We have noticed a lot of recent stories out there about how much people hate to deal with their cable companies. This is, of course, nothing new. But still, after 30 plus years, you’d think that the cable companies would have figured it out. Nope.
A decade ago, Congress even got involved, making it part of the promise of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that the increased competition would mean lower cable prices.
How did that work out for you?
So, as a public service, we offer a new column: I Hate The Cable Company. It will be a monthly round-up of just some of stories discussing the crappy service and high prices that people enjoy from their local cable providers. Just to be fair, we will add satellite to the mix, as well.
- In Columbia, South Carolina, Time Warner Cable is raising rates 3%. Rates have gone up 12% since 2002. However, consumer who bundle cable with internet and digital phone won’t see an increase at all.
- In Utah, long-time Dish Network subscribers have to switch to Comcast on order to watch the mtn. network, which carries the college football games of their local conference, the Mountain West Conference. Comcast, which purchased half of the Mountain West Conference’s business partner, is suspected of dragging their feet in getting the .mtn network on Dish Network, thus causing football fans to have to switch to Comcast.
- In Southwest Washington State, Comcast has introduced a nasty little surprise as part of their takeover of Aldelphia: a restructure of their pricing so that in order to watch channels such as ESPN, Comedy Central, MTV, Cartoon Network and CNN, they will have to pay an extra $13.64 per month. That’s a 35% increase.
- In Virginia, Cox is raising standard cable rates 6% next year. It will mean a 35% raise since 2000.
- So far, not a single major American cable or satellite provider has the balls to carry Al-Jazeera’s English-language channel.
- One of many many looks at the battle between the NFL Network and Time Warner, among other cable companies.
- In Vermont, hundreds of people lost their broadband connections when Comcast took over from Aldelphia.
- In San Francisco, Comcast is raising rates 6% next year. That’s after a 7% increase this year, and 6% increases in each of the two years prior to that.
- In Palm Springs, Time Warner cable is removing the East Coast feeds of HBO, Cinemax and Showtime — which was great for watching The Sopranos at 6:00pm — and isn’t carrying The CW at all. No Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars or Everybody Hates Chris.
- In Los Angeles, a lawsuit has been filed against Time Warner cable by angry former customers of Aldelphia and Comcast. According to reports, there were service interruptions and channel reductions. Apparently, it wasn’t as easy as that commercial that they ran showing an Aldelphia truck going into a car wash and coming out as a Time Warner truck.
- In Niagara Falls, not only do they not get the NFL Network — they have Time Warner — they might also lose FOX and MyTV.
- In West Virginia, Dish Network subscribers are going to lose their local feeds: even those who live so far away that they can’t get their local feeds with an antenna.
Time to talk to the landlord about satellite. And if your house is situated the wrong way and doesn’t face south, move. Or cut down some trees that block your line to the satellite. If all else fails, antenna. Use the money you save to get Neflix or buy DVDs. I will never, ever use cable no matter how many trees Comcast kills in printing their daily — yes daily — mailer that I receive.
And after listening to Stephanie Miller this week, I too hate Slime-Porner and Smedelphia (names changed to protect the not so innocent) and I don’t even have cable.
I’m with Tim. DirectTV is your answer.
As far as cable internet, I’ve found that RCN in DC is really good and affordable. You can even get a 20 Mbps connection. 5 Mbps is $24 / mo… hell of a lot better than F*cking Comcast. I hate them.
– and Al Jazeera English is available through Real for $5.95 / mo., which is worth it. It’s an excellent channel.
My biggest complaint about Comcast as an HD fan is that first they charge you $5.00 for the HD service, but then if you don’t subscribe to their digital service for another $15 per month then they won’t give you TNT or ESPN in high definition even if your package already includes the SD channels. Comcast should be allowed to charge their customers $240 per year just for delivery TV in clear quality.
Has anyone had problems with Dish Network/American Satellite in NM/CO?
I was told by Dish Network that I had 30 days grace period to cancel. I cencelled within the 30 days.
