First of all, this is not a blog of a Spectrum (formerly Time Warner Cable) hater. I actually don’t have strong feelings either way about them. I was a user of their internet and basic cable and was relatively happy. The service worked decently and the price was reasonable. I put my bill on auto-pay and lived my life.
Then about 6 months ago, I saw a change in my $20.00 basic
cable bill (aka the cheapest plan where I get about 10 channels). They started billing me $4.00/digital adapter
(I have 2) for some cable boxes they made mandatory for me to use a year or two
ago. While $8.00 isn’t life-changing, I
brushed up on my middle school math and computed it was a 40% increase. That’s substantial in percentage terms.
Still, changing services is a pain. I could eat a 40% increase ($8 is still $8,
no matter how alarmingly you dress it up).
I was not pushing the panic button (thank you, hot Charlotte real estate
market).
But when that happened, I actually started looking at my
Spectrum bill each month. A few months
later in the “Spectrum News” section on the front page of it (I didn’t
previously know there was a “news” section I could be enjoying each month!), I
see the following verbatim:
Your current promotion
is ending, but your savings will continue.
As a valued customer, we have automatically extended your preferred
rate.
(good so far…)
Important Billing
Update:
Effective for your
next billing statement, pricing will be adjusted for:
-
Starter TV
Service from $20.00 to $23.89
-
Broadcast TV
Surcharge from $7.50 to $8.85. This
reflects costs incurred from local Broadcast TV stations.
-
Digital Adapters
from $4.00 to $4.99
Not good.
We’re up roughly another $4.00 on 10-channel TV, not to mention
another $5.00 for internet service (not previously affected). I don’t even need to do the percentage math
anymore. We’re above a 50% increase in
less than 6 months on my lame cable TV plan.
Now, on general principle, I’m trying to leave Spectrum cable
TV service due to a large increase which appears to be largely meritless. So I fish out some $10-$20 antennas I bought
from Amazon a year or two ago and see if I can make them work. Viola!
They work like a charm after I put in a little more effort in this
go-round.
I call Spectrum and cancel my starter cable TV service. I won’t lie; it feels good. Injustice was made right! Then they tell me that my internet service is
not only going up $5.00 next month, but because it’s not bundled with TV anymore,
it is going up another $20.00. Touché
Spectrum! I have to have internet
service, so they may have won this battle.
But I am not a Spectrum cable TV customer any longer.
Unfortunately, now my resolve to rid myself of Spectrum in
its entirety has built. I wrack my brain
for a solution. Wait! Who was digging up my front lawn 6 months ago
to my son’s delight? Google Fiber! They’re
boasting $50/month internet service! So my dream of a “Spectrumless” home may
become a reality next week.
But… my true thoughts on my mini-“SpectrumGate” are how sad
and unnecessary it was. I was fine being
a Spectrum customer. I paid my bill
every month, they collected the money, and everyone was happy. It just seemed to me that they got greedy were
trying to stick it to me.
To be fair, I don’t know Spectrum’s economics. They may be losing money on customers like me
and it’s better for them to lose me than to keep me at a lower monthly
fee. Fair enough. That’s business.
The purpose of this story is I see landlords use similar
tactics on tenants during lease renewals.
The tenants pay their rent on time every month and take care of minor
repairs on the rental home. But when
their lease is up, the landlords try to stick the tenants with a 10%+ increase
and additional fees. The tenants feel
betrayed and don’t renew their leases on principle. Both parties lose.
We’re in a rising real estate market, I get it. But the grass isn’t always greener on the
other side. New tenants don’t always pay
the rent on time and take care of the home.
Plus the fix-up and other vacancy costs could more than devour any
surplus a higher rental rate from a new tenant might offer.
If you have good tenants and are making money, keep any rent
increases between lease renewals within reason. There is no reason to endanger the money
flow. Most tenants understand that
landlord costs go up a little bit every year too.
However, if you are losing money and need to stop the
bleeding, I get that too. A rising
market could finally bring a new tenant to get bring positive monthly cash flow
back into play. Business is business.
Happy Landlording!
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