topic Re: Cable bill skyrocking in Community Chat

Cable bill skyrocking

caroln242 — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:15:35 GMT

Just got my cable bill from Spectrum. It went up over $10.00 a month! I called customer service and was told it was an across the board increase and some states went up over $30.00. I kind of lost it and told them what great timing they had, increasing everyone's bill when so many people getting laid off and we have nothing to do except stay home and watch TV. Said thank you so much and hung up. I was afraid to say anything else...might regret it. Wish I could report them for price gouging.

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

deepwaterdotter — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:18:11 GMT

@caroln242 wrote:
Just got my cable bill from Spectrum. It went up over $10.00 a month! I called customer service and was told it was an across the board increase and some states went up over $30.00. I kind of lost it and told them what great timing they had, increasing everyone's bill when so many people getting laid off and we have nothing to do except stay home and watch TV. Said thank you so much and hung up. I was afraid to say anything else...might regret it. Wish I could report them for price gouging.

Why can't you?

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

Mom2Dogs — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:19:29 GMT

@caroln242 UGH....Our bill is about $199.00/month with internet, phone and tv...DH will be totally p!$$%@ if our bill goes up. We probably watch 10-15 channels.

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

ahoymate — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:19:51 GMT

I feel your pain. Cable companies are money-grabbers! I have Comcast & do not like them. Hope I don't get the news you did.

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

Mz iMac — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:21:17 GMT

@caroln242 "Wish I could report them for price gouging."

You can. Read the paperwork that comes w/your bill. It's the FCC.

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

BeautyLver — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:21:58 GMT

@caroln242 wrote:
Just got my cable bill from Spectrum. It went up over $10.00 a month! I called customer service and was told it was an across the board increase and some states went up over $30.00. I kind of lost it and told them what great timing they had, increasing everyone's bill when so many people getting laid off and we have nothing to do except stay home and watch TV. Said thank you so much and hung up. I was afraid to say anything else...might regret it. Wish I could report them for price gouging.

Mine increases same time each year. Yes, an increase with anything now isn't fun but "price gouging"?? For $10.00?

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

ahoymate — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:23:40 GMT

Fighting cable companies is a waste of your precious energy. The only power you have is to see if you can negotiate your bill, or cut the cord. They have the power. They are horrible!!

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

ahoymate — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:25:06 GMT

Price gouging is in the eyes of who is paying and if there is value. It all adds up.

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

caroln242 — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:33:09 GMT

You don't think $10.00 to $30.00 a month increase is price gouging? With one of us being on social security and the other laid off due to factory closing, and having to stay in the house with only TV as entertainment, yes I think it's very poor timing and gouging. Unlimited funds are a thing of the past for me and hubby, unfortunately. I'm glad you don't have to worry about it.

@BeautyLver wrote:

Mine increases same time each year. Yes, an increase with anything now isn't fun but "price gouging"?? For $10.00?

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

BeautyLver — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:37:26 GMT

@ahoymate wrote:
Price gouging is in the eyes of who is paying and if there is value. It all adds up.

There is no such thing as no increases in services we sign up for. Everything increases. We can all choose to make changes if not happy. Not liking the increase at this time of $10.00 does not equate to price gouging by a company. It's a small percentage increase.

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

Barbara-QVC — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:37:54 GMT

This post has been removed by QVC because it is argumentative.

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

sann — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:38:03 GMT

It's a waste of time they do whatever they want. I left Direct TV went to Dish when my promotion ends I'll go with someone else. So on it goes.

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

QVCkitty1 — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:38:31 GMT

@caroln242 wrote:
Just got my cable bill from Spectrum. It went up over $10.00 a month! I called customer service and was told it was an across the board increase and some states went up over $30.00. I kind of lost it and told them what great timing they had, increasing everyone's bill when so many people getting laid off and we have nothing to do except stay home and watch TV. Said thank you so much and hung up. I was afraid to say anything else...might regret it. Wish I could report them for price gouging.

Well that figures, I recently went done a tier and my savings is 47.00 a month. It figures it would start going up, I just didn't expect it this soon. 😡

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

Moonlady — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:40:51 GMT

What a racket.

DH and I had enough when we got "the letter" from Spectrum in January, 2018. Every TV was going to require a set-top box, plus price increases and program drops--unless we went to a higher tier, of course.

