this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2026
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And they will drop the extra charge after you've paid it off right.... right guys?
Just like when Comcast forced me to rent their modem if I wanted a static IP on my business account. Fuck them and I made dynamic IP work for my needs. I did have to move my email server to a 3rd party host.
Rat bastards. They should be tried for their crimes against humanity.
I wouldn't be surprised if they make this retroactive to even apply to the people who bought their hardware.
When I was 18, I signed up for an internet service for the first time. They asked if I wanted to rent or purchase a modem/router, and because I did the math and saw that it would be more economical in the long run to purchase it, that's what I chose. I paid extra up front so that the hardware would belong to me and I could take it with me later.
Fast forward to moving day, when I canceled my internet plan and boxed up my modem/router to take with me. A few months later, I got a call from the company. They said I never returned my hardware and that I owe them a fee to replace it. I told them I purchased the hardware up front; it's mine, I already paid for it.
Their answer? "No you didn't."
The gaslighting commenced as they claimed to have no record of that. They continued to harass me for months, threatening legal action and debt collection and all that. Eventually I got fed up and just paid the fine. Essentially paid for it twice, but fuck me I guess. This is america where the consumer is always wrong.
Rent-to-own isn't that common, even though maybe it should be. With most rentals (of anything) you have to keep paying indefinitely. That's why there's usually a cost/benefit analysis of renting vs owning.
Renting can sometimes be better for less tech-savvy people, since the company owns the equipment and is familiar with it, and will replace it at any point if it has issues
I am still trying to figure out why I have to pay my ISP $10/mo to use my own modem, or $20/mo for one they provide and $30 if I want them to enable wifi on their modem.
lolwut
Sounds like a way to hide the full price of the internet plan. Restaurants do this in some big cities like in San Francisco... They add junk fees like "5% employee health care mandate" rather than just increasing the menu prices.
It's some bullshit is what it is. Fortunately I told them to pound sand and I just test the limits of my seemingly truly unlimited mobile hotspot. Funny thing is my neighbor who has the ONLY ISP WE CAN HAVE (because if building contracts) came to ask if I was having issues with the ISP because they have to keep coming out here and it fixes nothing or they say it's not on them (the company) it's something you (neighbor) are doing". I've had pretty similar experiences with this company at other rentals I've been in, but anyway to make a boring story short I check their routers Internet "uptime" reports and it was pretty abysmal. We are talking like 5-12 brown outs a week. All of which occurred within the time window of 09:00-18:00. My phone's hotspot? Consistently over 700/30 and under $70/mo total. These bastards need to go out 'protection agencies" have failed us time and time again.