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12 Comments
- dougmc, on 06/11/2008, -0/+2Time Warner asks some questions before letting you view this page, so if you don't want to pretend that you're a TWRR Customer in Austin, TX for example, here's what it says --
I cannot access Road Runner Newsgroups or download articles?
As of June 23, 2008, Road Runner will no longer offer Newsgroups, however users can subscribe on their own to third party News providers.
Why is Road Runner discontinuing their own Newsgroups service?
Due to low subscriber usage Road Runner has decided to discontinue Newsgroups service as of June 23, 2008.
If I still want a news service, what can I do?
Subscribers can choose to use a third party service and purchase on their own through that service. There are many providers with offerings, as an example here are several providers:
* Easynews
* Newshosting
* UsenetServer
When is the last day that Road Runner Newsgroups service will be available?
Newsgroups service will cease on June 23, 2008. - mishej, on 06/26/2008, -0/+2I've been a TW customer for 3 years. I received no notice until Tuesday 12:01 6/24 in Wisconsin that UseNet is no longer available. From their on-line FAQ page:
"*Why is Road Runner discontinuing their own Newsgroups service?*
Due to low subscriber usage Road Runner has decided to discontinue Newsgroups service as of June 23, 2008."
I might be able to accept this if I saw a corresponding drop in my monthly fee but instead I am repeatedly denied any negotiated price and instead threatened with increased costs should I inadvertently use more than some undefined level of bandwidth. And I don't buy the "low subscriber" usage but instead believe political pressure provide a convenient excuse to provide less service without a corresponding price adjustment.
I also use TWC cable which has proved to be less "available" than DirectTV (satellite). Last week I, along with other local customers, endured a week of very spotty HD availability. I've tried dealing with customer service but the average wait is well over 60 minutes to talk to a low-level call-taker. I could endure this is I was credited for service interruptions but the only way I was able to see a credit was to complain to the FCC. The credit was calculated on the outage time (3 hours) over the billing month (3 hours / (31 days * 24 hours)) * MonthlyBillAmount which is probably a $1. Not much incentive to provide customer service.
I'm in a rural area where no other choice is available (yet). Thanks for letting me vent. - seeprompt, on 06/25/2008, -0/+2this is ***** *****! i use road runner usenet to download everything. Music, Movies, TV shows, Apps. newzleech.com was #1 on my bookmarks always, and now its useless. i don't want to pay for a news service. looks like it's back to public torrent's.
- reqork, on 06/11/2008, -1/+3un-*****-believable
- HowardLA, on 06/23/2008, -0/+1I am a TW customer and got no warning from them. Only warning was this morning as I tried downloading newsgroup messages. Called customer service and got no accommodation whatsoever. If only a small group of their customers want newsgroup service, then maybe they could have offered it at a discounted price that would still pay for it. But third-party providers charge $8-15 a month for basic newsgroup service. TW promoted the service on their website six months ago when I signed up, or else I woudn't have signed up for their internet service. And their customer service people offer no discounts, no rebates, no accommodation, no apologies.
- blackstarinc, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1With all the recent news on what TM is doing, its no wonder why so many are jumping ship. For me, what kept me on were the LEGITIMATE newsgroups access they had to offer. With that gone now, my motivation to stay is non-existent. Luckily, I found another usenet provider, newsdemon.com that lets me access the newsgroups. Now I just have to find a new reputable ISP.
D. Linus - dowopper51, on 06/23/2008, -0/+1After 3:00 today I guess I'll be forced into changing providers. I have my Cable, phone & internet with brighthouse. It cost me well over $125.00 a month, I'll be damned if I have to pay another $10-25 for a usenet service, I will not do it. Not to mention, they did it without any warnings. Luckily here in FL I have EMBARQ, Verizon, Bellsouth, Clearwire. Comcast to choose from.
HowardLA, I totally agree with what you said: And their customer service people offer no discounts, no rebates, no accommodation, no apologies.
TW owes us a super big apology! - ortzinator, on 06/24/2008, -0/+1Well *****, no wonder I couldn't connect.
- markzip, on 06/24/2008, -0/+1Notice that RR/TW is LYING here ( http://help.rr.com/HMSFaqs/e_newsgroups_terminatio ... ) . They say that the reason that they are killing newsgroups is that there is low demand for it. But the real reason is the agreement reached between the NY Attorney General and several large ISPs ( http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/analysis- ... ) which is supposed to rid the world of kiddie pr0n. Talk about killing a flea with a shotgun! See, if they say that it is lack of demand then they cannot be accused of filtering what their users see, and therefore they can still claim safe-harbor under DMCA and such. They are not even keeping the big 8 newsgroups ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_8_(Usenet) )! Yes, I know I can use Google Groups, but they don't have all of them and I like Agent Newsreader's interface better.
- bluehelldesk, on 06/26/2008, -0/+1Low usage? Hardly! It's just another way to keep Spitzer off the net so he doesn't cheat on his wife again.
- husky99, on 07/03/2008, -0/+0Comcast dropped their service to 2 GB a month a couple years ago, but at least they still offered a connection. This is not good customer service and their rational for dropping it is false. Another reason not to stay with TW once FIOS is available.
- markzip, on 06/24/2008, -0/+0Same here. Completely unapologetic. They went so far as to say that they were merely removing something that was free.
"So", I asked, "given that you advertised newsgroups as a feature when I signed up, can I expect you to withdraw my access to email? After all, if access to newsgroups was free, served by you on news-server.hvc.rr.com, and you killed that, what is to stop you from killing smtp-server.hvc.rr.com or even pop-server.hvc.rr.com?"
There was no answer to that, except to say that "this is way business is run in the USA today". How's THAT for a quote from a upper level customer service rep. The Customer Service people did not even have a canned memo to read to me. No suggestions for how to get discounts from other providers, no indication that there was anything that they would do for me, except to tell me that I should go to the local office to ask them for a refund. HAH!
Major FAIL, TW/RR
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