Dam TWC charging modem lease fee now

I've been with TWC for years, tho I hate them with a passion! I live in a housing development and I'm forced to use them. Management does not allow for any other service provider that will mount a dish on the roof or window

I started off with the all-in-one package @ $89. But over the years good things must come to an end and the prices skyrocketed to over $170! I ditched the house phone part since I have a cell, but stayed with the TV and net service. That too has become quite expensive @ $125

They charge a lease fee for using their dam cable TV box & the remote which is lame for the price we pay for that crap, but again I have no choice. For me to watch some decent TV, they have me by the short ones, so I gotta pay.

A few days ago I got a notice that they'll be charging a lease fee for the net modem Something that was free all these years will now be charged. I got fed up with this monopoly they have over us and decided to purchase my own net modem. Picked up a refurbed Motorola SB5101U from fleabay fr $30 shipped. Swapped over lastnite and to tell you the truth The Motorola modem works better than the junkbox I was using previously. Screw TWC and their leasing fees crap! Bad enough they're charging us a fortune and now they want more?

If it wasn't because of my 6 y/o I would just have the super cheapo TV service, but he enjoys his Disney channels and toons and I don't want to take that away from him. Without the dam box I can't get those.

I can't wait to move the hell out so I can get away from Time Warner Cable.

thats why i went with directV and ADSL



in my area neb, it depended on what phase of the adelphia cable absorption you were apart of determined your quality of service.


they stopped running fiber to their NID's in my area when they came through and bought up adelphia :/


i'm happy, some of my friends get botched cable at times, and directv has some great service. TWC .... eh .... when i swapped modems last time it was the "last time" because i spent 6 hours on hold and still didnt get it swapped right. with my ADSL all i need is a different wic.... well, not even now since i got my cisco 1841 with HWIC-1adsl up and running!


for me, the speed isnt an issue, its line quality for me but billing is bull**** too

I would just like a nice balance, but of course price is a concern. I mean c'mon if I'm paying so much, the least they can do is allow us to use the dam equipment for free instead of charging for that too.

I remember way back the plan you chose determined if you had to pay to use the equipment or not:

Basic= equipment charge
Standard= 1/2 equipment charge
Plus/Ultimate= Free

Now it isn't like that anymore. And their prices aren't reasonable either. In the last year the prices went up, yet the quality of equipment is junk and the line service is shotty at best. I'm always loosing connections and my speed drops regularly.

can you not get att uverse dsl there?the wireless on their modem router thing they gave me died after like two months lol but it still works for wired connections just used my belkin router as a wireless switch

Uverse is not available in my area. I wanted Verizon Fios, but that's not available in my area either

So unless I move, I'm stuck

Nebulous said:

I would just like a nice balance, but of course price is a concern. I mean c'mon if I'm paying so much, the least they can do is allow us to use the dam equipment for free instead of charging for that too.

I remember way back the plan you chose determined if you had to pay to use the equipment or not:

Basic= equipment charge
Standard= 1/2 equipment charge
Plus/Ultimate= Free

Now it isn't like that anymore. And their prices aren't reasonable either. In the last year the prices went up, yet the quality of equipment is junk and the line service is shotty at best. I'm always loosing connections and my speed drops regularly.

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its the modem :/ the bad thing is, once you return yours it will be thrown into a "reuse" pile. that goes with the DVR's, and any equipment that can be recycled.


usually these modems are under powered, under (power) powered and made as cheap as possible to maximize profits.

i had a zytel ADSL modem that was like that, the power supply didn't provide enough juice and would reset frequently.



its a shame, because consumer grade broadband modems perform much higher than the average ISP provided unit. it used to be everything was on par :/ not anymore.

Nebulous said:

Uverse is not available in my area. I wanted Verizon Fios, but that's not available in my area either

So unless I move, I'm stuck

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until (or if) google expands their gig fiber plan

seriously, google is going to be a major threat to TWC, and the likes. where else are you going to get a straight gig for under $100 / mo.

The problem is, IMO, that the equipment costs a ton. If you 'lose' a box its a few hundred dollars (HD DVR) to replace. Ive been 'leasing' my boxes and modems for years (without a problem, it is what it is to me), so be thankful they are just now doing it.

EarthDog said:

The problem is, IMO, that the equipment costs a ton. If you 'lose' a box its a few hundred dollars (HD DVR) to replace. Ive been 'leasing' my boxes and modems for years (without a problem, it is what it is to me), so be thankful they are just now doing it.

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i have been too, my directV box was dying and i found out a heating / cooling issue was happening on that particular model, i bought the insurance and they replaced it free of charge.


it was very easy

I understand it costs them to purchase/lease, but for the customer purchasing a particular service package it should be free. It also should be the company's responsibility to repair/replace the box incase of failure. Besides it's not costing them a bundle anyways as they get them in bulk, plus I bet they have a standing order with them aside from sharing the profits with them. I'll bet it only costs them $10 per unit and they're charging us $35 for the fees to use it, not to own it. When we cancel the service the unit goes back to them. They refurb it and it goes on to the next sucker inline.

