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Time Warner offers new 'price-lock' plan

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BY JEFF KORBELIK / Lincoln Journal Star

Sunday, Nov 23, 2008 - 12:49:48 am CST

Carol Pace calls the saving on her Time Warner Cable bill “simple math.”

She and her husband, Mark, recently took advantage of TWC’s new “price-lock guarantee,” which allows certain digital cable TV, digital phone and Internet subscribers access to a variety of  two-year contracts.

With cable rates increasing by as much as 8 percent next month, Pace said locking into a  two-year commitment was a “no-brainer.”

“It really was,” she said. “Once (TWC) quoted me the price, it was simple math. Wow, $100 (savings) per month! I can do that. It really was about the math for me.”

Time Warner Cable recently announced its rates for 2009, which go into effect Dec. 1. The cable company has 110,000 subscribers in Southeast Nebraska, including 75,000 in Lincoln.

Monthly phone rates remain unchanged, while monthly internet rates increase by $1 for most services.

Monthly cable TV rates, however, jump sharply, with basic service (channels 2 through 80) up 8 percent over last year, from $55.55 to $59.99.

New digital channels added this year include MGM HD (channel 94), Fox Sports HD (120), HD Showcase on Demand (121), Sports on Demand (186) and History en Espanol (365). MGM is part of the HDTV Tier ($6.95 per month) and History en Espanol is part of the Latino Tier ($4.95 per month).

Coming in December are Natonal Geographic HD (119), VERSUS HD (124), HGTV HD (135) and Disney HD (145).

Time Warner also plans to add the Major League Baseball Network and Retro Television Network, which will be found on the basic tier on channel 82.

Anne Shrewsbury,  TWC’s public affairs representative, attributes the increase to escalating costs.

“It’s all related to programming costs, especially in sports programming,” she said.

To get around the increase and another possible one next year, some customers are opting for TWC’s two-year, price-lock contracts.

Introduced in June, the “price-lock guarantee” is available to customers who subscribe to two of the company’s three services (cable TV, phone, internet).

Two of three must be digital cable, standard or turbo internet or unlimited nationwide or Nebraska calling.

Other restrictions include:

* A two-year commitment.

* A 60-day opt-out window.

* A recurring debit or credit card payment.

* A termination fee up to $150, depending on the level of service. The fee is waived for military personnel called to active duty.

The guarantee, of course, allows for service upgrades (not downgrades), with TWC computing a new fee.

Time Warner estimates customers will save between $560 ($23 a month) and $800 ($33 a month) over two years with a price-lock guarantee.

“In a time with everything else going up, it’s nice to know what you will be paying for the next two years. It gives the consumer some stability,” Shrewsbury said.

The Paces learned of the new billing feature from a friend who worked at Time Warner. When she called a TWC customer service representative, she learned her bill — which ran between $230 to $260 depending on movie rentals  — would drop to around $160.

The Lincoln couple have digital cable with two high-definition digital video recorders, standard internet and nationwide calling through Time Warner.

“We’ll have saved in two months what it probably will cost us to break the contract if we have to,” Pace said.

Doc and Pam Leupold considered dropping their land line, but the price-lock contract changed their mind. They, too, have digital phone, digital cable and internet through TWC.

“The way we looked at it is it’s paying for our phone,” Pam Leupold said.

She learned about the price-lock after inquiring about discounts for long-time customers.

“They always advertise deals for new customers,” she said. “They told me they had just rolled this out.”

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.


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Ripped Off wrote on November 23, 2008 3:02 am:
" If these HD channels and new sports channels are to blame for escalating costs, then why are all of us absorbing this? Congress needs to get involved and pass some ala cart legislation. Making people pay for cable channels that they have no interest in - and specifically saying that one type of channel, sports, is responsible for the majority of increase - is ludicrous. Let the market take control and people can choose what channels they want and are willing to pay for. The channels that no one wants will disappear, everyone will be able to save money. But Time Warner isn't hurting and considering the level of service they give, the prices are getting ludicrous. Other options are appearing more and more appealing. "

 Ha wrote on November 23, 2008 6:11 am:
" All this does is hurt college students. They know college students won't sign the contract. So our rates go up, and all those "established people" will take the benefit. Thanks. "

 qwerty wrote on November 23, 2008 6:19 am:
" time warner should not have a monopoly in the lincoln area and then we wouldn't see these price gouging of customers..... "

 RickB wrote on November 23, 2008 6:49 am:
" Don't lock in folks what we need to do is wait for Quest, Cox, or ?? to come into Lincoln. Comparable services in Omaha are $100 for Phone, TV, and internet.

