Time Warner will give existing customers All the Best prices and reduce bills

by copythat

If you'd like to know why your Time Warner Cable bill prices have jumped, there is a way to make it drop. Existing customers can get the All the Best package without any contract and drop rates by fifty bucks or more for monthly bills.

When questioning prices, the new game with Time Warner seems to be a method of telling customers how much they're (supposedly) saving. I assume this is what reps have been told to do, since three in a row proceeded to recite virtually the same spiel to me. Three years ago I had started with the All the Best package with the company. After the new customer time period of a year, the monthly price first went up to near $125 and stayed steady for about 6 months. Then suddenly it went to near $150. When I called Time Warner, the rep said the $150 price was the regular price for the package but because my plan had been out of any promotion for three months, I was eligible for a promotion. Ironically I never truly got the promotional price. It was supposed to be $119 when, less than two months later, I got a letter stating it had gone to $123. Somehow it actually went up to $127 but I wasn't going to gripe over seven or eight bucks and the hassle. When I did sign up for that promotion, the supervisor I talked to promised me it would never again go to near $150. I specifically asked because I told him I wouldn't be wasting anyone's time, that I would switch to Dish or another service at that point. Then sometime toward the end of last year I noticed the bill had suddenly hiked up again to past a hundred a fifty. I phoned Time Warner, only to have a rep and supervisor tell me they had absolutely no clue what I was talking about and that the company has never done any type of promotion for existing customers. When I said the employees could look at my history, that I had in fact had two promotions over three years but that it required an interval at regular price of at least three months, they acted like I was crazy. It was all very confusing. Then I read an article the next day in the Wall Street Journal and was really angry.

The WSJ journalist Zach Seward actually listed the average price in New York as near $150 or so. Obviously Time Warner knew about the upcoming story run which included the company as a basis and was based around how to get a better cable deal. The specific way to get better rates included exactly what the Time Warner cable reps themselves had told me, that customers simply had to wait a number of months while being billed at the regular rate.

It seems that because of that WSJ article, the cable company decided to employ a different method - now rattling off to customers how much they're supposedly saving. When I called to find out why rates had increased with such a spike, it was the first time Time Warner started telling me over and over that the average price in my area was about $200 per month (roughly $183 plus monthly taxes). I informed the rep that I know at least 20 people across the most major cities in the nation and that not one of them would ever pay two hundred dollars and in fact pay less than $130. That was actually confirmed by the WSJ article that listed a national average of a bit over $120 a month. I also told the rep the claim was outrageous because my "regular" rate with Time Warner is near $150 -- confirmed because I'd been billed it before and was being billed the same amount currently. TW employees kept reciting the same: the story being that I was so fortunate because my bill should really be about two hundred dollars BUT the company was actually saving me money and I was "lucky". That got my attention. I had to know. Curious, I asked why I was so lucky. Time Warner told me the company had actually put me into a plan that was saving me money per month and reducing my bill. That's when I caught on to the new game - because an existing Time Warner cable customer can ONLY be eligible for a promotion when customers haven't had a promotion for at least three months, the company is blocking customers from being able to get a promotion; by throwing those customers into a plan/rate reduction they NEVER agreed to, under the guise of doing a customer a service, the company bars both the customer and any regular customer service rep of accessing any other promotion. This fact was confirmed by three additional (and actually very nice/courteous) employees in customer service who all verified that their hands were tied - that the system wouldn't allow them to access a promotion because Time Warner itself had put me in one (one that basically equaled my REGULAR rate, with a reduction of maybe four or five dollars per month). It's a great ploy and can't be fixed by any regular customer service rep. Don't bother talking to a TW supervisor. I got a nasty one that blatantly lied to me and informed me he'd been with Time Warner for 14 years and that the company never gives existing customers a promotion regardless of how many months they pay regular rates; I told him his time with the cable company was apparently 13+ years too long; he was one of the nastiest company representatives I've ever spoken with and then decided to play games and refuse to transfer me to any department because he didn't want me speaking to any other customer service rep - any department I asked to be transferred to, he'd tell me 'I can help you with that' until I finally realized he couldn't help with tech (and that it seemed he was being recorded or couldn't refuse) so I got transferred there. The tech department is actually where I found a very nice representative who suggested I speak to Customer Retention. Yes, Customer Retention is probably the only department that can help if you're seriously over Time Warner and willing to switch services unless they do something to change your billing.

Call from a landline because you'll be on hold for at least an hour during prime calling in the evening. I was actually on hold an hour and a half the first time before somehow I got accidentally disconnected (or non-accidentally disconnected). But the second time I waited for Customer Retention I actually got someone good and was very clear I was ready to change to either Dish or Verizon Fios (which had a $79/monthly with a 2-year contract, which I was more than willing to sign). Hold firm because even Customer Retention will go ahead and start off with how much you're already supposedly saving as a customer. Then the rep will tell you they can save you about ten dollars per month. Make clear that you're willing to change and even reference the surrounding plans and services in your area, and the fact that they're even cheaper than the All the Best package for Time Warner's new customers. The Customer Retention employee asked if I needed all the parts of my package. I was actually surprised by the part he suggested changing, which was simply from unlimited national calling to unlimited calling within the state only. The only part he did screw up was accidentally removing voice mail but the base bill which includes turbo internet service (which is an additional $10 bucks per month) is around a hundred bucks. Basically by changing from national calling on the landline to unlimited state calling (customers can still receive unlimited calls from out of state without being billed), it dropped the bill by over fifty dollars per month. Looking at the monthly bill, the rep apparently put in the rate for the All the Best package but without any contract.

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