> The first step to changing a less-favorable consumer view is with "pricing and packaging that creates more value than you can replicate anywhere else in the marketplace," he said.

This is a fantastic goal. If they actually implemented it, I think they'd do well. Unfortunately, I have rarely seen an ISP implement this unless they are forced by the government.

> Spectrum said it will charge as low as $30 a month for its 500Mbps internet plan, or $40 a month for 1GB service, when either are bundled with two mobile lines or cable TV. The company is also increasing the baseline internet speed for current customers at no additional cost.

This sounds good, except for a couple of things: a) I don't need 2 phone lines, only 1. That raises my cost an extra $30: a Spectrum mobile line is $30/mo, so for 500Mbps I'd up spending $90/mo. Right now I'm grandfathered on Time Warner ELP and have 100/20 service for $30/mo, and my cell phone is $22/mo from PureTalkUSA. So instead of $52/mo, I'd be paying $90, ie, not creating more value than I can replicate in the marketplace. THey need to make this offer with 1 mobile line, not 2.

> The company also said it's planning to be upfront about costs. Under its new plan, taxes and fees are baked in, there are no annual contracts and pricing is guaranteed up to three years, it said. Charter even eliminated the 99 cents it had tacked on to most of Spectrum's pricing in the past.

I will give Spectrum props: I have always loved the fact that their advertised prices are all-inclusive, vs AT&T where there are taxes, wireless fees, payment fees, paper-invoice fees, etc.

> In addition, Spectrum pledged to give customers credits when the company's customer service doesn't live up to its promises, or for internet outages that are out of the customer's control but are due to an issue on the company's part and last more than two hours. Service issues such as those caused by weather, natural disasters or power outages don't count."

I don't know what the technical details are, but only giving credit for outages over 2 hours seems pretty lame. That could translate to a < 92% uptime if repeated every day. What if there is 5x normal latency? What if there is 5% packet loss? Not technically out, so no credit (I'm guessing), but still unusable.

My problem with most big companies, and especially these near-monopoly ISPs, is that they can never just do the right thing, or do something that customers truly appreciate. That's why most everyone, including me, hates them. When customers have to navigate a phone menu that takes forever, or are on hold forever, or have customer reps constantly trying to upsell them instead of listening to what the customer actually wants, or hangs up on them (yes, Spectrum has hung up on me), or lies to them, or makes billing errors that are always in Spectrum's favor (ie, they are not errors at all, but systematic fraud), or offer "special pricing" that is unfortunately, not available for you, or raise bills from "introductory pricing" of $79/mo that is raised to over $250 in a few years, yeah - customers hate them, and with good reason.

If Spectrum wants customers to actually like them, man, do they have a shit-ton of work to do. I have a good deal with them, and I don't mind them so much. But I also realize I'm in a special situation because the FTC mandated that Spectrum allow customers to keep Time Warner's ELP Internet package as part of the terms of their merger approval. Without the government holding their hand to the fire, I'd be paying a lot more for Internet service.

And you know why I switched to Time Warner's ELP? Because TW raised my bill from $55 to $65. I called to do the dreaded annual "negotiate my bill lower and threaten to quit" phone call, they said they lowered it back down to $55, but what they actually did was gave me a one-time $10 credit. So a month later, I get another $65 bill. Called again, went through all the crap again, they said they fixed it. Next month, no credit, and another $65 bill. Called again, furious, and told them they had 2 choices: either change my bill to $45, or I was switching to ELP, which at the time was $15/mo for 3/1 service and had a "no price increase" policy. The rep said there was no way they could make it $45/mo, so I switched to ELP. Those dumbasses lost $40/mo from me because they wouldn't just keep my bill what it was last year! To top it off, they started sending me personalized offers in the mail for $35/mo for what I had been paying $55/mo! I never took the bait, and have been very happy with that decision. Spectrum has managed to increase the price from $15/mo to $30/mo over the last 10 years, which is technically a violation of TW ELP's "no price increase" policy. We'll see what happens in Sep 2025, when I'm supposed to be switched to "Standard Internet 100" service, which they are currently advertising for $30/mo, but only to "qualified customers", whatever that means.

So to the Spectrum CEO Chris Winfrey, here is some feedback to consider. This is why people hate your company, and some things you might consider fixing to change that.