Charter Squeezes More Money Out of Internet Users With New Cancellation Policy (arstechnica.com) 104
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Charter is making it more expensive to cancel its Spectrum Internet service, as it will begin charging customers for the full month after they cancel instead of providing a prorated final bill. Charter broke the news to customers in the fine print of their latest billing statements. Stop the Cap reported the change yesterday, and we were able to confirm it on the May billing statement received by an Ars staffer in Texas who subscribes to a triple-play package with Spectrum TV, phone, and Internet service.
"Effective on or after June 23, 2019 and consistent with the Terms and Conditions of Service, Spectrum will no longer provide a pro rata credit for services sold on a monthly basis that are cancelled prior to the end of the current billing month," the notice to customers says. Under these terms, a customer is better off canceling right at the end of a billing period. But customers will inevitably pay for days of service that they don't use if they move out of their homes early or midway through a billing period. Depending on when a new occupant moves in and starts up service, there may be cases when Charter collects from two customers at the same home for nearly a month.
"Effective on or after June 23, 2019 and consistent with the Terms and Conditions of Service, Spectrum will no longer provide a pro rata credit for services sold on a monthly basis that are cancelled prior to the end of the current billing month," the notice to customers says. Under these terms, a customer is better off canceling right at the end of a billing period. But customers will inevitably pay for days of service that they don't use if they move out of their homes early or midway through a billing period. Depending on when a new occupant moves in and starts up service, there may be cases when Charter collects from two customers at the same home for nearly a month.
or you can get out your contract right now with no (Score:3)
or you can get out your contract right now with no EFT and likely with full prorating
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I don't have any problem with them charging for the full month at the end of a month-to-month service. Way better than the days when you got locked into 2 year "special" pricing with early termination fees.
Re:or you can get out your contract right now with (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't have any problem with them charging for the full month at the end of a month-to-month service. .
Why don't you have any problem with them charging for service they aren't providing? There's no business justification for charging to the end of the month, it's just a way to squeeze more money out of customers.
Way better than the days when you got locked into 2 year "special" pricing with early termination fees
Ahh, so you're happy to just be moderately screwed over instead of fully screwed over?
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Why are you buying service you won't use?
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"Why don't you have any problem with them charging for service they aren't providing? "
Why are you buying service you won't use?
Because for many people they have no choice. For example, my only (non-mobile) internet provider choice is my local cable company. I tried to get DSL as a backup (which would have been slow "up to 1.5mbit" service), they sent an installer out before determining that there was a "pair gain" device between me and the central option so I can't even get DSL.
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There's no business justification for charging to the end of the month
That's not entirely true, there are a number of business justifications, it's just that most all of them boil down to legalized laziness.
Note that "business justification" means nothing about consumer friendliness, it means justifying an end goal of making more money.
By definition that often leads to the exact opposite of customer friendly. In the case of a monopoly, I would say 100% of the time since a pissed off customer can't choose another option.
First off, charging at the end of the month for services
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First off, charging at the end of the month for services just rendered can run into a situation where money is owed but payment isn't made (declined cards, etc)
So charging in advance and only providing service for the payments actually rendered is the better option.
Do you work for Charter? This is the most convoluted justification imaginable.
They don't need to charge a daily or hourly rate to allow for prorated refunds, they can just say, if you terminate before the end of the month, we'll prorate based on the number of days remaining in that month, minus a 5% transaction fee to cover the cost of refunding to your payment method. So if you terminate on January 20th, you get 11/31 prorated back.
It's not like they have to build a refund process just for this, every pro
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They are selling their product by the month.
Did you want a pay by the days plan ?
Re: or you can get out your contract right now wit (Score:1)
No... I want pay by the femtosecond. Billed till the beginning of my call to cancel, rounded to the nearest picosecond.
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Let's hear it for Monopolies! (Score:2)
It's companies like this that make alternatives so much more attractive.
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Just stop paying them. Fuck em.
