Update: Spectrum reached out to Cord Cutters News to say the “Change of Service” fee only applies when a truck is sent to your house, and that customers who have a question about their bill, including a Change of Service fee, should contact the company. Spectrum also asked that the readers who reported being charged a “Change of Service” fee when canceling Spectrum’s streaming service should contact Spectrum.
Here is an image of the fee being applied when Spectrum’s TV service was canceled.
As always when you make changes to any service always check your bill to make sure there are no unexpected charges.
Here is the original story we posted today:
Earlier this year Spectrum rolled out a $15 a month live TV streaming service called Spectrum Essentials. This service joins Spectrum’s Choice service that lets you pick 10 live TV channels plus your locals for just $25 a month. Now it looks like there is one hidden fee we didn’t know about: A $49.99 cancelation fee.
Apparently, if you cancel Spectrum’s streaming TV service but keep its Internet, Spectrum is charging a $49.99 “Change of Service” fee. This was reported to Cord Cutters News by some of our readers, and we reached out to Charter Spectrum’s parent company for comment, but they did not return our emails.
This fee seems to be new as reports of a $49.99 “Change of Service” fee only recently started to be reported when people canceled their Spectrum streaming service. Yet we can confirm that Spectrum has been charging this fee to Spectrum customers for several years now.
Is this fee real? We have been unable to find any documentation on this fee and, sadly, Spectrum does not have a website dedicated to its $15 a month TV Essentials service. Yet we did confirm as far back as 2017 that Spectrum has been charging customers who make changes to their plans a “Change of Service” fee that averages about $50. In our research, we found a 2017 story from StopTheCap.com and a post in the DSLReports forums from Spectrum customers who switched their plans from a TWC package to a Spectrum package who were charged a “Change of Service” fee.
From what we can find, Spectrum is charging customers who change plans a fee. From the looks of it, Spectrum considers keeping their Internet but dropping their live TV streaming service qualifies for this “Change of Service” fee.
If you are considering getting Spectrum’s live TV streaming for a short time, be careful.
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