What stops me from canceling and opening a new account with less premium services?

@Darrone: canceling fees?

"Processing fee"? I call bullshit. Most of that shit is done on computers while you're on the phone, what the hell are they processing?

@Skankingmike: Which probably aren't even prorated.

@Darrone:
Installation or activation fee for the new account

Is there a processing fee if I upgrade my account? I mean, both actions should take the same amount of administrative effort, right?

Thats a hell of a scam, how is that even legal? Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

I assume it's still free to cancel, though?

I have RCN in Chicago, and got the same mailer. I'm allegedly locked in for a year at $29 at 5mbps. We'll see what happens. RCN is vastly superior to comcast.

I was talking with one of the RCN installers, and he told me that most RCN installers are private contractors hired by RCN. They can make twice as much with RCN than Comcast employed isntallers. So what most installers in Chicago do is work for a couple of years in the trenches with Comcast and build up a resume, then go with a private contractor and actually make a living wage. He said that he spends half of his time correcting mistakes that comcast installers have made.

Looks like you guys have until the 30th to teach RCN a lesson!

Dish Network did the same thing to me recently. The package went from 39.99 to 44.99, and now if you want to downgrade, there's a $10 fee... It's even more if any of the channels you are downgrading are movie or "adult" channels.

@exploded: UPDATE: Just logged into my RCN account and saw this:

"To ensure we are providing you with the most up-to-date products and services at a competitive rate, we are implementing changes to your RCN account. We are adjusting your current package and will provide you with a new plan. You will see this change in either your May or June bill depending on your regular billing date. Your new plan will offer the same high level of service, plus a redesigned, easier-to-read bill. By updating our packages, RCN will be able to simplify your services and make sure you receive enhanced customer care. Your current and new monthly charges are listed below for your convenience. Your new monthly charges reflect a 7 month promotional discount.

Important Note: This information does not reflect any changes made to your account after March 29, 2009.

*Current Monthly Charges
(Cable and Internet )
$29.95

*New Monthly Charges
(Cable and Internet )
$34.00
*Rates do not include taxes and fees.

We're constantly striving to bring you the best in cable, Internet and phone. We thank you for being an RCN customer and hope that you'll enjoy our growing array of services. RCN Customer Service is available at (866) 926-5847 between the hours of 8 AM and 5 PM EST."

Let me do some investigating and see what service exactly they are 'changing' to see if they are doing anything other than simply raising my price.

This makes me sad - I have RCN in DC and was very happy with the service so far. Especially since they don't charge for HD channels (though you do pay more for the HD box, but it's only a bit more than the regular cable box, and I think it's fair). Their reps on the phone have been nice and competant, and didn't try to stop me from cancelling the phone part of a triple package when I realized that I wasn't using it at all.

That said, I have a contract with them with a specified price. There's no ETF, so I could cancel without penalty, but they guaranteed that the rate I got in Sept. would be good for 12 months. I guess I'll have to go back and read the fine print.

Like I said, it makes me sad, because until now they've been really good, and allowed me to read all the Comcast horror stories with a far-removed disdain (for Comast, not their poor customers). But is RCN now heading down the same path? Hopefully not.

@Darrone: $5? Give it to them and kiss them goodbye!

I hate those fee's also, but don't you think that $5 will give you a much less headache than trying to fight with them over the $5 and their new price hike?

CableVision is in my area. Even though I would rather drop a bomb on them than pay them each month, I keep my blood pressure down by picking my battles. I am not sure $5 is the correct battle to fight here.

Hah, that reminds me that I need to cancel RCN due to a move next week.

@nbs2: Which is at most a few keystrokes on a computer or a mouse click.

Let me for the crap i want ... i get 100 channels of poop and 10-15 i watch

These co.'s won't be happy until the gov't regulates every aspect of their existence, and then they'll complain.

@LegoMan322: Downgrade on April 30th. :)

@oneandone: They are a good company, but the rates do have to go up eventually.

What a bunch of scumbags. Opt you in for more money, then charge you money to go back to your original setup.

Keep in mind, this is a change to your service. Downgrade before May First, and there should not be a fee.

