TWC Poll - you might want to vote

hitokiri

This was passed on to me, therefore I am passing it on to you.

Dear Time Warner Cable Colleagues:
It’s that time of year again. I’m not talking about the approaching holidays. I’m talking about tough negotiations with programmers.
As you know, the prices we pay programmers to distribute their networks have been rising dramatically for years. The prices we pay them directly affect the prices we have to charge our customers. No one likes paying more, especially today. But the reality is our contracts with several programmers expire at the end of the year, and their renewal demands are even more egregious than usual. They’re demanding we pay up to 300% more or they’ll pull the plug on their shows for our customers.
So, tomorrow we’re launching a campaign called “Roll Over Or Get Tough.” We’ve been through difficult negotiations before, but these are shaping up to be some of our toughest ever. We’ll have to make some hard choices—choices that ultimately will affect our customers. So, while we continue to negotiate with programmers for reasonable prices, we’re taking this issue directly to our subscribers.
The campaign will feature TV commercials, newspaper ads and a new website, www.RollOverOrGetTough.com, that will launch tomorrow at noon EDT. We’ll explain the issue and ask customers what they think we should do. And, if we end up having to get tough with any programmers, we’ll enlist their help.
I know you often get the brunt of customers’ anger when programming disputes affect them and what they watch on TV, so I wanted you to hear about this program from me. I encourage you to visit the site and voice your opinion. I also encourage you to share with family, friends and customers that, with their help, we believe we can convince the networks to be reasonable. We’re fighting for our customers.
Thank you in advance for your assistance with this campaign. I’ll keep you posted on our progress, including updates on our intranet, Channel You.
Glenn

jimmy

Subject: Re: TWC Poll - you might want to vote

hitokiri wrote: I also encourage you to share with family, friends and customers that, with their help, we believe we can convince the networks to be reasonable. We’re fighting for our customers.

What a bunch of pure BS.

hitokiri

lol

we. doesnt matter what you believe on why they are doing it, but i know *I* dont want my bill higher

squindar

The only way for your cable bill to not go higher is to cancel your service, which is what I'm planning to do. I can get the content I want to watch via alternative sources and pay far, far less than what TW wants to extort from me on a monthly basis.

8thandprez

What Time Warner needs is some serious competition to realize that #1: They charge too much. #2: Their customer service sucks. #3: Their technology is way subpar (as far as archaic DVR and cable guide interfaces are concerned). If people had other choices I think Time Warner would be far more motivated to get their act together. Screw em.

hitokiri

....

i am in no way defending prices for any cable company (i would love to see A la carte and watch as 5 MTV stations go bye bye), but isnt TWC like... 3rd or 4th in the running?

It seems they have competition.
Also, TIVO aside (since that is a separate service and CAN be used with any cable company), I have used cable visions and Comcasts DVRs.... omg talk about atari 8-bit days lol

DirectTV has a nice layout and since its satellite, it is considered competition.

TWC's new DVR box (i picked it up) is much faster than their old scientific atlanta DVR's.. i dont know how it compares to the other new stuff now.

Anyway, cable companies are like monopolies in the sense that you gotta use whats on your block. But thank god DOCSIS 3.0 is coming soon. Streaming my slingbox with a fat upload pipe would rock!

8thandprez

Hey Hitokiri.... you got a new DVR box from TWC? Is it an HD-DVR box? I'd love to get one that isn't Scientific Atlanta (even the name sounds low-tech).

opossumqueen

After our last SA HD-DVR started to flake, it was replaced with their newest model at the time (this was a couple of months ago). I think it's slightly better b/c it has a lot more space than our old SA box (which was a pretty old model) but it still has some "glitches" that I think are box related and not always cable signal related.

It's a Samsung.