Do you guys know if it is standard practice for an ISP to hike up their prices without notifying their customers beforehand? i'm currently with TWC (Time Warner Cable) which is basically the only ISP here where I live in part of LA. Last month the bill was $52.99, now it's hiked up to $54.99. This is for standard internet plan 15Mbps downstream and 2Mbps upstream. I never received any mail, phone call or email this year about another price hike.
It all depends on what the contract you signed up to says. I know in the UK the standard practice (possibly a requirement) is to send out a letter detailing the new charges. Usually they cover themselves by having a "we can do what we want" clause in the contract. If you feel the price increase is excessive you could probably contest it but it would likely be a waste of time, effort and money.
TWC recently announced a $2 increase in modem rental fees... Look at your bill to see if this is why your price increased.
Comcast pulled the same bs a few months ago. They sent out e-mails exclaiming "We've upped your internet speeds! All you have to do is cycle your modem!". Two months later, the cost went from $52.99 to $72.99.
Comcast is horrible out here. We can't get any other broadband internet where I live (yay, monopoly) and It's over $130 for 20Mbps down, 4Mbps up, phone, and cable with 1 HD box and one DVR. RaAaApe. Oh, and we have to call some high up and complain about our bill about once every 2 months because they "forget" about the agreement we came to at the beginning of the year and tag on another $20 to the bill. If there was anything other than At&t, we'd drop it like it hot.
When I first signed up for Verizon FiOS, the agreement was 192 channels, 25/5 internet and phone for $99.99. For the first 6 months, I had to call and threaten to file a breach of contract suit against them because they kept tacking on an additional $50 to my bill.
All cable companies seem to do this. Company in our area does the same garbage. They just charge you random extra fees and hope you don't complain about it.
Yeah, we complained to the state. Only then did they start to listen. They've still done it a few times. Trust me, if we could get FIOS... I just keep hoping that Google will show up out here and give us 100Mbps
I pay $110 for a 50/25 connection, cable TV and phone... If I had to pay $95/month for 13/1....I'd still be on dialup.
I left TW because they consistently increased bill about $10/month every year. And, no, they did not notify me in advance. I asked why, and they said they were not required to give me any type of notice. Obviously, they also felt no need to volunteer that information. Caveat emptor.
Depends on your ISP and location. My 50/25 connection is $60/month without a bundle deal. We can also get 75/35 for $70/month.... Those are pretty decent deals compared to what some people can get. Sure, they're not the greatest prices.....but they're not that bad either.
The word everyone here is looking for is oligopoly. The best internet I can get here in Northern NJ is 10mbps download/1mpbs upload. For that speed we're paying about $70 a month... There's nothing better we can get and our ISP has been promising faster speeds for the past 2 years. To put into perspective just how badly we're being ripped off here, for $70 a month I could have Google Fiber's 1gbps speeds. (100x faster download, 1000x faster upload)
Verizon used to charge $50/month for a 3Mbps down, 256Kbps up DSL connection here....and most people weren't even getting 1Mbps down.
Comcast does it all the time. My bill for internet, phone, and cable was $72.99 a month 4 years ago. It's gone up a couple dollars each month for unexplained reasons and I'm now paying $132 a month for the exact same service I had 4 years ago. And I own my modem so there are no rental fees on top of that.