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Time Warner drops Internet install fee if you install yourself

August 5th, 2009, 5:23 pm by

Time Warner CableTime Warner Cable has found a new way to save itself money and manpower as it launched its “Easy Connect” service today. The service replaces the cable guy stopping by your house to install Internet service. Easy Connect lets customers order, upgrade and self-install their own Internet equipment at home.

Getting the cable guy to do it is still available, but that will cost $19.95. On the upside, this new Easy Connect service is free and you don’t have to wait around for the cable guy to arrive “… sometime between 8 and noon.”

On the other hand, it means you’ve got to do it yourself. Mess with cables, IP addresses, blinking red lights and all that not-so-fun stuff. I know I have a lot of readers who may be fretting about connecting a cable modem to their computer but it can’t be that hard, can it? Time Warner says the kit has five simple steps. Besides, DSL customers have been doing self-installation for years and I haven’t heard any recent complaints.

The kits can be ordered online or by phone and take 24 to 48 hours to arrive.

Recent Time Warner Cable news:


Check out the Gadgetress Guide to local TV services

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • | 12 Comments »

T-Mobile advises how to save on phone bill — ask someone else

May 28th, 2009, 12:01 am by

T-Mobile offering price makeovers.Saving money is on everyone’s mind these days. Including T-Mobile’s.

But don’t call up T-Mobile’s customer service and ask them for the best offer. The company is now sending Web visitors to BillShrink.com to see if they can save a few more bucks each month. And, I’m assuming, T-Mobile hopes BillShrink won’t suggest going to a competitor. 

“We’re so confident that T-Mobile provides the best overall experience for a majority of Americans, we’re willing to put our value to the test by pointing people to an independent source,” Denny Marie Post, chief marketing officer, T-Mobile USA Inc., said in a statement.BillShrink.com compares cellular plans 

BillShrink is a great starting place for consumers who wonder if they can save a few bucks on their monthly bills. It takes your estimated phone bill and usage, compares it to competing plans, and then offers a handy recommendation, starting with the biggest savings, if available. I wrote about the service last year (see “BillShrink quickly shows how to save on cell bill“). The site will even analyze your own phone bill, if you choose to share such personal information.

BUT what BillShrink doesn’t do is compare monthly phone bills to prepaid plans, which I found are really the cheapest way to get by with a cell phone. It also only compares phone prices from the big four: Sprint, Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile. Absent are low-priced providers MetroPCS and Cricket Wireless. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Cell phones • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Verizon rolls out ‘Friends & Family’ to business users

March 12th, 2009, 10:44 am by

Looking to save your company some money? There’s a new incentive from Verizon Wireless.

Verizon is rolling out its newish Friends & Family plan to businesses. The plan, which lets customers make unlimited calls to any 5 or 10 numbers, doesn’t charge extra, so it’s no wonder that the company is saying, “Friends & Family has been so popular with consumers that we’re extending it now to businesses.”

Business users can add up to 10 non-Verizon phone numbers that employees can call anytime without using any plan minutes. (Calling other Verizon Wireless numbers is already free.) The 10 numbers can be a landline number or non-Verizon cell phone number.

As with the consumer plan, the business ‘Friends & Family,’ lets users change the 10 friends at any time. So, for example, after a project is completed and it’s no longer necessary to make daily calls to that client, the company can drop the client and add a new one. New “friends” go into effect the next day.

The business “friends” plan is available to business customers who either have a single line with 900 or more Anytime Minutes (starting at $59.99) or a shared business line plan with 450 Anytime Minutes or more. The plan will be available March 15 to new customers, or existing customers who want to switch to a qualified plan. Existing qualified customers will be notified by e-mail when the service is available to them.

More on cell-phone: Check out the Gadgetress Guide to local cell phone services. Latest mobile-news headlines:

Posted in: Cell phones • • • • | Comments Off

Would you keep your home phone for $5 a month?

February 19th, 2009, 8:02 am by

With more people dropping their landline in favor of Internet phones or cell phones, here’s a thought: Would you keep your home phone line for $5 a month? 

