In an effort to save some cash during these troubled times, Travis decided to get rid of his cable TV subscription. And when he called up Time Warner to give them the bad news they said fine… that’ll be $30.

According to Travis, the Time Warner CSR on the phone told him that, because he was still keeping Time Warner’s 10mbps internet service, the charge was because they had to send a technician out to his house to “put a filter on my line.”

Heres’ Travis to explain what happened next:

I explained to her that I had been an internet customer for a few years and that they had sold me on the basic cable when I called up about six months ago to ask about digital cable rates. I have given them over $1500 in my internet and basic cable business over two and a half years, and I really couldn’t stomach the $30 fee when there are other options (AT&T) in my area. Plus, they didn’t make the disconnection fee clear when they sold me the service. She didn’t want to budge on the fee.

I asked her if there would be a $30 fee if I canceled all my services, and she said no. So I told her that I would be looking into my other options and perhaps calling back to cancel. She then offered to lower the fee to $15, but I still don’t think I should have to pay it. I feel like sending the tech out to change my service is a part of the cost of doing business. It doesn’t even sound legal to me, although I am not a lawyer.

I’m not a lawyer or a technician, but it would seem to me that if the cable company can turn your service on and off remotely when you don’t pay your bill, or when you add/subtract premium channels, they should be able to turn off the TV signal while keeping the internet signal live.

Surely there are readers who can clear up whether or not a service call is needed for this…

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