You become aware of this right away as you try and get cable TV service and all there is one provider in your area. Time-Warner in this case in the outskirts of Minneapolis. And that sucks. I also know the pain of NYC/CT peeps because there it was and still is the dreaded Cablevision.But never more than one choice in a market. Isn’t that like only having one supermarket chain get to sell groceries to an entire county without competition? High prices ($44 a month for a high-speed internet). Slow service (one week minimum for a tech to come out) and unmotivated sales and support (three separate operators could not quote the same price, and with two of them forgetting about an advertised special on the TW website).
Not to mention the $30 installation fee I had to pay even though I went down to cable, got the box and installed it that night myself. Not saying that’s the norm, but sure seems likely when your customers have no other choice but to go with you.
Tags: advertising, brands, Time-Warner
3 comments:
Hear, hear! My sentiments exactly. When I lived in Ohio my only choice was TimeWarner as well. Oh, I could've signed up with AOL High Speed or Earthlink DSL but, what for it, they're all owned by TimeWarner. How is this legal?
Very legal, unfortunately, even if it's shady.
I feel your pain. Milwaukee is a TW-only city, as well.
My favorite TW story: I came home one day and my cable was out. Bills were all paid up, box had power, TV had power. Called tech support. After 45 minutes of dicking around with them, someone there discovered that a cable tech had been 'round the building that day and had disconnected me. Reason: I was the only one in the building paying for cable, though others were getting service 'coz old accounts had never been shut off. Apparently the rocket scientist they sent out couldn't figure out whose line was whose, so he just shut 'em all down.
They offered to reconnect me for free (my reply: "You're damn right it'll be free."). And it only took them 8 days to come do it. Eight days! Not even an apology (though I insisted on a service credit for the days with no service).
Asshats.
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