Time Warner Cable Accused Of Antitrust Violation For Requiring You To Rent Your Modem
from the illegal-tying? dept
A guy in Kansas is suing Time Warner Cable for its practice of requiring customers to "rent" their cableThank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: antitrust, cable modems, rentals
Companies: time warner cable
Reader Comments
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Sure hope he's successful
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Re: Sure hope he's successful
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Re: Sure hope he's successful
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Re: Sure hope he's successful
You can just call them up tell them you have your own modem and you need to get it provisioned. Tell them further to come pick up their modem and you want the $5.00 a month fee deducted from your monthly bill.
Make sure you get the agents name and I do and put this in an email to yourself and your done!!!
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Toss Aways
Whenever I cancel service however, they Never ask for the modem back or the little dongles for the telephones. Seems odd to be charging a monthly rental fee on something they give away in the end anyway.
I started giving their own modem to other customers switching about and they don't even recognize that it's been recycled. Odd, but true.
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Re: Toss Aways
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Re: Re: Toss Aways
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Re: Re: Toss Aways
You need to return this equipment otherwise somewhere down the line if you don't have a singed receipt of receiving the modem THEY WILL CHARGE YOU.
They are the biggest scum bags known to man but you have to return these items or you will be shafted in the end....
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Re: Toss Aways
I have yet to see a cable service that rents equipment that does NOT require the equipment's return. People, if you have questions about that rental equipment, call your cable provider. >.
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Forced rental?
Maybe Time Warner Kansas is different than Northeast Ohio.
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Re: Forced rental?
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Re: Forced rental?
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Comcast too
I am happy and ready to pay for Comcast digital cable but have delayed doing so because I have no place or need for the box they will force me to rent.
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Re: Comcast too
Or do what I do, have a TivoHD and get a cablecard from comcast so you can get the digital channels. (the cable card is like 2.50 I think).
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Re: Comcast too
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Re:
Digital's great and all, except it costs more, has more channels I'll never watch, requires another box to draw more power and use another remote with more batteries and will just get lost by the kids anyway, and suddenly my "cable-ready TV" is now just a big monitor permanently tuned to channel 3 (or aux video input) -- and the dual-tuner PIP function on the TV becomes pretty worthless...
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Re:
Its all about the bottom line, and replacing older analog equipment, making all the nodes and amps on the network digital and addressable saves them tons of money in maintenance costs.
Which they wont pass on to you of course, that goes straight to their profit margins...
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Not to mention...
On a side note; If you want to find out how to get thousands of people to send you $10 every day just send me $10 and I will rush you my new self help pamphlet: "Stupidity and You...A guide to why you are so stupid"
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Re: Not to mention...
i would love to own my own box, but i just switched providers and have yet to read into all the agreements.
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Re: Not to mention...
Besides that, they don't, and cannot bar you from using your own router. The difference in using yours? Lack of support except by the OEM, who almost always want to point the finger at the ISP.
The same goes for those that want their own modems. Sure you could get one in the store, but its not typically better quality no mater what you think. They are all standardized to work on the DOCSIS protocol. The real difference is you know its not been used before.
But if you rented modem goes out, gets struck by lightning, what have you, the cable company will replace it for free. Its added convenience if you want it, and the ability to have your own if you don't; Just accept the consequences.
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Re: Re: Not to mention...
that's my beef and that's the facts IN KANSAS CITY and i'm sticking to it.
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Re: Re: Not to mention...
Sorry, this is just not true. I have an Ambit cable modem + wireless router (they call it a gateway) from my ISP, and it doesn't even touch my Linksys wireless router in features and configuration - that is, how much control I have over it. You could claim that it's the same hardware inside the box with a different interface on it, but I'll only believe you if you back it up with evidence.
To be fair, you did say "not typically better quality", by which you may have meant strictly reliability and longevity. In that case, maybe it's true. I haven't found either to be substantially more reliable than the other - both work flawlessly almost all the time. And it's too early to tell how long they'll last as they're both pretty new. But other than that, there are major differences, and they're all in favor of the Linksys (except of course that the Linksys isn't a cable modem).
