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Old modem vs new modem?

Please excuse my ignorance. I'll be the first to admit I am an uninformed, dumb consumer but I feel like I have been screwed and I would like to know so I can tell them (cable company). Thanks!

Sometime in 2000 I got high speed internet (with this company). With it came a Motorola Surfboard SB3100 cable modem. Having previously had some other kind of modem that died, I decided it best that I rent the SB3100 at $15/mos. To be honest, I have had none to minor problems, though my son says it seems awfully slow.

The past few weeks I have had major problems and finally got the tech on the phone and analyzed the problem to be with the modem. THEN he tells me it is about 4 generation old!!!! THEN he says he can not believe they are still charging me a rental fee for a 5 year old modem. (did I mention uninformed, dumb consumer?) I then call billing and the lady says that rental charge "probably" should have come off my bill long ago (I've heard 2 to 3 years?) and/or I could have bought a modem from them for $50. (yes VERY dumb consumer here!)

She was going to remove the rental fee BUT I told her not to until they replaced this old modem. She agreed!

Here's my question ... Does each upgrade of the modem produce faster results OR what would the benefits be?

See, I'm more than a little ticked. Why? It occurs to me that 12 months per year times 5 years at $15 per month is ... $900!!!!! I just found out that the SB3100 in 2001 was only $145! You can buy them now for $13.99!

My complaint so far has resulted in a small portion off my bill for one month. I would think that a reputable company would have a little sense to let a consumer know that they have paid 3, 4 or 5 times (at the higher price) and not gouge the consumer.

I also don't think the small portion off my bill will do as I am sure i is only to appease me and hope I go away ... I won't!

Any help on the modem would be appreciated! Thanks!

BTW ... I swapped it for a Surfboard SB5101 and I and the tech can not get it to work. They are sending someone (in a few days!!!!) to service it. Did I also mention poor service???

Reply to
johnerl
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No gouging at all here. Ask your cable company, and they'd say you were a happy consumer. And you were. What you got was the ability to call them anytime and get the modem problem fixed, no hassles.

They say ignorance is bliss. You were happy, until you saw numbers that indicated something you didn't like. But now let me ask you this: what would you say if you bought the modem for $145, and it broke a couple months later, and you had to buy another one for $145, and a couple months later it broke, and so on? You wouldn't be happy.

In fact, you'd have been yelling about how you could have been paying only $15/month and had the modem replaced as often as possible, but instead you're paying $145 every couple of months!

If you don't like what happened, it's only because you failed to get complete information. But like I said, it could have gone the other way and you wouldn't have been happy.

Reply to
Elmo P. Shagnasty

My opinion is that if you're paying more than $3 or $4 a month to rent then I'd buy. I've owned two modems over 6 years and saved a lot of money.

Reply to
Dave

Definitely agree - I pay $3/mo for mine and just had to swap it out after

3 years and 4 months of service (for another factory rebuilt). Even at $3 they're making money off me since the rebuilt modems probably cost them $20-25 max. At $15/mo you have to buy and you can get a new Motorola for $50+ on eBay (that's 3-4 months of rent).
Reply to
$Bill

snipped-for-privacy@cox.net wrote in news:1156459189.808245.157700 @b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

$15/mo!? If my memory is correct, it was originally $5/mo, and then it changed to $0, but the monthly fee for service went up a bit. And if that's correct, I'd be mad that I was overcharged for all those months, too.

BTW, my modem is owned by Comcast, so the 'rent' is included in the service fee. It's a 3-year old modem, but works just fine.

Reply to
Mike R.

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