I've considered switching to RCN from Comcast, mostly out of spite (for internet only - I already cancelled my cable), but also due to the exorbitant cost of measly 6Mbps service when not bundled with TV.

For you Chicagoland people, are you generally happy with the cost, speed, and reliability of internet from RCN? I own my own cable modem, so a switch would be trivial.

@Eldritch: When I downgraded Comcast it was over the phone - downgraded both my Internet and Cable, and neither one changed, service wise. Price went down though, heh.

Dish Network has a standard "downgrade" fee of $5.00 when you downgrade your package. I asked to downgrade my package and asked that they wave the fee, and TA-DA, they waved it. Kinda pissed me off that it was that easy to get rid of a fee, thus showing how unnecessary it really is.

Yeah this is bS. I have Dish and they do the same thing. They offered me a 3 month promo of starz, hbo, etc. I just had to cancel before the 3 months were up. Then they tried to charge me for canceling it. The second I saw that, I called and complained and the guy removed it no question.

@unobservant:

Yes, how dare you offer superior service and expect us to pay for it! Bad company, bad!

@eklass: I had RCN in California for years before they sold their CA business to another company. I was completely satisfied with them. It's quite a disappointment to see them go down the path of nickel-and-diming customers with bullshit pure-profit fees.

$10 rate increase annoys me, but I'm paying $70 for a $120 package (one year promo, 10mbit cable, decent cable lineup including nfl + nhl networks)

Best bet in Boston is to just cancel every sept and sign up for a new promo deal (comcast + rcn offer awesome bundles in my area because there are so many college students moving in and competition is high)

I love my U-Verse. I can go online at anytime and upgrade or downgrade my internet service or my movie packages and it will be done within 5 minutes. No charge, only prorated fees. ATT U-Verse FTW!

Next up, you have to call a 1-900 number in order to do anything with your service. Also, their website is disconnected.

@Eldritch: As a recently laid off TWCable employee who worked with disclaimers and customer notifications (just like the one above), this is soooooooooo not legal (at least it isn't in NYC). Basically, any channel drop = customer can cancel/DOWNGRADE at no penalty (aka not have to pay 'early termination fees' or ANYthing at all as TWC is making the change). The only way it would be possibly legal is if the notice above is a dual 30-day notification: serving as both a 30-change of service notification AND a change of 'downgrade' policy which just happens to go into effect the same day...nasty and on the edge (not to mention stupid) but 'legal'.

Force all customers to pay a $100,005 cancelation of service fee ($100k + the $5 downgrade charge) and they'll really have something going there.

I used to have RCN. And I switched to Comcast 3 months ago because the internet constantly went out and the CSRs were the worst. When I canceled, they tried to give me a month free to stay. Bottom line, if they try charging you a fee, cancel. The CSR you speak with may not do something about it, but when you get connected to the cancellation department, they probably will. Comcast prices may stink, but at least the service has been working. Knock on wood.

@nbs2: The administrative effort is already rolled into the subscription or purchase costs. While that cost is adjusted to match competition, fees are created to pick up slack in tough markets (or just to squeeze a little extra from customers), and those fees don't have to have any relation to actual operation costs.

They may tell you the processing fee is to cover maintenance or call center operation, but what you're really paying for is a provider's or seller's inability to raise prices in competitive markets (or otherwise greediness).

Fees are illogical in a business sense, and should be illegal.

@exploded: I'm actually the submitter of this and I happen to have a similar deal for my internet w/ them. Right now I pay $40/mo (used to be $35) for their 10mbps service because they jerked me around so many times on some major billing screw ups on their end and I demanded to be compensated for my valuable time that I had been forced to waste due to their idiocy. That promo is good through 2010 at which point it will increase to about $60 although god knows how expensive it will be then with their rate hikes.

I couldn't get a straight answer from them on the phone as to how much prices are increasing. Apparently their system only allows the reps to tell you how much your specific rate will be increasing and are not making the general numbers available. I'm curious to see next months bill to see where it is allocated in terms of the individual services since my rep couldn't give me a straight answer on that either.

