Cable Rant About This Page:

[Sandy_N]

ok....so I am paying $59.00 a month for "family cable" which includes $11 for basic cable. This does not include the box, remote tax, etc. or the phone and internet that I have with them. With my discount it brings the total to $150 a month! I woke up this morning to find 1/2 of my channels gone and replaced with a screen "you now need a cable box to view this station" I called and am really annoyed, I have cable boxes but not IO boxes on 2 of my tv's. It will cost me an extra $14 a month for the new boxes. I am thinking of cancelling out of principle. About 6 months ago we lost some channels without the box (no TLC!) and now no WE, Lifetime, Travel, etc.

When I called to complain and say I have less service I would now like to pay less, the rep said "you have the same service available, you just can't access it!"

So now I am steamed...I do fall asleep with the tv and enjoy it as "background noise" for a few hours a day. Am I spitting myself? I just feel the bill is getting out of hand.

Would love any opinions.

TIA
Sandy

[loobyoxlip]

The cable companies are out of control. I used to pay $78/month for digital cable, an extra sports package, Showtime and my cable internet. Then after my 'special' ended, it went up the $128. For the last several years, I've gone from special to special, which the customer service rep snottily reminded me of a few months ago when I called to get it lowered again. "Well, you've NEVER paid the regular rate". Ya, I'm pretty smart, lady. Thanks. I used to have better luck going directly INTO the cable offices and talking to a human being, but they are not bending lately. I ended up cutting out the extra sports package and Showtime, and my bill is now $109/month. It's still too much, but unfortunately they are the only cable provider around here. I'm hoping AT&T adds service here and SOON!

[HiddenMickey]

We switched to Satellite two months ago. I'd had it with the cable company upping our prices every couple of months, yet offering new customers great pricing. We still use them for internet, but that's it.

[Colexis Mom]

My in-laws is like that (they don't have a box). Not sure how much they pay. But you pay $150 and you can't get all that stuff?? We pay $88, only have one box for the downstairs TV, and only have basic and expanded digital cable (but no pay movie stations)! I can only get half the stations on the other TVs, but I'm not going to pay for more boxes!!

[Sandy_N]

Originally Posted by loobyoxlip

The cable companies are out of control. I used to pay $78/month for digital cable, an extra sports package, Showtime and my cable internet. Then after my 'special' ended, it went up the $128. For the last several years, I've gone from special to special, which the customer service rep snottily reminded me of a few months ago when I called to get it lowered again. "Well, you've NEVER paid the regular rate". Ya, I'm pretty smart, lady. Thanks. I used to have better luck going directly INTO the cable offices and talking to a human being, but they are not bending lately. I ended up cutting out the extra sports package and Showtime, and my bill is now $109/month. It's still too much, but unfortunately they are the only cable provider around here. I'm hoping AT&T adds service here and SOON!

That's interesting they let you do it, do you mind telling me who the provider is. When I mentioned the "ad rates" I was told new customers only. I thanked them for appreciating my 16 year loyalty..ok I was snarkey!

Sounds like I am far from alone in this boat!

[Teresa]

We are awaiting the arrival of AT&T's UVerse. Have been for a year now. Don't know when they're going to get it here, but it can't be too soon.

We have the boxes on 2 TVs, but just deal without some of the channels on the rest. I've about had it with cable also.

[DrDolphin]

We have basic cable - no boxes. I refuse to pay a bunch of money for channels I don't want or need. I REALLY wish the cable companies would go ala carte (or satellite would) and then I would choose only what I watch. I dropped HBO, etc and went to netflix instead.

[RoonieRooToo]

We're actually going to cancel our cable all together. We decided to do an experiment and see how long we could go without TV and 6 months later, we haven't watched a drop and haven't missed it one bit. We have netflix so we just watch movies in the evening after dinner. So the conclusion of the experiement is to drop the cable and lose that bill.

[mom2twingirlies]

Cable co here drives me crazy too. We recently took a good look at what we actually watched and downgraded our package. There is a show here and there, that we might wish we still had, but it wasn't enough to justify the total cost. We are reconsidering a satellite package, but the cost analysis hasn't made it worth it yet.

[loobyoxlip]

Sandy, it's Charter. I've never had a problem getting SOME sort of deal from them until recently. They've even called me on the phone in the past and offered me deals. I usually have to commit to that price for a year, and then it goes up again (with no warning, so I have to really make sure I remember when I call for the new price!).

[TMWIlson7196]

We have ATT Uverse and with internet we pay $135 a month. But that includes 49 movie channels, all the sports channels, and several channels we've never watched, 1 dvr which we can watch recorded shows on any tv. We love it.

[Deberlee]

Ergh, cable....we made the switch to satellite last summer and couldn't be happier. Cable just didn't offer enough HD channels, and every time we turned around, they were dropping the ones that they did have. We heard this week that they're dropping HDnet and HDMovies. I'll just be that they're raising their prices as they're doing it, too!

With satellite, we get way more channels than we ever had before and it costs considerably less. The HD package alone was worth the switch for us.

[jjjmranch]

I wish we could get satellite. We don't have a clear view of the southwestern sky. I would have to cut down my trees and two different neighbors trees in order for it to work. AT&T won't come out here because we're only two small blocks of homes surrounded by farmfields. But the newer subdivisions 3 miles away have everything. We're stuck with cable. But I pay $159 a month (including taxes for phone, tv and internet). That includes HBO (which we don't even watch). I would wait until about 2 months after my "contract" expired and go ask what deals they can give me or I would tell them I have to drop their services. They threw me a better deal. Good luck!

[5SOXFNZ]

Originally Posted by Sandy_N

That's interesting they let you do it, do you mind telling me who the provider is. When I mentioned the "ad rates" I was told new customers only. I thanked them for appreciating my 16 year loyalty..ok I was snarkey!

Sounds like I am far from alone in this boat!

I flipped out on my cable company about the fact that they were taking advantage of me for being a lyal customer and they gave me the $99 rate for one year for phone, internet, and cable. When that was up I again flipped out on them saying that they were forcing people to switch from satelite to cable and back just to get the deals. i asked for a supervisor and low and behold, they "found" a loyal cuatomer discount. it was about $25 more, but we got added channels (HBO and Starz I think).
Just keep trying and ask for a supervisor, I've always had good luck and keep my bill fairly low for all the services I have (I'm sure there's probably a note in my file by this point saying "just give her a deal so she'll stop calling!!" LOL)

[scottjs]

This is really gonna get interesting with the country going digital in a few weeks. We just got Comcast and so far I am happy with them. But who knows how they will increase the rates in a year. Consumers in this country(IMHO)are held for randsom. Our phone company doesn't want us to quit!!! (A T and T). Because some other company might make a buck off of us. Well I love to complain. To the media. And to the state attorney generals office. I am like Howard Beal in the movie Network!!! I'm mad as H*** and I'm not gonna take it anymore.