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Time Warner Cable Finds New Way To Gouge Customers With "Modem Rental Fee"


By

Garth Johnston

Published Oct 3, 2012

Modified Oct 3, 2012


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m_dougherty's Flickr


By

Garth Johnston

Published Oct 3, 2012

Modified Oct 3, 2012


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Patrick Stewart, be happy you ran away from Time Warner Cable when you did. As you might have noticed if you are a subscriber, the local cable giant just figured out how to add a new fee to its Internet services! Because when your Internet seems to kick off for no reason every time your Netflix movie is starting to get to a good point, the first thing you want to do is pay more money, right?

And yet Time Warner sent out flimsy postcards to all of its subscribers in the past week telling them that starting in the next month they would be charged a $3.95 monthly rental fee for their cable modems. Of course, you don't have to pay the fee, you can also buy an approved modem. But those range anywhere from $50 to $135 on Amazon. So no matter what it is going to cost you.

TWC says they have to charge the fee because, "As we continue to deploy more and more cable modems, many of these modems need servicing or replacing, get damaged and some are not returned." Sure. Also other Internet providers charge similar, and sometimes more expensive, modem rental fees. But we hear that other service providers also don't regularly pretend they are Ike Turner and their customers are Tina.

Tagged

cable modem

internet service providers

isp

time waner cable


Garth Johnston

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