Community Chat

[cbrite]

I tried so hard talking to my cable company comcast...omg......the guy would NOT let me...nor reduce my costs...he went in circles with me.... They do that.

It's too much $$.... It's like the phone company ATT....try to canx your service 😳....... Is a monopoly😶

[Spurt]

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@IAmAWinner wrote:

@Spurt   The answer to that question is a grateful NO.  I couldn't stand the fact that with cable we were charged unbelievable surcharges, fees, and taxes coupled with the high cost and an outage every other week.  With internet only service and/or streaming channels (not purchased from the cable company) there are no taxes, fees or surcharges.  I hope that was helpful.

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@IAmAWinner

Thank you so much for the info! that's exactly what I thought and that's where I think the cutting the cord savings really is.....

But I think sometime in the future that will change...After that court ruling that legalized gambling is now up to the  cities/states many have jumped on the gambling bandwagon because of the extra income it will bring in, and now internet salesare taxed ...Cities and counties arent gonna let cord cutting go either sometime in the future...One article I read said to expect to see "internet surcharge fees" for cord cutters in the future....thats what I think too...

[Spurt]

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@zanna wrote:

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@Spurt wrote:

@Oostende @IAmAWinner @zanna @Kachina624

This is something that no one has been able to answer for me regarding cutting the cord......

It seems that a BIG CHUNK of my cable bill ) is for additional fees and surcharges imposed by cities and counties under the Cable Communications Act .......

So when you go cordless are these fees/surcharges still added to your bill? This is what no one will answer for me...

If thats the case if more and more people cut the cord, the cities and counties will start imposing the same fees as they did cable companies....Just like taxes werent charged on internet sales in some states, but now they are all starting to impose taxes....Just curious...

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@Spurt  I'm on Google Fiber and have been paying $159.05 monthly.  $150 included Fiber 100 (100 mbps w/dual band wifi) = $50,  plus phone = $10 and tv = $90.  Extra charges have remained the same:  Gov't taxes & fees $7.74, surcharges & other $1.31. for a total of $9.05, or about 6%.  Not a big chunk at all.  I live in Charlotte, NC, and I'm sure the extras vary by city and state.  I haven't received a bill yet for just Fiber 100 and phone ($60 total) but I expect the extras to stay at the same percentage.  By the way, I have been getting along fine with 100 mbps.  For some reason, I have had some disruption with Hulu only and I had to reset my network box.  Not a big deal.

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@zanna

Thanks for the info....Google fiber is being installed in various parts of my city....SA Tx as we speak......They say this will help reduce costs we will see.....

I pay $139 for cable that includes the premium package plus my ultra sports tier (so my cable is reasonable--we have an independent cable co), but $52 of it is for all the fees and surcharges---thats ridiculous---and my cable is much cheaper than what my friends pay for Spectrum & ATT ($225) and they dont have any premium channels like HBO, Starz etc........

It would cost me $80 to get the high speed internet without bundling....then Slingo would cost me $40 for the blue/orange package and then $20 to add extra for sports channels .....and then another $10 to add other alternatives to get a couple channels that I like to watch ....So for me....cable is cheaper...But it really ticks me off about all the fees/surcharges ....

[Janealma]

(Forgive me if I am repeating what was said as I did not read all reply’s) We just cut the cable at our house. Spectrum was getting so expensive and they would not negotiate to lower our price, if anything, they said they would be increasing their price in the future. We now use Sling TV and I love it. We have all our channels we watch and we bought two ten dollar antennas at Target and get all our local stations and PBS. I absolutely don’t feel deprived in any way, if anything it’s a relief to have a smaller network to navigate. We do get high speed WiFi from Spectrum, but it’s still saving us over 600 dollars a year. We got 2 free Rokus for trying out Sling TV during a free trial period. We have three TVs and they are all set up.

[Spurt]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

@Spurt.  I think most of those fees have to do with your telephone service, not cable or satellite.  If you don't have cable or satellite, naturally they wouldn't attach fees for those services.

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@Kachina624

Nope its cable.....

Public Utility Commission (PUC) recovery fee: This charge allows the cable companies to recover costs associated with state regulatory requirements and help fund the regulator's operations.