American Satellite(who I’d never heard of) have gone ahead and charged me $500 termination fee and $298 for the equipment. Apparently, the contract, which I signed was with them. Their cancellation time limit is three days.
I can get the equipment amount back and I’ve disputed the $500 with American Express. American Satellite told me that if I go ahead with the dispute they’ll charge me another $200 and that I “have no chance of winning”
Any ideas or suggestions?
At the risk of being exposed as the lunatic that I clearly am, here is a copy of my email to Time Warner:
The last time I called, I was confused about programming. The website indicated that a channel was part of my package & my lineup was not in keeping with that. The CSR I spoke with was not well trained. I immediately asked for a supervisor. After being placed on extended hold, the CSR returned and continued along the SAME PATH. I insisted on speaking with the supervisor. After being placed on hold for another EXTENDED period, the “supervisor” indicated that he had instructed the CSR to continue, with the conversation!!! Then, when I asked for his name, he told me that he did not have to give me that information.
Do I need to say how wrong this was ???? Unfortunately, I ignored my vow and continued service with your company.
Tonight was the last straw. I called (and waited on hold) because of a technical failure on YOUR PART. Then, I was told I’d have to miss work and wait for a service call… AND, I’d have to call back to ask for a credit to my bill to compensate me. Once again, I was treated like TW is doing me a favor. Instead of doing that, I called Dish Network.
Then I called back to discontinue my Cable & Phone….I stayed on hold for 18 minutes. THEN I was told to call back AGAIN on Monday!!!!
With all due respect……WTF????????
Someone needs to take the initiative to call me. I AM THE CUSTOMER!!!!
What is wrong with Time Warner???
——–Oh, did I forget to tell you that another time, when I scheduled a service call – the tech showed up LATE….then, he called my cell phone to ask where I was. I said that my assigned time window had already passed but that I would come back home right away. He said that it was the end of the day and he would only wait 10 minutes, it took me 15 minutes to get home. When I arrived, his truck was broken down in front of my house and he was waiting in the truck for assistance. Rather than come in and tend to my order, he continued to wait in the truck for ONE WHOLE HOUR. It was cold and raining, and I actually felt sorry for him. (Stoopid Girl) I called Time Warner and made sure that they were sending help for him. (after waiting on hold for fifteen minutes to reschedule an appointment) WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE????
It’s corporate greed and a serious disrespect for the customer. Back in the day companies worked to maintain relationships. These days they nickle and dime you, provide crappy customer service, then are bought out by an even larger company and the cycle begins again.
COmcast had problems troubleshooting my service from the time I had entered my new home. After 3months of troubleshooting and one complete month of an interuption of service they have only allowed a 40$ discount to my service fee. I have asked for a complete free month which is still in limbo after another month of continued calling and requests. The origional problem was an outside line that had a hole in the wire covering causing the problem. This caused our picture to flicker , jump, and most times not allow our upper channels or ON Demand programs. I wish I had a chice so I could let them go but there is no service except Dish Net which after I tally it all up is the same cost or more. This is not the firs time I been rapped by a cable company. Bright house–I had over paid 160 bucks and canceled to move. It took over 6 weeks to get my refund–I was turning in my box in person–the woman says” Your overpaid! But it will be 4-6 weeks to get your money!”
AHHH!
KILL ME !
I pay 45 per month for two Dish receivers.
I get HDTV from a good old fashioned antenna. Free, after the $75 in costs for the antenna. Better, no HD Lite !
To do this from my cable company, approx. $90 per month, or enough in one year to pay for my DVR for the HDTV.
While many can’t do this, many can. The antenna is a forgotten technology. Free TV, in HD even, rains down upon many of you.
In response to Jane ~
I’m going through the same thing right now, only I cancelled before the “3” days. This was back in July. Yesterday, 3/26, I received a letter from a collection agency trying to collect $700 AND threatned to put a mechanical lein on my house. WTF!!! I’m contacting a lawyer. The installers screwed up my wall, in my NEW house, and the fricken thing didn’t even work!! What happened with you???
