Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I would also advise buying your own cable modem rather than paying the rental fee. It will put you better off financially 99.999% of the time. (The only case where it wouldn't is if the modem breaks right out of warranty.)
I have to disagree 100%. Renting a modem is a waste of money. There is no scenario where they are increasing technology so fast that the cost of owning vs renting a modem is getting outpaced by their overpriced service charge.
I bought a nice *used* modem for $50 5 years ago and I am still using it today and handles our 20 Mbps service just fine. Even from the not-truly-20Mbps service Charter sends and the wifi hop to my laptop i still register something like 17Mbps download usually (and that's more than enough right now, even considering how much media we stream in HD).
If I rented a modem for $10/month for the past 5 years I would have spent $600 where I only spent $50. If I have to get a new modem in the next couple years, so be it. I'll spend another $50-$100 max and be set for years while it would pay for itself in 5-10 months. I would also never get cable internet service from someone who doesn't let you provide your own modem unless it is included for free in an already competitive price. IMO it's just one of the areas where cable companies try and make extra money (like "wire-maintenance" fees). If for some weird reason you DO rent a modem from someone like Charter, make sure you are getting a new model modem. I've helped people set up routers before (people that weren't comfortable doing it themselves) after they signed up for new Charter service and the Charter tech installed a 4 or 5 year old modem. If you're going to overpay that much you might as well push to get a very new one when they initially set up the service at least.
I'm only going by what happened to me. Twice. To each his own.
Unfortunately I think you have just had really bad luck apparently :P
I agree. Based on what Charter has given me recently for a leased modem, I could spend $50 and get the same exact model off the internet, which would put me ahead of the game after my two year contract. I have never had charter have to come out and change my modem due to advances in technology, and i've used them for years. Basically I'm saying I could save myself money but I've been lazy thusfar, lol
When I had At&t, I used my own netgear modem+router combo, the only downside being that I had to do my own tech support, because anytime anything went wrong they blamed my equipment, even though it really was never my equipment! .
Yesterday I received a piece of mail from Charter. I opened it up wondering what in the heck it was because I pay online and it's rare Charter sends me mail in a window envelope.
After opening it and reading it, I was in shock.
This is what the letter stated:
It's our privilege to serve you, and we truly appreciate your business.
In your billing statement last month, you were informed that a promotional discount on one or more of your services was set to expire. At Charter, we want to deliver outstanding value at a fair price. To prove it, we are providing you with a special discount.
You have been selected to receive a discount of $39.00 off of the standard price for another 12 months.
No action is required on your part to receive this price. The discount will appear on your bill. It is our way of saying thank you for being a great customer.
Sincerely,
Your friends at Charter
Each year I dreaded having to call and fight once again to be put on another promo. Sometimes I'd end up speaking to 4-5 reps until I got one that would agree to give me another deal. So this letter put me in shock that I get a year off of fighting with them. This is the first letter like this I've ever gotten from them in over 15 years of signing up with Charter.
So this letter put me in shock that I get a year off of fighting with them. This is the first letter like this I've ever gotten from them in over 15 years of signing up with Charter.
It is indeed a shocker. When UVerse came to town, they actually cut my bill by $5, probably because of the competition. They've since gone back up by just more than $5. Your letter might be an industry reaction to the move to cut the cable, now that there are so many other ways to get video entertainment.
Wow, I just received my first statement after the above discount letter . I figured the discount would just keep me on the same promo but heck, I have a 15.00 discount from prior promo. That's unbelievable. There must be some competition on the horizon or like is mentioned upthread more people are doing without cable and finding other ways of viewing video/shows. My internet and TV/DVR is 85.00 total.
I'm just still in disbelief that Charter actually offered a discount. That's just unheard of.
We just tried to switch our satellite TV and home phone to Charter (already had their internet). What a nightmare. After four service calls (two of which they didn't even show up for, although scheduled), I told them to pack their stuff up and leave. We kept the internet, only because we don't have good alternatives in Spartanburg. A completely incompetent install team that could not get us a good enough signal for their multi-room DVR service, that then left our internet disconnected, even though it had been fast, and fine, before they came to hook up the TV and phone. Their excuse was, and I quote "We don't know how the internet worked so well before, but it's not working now. It should never have been working that well." Then they had the gall to show up unannounced, and unscheduled, two weeks later, to try to hook the TV service up again.
I'd have a hard time trusting anything that came out of that company right now.
We just tried to switch our satellite TV and home phone to Charter (already had their internet). What a nightmare. After four service calls (two of which they didn't even show up for, although scheduled), I told them to pack their stuff up and leave. We kept the internet, only because we don't have good alternatives in Spartanburg. A completely incompetent install team that could not get us a good enough signal for their multi-room DVR service, that then left our internet disconnected, even though it had been fast, and fine, before they came to hook up the TV and phone. Their excuse was, and I quote "We don't know how the internet worked so well before, but it's not working now. It should never have been working that well." Then they had the gall to show up unannounced, and unscheduled, two weeks later, to try to hook the TV service up again.
I'd have a hard time trusting anything that came out of that company right now.
were they Charter employees or contractors? The employees tend to be much better than the contractors in my experience.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