We need completion. "

 Dish wrote on November 23, 2008 6:52 am:
" sounds like they are still no where near as good as dish. Keep trying TWC. "

 Adam wrote on November 23, 2008 9:22 am:
" Everyone pay attention if you like High Definition!!

Do not sign up for a 'price lock' for 2 years! Time Warner Cable offers me somewhere around 14 high definition channels for the EXACT same price that I can get 78 high definition channels from DirecTV. I haven't even looked at Dish yet. Time Warner is screwing us as customers. They are the only ones in the country who have ESPNU HD yet we don't get the channel? We are getting '4 new HD channels' before the end of the year...wow..4? Call them and ask what they are, they are the crappiest ones.

They claim it is a 'bandwidth issue' yet they are able to turn on 3 more HD channels for the Olympics for us to watch all that crap in HD nonstop, and they can take them right back and claim they don't have bandwidth again. It isn't like they are busy 'negotiating prices' to acquire these channels, compare the Lincoln HD channel lineup to the channel lineup for HD in other Time Warner markets and prepare to be shocked. "

 Economy wrote on November 23, 2008 9:26 am:
" $260 per month. Wow. How is it that cable is just deciding to raise pricing 8% per month? Get and antennae and read a book. That is shocking. Let's get some competition in this market. Moving back to Lincoln we were shocked at the poor service and high prices for cable. "

 Matt wrote on November 23, 2008 9:26 am:
" The cost increase can be negated if we all just use cell phones and drop the TWC phone. We will save about 500.00 next year "

 TWC the MONOPOLY wrote on November 23, 2008 10:34 am:
" With these increases I may just switch to satellite "

 nemo wrote on November 23, 2008 10:54 am:
" Holy cats! Over two hundred bucks for your cable bill!! Yikes! "

 Jim wrote on November 23, 2008 11:19 am:
" TWC is a rip off. 60 bucks for basic cable? I have Dish for that much - 200 channels - all digital, including Sirius music plus a DVR for the same money. "

 acetogen wrote on November 23, 2008 11:25 am:
" TWC cannot offed long distance phone service, which is already quite expensive with the cell phone companies. THis is the reason why I am sticking with Vonage for the "land line" service. I just cut the cable last month. Notice that the new channels are basically HD versions of the same content that they already carry. Not worth the cost. If only they provided a "a-la-carte" service I might be interested. "

 Ron wrote on November 23, 2008 11:59 am:
" Two straight years of 8 percent increases? This is OUTRAGEOUS. Let the Time Warner/AOL Executives, Board Members and their Stock Shareholders take pay cuts and dividend cuts, instead! In this type of economic climate how can Time Warner Lincoln and their Pro Business, Republican Political allies, even look themselves in the mirror if this goes through. I doubt very seriously if these type of increases would go through in some of the other Time Warner Markets in the USA. ( remember the changes made to our DVR's, Program Schedule and the associated software ) At least with the recent uproar with LES rate increases, it is somewhat of a "non profit" publicly owned entity and we can NOT live without electricity. It is truly time to consider Satellite and even more drastically, a Antenna. Yes, the Fox is guarding the Chicken Coup here in good 'ol Lincoln, Nebraska when it comes to the Monopolistic Cable Company that "services" us. "

 satelite wrote on November 23, 2008 12:04 pm:
" I was tired of the poor customer service and high prices.

I switched to a satelite provider and extremely happy with it.

Actually, we have had less outages since changing over, TW was always having issues and customer service was severely lacking.

Plus... we are saving $80 a month and get more services and faster internet! "

 Alie wrote on November 23, 2008 12:48 pm:
" Who is better if I only want Internet and Cable...I have TWC but it sounds like I'm outa here...so is it either Dish or DirectTV?