Franchise fee: In certain states, cable franchises are managed by state-level public utility commissions that require cable companies to pay a fee. Often, cable companies can recover these fees from customers. The fee typically is 5 percent of gross revenue from each customer.

Public access fee: This fee funds public access channels in a subscriber's particular area. Cable providers can pass this charge onto customers. This fee can also be called Public, Educational, and Government (PEG) capital fee and it varies by state.

The Consumerist went through these fees earlier this year and found that DirecTV seems to be basically throwing darts at a map to determine who pays what for these fees and that neighbors across zipcode lines may have their bill differ by almost $100 a year.

Basically, somebody over at AT&T realized they could charge you more and make it look like it was the government’s fault and everyone else followed suit.

[emmysmom]

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@kittyloo wrote:

cut the cord about a year ago.  got a roku, and added netflix, and hulu. more than enough to keep a person happy.  you do still have to have internet for those, but i cut my bill down to 50$ a month from 155. super happy about it.

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I cut my cable a while ago too...also have Net and Hulu..thanks to my sons..I hate the cable companies and their outrageous fees!!!!!

[traveler]

I cut the cable to their basic package for $40 a month. Lost TCM, USA and msnbc. Already miss them. Don’t think they are available on Hulu.  Rethinking our options.

[HisElk1]

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@mousiegirl wrote:

I so want to cut cable.  I don't watch the majority of the stations, and it irks me that there are so many Asian and Latino channels which I have to pay for, but don't watch.  Comcast won't do a personalized bundle.

I probably use no more than twenty channels, and the bill is $159 a month, until they raise it again, and we have to get on the phone and wrangle

 for a lower price.  I think our internet through cable is $99, don't know if that is considered high or not, but seems high to me.  Of course, we have to pay for each box we have for the tvs here every month.

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@mousiegirl, we have the "double play" with a DVR and 2 DTAs.  Our bill was around $152/month; then this month's arrived and it went up $20 (we lost the first year "discount").  After calling to wrangle with them, we were told we could lower the price and would gain more channels; (all sports which we're not into) and lose a few.  Of course, the ones we would lose were the ID channel and Oxygen - I said no way - we watch alot of them.  Then she proceeds to tell us we may end up losing those 2 because they're not sure if they are going to carry them anymore.  We inquired how do we know what's going on with them and the answer was "look at the last page of your monthly bill".  We got nowhere with them.  All of the channels we get and we probably could count on 2 hands the ones we watch.  

Out of all of our monthly bills, Comcast is the one I abhor  paying.

[mousiegirl]

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@HisElk1 wrote:

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@mousiegirl wrote:

I so want to cut cable.  I don't watch the majority of the stations, and it irks me that there are so many Asian and Latino channels which I have to pay for, but don't watch.  Comcast won't do a personalized bundle.

I probably use no more than twenty channels, and the bill is $159 a month, until they raise it again, and we have to get on the phone and wrangle

 for a lower price.  I think our internet through cable is $99, don't know if that is considered high or not, but seems high to me.  Of course, we have to pay for each box we have for the tvs here every month.

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@mousiegirl, we have the "double play" with a DVR and 2 DTAs.  Our bill was around $152/month; then this month's arrived and it went up $20 (we lost the first year "discount").  After calling to wrangle with them, we were told we could lower the price and would gain more channels; (all sports which we're not into) and lose a few.  Of course, the ones we would lose were the ID channel and Oxygen - I said no way - we watch alot of them.  Then she proceeds to tell us we may end up losing those 2 because they're not sure if they are going to carry them anymore.  We inquired how do we know what's going on with them and the answer was "look at the last page of your monthly bill".  We got nowhere with them.  All of the channels we get and we probably could count on 2 hands the ones we watch.  

Out of all of our monthly bills, Comcast is the one I abhor  paying.

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@HisElk1  I agree re comcast.  When DH calls to negotiate, the rep tells him you will get over 200 channels, right, channels we never watch!  It is really outrageous!  We only have the basic bundle.  Once, comcast over charged us, and had to refund for a year's worth of overcharges, so I don't trust them at all.  I would like to know which channels are cable, and which are not, havn't been able to come up with an answer.

[IAmAWinner]

@Spurt     That would be a dang bummer!