topic Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum in Community Chat

I'm about to drop Spectrum

Goodie2shoes — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 23:58:24 GMT

So I've had Spectrum for over 15 years, actually back when it was called Charter and overall I have been satisfied. I received my new bill and it went up $20( almost $200 now!!). I have a land line and spectrum streaming service and last year I changed to the 15 channel lineup (still have my local channels and many others that I really don't watch much) but I dropped the Food network, ESPN and a few other popular channels that I don't watch but I kept my favs like HGTV, E, TBS, TLC, BET and several others.

So I called Spectrum to negotiate a lesser price and they brought the bill down but I think it's still ridiculous ! So I'm looking for a new streaming service and dropping my landline. It's finally happening and my daughter also says I should drop the landline and get a new lower priced streaming service. She likes Hulu.

So my question is does anyone else use another streaming service, what is it and are you happy with the service and price?

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

brandiwine — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 00:04:10 GMT

We use YouTube TV and love it. We have almost everything they offer and it costs us $78 a month. It has been extremely reliable unlike Direct TV satellite.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

Mom2Dogs — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 00:11:13 GMT

@Goodie2shoes You have pretty much the same service we do with Spectrum...our bill also went up about $20.00 this month. You'd think with only the 15 channels that we pay for the price would not be that high.

I have not gotten around to calling them to lower the price, hoping to get that done this weekend.

We stream spectrum, no other streaming services....my husband likes to watch baseball, and I am sure I looked for a streaming service that carried the baseball games he wants to see, I might have to look again.

I read an article that the majority of people don't save a lot of money using other streaming services, they have to have a couple different services to get the channels they want. I don't know if that is true or not.

Also, I don't know what internet alone would cost if we dropped the channels from spectrum...add the internet cost to the streaming service (s) I don't know if there is a big savings or not.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

kansasbaker — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 00:11:28 GMT

We use Roku, and subscribe to Hulu..........we are happy with this combo......dropped our landline years ago. Good Luck

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

SilleeMee — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 00:14:16 GMT

Around here just the high-speed internet service needed for streaming cost over half of what I pay for my Directv satellite. Then add the cost of all the streaming subscriptions to that, plus the cost of an additional dvr...well it all adds up to about the same for me.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

Goodie2shoes — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 00:19:10 GMT

@ Mom2Dogs wrote:

You have pretty much the same service we do with Spectrum...our bill also went up about $20.00 this month. You'd think with only the 15 channels that we pay for the price would not be that high.

I have not gotten around to calling them to lower the price, hoping to get that done this weekend.

Good luck in reaching a billing rep without waiting for almost 10 mins. I was transfered to another dept on my initial call and she said there was a long hold for billing because many people were calling in about their bill increase.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

granddi — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 00:25:32 GMT

We also have spectrum. Yes, it has become more and more expensive.

Streaming services such as Hulu, YouTubeTV, Roku will change your viewing habits. We got a free 21 day trial of YouTubeTv because of missing programing on ESPN. Unless I am missing something, you cannot channel surf with streaming.

We are "surfers" We like to look at the channel guide. We might see an unexpected movie listing or sports program and jump in. We are big sports fans and might monitor a couple of games back and forth. I might be watching Q and want to check on local weather.

We have streaming for Max, Prime, Netflix, a couple of others.

If Disney can pulll its content from Spectrum then who will be next? How do we know that they will pull this with any other provider? Rumors on some financial sources indicate that Apple is interested in buying ESPN.

With all its warts, I want my cable tv with Disney (espn) content.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

Neetgal2 — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 00:37:11 GMT

We are very happy with Hulu, through Roku. The Comcast bill, to just bring internet into the house just went up $20. If we could get rid of the Verizon land line and put it on Comcast and do direct pay, $30 a month could be saved. We are simply not in agreement! I watch apps, PBS and ABC6. DH watches tons of stuff and subscribes to a few other channels.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

AuntG — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 00:40:36 GMT

I'll pay $200 for phone, internet and cable but I want them to settle with Disney darn soon so we can get our ESPN channels back!

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

Toppers3 — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 00:56:40 GMT

Hi @Goodie2shoes ,

I think that it's kind of frustrating that it seems that the different streaming services offer different channels, but none of them seem to offer everything that someone seems to be looking for in a complete package. At least that has been my experience, when looking around at the different services.

We don't have a streaming channel service like YouTube TV or a particular streaming device like a Roku or a Smart TV or a Fire stick, etc., just as an example.

We stream watching off of our computers or my husband likes using his Android phone.

For streaming channels we watch Netflix, and Amazon Prime, and Discovery Plus which is offered through Verizon and the Disney Plus Bundle also offered through our Verizon cell phone service.

Plus, we also watch the free streaming TV/movie channels that are out there, too. For news, I'll check various sources on-line.

We changed to Verizon 5G Home Plus for Wireless Internet service for our home Internet service.

We had AT&T U-Verse DSL for both Internet and home phone which was reliable, but we live in a combination rural-urban area and AT&T fiber optic service has been slow in coming to our particle area, so we decided to opt for the 5G home service since it's now available to us.