Oh Jane I feel your pain! The same thing happened to me. Never even heard of American Satellite, I thought I had the Dish Network. What happened to me was that I moved and my new house has too many trees surrounding my house so the Dish was unable to find anyplace to place the dish. They sent out several people to “make sure” there was no place anywhere in the yard that the dish could be placed. Then I get a bill from American Satellite for 900.00 for breaking my contract! WHAT!??? I believe a contract is when somebody supplies a service and someone pays for the service. In my eyes if you cannot supply me with your service then what the hell am I going to pay you for? I didnt break the contract THEY DID!! I liked having the dish and would still like to have it, its not my fault they can’t supply it! They then took 400.00 out of my account months later since I did not pay the 900.00 fee! I have filed a dispute and waiting to see what happens next. My advice to everyone DO NOT GET THE DISH NETWORK!!!!!
Same happened to me, what did you do, we had Dish Network in Cape Coral, FL and moved to SC…they can’t provide service here because too many trees but still want us to pay for breaking contract???? What to do???
I have had many nightmares with local cable co’s. When there wasn’t a choice, I used the local “Time warner/Atlantic Broadband” cable co. When I first started with them it wasn’t bad, but then I added their internet service, which cost $60 a month, but I couldn’t have the basic service with them, I had to add digital(another $40/mo), which required me to have a converter (another $6/mo), plus I had to pay $6/mo for the converter for the internet service…..so needless to say my $60./mo cable bill trippled!!! When I bought the exact same modem/converter box at the local Circuit City, they took their box back and I was out from under one of the needless charges, but then suddenly my ISP service was really slow. When I called them about it, they insisted nothing changed and I need not change anything about my modem…that it was fine too. Months then years went by, but nothing was ever fixed and no one could explain it.
When I moved they didn’t show up the day of their service date/ time that was given and seemed upset with me when I called them on Sat. and expected someone out….why not….they didn’t feel like showing up Friday and let me all weekend with out service…why couldn’t they spend their sat without their family to connect my service? Only seems fair to me…oh and yea, I was already paid up for the month and had been without service for 2 weeks to begin with, because they couldn’t get someone out there sooner!
I had issues with mysterious charges on my bill over the years, most of which were resolved after spending hours on the phone explaining THEIR bill to THEM. BUT….then a pay per view showed up, which we weren’t even awake for, when earlier in the night we had trouble getting the thing to work. I promptly called them to explain we tried to get one earlier (different movie) and it wouldn’t work, kept giving us an error and was a different movie. They told me that the issue was resolved and would be cleared up. They forgot to mention they then added the billing for the movie that was correct but didn’t get and let the other on there. After a few more conversations they only refunded me for the movie I didn’t get, but was still charging me for the one that was on in the middle of the night….why? so I called yet again, they explained that since it played they couldn’t refund it??? why, I didn’t order it….at this point I told them I would pay my bill minus the cost of this and the taxes associated with it, which I continued to do, and they were also charging me late fees (3.95/mo) so I refused to pay that too….I wasn’t late, I paid on time, I just didn’t pay the one thing that I disputed on my bill and since they refused to do anything for me, I refused to pay…..well after 3 months they got a wild hair up their butts and decided I would be disconnected if this wasn’t paid (which was now up to like $60). I called them and explained this amt. was disputed and they tried to tell me I couldn’t dispute them?? Why I’d been telling them for months (every time it showed up o the bill) that I wasn’t paying that part of the bill and since I was disputing it that they couldn’t charge me late fees on it or refuse service till the issue is resolved (which was in their contract). I told them they could disconnect if they wanted I would just get directtv(sattelite ) and they told me that because this was an old part of my bill they couldn’t do anything about it, so I asked why they didn’t do anything when I first said anything and they had no record of it…how convienient!! Well I ended up getting directtv….which I only had 1 problem with…they told me a channel was in my local line up that wasn’t, but I ended up getting rid of them anyhow.
