JFSI has since 1998 been dedicated to providing high quality web, network and data services to professional clients throughout the Southeast.
The choice of Internet access technology and Internet vendor was one of the first major decisions we had to make. After a bad experience with a failed DSL vendor which came into the area, JFSI chose Time Warner Cable’s Business Class Road Runner service as our preferred way to access the web. Road Runner has never been the “cheapest” solution; but I’ve always considered it to be a cost effective solution when considering BOTH service/bandwidth and price. Many of you followed my recommendation and installed Road Runner at your businesses and homes.
Time Warner Cable is considering making some changes that deeply distress me – changes that will potentially reduce the service we’re now getting and markedly increase the costs.
TWC has always based its monthly rates on unlimited traffic at tiered bandwidth. For instance, a home or business user who elected TWC’s “turbo” service had unlimited amounts of service at whatever bandwidth was guaranteed for the “turbo” service (e.g., 10 mbs). Both bandwidth and traffic will be metered under the new plan.
I recently had a long chat with TWC – a chat driven by my displeasure with the service they were providing and the price point for that service. The meeting centered around:
- Me being upset because of several protracted outages. These outages were planned by TWC; but users were not notified ahead of time, leaving us potentially unable to deal with customer problems until TWC completed their work. My argument was simple – had I KNOWN, I could have PLANNED and told my clients that there would be times when I would potentially be limited in terms of ability to provide remote service.
- Me being upset because of the TWC pricing model and the fact that my TWC bill is the second largest I pay every month – second only to mortgage. I was also upset because of steep discounts being offered to new customers at the same time they were raising rates on the “faithful”.
- Me being upset at their customer service / support. We had recently gone through a period where I had spent unproductive hours on the phone with TWC support working on problems that various clients had experienced.
- I reminded TWC that they had lost sight of the fact that they were no longer the “only kid on the block” in terms of quality Internet service.
BusinessWeek has an article that describes the TWC plan for tiered pricing. It’s at http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc20090331_726397.htm. With JFSI providing extensive remote support and MANY large file downloads, etc. it’s a given that our already large monthly invoice will certainly increase. I will keep you posted on what we do; but I hope that you will join me in voicing opposition to Time Warner implementing this policy.
