I was working on a project yesterday, in which I needed a solid, well-defined communicative link between myself and an online entity. Normally these projects are easy to accomplish and complete.
This time, however, it seemed that there was a massive lag. And that lag was taking me longer to complete the online task.
Ugh. And I’ve got the good 100mb download speed with Spectrum, had it even back in the day when it was Time Warner Cable. But today, that 100mb download speed seems rather, shall we say, slow.
I know what that means. And that twinge in my hip – where my wallet rests in my pocket – knew it, too.
I needed to call Spectrum and find out if I could increase my bandwidth.
Now folks, you know as well as I do that calling any telecommunications company comes with its own distinct pitfalls. At any moment, they can jack your bill up and claim, at the same time, that they’re saving you money. They can drop a channel or three and never tell you until that moment when you really want to watch something. Or even better – they can hammer you, morning, noon and night, with commercials for ways to improve your product and increase your bill at the same time.
This is how cable companies work. They exist in a monopoly with your local town or city, your only options if you don’t want cable TV is to subscribe to a satellite provider (which means adding that big satellite dish to the side of your house), or to get some “rabbit ears” and hope you can still pull some decent over-the-airwaves free channels.
At this point, I’m like Pavlov’s dogs. The cage is electrified, I’m going to lay down and take the shocks.
I call Spectrum. I ask if they can increase my bandwidth.
“Yes, sir, we can do that, we can boost you to a gigabite of download speed.”
Wow, that sounds powerful.
“I’m just going to up your bill an additional $60 a month.”
WAIT A MOMENT HOLD IT WHOA NELLIE!!!
“Well, we can boost your speed to 400mb, that will only cost $20 a month additional.”
Ah, yes, the Spectrum tactic of trying to go for the huge sale and eventually changing it to the medium sale.
“Oh, you may have to acquire a modem with us, in that we can’t guarantee that the modem you own will handle the download speed.”
Um, Spectrum, you do realize that the modem that I’M CURRENTLY LEASING FROM YOU because you told me years ago that I couldn’t just buy any off-the-shelf modem, that it had to be a very specific one, is still in my possession?
Sure enough, the modem I currently own was suitable for the new download speed.
“By the way, have you considered getting Spectrum Mobile for your cell phone?”
Ah, yes. Here’s the push for their cell phone company. Right on time. Sorry, but I already have enough issues with my current provider (Verizon), I don’t need new issues with Spectrum on my phone. And Spectrum probably can’t even handle my BlackBerry phone.
The end result – I received new, more improved download speeds, and the project’s lag noticeably disappeared. So there’s that. I’ll take that.
And I’ll just count the additional $20/month pound of flesh as a business expense come tax time.
I tell you, the day Spectrum does something altruistic for its customers … without using its coaxial-coated claws to claim cash from my clasp … the day they do something altruistic … that will be the first day it’s ever happened.
For sure. Ugh.
Chuck The Writer 
They lie a lot. It’s the same here. Our cell service had vanished and of course it was our fault, but it magically reappeared when we were on the (landline) phone with them complaining about it. See, that’s when they reset the nearest tower: when someone finally complained it didn’t work.
You should always check to see if you’re getting the Internet service you pay for, as they have no qualms about throttling the signal for whatever reason. Speed check: https://testmy.net/
And don’t confuse speed with data allowance, as they are two different things. We have to have satellite here, there’s no other way to connect. The speed goes up and down with the weather – or off when the dish is covered with snow – but if we use up the data allowance we get “fapped” (Fair Access Policy). That throttles anyone who uses up their allowance so they can only connect at ridiculously low speed – until they pay more.
It doesn’t help that web sites do everything they can to use up data and slow down connections too. I think they’re in cahoots with the service providers to continually extract $ from your bank account.
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Spectrum can not keep up with demand. I was getting
The blue circle everyday. Every time I changed the channel blue circle or it would
Lose connection entirely. After several calls
And readjustments to the modem there was
No remedy,
Finally one technician indicated he sees noise
On my modem. I exchanged it and now the blue circle is about 1%
So I would bring the modem up and switch it out for
Assurance. I would also try the new Latham
Store instead of the pitiful Colonie Center location.
But if the speed increase works fir good then you
May be set.
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