Time Warner Cable Charges Customer $12,000 for Installation - Not a Typo

[Mini-Me]

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_15572495

The truly outrageous part is that Time Warner is actually trying to defend their position here with a straight face, pointing out that customers need to bear part of the burden of installation costs...as though laying an extra 100 feet of cable actually costs such an absurd amount.

Perhaps the Town of Lee should consider not giving a cable company a damn monopoly contract in the first place? :rolleyes:

[WaltM]

the city can sanction them, SWEET.

remember kids, you have no RIGHT to anybody's cable service. They have every right to charge you what they want.

[Kregisen]

Yeah what's the issue here.....they would have to go out of their way to bring cable to that customer, so they give the customer a price. If the customer doesn't like it.....don't buy the cable.

Is america really getting stupider by the day?

[WaltM]

Yeah what's the issue here.....they would have to go out of their way to bring cable to that customer, so they give the customer a price. If the customer doesn't like it.....don't buy the cable.

Is america really getting stupider by the day?

did you just wake up yesterday?

[Live_Free_Or_Die]

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_15572495

The truly outrageous part is that Time Warner is actually trying to defend their position here with a straight face, pointing out that customers need to bear part of the burden of installation costs...as though laying an extra 100 feet of cable actually costs such an absurd amount.

Perhaps the Town of Lee should consider not giving a cable company a damn monopoly contract in the first place? :rolleyes:

Nearest pole 300 feet from the house, 1/2 mile of cabling needs installed, remote area. $12k is not a RG6 or RG11 job quote. A $12k quote sounds like it includes necessary a plant extension in order to get enough signal further down the node. These type of quotes usually take time to prepare and they are done by upper management and engineers because it is a construction project.


Obviously Time Warner Cable can't be sure the customer will remain a customer long enough to pay off the install. Running a a half mile of cable can be a very expensive proposition -- especially if the carrier has to bury the line.

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Those-Last-Few-Broadband-Feet-Can-Cost-You-109484

Time Warner has plant engineering maps starting from the fiber to copper transition working throughout the nodes. They know how much theoretical signal they have to work with at every tap, line extender, or amplifier along each node.

If it is a remote area at the end of a node I could see $$$ in the thousands easy. By the time you put in another pole(this guy prolly don't want a pole in his yard and some of the $12k is likely underground expense), bring in lineman crew, splicer, and a sweep tech to hang the .650 copper, splice in a tap, rework the node splicing in new line extenders or amplifiers, and then have sweep techs install the pads to balance it.

After all that is done, then they can send out the guy to do the $35 install.

[Zippyjuan]

Maybe he should have gotten a dish instead.

[sevin]

Maybe he should have gotten a dish instead.

this

[BuddyRey]

the city can sanction them, SWEET.

remember kids, you have no RIGHT to anybody's cable service. They have every right to charge you what they want.

Agreed, but it's also true that no government has the right to grant monopoly privilege to a utility company, which is what this whole thing is really about. Exclusivity contracts eliminate competition letting huge corporate monoliths get even bigger and less efficient. The consumer is the one who loses out in the end, not to mention all those other companies that would love to sell a similar product for much cheaper.

[torchbearer]

fiber optics cost about a dollar a foot.

[parocks]

We have a quote from Time Warner for $16k. We're on a private road. In our development, we have underground utilities. Much of the cost in our case is the cost of digging the trench. We can cut down the cost if we hire someone ourselves to dig the trench who can do it cheaper than who Time Warner hires.

I don't have the detailed understanding that you do, but I do know that we aren't talking about simply stretching a 1/2 mile of coaxial cable. Apparently at least one of those long black metal things that you see on the poles is needed.

The real problem we have, besides the fact that we live on a private road and Time Warner basically doesn't want to do the install cheaply in hopes that people will sign up, is that we have 8 houses here, and people in the neighborhood have been figuring out their own solutions at different times, so now are locked into contracts for things like satellite, wireless 3g, and those contracts make it more difficult for the other people in the neighborhood to pull the trigger on their share of the install costs. In our case, it's $16k for 8 houses, $2k a piece. Expensive, but when it comes time to sell the house, it's difficult to tell a potential buyer that
it's going to cost them $16k to get cable.



Nearest pole 300 feet from the house, 1/2 mile of cabling needs installed, remote area. $12k is not a RG6 or RG11 job quote. A $12k quote sounds like it includes necessary a plant extension in order to get enough signal further down the node. These type of quotes usually take time to prepare and they are done by upper management and engineers because it is a construction project.



