Service Protection Plan requirement for WOW! Services

WOW! recently implemented a new nickel-and-dime scheme to hit customers with service call fees of $50 each time a technician visits a customer's home.

I have had WOW! for many, many years and in the past, being a customer was sufficient to warrant a free service call to the house.  However, since I own my own cable modem, I am no longer paying any equipment rental fees, so they have found a new way to make money.

I was recently having trouble with my Internet download speeds and needed to call out a WOW! Service Technician to my house to determine the root cause of the problem.  The technician just made some adjustments to the cable line outside my house but that was enough for me to get charged with a whopping $50 service call fee!!

I inquired further about it and as it turns out, their new policy is to charge for any service calls if you do not have a Service Protection Plan in place.

Interestingly enough, I HAD a Service Protection Plan in place several months earlier but cancelled their lousy TV service and stuck with just the Internet service so the Service Protection plan automatically got revoked.

This left me with a $50 Service Call fee and forced me to renew the Service Protection plan ($5/month) just to avoid this charge in the future.  In addition, one of the other stipulations on the Service Protection plan is that you have it for AT LEAST 1 month before you make your 1st service call (very similar to what Consumers Energy does for their Appliance Repair Plan).   

For some users, if you calculate the yearly costs ($60/yr vs $50/service call), it makes sense if you think you might call out a service technician at least once in a year.  If you have never called anyone out to your house (very much unlike myself), then the Service Protection Plan might not be for you. 

For anyone that might be getting or considering getting WOW! Services, you should definitely watch out for this hidden caveat.