Who else hates their cable company?

[salty]

I can't stand mine at all anymore. I only have one option for a cable company (COX) where I live. There are two dish companies (Directtv, dishnetwork) but my house is in a bad reception zone. Verizon Fios has been coming to install a network since 5 years ago but apparently its still not here yet.

Anyways, so I wanted to upgrade my tv channels and add a dvr box and make it a bundle which equaled the amount i was already paying for pretty basic channels. So I had to fill out the order online because online is 5 dollars cheaper for some odd reason. Then they called back the next day and wanted a $350 deposit for the equipment. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't talk them down even a penny from 350 at only .08% interest for one year. I'm aware that its my own fault for forgetting to pay the bill every month and thats why they don't trust me with the equipment. I just got so angry that my extra $300 I have spent over the last two years in late fees couldn't even sway it. Why should I have had to put down so much money even though I have had them for four years now and have never not returned my equipment.

Finality I caved in due to my girlfriend "needing" the dvr for her shows. Paid the Deposit and asked for an installer to come to do the phone that I had to add with the bundle. Now this morning the Cox Guy came to instal it, got halfway through and then there was an error in the system. The guy gets my phone number and leaves then never calls me to plug it in. So I have to call THEM to tell them they forgot about me. got bounced through three people. I get someone that brings me through the setup process. Next I ask to speak with a sales/bill person because i don't want to pay $25 for having to do it myself. Which ends up being another troubleshooting person. then another. then a sales that can't do anything. I end up with billing, then I have to tell the whole problem that happened this morning. Sit on hold for 15-20 minutes then I get a oh sorry I can't fix that until your bill is sent out, call back once i have received the bill. :mad: :mad: :mad:

[Bettowin]

I wouldn't mind switching from Cox to AT&T Uverse but I really don't want to change e-mail adresses. Cox hasn't given me a reason to change lately. They upgraded the cable in our area so the internet is fast and doesn't go down. They have no horseracing which is my only complaint. I have a friend who works customer service for Cox and is the person customers get transferred to when cancelling service. He gets bonuses based on his save percentage and what he has to give out to save the account. He has some very interesting stories about why people cancel and how they are brought back. One interesting tidbit was how many customers call to cancel or want to cancel because they can't figure out the remote or a new feature. They will send a technician out to retrain customers:)

[boxcar]

I wouldn't mind switching from Cox to AT&T Uverse but I really don't want to change e-mail adresses. Cox hasn't given me a reason to change lately. They upgraded the cable in our area so the internet is fast and doesn't go down. They have no horseracing which is my only complaint. I have a friend who works customer service for Cox and is the person customers get transferred to when cancelling service. He gets bonuses based on his save percentage and what he has to give out to save the account. He has some very interesting stories about why people cancel and how they are brought back. One interesting tidbit was how many customers call to cancel or want to cancel because they can't figure out the remote or a new feature. They will send a technician out to retrain customers:)

That's an interesting revelation about "commissioned" cancellation specialists. This could well explain why my wife and I were give such a hard time with two credit card companies a few days ago when we went to cancel -- with Discover Card being the most offensive of the two. In fact, they gave my wife such a hard time, I wound up getting on the phone with the person to express my displeasure over how they were treating my better half. I mean...this gal at Discover simply did not want to take "no" for an answer -- that's how stubborn she was.

We surely are living in some interesting times.... :)

Boxcar

[Dave Schwartz]

Well, I am confused about this thread. Is it about "cable television" or "internet provider?" The poll is unclear.

Is the assumption that you have the same provider for both? I can tell you that this has NEVER been my situation.

[boxcar]

Well, I am confused about this thread. Is it about "cable television" or "internet provider?" The poll is unclear.

Is the assumption that you have the same provider for both? I can tell you that this has NEVER been my situation.

That would be too many eggs in one basket for my comfort level.

Boxcar

[Bettowin]

That would be too many eggs in one basket for my comfort level.

Boxcar

We can do tv, internet and phone lines (land and cell) through either AT&T or Cox so that puts all the eggs and the hen in the same basket. Funny thing is how it is priced. Bundle everything and they are very close dollar wise. I really thought when AT&T came in with Uverse it would lower Cox but AT&T drifted up to basically match Cox. They really have consumers by the balls because they came out on top and seem to have made a truce in our market so prices will stay high. Never in a million years did I think I would be paying $180 a month for TV and internet.

[salty]

Well, I am confused about this thread. Is it about "cable television" or "internet provider?" The poll is unclear.

Is the assumption that you have the same provider for both? I can tell you that this has NEVER been my situation.


The poll is about the cable companies. Like I hate cox. verizon,at&t whoever you have to go through to get your accessory utilities. I stated in the first paragraph how i clearly only have one option if i want to have tv and internet in my house. I would love to spread and get the best deal on tv and the best deal on internet but I have no options. I saw in another thread that you spend huge amounts on your internet providers so i suppose you are an exception to the average user. (I might have you mixed up with another person that has a similar picture)

[salty]

That would be too many eggs in one basket for my comfort level.