Verizon is considering doing just that, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

But for $5, customers will only be able to receive calls or dial 911. They can’t make any calls. Still, that’s not a bad price if you already have a cell phone and just want an emergency backup in case your cell phone battery dies.

The telephone company wants to boost or the dwindling number of landline users — it lost 3.7 million landlines or 9.3 percent of its base last year. 

If the offer sounds tempting, keep in mind that the most basic landline services from AT&T and Verizon isn’t that expensive in the first place. AT&T just raised its rate to $13.50 a month, from $10.94. Low-income customers on AT&T’s Lifeline plan, meanwhile, pay between $1 to $6.11 per month (see AT&T’s California LifeLine page HERE).

Verizon, meanwhile, charges $16.85 to $24.14 for its basic flat-rate service. A regional plan for local calls starts around $11.

Other alternatives from the cellular and VoIP companies are being offered for as little as $10/month, although most require a separate high-speed Internet line. T-Mobile offers its @Home unlimited local and long-distance service for $10 a month. Vonage, a VoIP service, has a $17.99 monthly plan with unlimited incoming calls and 500 minutes of outgoing calls.

And don’t forget, even if you cancel phone service, Verizon and AT&T are supposed to keep the lines “warm” so you’ll be able to dial 911 in an emergency. A small bit of electricity will continue to flow through the lines so even if you don’t get a dial tone, the phone should light up. Read my earlier report on this: “911 still works if you discontinue phone service.”

More telephone news: Check out the Gadgetress Guide to local cell phone services. Related stories on landline telephone service:

Posted in: news • • • • • • • | 4 Comments »

Internet for 25-cents a day if you don’t mind waiting

February 10th, 2009, 11:00 am by

Amusing little press release just crossed my path: In these tough economic times, EarthLink is pushing dial-up Internet for 25-cents a day, which the company conveniently broke down for reporters.

Yes.. dial-up still exists! In fact, EarthLink  says it has 1.8 million customers, down 10 percent from the 2 million the company told me it had last September. Shrinking or not, dial up is still the Internet choice for many. But is it really a good buy?

For 25-cents a day, or $7.95 per month, you get the retro Internet speeds of 56,000 bits per second. That means you must wait 22 minutes to download 11 photos instead of 1 minute using EarthLink’s slowest high-speed option. EarthLink is attempting to appeal to “those recently laid off and  looking for jobs.” Is saving a few dollars a month worth your time?

Somehow, I feel one can do better. While the local telecoms are no longer competing on price as they were in September, there are still some decent deals out there that will get you Internet much faster than dial-up.

AT&T’s best deal is $10 per month, or 33-cents a day, for new customers who commit to a 1-year contract and order home phone service. After that, the price goes up to $19.95 per month, but as other readers have mentioned, it’s negotiable if you call up customer service. Speeds are a minimum 768 kbps, which is about 13-times faster than dial-up.

Verizon is offering 1 mbps DSL for $17.99 a month, a price “guaranteed never to go up.” Home phone service is also required, otherwise price jumps to $19.99/month or 66-cents a day.

For those too cheap to pay for Internet but who enjoy a cup of Starbucks coffee at least once a month, join Starbucks rewards card to get 2 hours of free Wi-Fi in stores every day. You’ll also get unlimited free drip-coffee refills during the same visit while you’re sitting around surfing the web.

Another freebie comes from NetZero and Juno, which offer 10 hours of free dial-up per month. The ad-supported services includes e-mail, spam and virus protection and thousands of numbers nationwide.   More info at these links: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: news • • • • • • • • • • | Comments Off

WSJ figures out how to lower cable TV bill: Ask!

January 21st, 2009, 3:19 pm by

As mentioned in this blog last fall, the simplest way to get a lower TV bill is to ask. The Wall Street Journal writes about this tactic today and mentions how one man got nearly 50 percent off his bill for a year because he did just that.

The WSJ adds analysis about why TV providers may be more willing to listen today than, say, last October when I mentioned this (which, of course, is a tactic that is nothing new for many consumers).

Says the WSJ:

Under intense pressure from Wall Street to keep subscribers as the economy sags and competition intensifies, many carriers are bent on retaining customers even if it means offering big price breaks.