Help me make up my mind! "

 Curious wrote on November 23, 2008 1:02 pm:
" People use to comment to me, "Gee, you never go to any movies at a theatre, how come?" I kindly explained that I couldn't do movies AND have TWC, as TWC was our "discretionary fun budget." WHAT WAS I THINKING? I finally said, "Screw TWC, I'm going to the movies, and grabbing a book as suggested in previous comments. Also, you would be absolutely amazed at what you can get done around the house when there is no cable T.V. coming in to the home. That would seem obvious, but you REALLY need to unplug the TWC. Life is good! "

 Locked out wrote on November 23, 2008 1:32 pm:
" The problem with the lock-in is that it has to include phone service. I have both cable television and broadband service through Time Warner, but can't get the phone service because Time Warner phone service doesn't work if the electricity goes out in your home. Likewise, if there's a problem with cable delivery in my area, Time Warner's phone service is also out. I need my phone to be working in the event of an emergency; Time Warner should offer a package for those of us who can't live with a potential loss of phone service. "

 E Jr wrote on November 23, 2008 3:10 pm:
" To Ha: When I was in college I had no time for TV let alone the money to pay for it. Do that many college students have cable TV that this would have a negative effect on thei wallets? Maybe college is too easy these days. "

 Sigh wrote on November 23, 2008 3:54 pm:
" People, you do realize that you don't HAVE to have cable TV, right? There are other ways of spending your time, other than in front of the boob tube. Why people keep paying literally hundreds of dollars to get 100s of channels they rarely watch is unbelievable.

I pay $18 for "Broadcast Basic," which is channels 2-22. I've had it for years, and have never once missed the other channels.

To each his own, of course. But if you feel you have to have all those channels, then stop whining about the price! "

 Locked Out wrote on November 23, 2008 4:49 pm:
" the “price-lock guarantee” is available to customers who subscribe to two of the company’s three services (cable TV, phone, internet).

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Nebraska/products/PLG/default.html "

 Thanks anyway wrote on November 23, 2008 6:32 pm:
" Thanks for noting my point. I agree that you only have to have to have two of the three, but there's no price lock for basic cable (channels 2-79), and I can't afford and don't really want digital cable. {I think I spend enough on TV already.] So, basic cable and broadband aren't a combination eligible for the program. "

 John wrote on November 23, 2008 6:48 pm:
" We left TWC and did not look back, they did not have good service and it is pricey. Dish had all my answers for less. "

 Paul wrote on November 23, 2008 6:52 pm:
" Please, everyone; lobby your city council to open up the Lincoln cable market to open competition. TWC is taking advantage of their existing customer base by not allowing the low price lock guarantee to existing customers, even though their advertisements state it is available to NEW AND EXISTING customers. Shall we create our own local co-op???????? "

 Lincoln college kid wrote on November 23, 2008 8:41 pm:
" TWC sucks. The HD box we got is a piece of crap, it freezes up on us alot.
We do have enough people i think that Cox should come in here. The rates would be lower and then TWC would have competition. Omaha cox subscribers pay about 30 a month for cable, and maybe about the same for internet. Still cheeper then TWC.
I hope TWC gets booted sometime soon, Good riddense!! "

 75000 wrote on November 23, 2008 8:52 pm:
" Now at least until another provider gets into lincoln. Not to worry as the good ole boys won't allow that to happen. "

 by by wrote on November 23, 2008 10:44 pm:
" I had TW phone survice and had the phone go out on a Friday and they told me survice repair would be in Three days, hello cell phone. "

 No dish wrote on November 23, 2008 10:54 pm:
" For those of you who are switching to dish, I can't stand it how it goes out during storms. My TWC cable has always worked perfectly, rain or shine! And to the person who said Cox is cheaper, I paid about $85 for Cox digital cable (incl. all HBO channels) and internet, which is the same that I pay for regular cable and internet in Lincoln, about $73. "

 Tara wrote on November 24, 2008 8:18 am:
" Cable + Internet = $90 in Kansas City with TWC, $144 in Lincoln with TWC... "

 Fed up wrote on November 24, 2008 8:27 am:
" Bye Bye time warner. why pay more for bad customer service and shoddy equipment. Hello dish! "

 Outside the Box wrote on November 24, 2008 8:27 am:
" Thank you for letting this promotion see the light of day! I'm not surprised that TWC tried to "offer" it without any promotion or serious effort to make their subscribers aware of it. "

 ..... wrote on November 24, 2008 8:30 am:
" I have never had my dish go out during a storm...I must just be super lucky! :) "

 Re Sigh wrote on November 24, 2008 8:43 am:
" Whenever I see "sigh" i always know that i'm in for a condescending remark. Alas I shant use the TW cable and shall readith an intellectual novel or some poetry to pass my idle time untilith I leave this forsaken town for a villa near where my mamam and pappa used to take me as a small brilliant child. "

