I hate cable service providers.

[kustom play]

we pay about 32 dollars a month for internet through cox cable

we dropped cable, we have one of the computers hooked up to our TV so we just watch everything online or just watch basic TV

cable is a waste. Once cell phone companies come out with cheaper broadband access its going to be over for the cable companies

I use to have Comcast. I would just call them and tell them im canceling and going with Dish. All of a sudden they could magically lower my bill and offer me more options.

[tomato]

I didn't know VZN provided Internet. Good deal, thanks!! Anyone else?

[DevilGirl]

We have Verizon for phone and *finally* DSL. For the longest time, the only thing we could get for internet in our area was either dial-up, 1-way cable, or an aircard I had through Verizon wireless. Even though DSL had been available not more than 250 yards down the road for years...

We have a local cable company (RCN) for cable. They required everyone to get the converter boxes (which were a joke to be able to get up and running, even with 3 tech visits, and probably at least 4-5 phone calls to support). We upgraded one of the converter boxes to a cable card to use in the main TIVO. Even better yet was that a couple weeks ago, the 2 basic converter boxes go on the fritz (during Sunday primetime, I think the Olympics may have been occuring then), but the cable card is running fine. Worked great for his mom out in the living room, but sucked for both him and I in each of the other 2 rooms with TV's... Picture would be there; then gone while the box rebooted; then there again for all of maybe 3 minues; out again for another 10 or so; on again; off again; on again; off again; on again; off again; etc... I lost track of how many times it went on and off within a 45-min period... And of course when I tried to call in, I only received a busy signal. Guess lots of their customers were unhappy then.

We tried switching to a different local cable company (Blue Ridge), that stated we were within their service area, scheduled to switch, tech came out to hook us up, only to realize the line coming from the pole was not adequate to support their service (after already drilling a hole in the side of our house), and we would have to wait a few days. So we waited, and guess what? When the other tech guys came out to route the line from the pole to the house, yeah, they found out that they still couldn't get us hooked up because the closet they had service to us was about 4 telephone poles down the road, and it was a terminal run. So, we still couldn't get cable from them. Boy did they get bitched out!


I lost some of my favorite channels to watch in the switch to all digital. The way they packaged the channels, to get just the 1 we wanted, we would have to buy a whole package. And most of their packaging didn't really make sense. So we had to forego some of the better channels...

[toad]

we have internet-only thru at&t. they have a deal in our area for $19.95/month which is dirt-cheap and we don't have to have a landline or cable(we use our cell phones -at&t also - and over-the-air digital signal - don't watch that much tv). it's listed as 'basic' high-speed internet and the salesrep admitted it's the slowest high-speed they have, but it's still better than dial-up! the only time i ever have a problem is watching stuff on hulu.com that i missed on broadcast tv. buffering is annoying, but i keep telling myself 'it's less than $20 a month!'.

[sqcomp]

I don't know what you little girls are complaining about!?! I have to pay $75 per month for eFn dial up crap. Not only that, I have to watch military propganda advertisements if I even turn on a tv here. Don't commit suicide! Don't beat your wife! Don't drive drunk! Re-enlist!

ARRGH! I'm gonna re-enlist, get blitzed, kick my wife in the poop hole, and then kill myself if you friggin' make me watch any of this anymore! (just kidding...I wouldn't want to hear the bitching if I kicked her in the cornbucket)



...does it count that I'm in Iraq though?

Aside from DFAC tv, I haven't watched a tv since early December.

[Altitude]

So last month my cable went out and I called Comcast. They sent someone out to fix it and discovered the cable had been disconnected at one of the drop points on a pole. So I get my bill and see this $40.00 charge for a "video trouble call". It is explained to me that the $40. was the service fee because I don't pay $1.45/month for a service protection plan. There are several problems with this:

A) I've NEVER paid for a service call before
B) When I called them about the problem no one told me I'd have to pay to have it fixed.
C) I didn't know the Mafia took over Comcast and requires that I pay $1.45 "service protection" per month to avoid service fees if they need to fix something.
D) How do I know that Comcast techs don't go around town disconnecting people so they can collect the fee?
E) Why the hell should I pay for service when I had nothing to do with the problem?

Seriously, what the frack is going on here? Has anyone else ever had to pay this monthly fee to avoid future service charges? I'm seriously dumbfounded and wish I could just kick Comcast to the curb, but my only other option is to go DSL/Fiber with Qwest, but to get a decent rate I'd also need to sign up for phone service which I don't need.

I swear I'm going to sell everything I own and just drop off the grid.

[GeneralDon7]

I pay $29.99 for verizon DSL 3/1.5mb without phone service . At my work I switched us to Comcast 20/15mb for $85 but it took them 5 months to install it. Comcast has the worst internal communication I have ever encountered with a company. For our other office we have Verizon FIOS at 25/20mb for $125, I would rather deal with Verizon then Comcast anyday. I'm like Tomato I use netflix for movies and the internet for everything else.

[shinlee]

yeah, I'm with comcast too, now that I've moved out here to WA state. Not a big fan of them, but after alot of talking too, they've seemingly reverted to being good providers. I've got their internet for 39.95 a month, and my first bill was almost 200 bucks!! They didn't activate w/e code my account was supposed to have for my internet, charged me an installation charge that I was never told about, and also billed me for 2 months at once!

Got it all fixed, and just recieved my new bill today for my third month, and it's 39.95 exactly, and so I'm happy now :)

[rningonfumes]

I switched from Verizon dsl/land line to a reseller called DSLExtreme and use free Voip via Ooma. Granted I still have taxes to pay on the voip, I come out positive on the deal. I believe I upgraded to 3/1500 for about 35 bucks. I would have stayed with the lower volume dsl but the house was starting to use more bandwidth plus I wanted to compensate for the VOIP.

A quick note on the "extra charges". I don't see a problem with them. Read the fine print and ask the extra questions before you sign up for things. Googling also helps to keep the surprises low on your part and gives you opportunities to make a list of questions you want clarified.

Because I quit the landline service, I knew that I would pay the extra fee to use Verizon's network to get my DSL from the reseller hence the 35 bucks instead of the 30 bucks, you'll see that often.

Understand what you're getting into before you sign up.

[fnkngrv]

My options are Fairpoint for 8mb DSL/digital phone for 30 bucks a month. Cable is Time Warner. Time Warner also has internet and digital phone. I went with TW since I was able to con them down into 117 a month which includes taxes for 10-15mb internet (they do "turbo boost" to the 15 when there is low traffic), digital phone, and 3 cable boxes (2 HD DVR and 1 regular). They were supposed to have a project completed by the end of August which would have taken the HD channel offerings from the 20 or so up to around 50 however they suck and didn't get the fiber run completed or something. I actually hate TW. I have traded in 2 of my HD DVRs for various malfunctions and my modem once. USA HD comes in for crap always freezing every so often and TNT HD does the same several times a week. I know more than their tech support about networks and IP Telephony so that makes it more difficult because I know how to fix the problems when they occur; they just sit on the other end of the line dumbfounded. I actually had an engineer once ask me, "are you some kind of Cisco Expert or something?" I am, but that is besides the point. The oddest thing is that my Vudu and MLB.TV worked SO MUCH BETTER on DSL when I had that then cable internet.