# Time Warner LOWERED my Cable Card rental fee



## skaggs (Feb 13, 2003)

In March 2013, TWC sent me a letter telling me they were going to raise my cable card rental rate from $2 per month to $2.50 per month. I've been paying the $2.50 ever since (about 2 years).

Today, I received a letter in the mail from TWC stating they will be LOWERING my cable card rental from $2.50 per month to $1.35 per month.

I'm happy to save the $1.15 a month, but what prompted the change?


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

What is a seasonal CableCARD? Does that only pick up Christmas shows? 

(I suppose they meant secondary or additional.)


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

WTF!

Time Warner Cable reducing a fee? This must be some kind of mistake. I hope they make the same mistake with my CableCard rental fee.


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## abovethesink (Aug 26, 2013)

Same letter and I was coming here to post this thread. I am happy with Time Warner and I feel all wrong about it.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Now if this happened on April first ...


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## mrizzo80 (Apr 17, 2012)

Somebody with access to the TWC billing system for Albany must be a TiVo user.


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## KimHedrick (Oct 12, 2014)

Got the same notification for my account in North Myrtle Beach but not in Charlotte yet. I assume a "seasonal" card is one used by vacationers at their summer or winter home.


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## cannonz (Oct 23, 2011)

KimHedrick said:


> . I assume a "seasonal" card is one used by vacationers at their summer or winter home.


That's exactly what it is.


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## jtdon99 (Oct 26, 2014)

I got the same letter in Feb. from TWC/Oceanic here in Hawaii.
Jim


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Nothing here in Wisconsin region.


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

Meanwhile they undoubtedly are or soon will be raising Internet fees or tv fees.


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## mrizzo80 (Apr 17, 2012)

LoadStar said:


> Nothing here in Wisconsin region.


I'm in Ohio and haven't received anything either.

WAG: people in the areas to be spun-off to Charter (Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Alabama) will NOT receive a letter.


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## leswar (Apr 14, 2005)

Pre-merger positioning. Makes they look good to the Feds.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

jtdon99 said:


> I got the same letter in Feb. from TWC/Oceanic here in Hawaii. Jim


Same here and a mention of it on my last bill too.


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## CinciDVR (May 24, 2014)

skaggs said:


> Today, I received a letter in the mail from TWC stating they will be LOWERING my cable card rental from $2.50 per month to $1.35 per month.


Since it's TWC, I can only assume they screwed up and put the decimal point in the wrong place. In reality your rate is probably going up to $13.50 per month from $2.50 per month. Either that, or this winter was much colder than I thought and he!! has indeed frozen over.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

skaggs said:


> I'm happy to save the $1.15 a month, but what prompted the change?


Trying to look better to get approval for the Comcast merger?


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## ncbill (Sep 1, 2007)

Still $2.50/month here.


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## passname22 (Feb 17, 2015)

it should be illegal to charge 1st cable card. They give out standard box for free so why charge for cable box?


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

passname22 said:


> it should be illegal to charge 1st cable card. They give out standard box for free so why charge for cable box?


Equipment generally is not included in the cost of the cable subscription, except as a limited-time promotion.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

passname22 said:


> it should be illegal to charge 1st cable card. They give out standard box for free so why charge for cable box?


If your cable company gives you the 1st cable box for free, then I think they do have to give you the first CableCard for free. But TWC actually charges for the 1st cable box, except under a few of their introductory offers.


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## passname22 (Feb 17, 2015)

LoadStar said:


> Equipment generally is not included in the cost of the cable subscription, except as a limited-time promotion.


you can't use cable subscription without equipment. So they are forcing you to rent their equipment or pay for cable card which whatever the hell they can charge for. Why would I buy my own equipment(tivo) when cablecard rental fees are not much different from equipment rentals fee. I can see verizon raising cablecard rental fees to $10 in the near future. we need to have LAW with this, if they charge whatever amount for cable card, we should be able to buy our own cablecards and pair it with ur cable service. This is why I support comcast, you can own ur own equipment without any fees


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## The Merg (Dec 2, 2007)

passname22 said:


> you can't use cable subscription without equipment. So they are forcing you to rent their equipment or pay for cable card which whatever the hell they can charge for. Why would I buy my own equipment(tivo) when cablecard rental fees are not much different from equipment rentals fee. I can see verizon raising cablecard rental fees to $10 in the near future. we need to have LAW with this, if they charge whatever amount for cable card, we should be able to buy our own cablecards and pair it with ur cable service. This is why I support comcast, you can own ur own equipment without any fees


I have Verizon and my cable card fee is $5/month.
I only need it for the one Roamio I have and not my Minis. That $5 fee is a heckuva lot less than it would cost be to rent STBs from Verizon.

As for Comcast, where I live, they do charge for renting a cable card to use with your own equipment.

Also, where did you hear that Verizon was going to raise cable card fees to $10/month?

