I'm a Time Warner Inbound Rep: ask me anything

Status
Not open for further replies.
N

Nick R

Joined
Jul 14, 2009
Messages
11,196
Location
NY Capital District
I got this idea from another site as they've proven pretty popular. Why don't we have a series of
"I'm a ____ ask me anything" threads? For different careers and jobs we might have questions about. I'll start.

I work for Time Warner Cable as an inbound sales rep for New York State (not NYC), Maine, New Hampshire, and North and South Carolina. In addition to sales, I also help out with some customer service stuff, help customers with tech stuff, etc. I will answer any question that is not private customer info, or proprietary (read: classified) company information.

smile.gif
 
Okay, I'll bite: Here in Columbus we dropped TW last spring and went to WOW because they dropped TVLand from basic cable. Why would they do that?
mad.gif


John
 
Originally Posted By: John_K
Okay, I'll bite: Here in Columbus we dropped TW last spring and went to WOW because they dropped TVLand from basic cable. Why would they do that?
mad.gif


John


Well I'm not too familiar with Ohio contracts, but are you referring to basic as "broadcast" (roughly 2-20) or Basic Standard which is about 79 channels? Generally could have been a couple different reasons.

First (if it was removed from the lineup completely) is that we, along with other Cable TV providers have contract renewals with the carriers for shows, so whoever distributes/broadcasts TVLAND may have decided that they wanted to jack up the contract rate for TW, and to avoid having to pass those additional costs along to the customer, and for the best interest of the company, decided to drop that programming.

In the case that it went to digital format only, that is also easily explained. Analog Basic Standard Programming takes up lots of RF Spectrum, which is limited in the cable lines as compared to digital, and Switched digital (Basically everything is on demand all the time) video. Now what that means is that people want faster, and faster internet and more features. Since there is only so much spectrum available, we are moving programming to digital format only, to free up some of that spectrum, which allows us to assign more DOCSIS channels for HSD over the cable plant, which were previously being used for that analog programming.

For load balancing and distribution over the cable plant, there are multiple DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) channels for HSD, and the more we can assign to DOCSIS 3 modems, the faster the internet we can offer. Does this answer your question?
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
What are TW's current usage caps? What action is taken if they're exceeded?


Currently there are no Data Caps in place. We say unlimited, it's unlimited. If you have Standard (15/1) you can download at 15 all day, all month. If you have Wideband, you can download at 50 all day all month. No data caps, and afaik there are no plans to implement them.

We did recently roll out something called Starter internet, which basically allows people who feel they don't use a lot to save $5/mo on Lite/Basic HSD by implementing a data cap, and charging overage up to a maximum of I *think* $25. This is completely optional though.
 
Originally Posted By: Loobed


Why is there so much useless [censored] on TV?



A good question, and unfortunately one that I do not have the answer to. Lol
 
Originally Posted By: PhillyJoe
With everything going wireless these days, how soon do you expect cable to 'cut the cord'?


Can you clarify? You mean have no physical line going to the house? If that's what you mean, probably not for a very, very long time.
 
TW NH shifted TruTV to an extra charge cable box,and dropped Travel Channel altogether.What happened there? Seems there are less channels but higher and higher bills.I would urge this area to try to entice Comcast or someone else to come in.Seems every past provider in the area (Littleton Cable TV,State Cable TV,Adelphia,TW...) always was rewarded for poor service.
 
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
TW NH shifted TruTV to an extra charge cable box,and dropped Travel Channel altogether.What happened there? Seems there are less channels but higher and higher bills.I would urge this area to try to entice Comcast or someone else to come in.Seems every past provider in the area (Littleton Cable TV,State Cable TV,Adelphia,TW...) always was rewarded for poor service.



In the case of travel channel, that is because of a contract dispute with the company that broadcasts it. that is only in a few areas of NH though. Similar to the dispute with Hearst Telecom a few months back. As far as the extra charge cable box, that is due to the Analog reclamation I mentioned above. It should be free for at least a year, and then $0.99 per box thereafter. Again, that was to reduce the amount of frequency spectrum used by analog cable, to allow us to add more DOCSIS channels, and in the future, more HD programming.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88
How come, since I moved in April, I haven't received a single bill and I have to keep going to the local TW office to pay my bill?


Well that's something specific to your account, I'd wager that somewhere along the line, you got put on electronic statements. You can also pay your bill online via your myservices account at myservices.timewarnercable.com. You can pay via Credit/debit, or Electronic funds Transfer (IE online Checking account) You can also check your bill due date, and current account balance.
 
Originally Posted By: PhillyJoe
With everything going wireless these days, how soon do you expect cable to 'cut the cord'?


I think they call that Dish Network.
 
The 15/1 Mpbs is miserable for work(upload) at our vacation house with internet only no TV. Anything better available on the upload side?
 
In your area, has TW (or do they plan to) installed much FIOS cable in residential areas? With Google apparently testing a FIOS system in Kansas City, are there any plans to try to compete??
 
Not in the TW area, just wondering as an industrial practice, when there are too many Internet user on the same line and too much traffic, do cable company split the lines to increase the available capacity? Or do they just use caps to limit traffic?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

wwillson
  • Locked
  • Sticky
Pennzoil Q&A - Ask me anything with Mike Burroughs
2
Replies
22
Views
2K
wwillson
F
  • Locked
Choose your shipping company wisely
Replies
12
Views
4K
Silver
S
  • Locked
Eureka, I'm back.
Replies
14
Views
4K
gfh77665
O
  • Locked
Help me evaluate this used car inspection - 2003 Civic LX (Long post)
2 3
Replies
42
Views
6K
DuckRyder
H
  • Locked
A Car Dear to my Heart - Gordon Murray F1 Designer
Replies
3
Views
2K
heynow
Back
Top Bottom