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Isn't TDS the same company that dragged their feet on fiber in Monticello, and then when the city tried to build their own, sued and built it under their noses while having them hog tied in court?
Re:Let's hear it for Monopolies! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's companies like this that make alternatives so much more attractive.
If there were viable alternatives, companies couldn't get away with stuff like this.
Shady (Score:3)
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In the grand scheme of things to be upset about, this falls right into the middle of "meh" territory.
I only have so much outrage to go around.
Re: Shady (Score:1)
+1 for meh.
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Given my experiences with Spectrum fraudulently billing me for 12 months and refusing to provide the equipment and service they claimed they were billing me for until I had my CC company issue a chargeback, I wouldn't put it past them.
I've posted about their practices before.
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I've had Charter for years, with only rare and relatively minor service issues. But "Spectrum" is branding for a more recent conglomeration of a number of completely different providers. So someone may have had bad experiences with Time-Warner, for instance, and call out "Spectrum," even though it's now under different control/management.
So, when did this happen, and what were they called at the time?
Re: Shady (Score:3)
Spectrum is Charter here. This was over the course of 2018. Charged $5 a month for a router and "wifi" that they kept saying they'd send out and never did. I finally got fed up with it, because $60 was enough to get me to spend 3 hours on the phone arguing, ultimately ending in a call to my credit card company. They didn't give me any hassle, and magically, I got a call back from Spectrum about how they'd changed their tune entirely.
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The main impact is on people with limited income (Score:2)
The main impact of these policies is on people with limited income, like the elderly, who often stop their service to save money while visiting family outside the area for extended periods of time. This effectively makes that impossible.
This is a great example of a situation where communities should just pass laws that make the new policies illegal. It is unconscionable that a company should be allowed to charge money for services not rendered.
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who often stop their service to save money while visiting family outside the area for extended periods of time. This effectively makes that impossible..
That's absurd to outright cancel when there's re-connect fees and all that whatnot to start back up. Just call and suspend the service for n months. Even if there is a 6 month limit or somesuch just call after 6 months and suspend again.
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I would assume that the lack of prorating applies whether you're suspending or canceling.
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That's the thing with assumptions, they don't make for valid arguments.
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Assuming that this old person has a normal bill of $100/month for internet...
You're saying that:
He needs to go see his family, as old people do. But he. needs. to. stop. his. internet? while? doing so? Because if he leaves his house on day 15 of the month, and returns on the 1st of the next month, he'll still be charged the same amount that he normally pays, but now, suddenly, it's an. extra. cost??
I'm so trying to work out a way that he loses $50, but I just can't. If he's doing this every year, and reg
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You don't render service as paid for, you will be giving me my money back, end of story.
If I cancel on day 2 of the month, you may have me on the contract till the end of the month, but if I'm so much as cut off an hour early, I'm issuing a chargeback to do my own prorating.
Been there, done it, and I'll do it again the next time a company tries to take advantage of me.
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Limited as used colloquially to mean "low", not by the strict mathematical definition, meaning "bounded". And the reason it is relevant to the subject is that most people stop worrying a
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Not saying it's not a valid strategy, but before doing this, make sure you already own your house and car, and have all the credit cards you ever want to use. Your credit rating will look like an IQ when they're done with you...
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dont sign up for auto bullshit and when you get the bill throw it in the trash. Since you were billed for a period in which no services were rendered there is no debt between parties.
That's a great way to get sent to collections.
Could be worse... (Score:2)
...I just got done cancelling my ViaSat (formerly Exede) Satellite Internet service**. They require that you not only ship the modem back, but also the feedhorn off the dish itself (they do offer to come out and do that for you, for a "nominal" - read $$$ - cost.) Climbing onto the roof to grab that chunk of gear was no big deal from my end, but I can see older and disabled folks not enjoying the inevitable costs that would be incurred. Oh, and failure to do this will cost you $300, at least according to th
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Looks like I need to get off my backside, cut that cord, and go internet only ASAP.
No, today is the 7th. Wait 3 weeks.