- Merg

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

passname22 said:


> you can't use cable subscription without equipment. So they are forcing you to rent their equipment or pay for cable card which whatever the hell they can charge for. Why would I buy my own equipment(tivo) when cablecard rental fees are not much different from equipment rentals fee. I can see verizon raising cablecard rental fees to $10 in the near future. we need to have LAW with this, if they charge whatever amount for cable card, we should be able to buy our own cablecards and pair it with ur cable service. This is why I support comcast, you can own ur own equipment without any fees


You actually can use a cable subscription without renting any equipment. For example, TWC has a Roku app that lets me stream most of the live TV channels and on-demand content that I pay for as a part of my TWC TV package. I only rent a single CableCard from TWC for $2.50, but I could theoretically turn that CableCard into them and still use my Roku with the TWC app.


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

passname22 said:


> you can't use cable subscription without equipment. So they are forcing you to rent their equipment or pay for cable card which whatever the hell they can charge for.


Correct.


> Why would I buy my own equipment(tivo) when cablecard rental fees are not much different from equipment rentals fee.


In my area, a CableCard is $2.50. A standard set-top box is $12.75, and a DVR is $25.74. That's a considerable difference.


> This is why I support comcast, you can own ur own equipment without any fees


I'm fairly certain that Comcast will *not* activate TV equipment they don't provide. At least, I've never heard of them doing so.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

When I first got Comcast, they charged just for each CableCARD. Then a few months later I got a letter saying there was an error on my bill and they were adding an outlet fee for each CableCARD after the first. Then I changed my plan about 10 months ago, and they stopped charging anything for the CableCARDs and added 5 outlet fees, but with 5 outlet fee credits. I only have two CableCARDs. I have no idea where they got 5 outlets from. I'm not messing with it, because they will find a way to charge me more somehow.


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## Scott J (Oct 5, 2010)

Skaggs, did they actually lower your cable card rate? I'm also in the Albany system and got that letter around the same time. The CC is still showing a $2.50 charge on my latest statement, effective 4/15.


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## cwoody222 (Nov 13, 1999)

Still $2.50 here (and they charged me for 2 outlets... even though I have just 1... and six tuners).

A friend in the same area just got a CableCARD from them and he was quoted $2.69. So I guess a discount in some areas is being offset by an increase here


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## skaggs (Feb 13, 2003)

Scott J said:


> Skaggs, did they actually lower your cable card rate? I'm also in the Albany system and got that letter around the same time. The CC is still showing a $2.50 charge on my latest statement, effective 4/15.


My letter was dated 2/25/15 and said the $1.35 rate would be reflected in my next statement.

When I checked my March and April statements, I was still charged $2.50.

I started a chat with @TWC_Help on Twitter and after a few messages back & forth, they credited me $1.15 for each of the last 2 months and made sure the $1.35 CC charge was set for my May bill.

I should note they initially did not offer to credit my previous bills, but changed their mind when I attached a photo of the letter showing the 2/25/15 date to my tweet.


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## Scott J (Oct 5, 2010)

Interesting. Thanks. After I posted here yesterday, I chatted with @TWC_Help and he said the CC's showing up on my account as $1.35, with yesterday's date on it (which he thought was odd). So he claims my May bill will reflect that price and have a prorated credit for my billing period that starts tomorrow.


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## beartrap (Nov 8, 2005)

LoadStar said:


> I'm fairly certain that Comcast will *not* activate TV equipment they don't provide. At least, I've never heard of them doing so.


Can you clarify what you mean by "activate"? Many people, myself included, own their own TiVo equipment as Comcast customers. Comcast charges me nothing for a multistream CableCARD and credits my monthly bill $2.50 because I am not renting Comcast equipment.

Here is Comcast's policy on customer owned equipment:

http://www.comcast.com/equipmentpolicy

http://cdn.comcast.com/~/Media/File...NED_EQUIPMENT_POLICY_revised_6_13_11.pdf?vs=1


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

beartrap said:


> Can you clarify what you mean by "activate"? Many people, myself included, own their own TiVo equipment as Comcast customers. Comcast charges me nothing for a multistream CableCARD and credits my monthly bill $2.50 because I am not renting Comcast equipment.


I'm referring to equipment like a CableCard or an addressable set-top box (such as those manufactured by Arris/Motorola or Cisco/Scientific Atlanta for cable company use) that you do not lease from Comcast. I'm not referring to a TiVo or other equipment that *accepts* a CableCard.

Technically, by the letter of the policy, if you somehow found a way to legally purchase said equipment, and it is compatible with Comcast's systems, they do say they'll activate it.

However, since virtually all of that type of equipment is produced solely for sale to cable companies to lease out to their customers, it would be near impossible to convince Comcast that it hasn't been stolen... and they're probably right. Per the policy, Comcast will not activate anything they think has been stolen from them or another cable company.


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