Sunday, April 15, 2012

Is Time-Warner cable scaming people?

I'm really getting tired of what I consider to be deceptive advertising with cable companies and the internet service they provide people. Used to be when they said you would get 'up to' a certain speed, it was an honest statement since you don't always get the maximum speed of your internet connection due to technical issues beyond their control.

Now 'up to' basically means they can give you whatever speed they want.

Here is an ad on one of the TW portal website advertising their internet packages:
TURBO INTERNET SPEEDS UP TO 20Mbps

but when you scroll down on the same page, it says:
Download Speed: Up to 10 Mbps

Hmm, up to 20mb and up to 10mb. This would be like buying a car where it says the MPG is 15 or maybe it's 30.

But it gets worse. I used their online chat to ask them about this. And they told me that the up to 10mb is a mistake, that I would really get 20mb. They told me this TWICE. Because I asked before I signed up, and then I asked again after I signed up for their service and discovered I was NOT getting 20mb, I was getting 10. Lo and behold when I called, I'm now told I have to pay an additional $10 to get 20mb.

Not only does it appear as though they are lying, but I think they are actually stealing your money. Because they offer a standard internet of 'up to' 10mb for $34.95 and then the turbo of up to 20 but really up to 10 for $44.95. So I really have no idea what extra you are getting for the extra $10 upgrading from the standard to the turbo, since it looks as though you really get the same speeds from both. Unless when they say 'up to' 10mb on the standard package, that really means you get 5mb.

I'm attaching an image of the chat convo showing the rep confirming that the turbo package should be 20mb.