 Chopper wrote on November 24, 2008 10:12 am:
" I get 28 channels via antenna. Cost = 0.00 per month.
3, 3.1, 6, 6.1, 6.2, 7, 7.1, 7.2, 8, 8.1, 8.2, 10, 10.1, 10.2, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 15, 15.1, 15.2, 18, 27, 29, 35, 42, 42.1, 42.2, 51 "

 to no dish wrote on November 24, 2008 10:27 am:
" I have had dish network for a little over 3 years now and have only had it go out once in that time-and it was in a tornado when about 10 seconds later the power went out. I have hd plus 2 sets of movie channels, phone service and high speed internet and it is way cheaper and better than the old TWC I used to have. People should really looks to other means for tv. dish is the way to go. "

 I would love to know wrote on November 24, 2008 11:53 am:
" Where you all are getting these magical Dishes that don't go out in bad weather. We lost signal when the wind blew or when a cloud passed. Not to mention the $500 we were slapped with for cancelling (even though we had fulfilled our year). This is the only place I have seen people claim such things. When I see it, I will believe it. "

 TWC and LES wrote on November 24, 2008 12:12 pm:
" What is it with these corporations taking 8 to 10% annual costs of operations? Grocery store products are still overpriced from the oil refinery joke on America with Gas Prices falling daily.
This is astounding....
Guess I will be calling Direct again..... Or better yet maybe just throw the TV/Telephone and Internet away... "

 TWC User wrote on November 24, 2008 1:48 pm:
" You can get cable and internet for only $85 a month on the price lock plan. However, that does not include the taxes, fees, surcharges, or the $7.50 a month for each cable box (or the additional $6.00 a month charge for DVR). The $85 plan will actually cost you $100 a month, if you only have one box.

I had Dish Network for several years and had very few problems with it. It did go out in the worst storms and when the snow piled up and blocked it. The picture was much better. I moved and changed to cable with a good deal, but now that is over and it getting really expensive. Checking out DSL service. "

 P.S. wrote on November 24, 2008 2:40 pm:
" You do know why they want to lock you in.... That device (cell) in your pocket with the "3G" networks are getting viable. The cable companies do not want to be irradicated as is the land lines. So they will fear you into long term commitments. Oh, and the devices come out daily to compete with the cable industry. Spend time with your cellular company, you might want to give it a year.... "

 DBM wrote on November 24, 2008 3:29 pm:
" I've never had any trouble with TWC. I just signed up for the 2 year contract as the Verizon cell phone I had dropped every call, and I can see the new call center from my deck so I don't think the cell phone is the answer. I guess if you think TWC is too expensive, just drop it. No one is forcing anyone to use their services. "

 Jeff Simmermon wrote on November 24, 2008 3:48 pm:
" Hi -- I'm the director of digital communications at Time Warner Cable. And unfortunately, rising programming costs dictate an increase in rates. It's the same for DirecTV and the Dish Network -- their rates are going to jump over the next year, too: http://tinyurl.com/dish-network-rate-increase "

 KrissyK wrote on November 24, 2008 4:44 pm:
" You know, they can't justify this pricing if people don't pay for it. Obviously those people aren't posting, or something. Cable tv is a total frivolity, as is internet service. I can't believe that anybody would spend this crazy amount of money for these services. This is all this country knows. Lazy, lazy, 'give me more'. Sheesh. "

 freebie wrote on November 24, 2008 6:53 pm:
" I bought an antenea for $80 and two converter boxes for $10 plus the coupons from the govt. and get everything I want for free. It was great when I called TWC and told them to disconnect my cable. They started offering me lower prices for 6 months and finally offered me channels 2-22 for $16.95 a month Why would anyone want to pay this for free local channels plus Cspan, public access, and TBS? "

 Hmm..Mr Simmermon wrote on November 24, 2008 9:48 pm:
" Ok Mr. Jeff Simmermon. Can you answer when TWC will finally fix the DVR uissues? I've got two messages that appear that when I've talked to support they say they've never heard of. 1. "DVR controls are temporarily unavailable. Please try again in a minute" and 2. "DVR is going into sleep mode." What's that about? Since you're a suit and not support perhaps you can answer those ?'s "

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