Bottom-line, they're trying to milk us for all they can and the "processing charge" explanation is complete BS as another poster said. Just another example of a company trying to nickel and dime you in a shitty economy, and since the alternative is Comcast I'm sure they feel confident that they won't lose too many people over this.

5$ doesnt matter to me, i pay about 115 a month for 20mbit internet, HD cable box, DVR, and every movie and hd channel, ive only had one outage in the year and a half ive had them and it was at an hour of the night i shouldve been sleeping anyway :) i love rcn, no hassle (so far, whereas before when my house had comcast, at least 8 techs came out within a year)

@PixelProphet: "Opt you in for more money, then charge you money to go back to A LESSER SERVICE."

There, fixed that for you ;)

They are in essence hiking their rates across the board, and then charging you this fee if you try to downgrade to a lesser level of service (that will inevitably be more expensive than it currently is).

@eklass: As a heavy internet (games, media, torrents, etc) I have to say I am pretty pleased with their service.

I have a great deal on their 10mbps package which I negotiated after wasting entirely too much time on the phone with them and it is definitely worth the value I currently pay. Minimal outages, my neighborhood isn't too saturated, and most importantly, for now there are none of the ridiculous transfer caps or throttling Comcast customers get to enjoy.

I believe RCN is owned by TWC though and if TWC decides to push their tiers through all of their companies I could be boned...

Definitely the best option for internet right now though.

@krztov:

Is that a promotional rate?

I pay about $135 a month for Comcast:
6 mb internet
Basic Cable
Digital package (about 40 digital channels)
DVR

No movie channels, no phone. Only game in town.

@Saboth: yeah but its still available last i checked, i think im in a 1 year contract, which is fine since my lease is about that long. when i had comcast i paid ALOT more. nothing like downloading things at 2.5mb/sec, no caps, no throttling, just pure internet bliss :)

@Skankingmike: If you're under contract and they raise the fees, it's a breach of contract, and you can get out of it immediately with no penalty.

@SynMonger: Hey, I don't care if they want to charge more for their services, but I do have a problem with charging ANYTHING for downgrading your service.

I'd be willing to wager that it doesn't cost anything to upgrade, nor will they be paying the agent any more to do the scant keystrokes required for a downgrade.

@Haltingpoint: The mailer that I got in the mail said that the standard pricing for their 5mbps is going to $50/mo., which is more in line to what comcast charges.

In the notification that was on my RCN account, they mentioned that their justification for changing my price was "adjusting my current package" and that allows them to change the promo rate that I was given. Do you know if/how they are changing the service? It would be nice if they bumped me up to a 6mbps for the extra 5 bucks, or something like that.

dish network has been doing this for years. if you drop a package or make a programming change that lowers your bill by any amount, there is a $5 downgrade fee. happened to me when i changed from Ultimate HD to Turbo HD Gold Package (exact same channel line up but Turbo HD Gold was $10/month cheaper) and they charged me the $5. then later I dropped the local channels (never watched them) and had another $5 downgrade fee. there is not an upgrade fee however

@skizsrodt: It's called squeezing your most loyal customers for a few more drops of blood. Landlords do it (because if you've been in an apartment for a few years, chance are good you don't want to move), insurance companies are doing it (I just spent a lovely afternoon at the DMV explaining that yes, I did too maintain continuous coverage), and so are credit card companies. The bet is that you'll just suck it up and not cancel your service because it's more of a pain in the ass to switch to someone else than to just pay the money. I think it's a mistake, since what looks like customer loyalty is really customer contentment, and you can destroy that in a keystroke by putting the squeeze on.

@Haltingpoint:

Time Warner does NOT own RCN.

@shepd: Probably not.

DirecTV just increased their rates. I called to talk them down and they wouldn't budge. They did give me a credit for a few months, but I suspect they've gotten a lot of calls about the rate increase. I also suspect it's because of the fee slapped on them for violating the DNC registry. So because the company can't understand what "do not call" means, subscribers are paying for it. And I've never received any telemarketing calls from them, ever. I'm not saying that they shouldn't be fined for violating a very established rule, but it sucks that the cost gets passed onto the consumer.