional discounts is that your bill increases when the period is up!
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
What? There is no competition? Impossible. Everyone knows that the market encourages competition and companies to work for the good of the people, not to collude in order to increase their own bottom line.
Barriers to entry? Listen, son, if you want to get ahead in the world, you need to pull yourself up by your boot straps, overcome the paid for barriers that other ISPs have put in place, and create a multi-million dollar infrastructure by hand. Go ahead, all you need is guts and determination!
(rides away on piles of money) AMERICAN DREAM!
http://www.wdrb.com/story/3605...
There was a steady stream of traffic going into and out of the Spectrum cable office in St. Matthews Thursday afternoon. Sekou Davis had his arms full of electronic equipment, including a phone modem and a DVR box. He was turning it all in, and cutting the cord after more than 20 years with cable.
“For one, the cost of the service, and, two, just the quality,” said Davis.
Davis says Spectrum's latest change is the last straw. The company is encrypting, or scrambling, its signal in Louisville. It means customers must now have cable boxes for every TV set. They can no long plug cable-ready TV sets directly into a cable outlet.
To be fair, the boxes will be free, at least for a while.
Spectrum is offering customers two free boxes for two years, and five free years for customers on Medicaid. After that, it will cost $5.99 a month for each box.
Well isn't that generous of them.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Merging is done to destroy competition where regulatory constraints prevent easy entry into a business. Municipalities are often the guilty party on preventing internet and cable competition - e.g. "can't cross our right of way", etc.
If I had the Congress of the US to back me, I would pass a law proactively banning the use of Encrypted QAM.
Beyond that, everyone who can Cut the cord should.
many customers saw their bills rise when their previous discounts expired and they were switched to non-promotional pricing.
Quick show of hands, who expected their rates to go DOWN when discounts and promotions ended?!?!
What a huge non-story.
"My two year discount rate ended after just 24 months - those bastards!"
Ken
If you want some detail into those factor, look through the comments in "COMMENTS OF SMART COMMUNITIES SITING COALITION" ( comprised of individual localities, local government associations, and local agencies responsible for roadway safety which collectively represent more than 1,800 communities and nearly 30 million residents in 10 states. ) at https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/1...
These deals with micro-cell deployment, but it is pretty typical>
"Notably, the primary cause of delays in application processing continues to be the failure of applicants to submit complete applications. For example, as a routine matter, Mobilitie has submitted cookie cutter proposals for 100-120 foot towers in the public rights-of-way, without doing any meaningful field engineering, or making any significant effort to comply with state, federal or local requirements – imposing significant cost on communities."
I've seen companies turn essentially blank pieces of paper - obviously attempting to throw it over the fence so they can claim 'progress' and meet some deadline - then gripe because they are being 'held up'.
My internet bill went up $5 but there is no longer a modem rental fee. SCORE!!
I ran into the same issue that is outlined here, went ahead and changed my plan only to get significantly degraded. Most of the shows I wanted to watch didn't record. They said "Oh it's your equipment! Let us roll a truck to you (for 49.99) and we'll fix that problem right away!" It turns out I'm not the only person experiencing the issue. My Grandmother had the same exact issue, and only after Spectrum took over. Wow, I wonder what it could be? Instead of arguing with them, I went ahead and just dumped everything but internet. Signed up for PS Vue and now I'm paying $50 less than I was with 95% of the channels I wanted (the other 5% I can get through on demand apps from those providers). Screw 'em! I just wish there were more high speed options in my area, then I would cut them completely. I have the option of Spectrum (300 Mbps) or 1 Mbps DSL (for almost $50 a month to boot!). Hopefully wireless spectrum internet will come through sooner than later.
Since these things all tend to be an orgy of piling on the awful cable companies, I thought I'd share my very good experience. I was stuck on TWC's pretty mediocre 20 mb internet for $80/mo, with no realistic alternatives, unless you count centurylink crappy 10mb dsl (ha!). After the merger, I was offered the spectrum plan for $20 *less*, and I am regularly getting 70 mb downstream. The difference is night and day. This is for internet only, no phone or TV, so I can't speak to that part, However, the wording of the summary implies a lot that may not be happening. "Many people paying higher prices." Were they forced to pay higher prices? Maybe the new packages offered more so they were willing to pay more. I didn't have to switch plans, it just would have been stupid not to. Also how many is "many people"? Another (just as correct) way to say "many" is to say "some". Presumably there might also be "many people", like me, who are paying less. New formula = some win, some lose. Am I saying that there isn't gouging, or that the service might be even better? No, I think if we actually had any real competition, I'd probably be getting a lot more for a lot less. But as it stands, compared to what I had before, I have nothing to complain about.
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Or maybe people need to readjust their broadband expectations and go with wireless (whatever form is available) to satellite, or even DSL if it's available. But nothing will change as long as people keep telling themselves they NEED any particular cable company. Simple as that.
Because of the way my city is wired, DSL is essentially a joke here. Satellite Internet? Yeahrightsure. And the only way for me to "choose" a "particular cable company" in my city is to MOVE. And that would move me from a Spectrum-monopolized area to a... wait for it... COMCAST-monopolized area! Think I'll continue to take my chances with Spectrum!
Yeah, it's my fault alright... Gimmeabreak!