I can't tell you how many times I've got a used box when getting new service when I moved.

Now if the customer damages said unit it's the customer's responsibility to pay for repairs, or if it's stolen they have to pay to replace it.


It's just wrong to charge us an outrageous fee ontop of the service we're already paying for

Well, if the unit breaks, they replace it.. at least the companies I have used...and assuming you are renting/leasing the box of course.

Actually, the per unit cost for the cable company to buy was around $125 for an HD DVR w dual tuner last I knew (about 6 years ago IIRC - my wife worked for a contractor of comcast and then went internal). Obviously if its just a basic box it was a lot less and of course the monthly charge is too.

I pay $15 for the HDDVR w/multiroom and $5 for a simple HD box upstairs (maybe $10?). Or, I believe you can buy the boxes (THAT is the outrage as far as pricing IMO) and pray the box doesnt break as its unsupported throughout its life... and who here hasnt had a cable box break on them? Im good with the meager fee to have no worries on my boxes I guess.

I got lucky and found out about the modem lease early and was able to buy one off the forums here for pretty cheap. Here is a tip for you guys that have twc that fell off promotion prices and getting stiffed with the higher rates. You can go to their website and click to talk to someone with live chat and tell them you want a price adjustment for whatever promotions they are running. For example I was paying $29 for 10mpbs internet and after a year it went up to like $40-45. I called and the phone rep said sorry there isn't anything we can do. Promotion prices are only for new customers. For some reason I had the idea to do the live chat to see if it was possible to get the lower promotion price and it worked. Have done this for the last 2 years. Phone rep said no but rep off of live chat said sure.

Yep, TWC did the same thing to my parents, they picked a modem off of newegg and gave TWC's back to them

I've got a discount deal through the university on our high speed interent with TWC, had it 5+ years so far, just waiting for them to tell up we have to pay a rental fee for our modem too...

I'm getting hit with a fee as well. Looks like I'll be buying a modem too.

By the way, you can hit this link, enter in your zip code, and get a list of approved modems.

dark_15 said:

I'm getting hit with a fee as well. Looks like I'll be buying a modem too.

By the way, you can hit this link, enter in your zip code, and get a list of approved modems.

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You don't have the get the modems that they link, just has to be either DOCSIS 2 or 3 depending on your plan. All they have on the link are Motorola modems when right now I'm using a Linksys and its working just as well as the modem they sent. To be honest I'm pretty sure its the same modem i returned to them just that mine now says linksys. Both modem that i returned and have now were made by cisco.

I've got an old Surfboard model from 2006 in the closet.

It only supports 30/30 theoretically marketed at that time (DOCSIS 3, 1 channel), but I might have to break it out now (have 15/1) if we're getting hit with a fee too.

Or I'll just sell it for a few $$ to someone that needs a cheap one and buy something more recent.

Mohu + Netflix + Hulu + Cable internet = 50 bux a month. There is maybe a handful of channel on cable that one would watch but who have time to watch them consistently anymore?

Trust me, I have a 3 and 4 y/o and they have a blast with Netflix/Hulu. Blues clue, leapfrog, Dora, Diego so on and so forth. So my advice is just get high speed internet from TW only or another provider and screw cable.

DBZ said:

Mohu + Netflix + Hulu + Cable internet = 50 bux a month. There is maybe a handful of channel on cable that one would watch but who have time to watch them consistently anymore?

Trust me, I have a 3 and 4 y/o and they have a blast with Netflix/Hulu. Blues clue, leapfrog, Dora, Diego so on and so forth. So my advice is just get high speed internet from TW only or another provider and screw cable.

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What cable internet are you using?

The cable internet alone here is $55 a month for standard 15/1, $75 for 30/5, $85 for 50/5.

768/128 kbps is a whopping $30 by itself.

Neb you silly arse you still crying about this. LOL. Neb called me up on this and chewed me out like I had something to do with it. I work for TWC in San Antonio and I know it sucks but just about all other markets make you pay for their modem upfront. When I was with DSL I had to buy my modem. Anywho TWC is just trying to keep even with the game. If you use our modem and it goes out then yeah we will replace it. Hell if you break it most times we will still just replace it (option to charge you for it but normally we dont) If you buy your own modem then its on you to fix/replace it if needed. Same goes with out stetop boxes but here there is no buy your own option. The boxes have to be staged at our facilities in order to work within our system. Due to the security measures embedded within them to prevent UN-authorized service. This is a FCC regulation not ours. Plus there is a **** ton of ppl out there who think they need a 3.0 modem for RRlite services lmao 3.0 is only really warranted for speeds OVER 20Mbps but this is driving up our costs in keeping stocks of equipment on hand.



edit: cable boxes now run in the 350$ per unit price now a days. Thats for the HDDVR of course with std boxes a bit lower.

Southern California/TWC Internet $36 for 10/1.