Lol, no (Score:2)
Depending on when a new occupant moves in and starts up service, there may be cases when Charter collects from two customers at the same home for nearly a month.
Apparently the author isn't aware of how leases or cable companies work. I'm struggling to come up with any scenario where someone moves after the 1st of the month, someone else moves in the next day, and the cable company shows up the day after that to connect everything. Maybe the lease runs the 15th to the 15th of each month, someone moves out on the 10th, and someone on the 15th comes in and gets cable set up. But even that's not going to be common, and that's only a week or two of double-billing rather
Re:Lol, no (Score:4, Informative)
Are you retarded? Yes, you are.
Someone moves out on the 1st and cancels service, but pays through the end of the month.
Someone else moves in on the 2nd and starts service, paying for the whole months (or nearly all of it if they graciously prorate).
Adjust your dates as you see fit, but you can easily get 3 full weeks out of it, which I'd call "nearly a month".
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Then he's a bad landlord or has horrible tenants who destroy their apartments. We have a 3 day turn around and one day of that is purely to air out the paint smell if we need to paint. The organized tenants call before they move in to schedule their utilities to be installed on the same day they move in. People don't want to be without internet access. Replacing the carpet after each tenant is a waste of money and billing the tenant for that is an illegal use of the security deposit.
It's illegal for us
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When I moved into the house I now live in, the previous owners literally moved out two days before. Of course, since they owned the place it was also in their best interests that they were cleaning it up in the weeks leading up to moving.
Sad state of affairs (Score:3)
The worst part of this is that Charter is the best provider I've ever had in the US, and I've had a bunch of them. I would quit them in a minute if I had better options. Where I live they are the only possible provider other than wireless (I do not live in a rural area). The people down the street can get AT&T (which sucks) and some people paid a bundle to get some satellite shit (which also sucks) but for some reason, neither of those options is available on my block. So I have sucky Charter, and I'm lucky to have sucky Charter.
Small Monthly Fees (Score:1)
Internet Fee: 9.99
Early Termination Fee: $99.99
Early Payment Fee: 0.99
Late Payment Fee: 25.00
Fee Payment Fee: 5.00
Fee Payment Recovery Fee : $1.25
Fee Payment Recovery Fee Surcharge: $1.25
Fee Payment Recovery Fee Surcharge Levy: $1.25
Fee Payment Recovery Fee Surcharge Premium: $1.25
Convenience Fee: $5.00
Bandwidth Fee
Packet Fee
Internet Fee
Government Fee
Non-Government Fee
+
+
+
lessons from moviepass? (Score:2)
sounds like they have been getting lessons from moviepass on how to rip off their customers.
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They do if you call and complain.
Credit Cards, Bank Accounts and Autopay (Score:2)
This is why I don't leave a card on file, or a bank account, if I can help it. And I NEVER use "autopay".
If they want to play games like that, I'll just let it go to collections. I don't care about my credit rating, because I pretty much have everything I need.
Re:Credit Cards, Bank Accounts and Autopay opt out (Score:3)
Make SURE to call the credit card companies and your bank (debit cards) and make sure you tell them you want to Opt Out of the "Visa Account Updater" and the "Mastercard Automatic Billing Updater". I'm not sure what Discover calls theirs as I don't have one of their cards.
If you don't know what these are - YOU SHOULD! Research them - they are NOT good for consumers! These things are a GOD SEND for fraudsters!
They allow merchants to have Visa/Mastercard send updated CC info. So if your CC expires and they ca
A legal alternative exists (Locast) (Score:2)
First of all, a legal alternative exists. Locast ( https://www.locast.org/ [locast.org] ) will let you stream local TV channels to your internet device or computer for free. They're a non profit, so please support them!
I used them to watch the last 15 minutes of the last superbowl at home after leaving a party at a friend's house. No lag and beautiful clarity on my TV (via Kodi) and phone (via app).
Second, I don't think Charter charging people for a few extra weeks is going to get people to stay with cable TV.
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Anonymous cowards are always the bravest of people.
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So Happy (Score:1)