Since when don't they allow self-owned modems any more? How long ago did they tell you this?
I own mine and they are not complaining at me. I think it is about 2 years old. I also am "renting" theirs as a part of the standard cost for 30/4 internet. It's on a shelf in case my own modem ever conks out.
What happened here is that my older new modem almost-died around 2 years ago (one of the newer Motorola Surfboards). It was returning a lot of errors and they sent 2 techs out here to see what the problem might be. They didn't find anything in their lines, so they decided the modem was dying. They gave me their modem and left. It turns out it was probably the power supply that was working intermittantly poorly, but that's a moot point now.
After the techs left, I bought a new modem (another Motorola SB) and plugged it in the day it arrived. Then I called Charter, and they provisioned it. I didn't ask them if I could, and the service tech on the phone didn't tell me I can't have it. She simply took the numbers I gave her and had it going in 5 minutes.
I would be very annoyed if I was forced to use their modem. I think it's important to be able to access the logs, crummy as they are, it's nice to know when certain events happen.
So when did they tell you this, John?
Thanks,
Liz J