We were waiting for the straw, and that was it. We'd always had only the cable coming up from the floor, attaching to the TV, and no way was I going to have a box for each TV, not to mention the obscene price increases.

Interestingly, we heard of a Spectrum worker who remarked to a co-worker (about someone who cut the cord), "He'll come crawling back." Well, we sure haven't done that, but we get at least three mail offers per week from Spectrum lol.

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

Whosits — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:46:18 GMT

I cut cable about a year ago. I stream Amazon and used to stream Netflix but I cut that and now do their rent by mail. I listen to a lot of audio books and read more regular books. Don't miss it a bit. They didn't have much I wanted to watch anymore anyway. The only thing I miss is Turner Classic Movies.

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

Tangocash — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:46:39 GMT

I gotta say, to Mz iMac, that eye is very, very creepy!!!!!!!

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

proudlyfromNJ — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:53:01 GMT

@Moonlady wrote:
What a racket.

DH and I had enough when we got "the letter" from Spectrum in January, 2018. Every TV was going to require a set-top box, plus price increases and program drops--unless we went to a higher tier, of course.

We were waiting for the straw, and that was it. We'd always had only the cable coming up from the floor, attaching to the TV, and no way was I going to have a box for each TV, not to mention the obscene price increases.

Interestingly, we heard of a Spectrum worker who remarked to a co-worker (about someone who cut the cord), "He'll come crawling back." Well, we sure haven't done that, but we get at least three mail offers per week from Spectrum lol.

@Moonlady We have Optimum and used to do the same you did with the wire. Then we had to get a box for every TV set and pay for each one. If you wanted the dvd with it you had to pay even more.

We have no dvd and gave one of the boxes back. We have three TVs and if we want to use the big one in the basement we just grab one of the ones upstairs. Big pain. And for all this we pay about 240.00 a month. Cable phone and internet. Rip off. And pay for channels we don't even want.

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

september — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:55:16 GMT

Cable/internet has always been a bigger part of my monthly bills. Had Comcast when I lived on the West coast, and have them once again in my newer location on the East coast.

when I think about how often I use these services, I consider it money well spent

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

BeautyLver — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 23:00:41 GMT

@september wrote:
Cable/internet has always been a bigger part of my monthly bills. Had Comcast when I lived on the West coast, and have them once again in my newer location on the East coast.

when I think about how often I use these services, I consider it money well spent

Same. I renegotiated my services with my cable provider last fall. It wasn't a fun experience but I managed a significant monthly savings monthly as a result. It also depends, like you stated, degree of importance, usage to each person. I made a few concessions when negotiating but walked away with much of what I already had.

Re: Cable bill skyrocking

Spurt — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 14:05:57 GMT

@Moonlady wrote:
What a racket.

DH and I had enough when we got "the letter" from Spectrum in January, 2018. Every TV was going to require a set-top box, plus price increases and program drops--unless we went to a higher tier, of course.

We were waiting for the straw, and that was it. We'd always had only the cable coming up from the floor, attaching to the TV, and no way was I going to have a box for each TV, not to mention the obscene price increases.

Interestingly, we heard of a Spectrum worker who remarked to a co-worker (about someone who cut the cord), "He'll come crawling back." Well, we sure haven't done that, but we get at least three mail offers per week from Spectrum lol.

@Moonlady

I'm glad that cord cutting is working for you, but it doesn't work for everyone...

It all depends on what channels a person likes to watch and what you are willing to sacrifice to lower your costs....

High speed internet is required (the cost goes up when you unbundle the deal) and there might be problems with internet connectivity and buffering. Packages like Sling already are increasing prices which are now $30/$45 a month then they will $10 you to death to include a favorite channel that's not included in basic packages. And you may have to wait before live TV shows are broadcast on a streaming service..... You may need to purchase an antenna to get your local broadcast networks.

Now Im a sports fan and also love to watch TCM which is always separate costs and separate tiers with these cableless services...To get what I wanted would have cost me $35 MORE a month....Ill stick with cable....Of course my cable system promises to ALWAYS be lower than Spectrum and also provide better service which they have done I pay $154 a month and its worth it!!!

Oh one more thing---- one area where cord cutters receive savings is that state and federal taxes, municipality and other local surcharges/fees are not charged like they do with cable ....BUT your legislatures are looking for ways to tack these things on to cordless services, some city/states have already done this..And of course these cordless services are slowly starting to raise their prices too...