It has been reliable and the service is fast, too. It's faster than our DSL service was.

We decided to keep home phone service and we switched to Ooma for our phone service. It's similar to MagicJack phone service, if anyone's familiar with that type of Internet phone service.

Ooma is also wireless and you pay upfront for the wireless unit and can buy it outright and can pay upfront for the once-a-year fees for it, and then pay a small monthly fee for the taxes on it.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

SilleeMee — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 00:57:02 GMT

I have a home phone but it's not a land line. It's an internet phone using OOMA. Free service, just pay one time for their phone box and then after that you only pay FCC tax which for me is only $7/mo. Keep your old number, too.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

deeva — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 01:16:10 GMT

We're very happy with YouTube tv.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

granddi — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 01:52:40 GMT

Look at this mess:

Comcast and Disney have moved up the date to start their contractually obligated negotiations for the sale of Hulu, the streaming service they jointly own.

And then this:

appleinsider.com › articles › 23/08/17Apple buy of ESPN is inevitable, says analyst - AppleInsider

Aug 17, 2023 · Reddit. Analyst Dan Ives says that sports channel ESPN is the "perfect fit" for Apple TV+, and predicts Apple will acquire the station in the next six to nine months.

Or This

Charter CEO Says a Permanent Split with ESPN Might Be a Good Outcome

I hope it is settled within our 21 day YouTubeTV trial!!!

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

kze — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 02:09:24 GMT

@Mom2Dogs

I don't know if it's the same but where I live, Spectrums internet alone is $89.99. Last time I checked was a little over a month ago.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

Toppers3 — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 02:40:49 GMT

This is what we did with Ooma too, @SilleeMee .

We ported our old phone number with them since we've had it for years, and most places we do business with have it so we kept it for that reason.

Also, between our Internet and home phone fees with AT&T our fees were getting to be pretty expensive. That was one of the deciding factors for us to change Internet service.

Our Internet with Verizon 5G is probably an introductory price but it's less expensive now.

With Ooma for your phone service, you pay for the device, and then you can pay upfront for the yearly service with just a one-time fee once a year if you want to do it that way.

Basically what that costs with Ooma is what AT&T was almost costing us for one month of service alone.

Then like @SilleeMee was saying in her post, you pay a small fee for taxes every month with Ooma.

With AT&T we also had Internet phone service, but it was DSL Internet phone. You could use it with an ethernet cable.

With Ooma, it's completely wireless now.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

Twins Mom — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 02:44:42 GMT

Dropped Spectrum a few months ago for tv. Had it also for over 20 years. Went to apps and mostly use U-Tube tv. Its ok but I have to admit I still miss having a tv guide. Have not mastered controller for each tv but getting better. Starting to change internet but that's going to be a huge thing as we need new email provider. Any suggestions on those?

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

Toppers3 — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 02:51:26 GMT

Hi @Twins Mom ,

If you already have a free e-mail provider that you're using for your e-mails, you should be able to keep it regardless of what Internet service provider you're already using/going to be using.

If you're not using a free e-mail provider, there are quite a few of them out there to use. Some of the common ones are: gmail, hotmail, yahoo, and aol.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

Venezia — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 14:05:19 GMT

@granddi - I'm not sure what you mean by channel surfing with streaming services? We have YouTubeTV and it has a channel guide, just as our old DirecTV did.

Otherwise, I'm not sure how we'd know what was coming on or how to select programs we want to record.

We had lousy internet service in our area for over 19 years (2.5 mbps - no that's not a typo). When we were finally able to get Spectrum we were over the moon.

We now have Spectrum for our internet (300+ mbps) and our phone (VOIP) and with our streaming service (we don't have Spectrum for TV; too expensive for what you get), we pay at least $100 a month less that what we used to pay for internet, tv and phone combined.

And all with a far superior service in all respects.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

Nightowlz — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 04:01:30 GMT

We finally got rid of Dish plus the over $130 monthly bill.

We have been streaming for almost 2 years.

We started out with YouTube so we could get our local channels but it's almost like Dish.

I don't want to pay for local channels when they are free?DH installed an antenna so we got rid of YouTube.

Right now we have HULU, Paramount+ & Peacock. The prices I paid for these comes out to about $14 per month for our streaming TV.

We also stream Tubi, Freevee, Pluto, Roku plus a few more for free. They installed Fiber Optics here so we finally were able to get rid of our internet with the cable company for around $130. Now paying $55 per month.

Re: I'm about to drop Spectrum

judianne — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 04:52:17 GMT

l just dropped Spectrum cable , bill was $220 a month for basic cable tv and internet .With just the internet it is now $90 a month . l use streaming have Hulu with disney + for $10 . peacock for $6 , and discovery for $5 . l also get Prime with my Amazon prime account . A lot cheaper than the $130 cable was costing . When l called to cancel that service , l was directed to a "retention " agent . l was put on hold for 1 hour and 23 minutes !! l got a new smart tv and streaming is so much easier than using the roqu or fire stick .