I'm moving to Fayetteville at the end of the month and the apartment we are moving to has some deal with Time Warner Cable such that we pay for basic and standard cable through the apartment (as an additional fee but with the rent). If we don't want cable we don't have to pay it but if we want additional features we pay extra. Does anyone know anything about this type of arrangement? I have never heard of it before but a few other places we looked at also had the same thing. I don't know if we just wanted basic cable if we could do that for instance. I am also not sure if we can get the new customer deals because of this. If not, I am going to be really pissed off!

I did find some info that the FCC banned deals apartments have made with cable companies and it sounds like the same thing but I am not sure. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071029-fcc-to-strike-down-exclusive-apartment-complex-cable-deals.html

So does anyone know anything more about this? Is it a common thing elsewhere? Does is suck for us living there?

7/6/2008 12:09:58 PM

Yeah, wish I could change the topic title to "Forced to pay for cable through your apartment".

7/6/2008 12:12:05 PM

^thats what your title is

7/6/2008 12:16:02 PM

except for the apartment part

and what's your problem with it?? I'm not sure I understand

7/6/2008 12:20:23 PM

aparement

7/6/2008 12:21:07 PM

Quote :

"Forced to pay for cable "

Quote :

" If we don't want cable we don't have to pay it"

7/6/2008 12:25:11 PM

^

*carl face*

7/6/2008 12:28:28 PM

I think they do this to keep from having tons of direct tv receivers hanging outside of the apartment windows and such.

7/6/2008 1:48:53 PM

The apartment complex I just moved into does this (Trinity Commons) I'm wondering about this same situation also. The standard cable comes included in rent which is what I normally get but what if I wanna add a DVR or something? I'm not sure yet if I would have to pay the full cable + DVR price to Time Warner or just pay the difference or what. I keep meaning to call the office here just haven't done it yet.

7/6/2008 3:48:27 PM

Quote :

"I'm moving to Fayetteville"

you have bigger problems than cable

7/6/2008 4:41:22 PM

Quote :

"I think they do this to keep from having tons of direct tv receivers hanging outside of the apartment windows and such."

ding ding. and b/c they can get group deals from TWC. i just moved from a place like this - if you want to add DVR, HD or whatever just call TWC up and explain it to them. they only bill you for the difference.

7/6/2008 5:17:30 PM

Quote :

"I'm not sure yet if I would have to pay the full cable + DVR price to Time Warner or just pay the difference or what."

you just pay the difference. at university house basic cable was included and to add DVR i paid like $4.99 a month i think it was.. it was awesome

7/6/2008 5:29:55 PM

at least you're not forced to use fucking NTC with next to no HD support on any channels that matter

7/6/2008 9:48:02 PM

my apartment does this

i would probably drop it if i could because tv is bad mkay

7/6/2008 10:10:15 PM

Quote :

"I think they do this to keep from having tons of direct tv receivers hanging outside of the apartment windows and such."

The FCC has ruled that apartment buildings cannot ban satellite dishes.

7/6/2008 11:19:58 PM

@TJB627 - Really? I lived at Trinity Commons about 3-4 years ago and we didn't have this same thing then. How times change.

@NeuseRvrRat - Yeah, I know I have bigger problems than this but I plan to stay in my little castle at home as much as possible and cable/internet are high priority.

I really just hope that I not going to get ripped off because of this and the difference is still as good as the digital cable + internet deal would be.

7/7/2008 12:06:23 AM

Quote :

"Forced to pay for cable "

Quote :

" If we don't want cable we don't have to pay it"

wtf??????? does not compute

7/7/2008 12:16:55 AM

Forced to pay for cable through the apartment complex as part of the rent check. We pay whatever the complex says, not whatever deal we could get from TWC normally. I don't know all the details yet because I have never heard of this thing before and I was hoping some one else has.

I think this setup is stupid. I see no benefit to the consumer to pay for cable through your apartment. You apartment should have nothing to do with your cable.

7/7/2008 7:46:46 AM

it is stupid but they make money on the deal

7/7/2008 12:25:29 PM

Quote :

"I think they do this to keep from having tons of direct tv receivers hanging outside of the apartment windows and such."

Quote :

"The FCC has ruled that apartment buildings cannot ban satellite dishes."

That is true, but they can make rules that say where you can and cannot put them. Each complex would have different rules of course.

To the OP regarding new customer deals.... I had this same thing happen with an old apartment complex. They did let us have the new customer deal.

7/7/2008 12:36:58 PM

Thanks sd2nc. That is reassuring. I'll find out for sure in a few weeks.

7/7/2008 8:27:39 PM

I seriously doubt they can force you to pay for it through them. You are capable of calling the cable company and setting up your own service. It shouldn't be that big of a difference though.

7/7/2008 8:57:12 PM