Submitted by MixtureDizzy4928 t3_125ed3e in Maine
Started 2 years ago at 65 a month for the mid range... And all of a sudden that was a special deal that they never told me about... Then it was 75 at a discount from 80 something... Then it was 90 something out of nowhere! And now I owe 104 dollars, I've never missed a payment. Spectrum is getting out of hand. What other choices do I have please! I live alone and am getting desperate....
Fiber, my friend. If you live rurally then you might be SOL, but otherwise you have a better chance.
People here will lollygag over Fidium, but they are owned by Consolidated Communications which is infamous for having terrible speeds so I personally don't recommend them. We went with GoNetSpeed (formerly Otelco) instead, which has worked out well for us. Good speeds, great customer service, and amazing prices.
I got lucky and got in on a 25$ a month for life guarantee with T-Mobile home internet. It was cheap so I tried it on a whim along side my spectrum and it ended up being faster that the 80$ a month spectrum. I’m very rural so there’s little congestion but I suggest trying it out especially if you already have them as a mobile carrier.
Depending on where you are, look for Fidium, Go-Net Speed, TDS, Verizon Home Internet, RedZone Wireless.
Just call them and say your going to switch to another provider. They’ll give you like 5$ off, but be persistent, it may take 3-4 rounds of you going back and forth saying , “No, I would like to pay the special promotional rate of $65 (or whatever is currently advertised)”.
I did this a few months back, they upgraded our speed to 500mb/s and lowered the bill by $30/month back to what we were originally paying.
You can also ask to have the contract extended for 2 years so you won’t have to do this every year.
I was a little nervous about going with Fidium because of the Consolidated Communications piece but I've been extremely happy with it over the several months that I've had it.
There did seem to be a $10 monthly charge that showed up on the bill that I really don't think was on the advertisement and website. But I'm still less than half the cost of my Spectrum and better performance so I've moved on with life.
RedZone wireless. Maine based.
Fidium has much deeper penetration in Maine than GoNetSpeed. I didn't have a choice myself but have had Fidium for 5 months and the experience has been fantastic.
Same thing happened to me with Spectrum. Call and ask specifically for the Retention department department. Say you need a discount or you'll cancel. I went from $50 up to $70 then back to $50.
Edit. Just did this a few weeks ago, so it is timely information. Also while spectrum sucks as a company, their speeds are consistently high and the only time I seem to have a problem is when it's windy.
Call and complain they always lower the price if you call and complain mention you've seen the new deals there offering and threaten to cancel, worked for everyone I know including me
Spectrum has been out of hand the whole time. What you describe is, legit, their business model.
You can try for fiber, but that's about it. You can also try contacting the Maine Broadband Coalition to see if they can provide insight
Not to lower expectations, but I have 4 FCC complaints against Spectrum, and nothing has been done
When I had Spectrum, I used Trim and they got my monthly plan down to $50. They do take 15% of what they save you up front but I don't mind paying them to deal with Spectrum vs. me having to deal with Spectrum.
> their speeds are consistently high
Their download speeds are OK. Their upload speeds are shit.
I'm on their fastest available residential plan and the upload maxes out at 10mbps (usually it's far slower). This isn't fast enough for some of the work I do (large video files that must be backed up to the cloud) so I looked into their business tier — the fastest tier of that is still only a max of 35 Mbps up.
I recognize it's cable internet and not fiber, but for that to be the fastest business plan in 2023 is pathetic. Cable companies elsewhere sometimes have 50+ Mbps up even for residential connections.
Can't wait for fidium to come to my area, I will drop spectrum instantly.
My spectrum went from 50 to 89.99 a month. Fidium is 37. Much better connection too
If you want the FCC to pay attention to your complaints, you would have to get at least a few hundred, maybe 1000 people, to submit the same or similar issues. The FCC probably gets thousands of random complaints a day/week. They're not going to take action until it is affecting more than just one or a handful of people. It would be impossible to thoroughly follow up on every complaint they receive.
Cheaper for the first year, but fast as you can get.
Spectrum sucks big ole balls! Get Fidium if you can. $70 first yr, $100 after that for 1GB upload and download. Im sure they will suck in the future also. Yay capitalism!
Tell them you want their $18 service... Works great !
This. Call and ask for transfer to retenetion. Do no give in to their options other then decreaseing down to $50-60per. I have done this with them for almost 10 years...
Hope you get an option for fiber soon; I switched last year and cut more than a third of my bill despite almost doubling download speed and going from 4mb/s to about 900mb/s upload. (I need a good connection for work as I run my business out of my house and was on the "best" offer from the cable company before switching.)
Not that r/Maine is a perfect representation of the state...but you're right, both in the subreddit and in real life. Fidium's a bigger company.
Wow thank you for all the advice everyone! I have a lot of options to look into now
Spectrums fastest residential plan is gigabit (with 35 mbit upload). Their mid tier is 500 / 20 so it sounds like you are on just the standard residential tier (300 / 10)
Lollygag over Fidium? I dunno if that’s the word you wanted.
Fair. "Fawning over" would have been a better one but I wrote that comment half-asleep.
Damn, as of the last time I checked, I had their fastest available plan for my area, but it looks like they are indeed offering gigabit in my zip code now. Although if I try to upgrade it just says "Call us," so FML, guess I get to waste another hour being on hold with these assholes.
Gigabit requires a tech visit and modem swap
My modem already supports gigabit (I never use Spectrum's crap, had terrible issues with disconnection with three successive routers from them. Bought my own gear and the problem vanished.)
Hopefully it's on the list: https://www.spectrum.net/support/internet/compliant-modems-spectrum-network/
I’ve had consolidated communications “business class” fiber for two years and it’s been awesome. No downtime and consistent speeds. I’d have no hesitation to try out Fidium based on my experience with their business fiber product.
I’ve got Spectrum and get 500 Mbps download for $90 a month. They’ve upgraded my internet speeds twice without raising my rates. I don’t hate them yet.
Spectrum has a reduced rate service which is still 150mbps and only $34.99.
I make above median salary and I even got approved for it.
PencillCat t1_je3vst3 wrote
You can try to see if fiber is in your area, but I don't think they're any cheaper. Spectrum has the monopoly on cable, as far as I know. Other options are the dls, satellite, or mobile, which your prices, speeds, and reliability will vary depending on where you live.
And yeah, Spectrum sucks like that. I can't wait to ditch them if/when fiber ever comes to my town.