Time Warner has plant engineering maps starting from the fiber to copper transition working throughout the nodes. They know how much theoretical signal they have to work with at every tap, line extender, or amplifier along each node.

If it is a remote area at the end of a node I could see $$$ in the thousands easy. By the time you put in another pole(this guy prolly don't want a pole in his yard and some of the $12k is likely underground expense), bring in lineman crew, splicer, and a sweep tech to hang the .650 copper, splice in a tap, rework the node splicing in new line extenders or amplifiers, and then have sweep techs install the pads to balance it.

After all that is done, then they can send out the guy to do the $35 install.

[dannno]

According to the article it sounds like Time Warner agreed to provide cable service to everybody who already had electricity and telephone service.

[WaltM]

We have a quote from Time Warner for $16k. We're on a private road. In our development, we have underground utilities. Much of the cost in our case is the cost of digging the trench. We can cut down the cost if we hire someone ourselves to dig the trench who can do it cheaper than who Time Warner hires.

I don't have the detailed understanding that you do, but I do know that we aren't talking about simply stretching a 1/2 mile of coaxial cable. Apparently at least one of those long black metal things that you see on the poles is needed.


what area do you reside if it's OK to ask?

[WaltM]

According to the article it sounds like Time Warner agreed to provide cable service to everybody who already had electricity and telephone service.

agreed to provide, not agreed to give for free, right?

[parocks]

what area do you reside if it's OK to ask?

Maine

[WaltM]

Maine

look at the bright side, it's some rare, uncorporatized virgin land.

[cindy25]

the city can sanction them, SWEET.

remember kids, you have no RIGHT to anybody's cable service. They have every right to charge you what they want.

they don't have the right to charge whatever they want because they are a monopoly.

if anyone could open a cable company then they could charge what they want.

and its not rational 200 feet - $35
300 feet - $12,000

that is insane

[WaltM]

they don't have the right to charge whatever they want because they are a monopoly.


Why don't they have a right to be a monopoly?




if anyone could open a cable company then they could charge what they want.


You CAN open a competitor, in fact, you can do the construction to meet TW halfway if you wanted to.





and its not rational 200 feet - $35
300 feet - $12,000

that is insane

you have a right to not buy it, or move to a more accessible area.

[TNforPaul45]

Wow...I hope they get a years free pay per view for that kind of bill. Sheesh.

Or some popcorn coupons.

[WaltM]

Wow...I hope they get a years free pay per view for that kind of bill. Sheesh.

Or some popcorn coupons.

I think that kind of a fee is just another way of saying "we'd really rather not have your business, don't make us, trust me, you don't want to pay for that"

[TNforPaul45]

I think that kind of a fee is just another way of saying "we'd really rather not have your business, don't make us, trust me, you don't want to pay for that"

Yeah really. Imagine all the books that $12,000 could buy? Or DVDs?

I can never ever imagine needing the Idiot Box so much that I would pay that much money for it.

[WaltM]

Yeah really. Imagine all the books that $12,000 could buy? Or DVDs?

I can never ever imagine needing the Idiot Box so much that I would pay that much money for it.

which begs the question

are dishes, DSL internet, alternative options?

[LibertyRevolution]

you will need:

300ft Cable (I like this cable, it has the +/- on it to power the signal amp)
http://www.cablesforless.com/p-2576-cctv-camera-cable-500-foot-spool-black.aspx?v=2610

amplifier
http://www.abccables.com/200-650.html

termination kit
http://www.amazon.com/Platinum-Tools-Coaxial-Termination-Kit/dp/B000WP33W0

splitter
http://www.yourbroadbandstore.com/product.php?pid=701775

utility pole
http://cgi.ebay.com/Pole-Telephone-Electric-Lodge-Pole-Ropes-Course-/290456563556?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a08f6f64

how to put up pole:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4675971_put-up-utility-pole.html

Total: $350

you may also want:
a ladder
night vision
bolt cutters
and a sound sleeping neighbor.

[specsaregood]

Yeah really. Imagine all the books that $12,000 could buy? Or DVDs?

I can never ever imagine needing the Idiot Box so much that I would pay that much money for it.

Except the guy is not primarily interested in the "idiot box".
It says in the article:


Williams is most interested in Time Warner's high-speed Internet access for his home-based business.


I fail to see how buying books or dvds instead will help him run his business. :)

The guy could just call their bluff. Their contract states that they will run it 200ft for the $35 install. He should put a little shed up 200ft down his drive, have them install it there. Then run it the rest of the way himself :)