Boxcar


Do you use a different provider each?

[salty]

I wouldn't mind switching from Cox to AT&T Uverse but I really don't want to change e-mail adresses. Cox hasn't given me a reason to change lately. They upgraded the cable in our area so the internet is fast and doesn't go down. They have no horseracing which is my only complaint. I have a friend who works customer service for Cox and is the person customers get transferred to when cancelling service. He gets bonuses based on his save percentage and what he has to give out to save the account. He has some very interesting stories about why people cancel and how they are brought back. One interesting tidbit was how many customers call to cancel or want to cancel because they can't figure out the remote or a new feature. They will send a technician out to retrain customers:)


Do you have his direct number? Just so next time i'm fed up with their BS I can get someone that actually wants to help keep me as a customer instead of someone who wants to keep sending me down the line of useless customer service people?

[Dave Schwartz]

Salty,

We recently spent large amounts of time and money to "downgrade" to faster service. :bang: :lol:

If that were only funny.

So, now we have:

$80 Internet
AT&T U-verse: 2mb up and 18mb down. (actual speed)
Terrible company but great people.

$95 TV
Charter: small package, but what we need.
Terrible equipment, reasonably good people.

$ 95 phone
AT&T analog Lines: 3 lines, lots of services.
Prices are out of line. Still looking.

All in all, we have made huge improvement over what we had. The total U-Verse package would have been nice but my bandwidth would have dropped significantly with the TV & phones involved. I am thinking that we will take a look at Cable telephone lines real soon.

Did you know that burglar alarm systems do not work with VOIP? We were with one company for 8 years and had 5-10 false alarms per year. (Typical cost was about $200 per year from the local PD.)

So, we switched to another company - local, very reputable - and the first thing they said was that the system will be unreliable because of VOIP. Apparently most of the alarm companies do not tell you this.

So, now it works fine with our analog service.

Dave

[Bettowin]

Do you have his direct number? Just so next time i'm fed up with their BS I can get someone that actually wants to help keep me as a customer instead of someone who wants to keep sending me down the line of useless customer service people?

I might be able to do that. Where do you live? If your payment history isn't good that might be a problem.

[wes]

Cable phone is good with Charter.net. The only thing wrong with the total package. When the cable is out, you have no service to any thing.

wes

[bobbyb]

Salty

Putting all your eggs in one basket is def. a no no.
My Dish Net provider/repeater is located in up state Michigan. Small company (mom/pop) Been with them for 14 years - 3 times over that period of time my service was down for less than 2 days. They work hard to keep there customer base; my phone provider is worth less than a rat's ass, and my internet - the fibre lines have neen in for 2 years now, aaaahhhh but there still work'in on it - so I'm stuck with dialup.
My brother is with Cox.......not much difference between them and anyone else. Here's a link - (cursor down to middle of page US Cable Support - COX Forum. You may gleam something outta the myriad of customer complaints - and it's not just COX)

http://www.dslreports.com/forums/all

Hope things work out for you,

bobby

[JustRalph]

Mark tomorrow as the beginning of the end for Cable and Sat. companies.

HULU going to a paid on demand service is just the start of true somewhat ala carte television being at everyone's fingertips.

I have Verizon Fios. The DVR sucks ass......but the picture and Internet are spectacular. I normally move every 2-3 years so I wasn't excited about the contract but decided what the hell, by the time this contract ends I will probably never have a Sat or Cable provider ever again....my next house will probably be setup for all, on demand TV......Let's hope we get that far in the next 2 yrs or so. ..... I can't wait.

Btw, I have a ton of on Demand stuff on Fios. It changes everything. No worries about storing the stuff on DVR etc. Just call it up on the network and it's there. The shows that have commercials have much less and many have no commercials at all. It's the next logical step.

[Tom]

You need to use the net for this?

[JustRalph]

Tom, if you are asking about HULU, yep

Hulu.com has been free for a while. Nice place to go to catch up on shows etc.

Usually within a few days of the original air dates, you could watch for free on Hulu. Now there were commercials, but less than the normal airing. They didn't have any CBS stuff though. But just about everything else. They are going to a paid service of ten bucks a month and expanding the library to older shows and more. Been in the rumor mill for a while. But you can get it on your cell, IPad, IPhone etc.........and the picture is in HD on most stuff....... between this and Netflix streaming, Roku player etc.....the cable companies and sat. companies are in panic mode. The Television manufactors are starting to build TV's with network connections now too....... that with Google TV that is coming......... makes for a sea change. Btw, Dish Network is partnering with Google Tv to try and survive

http://www.google.com/tv/

http://www.hulu.com/plus