The reason?? Well because of another well known rip off co….the phone co. (Verizon). I got their internet service because they offered a discount for Directtv subscribers, plus I could include it into my phone bill. Well it didn’t work out so well, which is a much longer and bigger nightmare story than the one for the cable co. which involves a solid week of making calls to report problems and not getting them fixed, but the trouble ticket being closed as resolved on their end.
Needless to say I had no choice and went back to the cable co, but told them the only way I would come back is if they put in my contract that this $60 I owed would be wiped out…..which they did. (they are also under different management now too) and my bill is actually much lower now and I have their phone service too (so I could totally dump on verizon)……well I now couldn’t be happier……for now!
Well.. when American Satellite Co. took $400.00 out of my checking account, I filed a dispute with my bank. Upon investigation my bank found that they did not have a right to take money out of my account so the $400.00 was put back into my account. I also filed a complaint with the BBB which was unresolved because American Satellite Co. would not respond. Every person I talked to from American Satellite Co. was rude and nobody was willing to help. Very unprofessional!!!
Hey everyone I know this is a huge risk as that’s why I’m only giving my first name for this comment. I work for a cable company (and I’m not going to say which one just so that you can’t find me ha ha) and I’m just a tech support technician that everyone hates calling when they have problems with their service. I’ve just recently taken the job after working many years at a great grocery store that was known for its customer service. I mean this grocery store would bend over backwards to make your day right. Anyhow I just took the job because it was the best in my town and so far I’ve been surprised. I know everyone here has a complaint and some of the things I see here are surprising. I do however just want to post this for just everyone in no matter what business you work in.
I’ve met some of the nicest, sincere, and honest people you can come across while working for this company. Most of the people here are even more dedicated to their work than my former work at the grocery store. All of us in that building have families and lives outside of work just like everyone else. We try each and everyday to provide for our families and we have the same struggles everyone else has. Yes, I work for the cable company and I have the same issues everyone else has with their service. Dropped calls, missing channels, lost internet connection, etc. All of them I’ve had to deal with myself. I can understand everyone’s frustration and everyone should know by now that the cable business is a volatile business. Just like cell phones, gas, electricity, etc. Everyone thinks in here that there’s this giant conspiracy that we’re all in the office trying to make your life hell and we enjoy making you pay higher bills. Hey guess what, in my cubicle I keep a photo of my family next to my computer as a reminder that we are all trying to make it each and everyday. I strive with each person I talk with over the phone to try and find them a deal that saves them money and gives them good service at the same time. However what I find most of the time is that some calls aren’t patient enough to listen to us. Some people are so busy in being caught up with themselves that they’re blind to people trying to help them.
EVERYONE HAS A PART IN THE EQUATION. Sometimes we all have to use a little common sense. I don’t care where you go to eat, sleep, or entertain yourself nobody has to serve you in a business. Anyone can walk out the door anytime. We are all trying to make it in this world and therefore you treat people as you would want to be treated. Next time you’re about to go off on someone you better stop and think what part you had in the equation because I gurantee that everyone has better worries than what somebody thinks of them.
By the way, why would any business be out to make your life hell? After all that would destroy customer relationships and loose business. A little common sense and responsibility goes a long way. God bless everyone during these difficult times with our economy.
Here are my thoughts. Terestrial digital broadcast TV is here. Why are you still paying for TV? Get yourself a $9 antenna and a $10 converter and stop paying the cable or satellite company for something that is free. Sure you will only get 20 channels, but do you really watch the food network? Get off your behind and get some exercise. You really don’t need to watch CSI reruns 24/7.
I have been thinking about switching from regular tv to another service like satellite. I know there at a lot of options out there and wanted some advice on what I should look for or purchase. It’s sad, but I am spending about $200 a month on my tv service and I am getting less than 70 channels. I would love more channels, hd television, and a tivo/tv recording box. Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful.
My TV bill is out of control. In my house we have 3 TVs, each with cable tv service. We get about 65 channels, but no HD programming. My husband really wants HD for his sports. Baseball season is coming and he is anxious to get it. For what I consider limited service I pay 125 dollars a month. Does that seem way too high? What is a better idea if I wanted HD??