“The key is to hang on to every possible customer right now,” says Alex Dudley, a spokesman for Time Warner Cable, the country’s second-largest cable operator by subscribers, after Comcast Corp. “They are our lifeblood.” Mr. Dudley says that Time Warner Cable is also more receptive to giving stretched customers a discount during these tough times.

Read the WSJ story here.

And don’t stop with your TV bill. Call up and ask for a lower rate from your telephone, cell phone, Internet and other monthly service company. (For customer service numbers, check my handy guides to cell-phone services and TV services in Orange County.) 

In Orange County, TV competition is pretty heated. Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse are expanding and offering TV service to customers who only thought cable or satellite was an option.

From my October story on this tactic, Time Warner’s Patricia Fregoso shared tips on how to get a lower bill. Keep in mind, she said, discounts aren’t handed out because a customer complains that their bill is too high. But Time Warner does have a “retention package.”

“Yes, of course our customer service reps do have latitude and often times, there are packages available that we can move folks to. Sometimes it works, sometimes not,” Fregoso said at the time.

“They are also trained to ask customers what their viewing habits are too. Maybe they’re not in the right-sized package… . Of course we have retention packages but we are doing it in a reasonable way so that we can pay our own bills.”

Likewise, Cox Communications told me it rewards loyal customers with bundle discounts. The more services the customer takes, the greater the discount — from $5 to $25 per month. Details about the bundled discounts are HERE.

Related stories:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • | 3 Comments »

Cell phones aren’t cheap, how to save money

November 14th, 2008, 1:35 pm by

If your budget is getting crunched and the future looks dire, have you thought about getting rid of your cell phone? Well, if it isn’t that dire, there are several ways to cut back. 

The Telecommunications Research & Action Center, a nonprofit that has been publishing consumer guides for 25 years, offers five tips to help consumers save on mobile phones. TRAC’s five tips summarized:

1. Switch to pre-paid service. While calls cost more per minute, you only pay for what you use. With some pre-paid phones selling for as little as $15, this is a much more affordable alternative for those who talk less than 200 minutes a month. For texters, Boost Mobile recently launched a pre-paid plan with unlimited texting.

2.  Dump your landline. This is a good option for people who don’t use the landline much anymore and don’t have children at  home.

3. Opt for a more basic-rate plan, which could mean blocking text messages. Something obvious: Make calls at night and on weekends if your plan offers free minutes during those hours.

4. Mind the bells and whistles. You don’t really need customized ring tones, games or other software on the phone — especially if you can’t pay next month’s bills.

5. Don’t let telemarketers “steal” your minutes.  Sign up all of your phone numbers for the Do Not Call list at www.donotcall.gov or call 1-888-382-1222 from the phone number you wish to register.

Read TRAC’s full report HERE.

Other ways to save money on any cell phone:

More ways to save money:

Posted in: Cell phones • • • • | 4 Comments »

How to get cheaper cable TV from Time Warner Cable

October 21st, 2008, 7:13 am by

**UPDATE on 10/22** “How to get cheaper cable TV in O.C., part 2″

I’ll get right to the point: Call and ask for it.

That’s what my colleague Nancy “Fast Food Maven” Luna did over the weekend. After reading my post on Time Warner Cable last week (see “Time Warner Cable plans more channels in O.C. despite fines“), she complained to me about her $170/month bill for TV, Internet and telephone. I suggested she ditch the phone service and just use her cell phone, or opt for a cheaper alternative such as an Internet phone like Vonage (which I use for $25/month). 

Before making any change, she called Time Warner for a detailed explanation on every charge that appeared on her monthly statement.

“Of course, every crazy fee was fine. Then, I said: You guys are way too expensive, and I can find cheaper phone service elsewhere. Is there anything you can do for me? Are you running any specials?  She says, ‘ Let me check.’ Then the next thing I know, she gets back on the line, and knocks $40 a month off my bill,” Nancy told me.

And no, Nancy says she wasn’t mean or nasty and she didn’t threaten to leave. She asked why they were offering this and the Time Warner employee said, “We don’t want to lose you as a customer. So we want to help.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • | 42 Comments »

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