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Re: Re: Not to mention...
OK, so I read your comment again, and you're talking about cable modems and I was talking about oranges. So, never mind. :-) I hope you can get better cable modems from other providers, but I don't know.
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Re: Re: Re: Not to mention...
Actually that was exactly what I was talking about :)
I should have been more clear in my post, but I was attempting to say; "Since the modems are all standardized to function on the same protocol, the only market differentiation they could have is the included feature sets of the firmware interface, or external features such as Wireless, Support for VPN tunneling, and the like."
I just didn't explain it very well, and for that the only excuse I can offer is I was only on my second cup of coffee this morning when I wrote that ;)
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Wrong
The headline of the linked article is "Man Files Antitrust Suit Against Time Warner Over Forced Cable Box Rentals".
"Cable box" != "Cable modem".
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Re: Wrong
I cant belive the stupidity
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Comcast
I've been running the same Surfboard 5100(?) for years now and just gave a spare I had to my girlfriend when she get her internet in her new place.
I'd be all pissed off if they required I used that specific box and had to "rent" it.
That'd be analogous to PSNH (power company) charging me a "rent" for the line that goes to my house from the power network.
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Not quite the same
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Re: Not quite the same
How so? That's exactly what they do to customer owned cable modems. Once you connect it to their system the cable company takes it over and basically has their way with it.
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Re: Not quite the same
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Re:
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And don't forget...
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Re:
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Why verify anything.
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Modem rental
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Re: Modem rental
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Cable BOX
My TV has a cable card slot and Time Warner will let me use it instead of a cable box, but then I won't be able to receive the channel guide or PPV movies.
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All hail Optonline.net
Shame on their cable service for making me pay rent for the dumb box and the remote (yeah $3 for the remote)
Thanks to their internet section for keeping the modems free.
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training the reps? HAHAHAHAHAHA
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Re:
I am a technical writer who spends much of my time in the creation and rewriting of company training manuals to reflect current technology and trends.
I have seen reference and training documents from Time Warner, Roadrunner, and Earthlink for broadband over cable technical support, including the hoops they make call center agents jump through to support those Home networking products.
They spend quite a bit of time and money; first in the creation of the training materials and programs, and then in lost productivity and manpower training these reps instead of having them answer the phone.
The quality of the call center not withstanding, the training regiment is there.
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Re: Re:
AND the poor lady's problem had been 'helped' twice before...
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Please (re)move the cable modem comments
It really dilutes the quality of the comments.
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Wrong
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Re: Wrong
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I understand but.........
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Re: Time Warner
Time Warner is now charging $3.95 per month for the internet modem. If your modem that you buy is not on their "approved list" they refuse to activate it, even if it is the same brand (Scientific Atlanta)I reported it to the FCC, also You are also supposed to be able to bring your own cable box as long as it has cablecard capability. This has been Federal law since November 2011. To this day, I am not able to watch anything over channel 99 on my Motorola Cable box.
They sell them on Ebay and if it were illegal, Ebay wouldn't sell them as it is against their community guidelines, just as you cannot sell illegal drugs such as Herion on Ebay.
I will bookmark this site, and give you status updates of the FCC decision.
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Re: Re: Time Warner
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Cable Box
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Cable Box
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time warner cable monopoly
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Re: time warner cable monopoly
It's possible where you live falls short of another company's service area, but I'm pretty sure dish and directv would still be usable alternatives regardless where you live. I'm not 100% on that, though.
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Re: Re: time warner cable monopoly
If those companies were owned by Time Warner Cable or didn't exist.
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Yea Right
How i know why New Yorkers are so stupid, They do not send a signal to blow up your box. BS Get a grip and put on your tin hat.
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Time Warner Cable Boxes
Linda in Milwaukee Wisconsin
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law suit
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piss poor service and wrongfull billing
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time warner sucks asshole
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TW bundling lawsuit
I just battled them because they refused to allow me to just have basic along with pay per view. There is a federal law requiring this. They are an arrogant monopology.
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Class Action Lawsuit
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Cable Box Rental
Les
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