Community Chat

[Lipstickdiva]

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@Shanus wrote:

Our TWC difficulties are more w/ technical problems, waking up to find "updates" during the night & many functions have changed or even after booting many times, the equipment is faulty & has to be exchanged. . We've had to change DVRs too many times to count over the years which means also going through SERIES MANAGER to put in all my "scheduled to record" shows. It's happened so often that we keep an updated list of show/day/time/channel so we can easily reprogram the new dvr. Costs are way too high, but they were the only cable system available here for a long time. Most of my neighbors have changed to Direct TV & we're waiting to get an appt. and quotes so we can change, too. 

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That's because all the boxes are refurbished.  I have a friend who is a supervisor with TWC and she said it is rare, very rare, to actually get a brand new box of any kind.  They are almost all refurbished.  Some of them are pulled out of homes, thrown in the back of trucks and then put in someone's elses home and never fixed.  So that home ends up with the problem box. 

A couple of years ago, DH and I scored a brand spanking new box.  Even the tech wanted to know who we knew that we got a brand new box.  We just happened to get lucky on that.

As far as DirectTV goes, we had them and liked them a lot......until our 2 year contract was up. Then like the cable companies, they continually raised the prices until it was much cheaper for us to go back to cable. 

[2blonde]

I think all of them try to hook you with low introductory prices.  Once that period has ended......look out.  I have AT&T U-Verse bundled for TV, internet and phone.  I have no extras like HBO, just the U-200 and mid-speed internet.  When I started in early 2009, my total charges including taxes were $127 per month.  Currently they are $203 per month, and I haven't made any upgrades to the system.

They've been out to my condo more times than I can count (at least 10) to resolve issues with the lines, and outside terminal.....and  I'm on my 5th router, but I've become quite the expert at resetting all my wireless devices. Thankfully, all has been well for about a year now.  They periodically make remote upgrades to my system, but those do seem to improve things (like increasing my DVR capacity).  I never thought I'd be paying so much for these services........I hate to think what people pay when they have U-300 or U-400 and pay-per-view movies added on!

[Lipstickdiva]

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@2blonde wrote:

I think all of them try to hook you with low introductory prices.  Once that period has ended......look out.  I have AT&T U-Verse bundled for TV, internet and phone.  I have no extras like HBO, just the U-200 and mid-speed internet.  When I started in early 2009, my total charges including taxes were $127 per month.  Currently they are $203 per month, and I haven't made any upgrades to the system.

They've been out to my condo more times than I can count (at least 10) to resolve issues with the lines, and outside terminal.....and  I'm on my 5th router, but I've become quite the expert at resetting all my wireless devices. Thankfully, all has been well for about a year now.  They periodically make remote upgrades to my system, but those do seem to improve things (like increasing my DVR capacity).  I never thought I'd be paying so much for these services........I hate to think what people pay when they have U-300 or U-400 and pay-per-view movies added on!

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Yep. They all get you. I have a relative who lives in Cleveland and has AT&T U-verse.  He was singing the praises of them when he first moved in about how awesome and cheap they were.  Now he complains about them all the time. The price continually has gone up.

My TWC bill isn't even $150.00 a month and that's for cable, the higher speed internet and phone.  We don't have any of the movie channels. We tried to get rid of the phone and it would have cost us more because we would lose our bundled package.

When our bill goes up every year, we call the retention department.  We are on the phone for awhile but we manage to get the bill lowered back down without losing channels.     

[Shanus]

@Lipstickdiva  You're correct. The equipment is not new....at those prices, they should be new & gift wrapped w/ a giant ribbon!!

[KYToby]

I love how so many peo;le speak with authority about cable companies and are quick to point out how things should be without having any knowledge about the industry.

First, I worked in the cable industry for 11 years.  I started doing tech support for internet service and eventually worked up to call center operations as part of the corporate customer care team.  I have a bit of insight into the industry (to say the least).

First, rates re not always changing.  While this may be perception, that is not true, and if people actually reviewed their cable bills for the last several years, they would see this.  Cable companies strive to maintain rates even though their costs increse annually (programming, overhead, operations, labor, etc.).  I have had TWC for the past 6 years since they bought out my cable company, and my rates have changed a grand total of two times.

As far as the boxes go, while everyone would like a new box, the cost would be prohibitive and would raise the cable costs sky high.  These boxes cost several hundred dollars each, and even with the box rental fees that you pay, it takes several years for cable companies to break even.  Do you seriously want the company to pay for new boxes?  Would you be willing to pay hundreds -- or thousands -- more per year to underwrite the costs becuse yu want a "sny, new, gift-wrapped" box?

When boxes are recycled, they do not sit on trucks waiting to be reused.  The cable company's warehouse must reset all of them and check them out (otherwise, they would not work).  While you may want to think otherwise -- even if you know a friend who is a relative of a supervisor -- that would be incorrect.

There are a lot of issues with the cable industry.  I am the first to admit it.  But it is unfair to criticize it for things that you do not understand.

[hckynut]

we lost our favorite network with dish network, no option except to change satellite providers. had directv for a couple years and while they carry our network, the bads far outweighed the good. all tv providers sign contracts on a regular basis, losing channels is a normal thing. my suggestion if you want to be frugal? watch qvc on your other tv sets, or spring for the extra. i don't see your problem as you do have an option.

[chickenbutt]

Thanks for the valuable information, KYToby.    

There are volumes of stuff about which most people have no idea.   Don't get me wrong - I'm in that same camp.  But I always like to learn more.

We have had Charter for many years.   They recently acquired TWC and, hopefully, that will be good for them as Charter has been pretty good over the years.   

I now also have Charter for my landline and internet.  I just made that change earlier this year and so far, so good.

I've wondered about the used cable boxes, tuning adapters, and cable cards.  Never had a problem with a cable box or tuning adapter, but when I've had to request cable cards I did learn to ask them to have several on hand as often they are a bear to pair.  

[SharkE]

I think QVC should be on local cable free channels not just for folks paying cable bills. It's a sales channel wonder why they're not another informercial  channel?

I'd like my sister to be able to watch Q , also.

[corita]

      I have basic cable and Internet with TWC, now called

Spectrum.  Do not need all the fancy attachments, DVR, movie channels nor hundreds of other channels.  So, locally they are changing to all HD and I had to get a cable box. Then lost most of my "basic" channels. I mean the really basic ones like History, Nat Geo etc.

       Called company, well... to get those channels, I had to upgrade for $12 a month more.  They talk like "it is only $12 more a month"!  But hello, it is $100 plus more a year!!  Anyway, I did do the upgrade and now I have what I had considered "basic" cable TV before the TWC buyout. But I also now have way too many cartoon channels, way too many sports channels and way too many duplicates of some of the channels.  I questioned my cable guy and he said that the "basic" plan with TWC is not the same "basic" plan offered by Spectrum.  Seems like a "rip off" to me...will have to decide whether the cost increase is worth it!!      

[hckynut]

most local over the air channels also need sponsors for air time. guess qvc could pay as a sponsor for their own programs. maybe they will read this and go, hmmm!