Tucked inside my latest Time Warner bill was a notice of upcoming increases to the cost of their services.

We have become so accustomed to the unchecked incremental increases to these fees that I turned the page over to see how much this latest round was going to raise our monthly bill. What I found literally stopped me in my tracks.

In addition to the usual increase of a dollar here and a dollar there on the “packages,” near the bottom of the Equipment Fee schedule was an increase on “The Guide” from 55 cents per month to $3.27, just 3 pennies shy of a 500 percent increase of this feature, which allows us to search for and select the channel we wish to watch.

Incredulous, I called a Time Warner representative to find out what possible change to this service could justify such a huge increase.

Pity the poor reps who will have to answer these customer calls. His answer was that the charge reflected the costs of the amount of “bandwidth” that the daily updates required.

We are all familiar with the complaints that people are experiencing bandwidth deprivation when the world starts to download their Netflix shows after dinner each evening. But can’t Time Warner schedule their updates to run at, say, 3 a.m., when most of the world is sleeping, and the pipeline looks like the Maine Turnpike at the same time?

You will also note a new fee at the bottom of $2.25 for access to broadcast TV. Wow, I thought I was already paying that in the increases to my TV package.

Enough of this tirade. It’s time to cut the cable.

Andy Stickney

Cape Elizabeth

 

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