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It’s so strange to read this. Where I live, Charter Spectrum is virtually celebrated as awesome. My bill for internet has barely increased at all over the past

It’s so strange to read this. Where I live, Charter Spectrum is virtually celebrated as awesome. My bill for internet has barely increased at all over the past 10 years but on multiple occasions they have contacted me to upgrade my service for free. Even replaced my cable modem at one point. I’ve gone from 15 to 30 to 60 to 100 and I’m currently at 200. There’s probably been two outages during that entire time period. I see so many people in other parts of the country complaining about their providers and it makes me realize how good we have it here. ATT is still terrible though.

leetbulb 8y ago
Charter, Spectrum, Charter Spectrum, whatever the hell it is now, stopped offering 300Mbps in my area about a year ago (from what I've been told: due to low demand). However, they allowed my account to remain at 300Mbps, likely because I've never had a contract with them. Ever since then, they've hiked my bill up about $50 in $10 increments. I can only assume they want me to ditch it for their "Supreme Ultimate God-Tier Just-Enough-Of-A-Contract-To-Fuck-You-Shall-You-Cancel Phone, Internet, and Hulu Streaming Bundle Bonanza" package that they keep sending me extremely-official-looking snail-mail for. Whenever I call to ask why I'm being charged more, they give me the runaround and have even told me to downgrade my internet package. I'm not playing their little game... I'll hopefully be ditching them all together soon. I wish the FTC, BBB, etc gave a shit about these practices...it's sad. /rant
- brightball 8y ago
  I think a big part of the issue is that there is this Spectrum umbrella that has appeared around multiple companies. In my area before it was just "Charter" and then they became Charter Spectrum and now they try to go by just Spectrum. Which is all well and good except in other areas nearby TWC went under that same umbrella...and TWC was always terrible and totally guilty of exactly the behavior you're describing. Under the Spectrum name, they continue to be terrible.
  - leetbulb 8y ago
    Yep, it was TWC prior to Spectrum -- other reply to my comment states the same thing. Crazy.
- HillaryBriss 8y ago
  A couple years ago, TimeWarner offered us a free upgrade from 100Mbps to 300Mbps. We didn't really need 300 Mbps service, but ok ... We felt so lucky! Very shortly afterwards, TimeWarner sold out to Spectrum which promptly jacked up our rate by about 40%. I asked Spectrum how I could lower my rate. They said "Sorry, we've eliminated the old 100 Mbps service." Now I'm stuck with the new higher price.
macNchz 8y ago
Very quickly after my TWC connection became Spectrum my rate for 50 megabit internet in Brooklyn went from $40/mo to $65/mo and I am absolutely bombarded with various forms of deceptive marketing junk mail trying to get me to upgrade to some bundled TV/phone package. I disliked Time Warner's marketing beforehand but Spectrum really took it to a new level.
kalleboo 8y ago
> Where I live Is where you live NYC? The quality of service of US ISPs seems to vary largely depending on how much local competition there is.
- brightball 8y ago
  Greenville, SC

leetbulb 8y ago

Charter, Spectrum, Charter Spectrum, whatever the hell it is now, stopped offering 300Mbps in my area about a year ago (from what I've been told: due to low demand). However, they allowed my account to remain at 300Mbps, likely because I've never had a contract with them. Ever since then, they've hiked my bill up about $50 in $10 increments. I can only assume they want me to ditch it for their "Supreme Ultimate God-Tier Just-Enough-Of-A-Contract-To-Fuck-You-Shall-You-Cancel Phone, Internet, and Hulu Streaming Bundle Bonanza" package that they keep sending me extremely-official-looking snail-mail for. Whenever I call to ask why I'm being charged more, they give me the runaround and have even told me to downgrade my internet package. I'm not playing their little game... I'll hopefully be ditching them all together soon. I wish the FTC, BBB, etc gave a shit about these practices...it's sad. /rant

brightball 8y ago
I think a big part of the issue is that there is this Spectrum umbrella that has appeared around multiple companies. In my area before it was just "Charter" and then they became Charter Spectrum and now they try to go by just Spectrum. Which is all well and good except in other areas nearby TWC went under that same umbrella...and TWC was always terrible and totally guilty of exactly the behavior you're describing. Under the Spectrum name, they continue to be terrible.
- leetbulb 8y ago
  Yep, it was TWC prior to Spectrum -- other reply to my comment states the same thing. Crazy.
HillaryBriss 8y ago
A couple years ago, TimeWarner offered us a free upgrade from 100Mbps to 300Mbps. We didn't really need 300 Mbps service, but ok ... We felt so lucky! Very shortly afterwards, TimeWarner sold out to Spectrum which promptly jacked up our rate by about 40%. I asked Spectrum how I could lower my rate. They said "Sorry, we've eliminated the old 100 Mbps service." Now I'm stuck with the new higher price.

macNchz 8y ago

Very quickly after my TWC connection became Spectrum my rate for 50 megabit internet in Brooklyn went from $40/mo to $65/mo and I am absolutely bombarded with various forms of deceptive marketing junk mail trying to get me to upgrade to some bundled TV/phone package. I disliked Time Warner's marketing beforehand but Spectrum really took it to a new level.

kalleboo 8y ago

> Where I live Is where you live NYC? The quality of service of US ISPs seems to vary largely depending on how much local competition there is.

brightball 8y ago
Greenville, SC