Why would I switch to cable...

[rudeney]

I have AT&T for my landline phone and ISP, and D* for my TV. Last week, we had some serious problems with AT&T where first my Internet connection would go out, then about 30 minutes later, the phone would go out. It was a fairly widespread problem as I confirmed with several neighbors and friends who live in the area. While I can accept some small problems like this because, after all, even with these outages my uptime exceeds 99.9%, I cannot accept poor customer service. When I called to report the first outage, I had to sit on hold for 30 minutes before reaching a rep. Once I did, I was old there were no problems in my area, so they would have to send a technician, and if the problem was found to be "internal", I'd have to pay $80. I said fine, do it, but then the CSR told me she couldn't place the repair order because her computer system was down and I'd have to call back later. I got the runaround when I asked for a supervisor and complained about having to wait on hold, etc.

So, I decided I'd look to my local cable provider for phone and Internet, since they have been inundating me with ads. At least for the first year, I'll save about $30/mo over AT&T. When I called to order, the Charter CSR of course tried to get me to switch from D*, and even offered to give me a rebate to offset any D* ETF's. So, I old her that she'd have to beat D*'s prices and she said that would be "no problem". Well, once I told her what I needed, the conversation turned a bit. I have 4x HD-DVR, 1x SD-DVR, and 1x HD receivers. Their monthly rental for this equipment was $80! Then, I'd need to pay another $70/mo to equal my D* service. So, for $150/mo, I could get the same service from Charter that I get from D* for ~ $107/mo! Uh, no thanks! :)

[roadrunner1782]

That reminds me of when I signed up with Time Warner Cable for internet service. When they came to my house and saw my dish they called me once every two weeks trying to get me to switch. I just recently bought my own modem and they sent a tech out to make sure it functioned properly and after he called in all the numbers from the modem they asked to speak to me personally trying once again to get me to switch, they offered me 3 months of free service and then she told me after the 3 months it would cost me around $185 a month:eek2: I told her I would be crazy to switch since I would receive less channels, and have fewer dvr's in the house. All that for more than double what I pay D* every month! Oh and get this, they even charge a monthly fee for their universal remote!:nono2:

[Mark20]

Cable; gotta love it. NOT!

And yes, I have to update the software version in the tag line below.

[my1423]

I have a buddy with a pc set up with cable tuners, 4 terabyte drives, 2 video cards set for dual display and feeds 4 tvs in 1080p. He has one bill a month. Phone, internet, tv all on one. No rental fees and the whole house runs off one pc. He seems to love cable.

[MLBurks]

I had my own problems with AT&T to the point where I just wanted to drop their phone service all together and just keep internet. I use use my cell phone 99.9% of the time anyway. But of course with DSL you need a phone line. So I looked into Charter for their internet which is faster and cheaper considering I won't have to pay for a dial tone. Of course they talked me into their TV service. I didin't cancel DirecTV because I had low hopes that Charter TV would impress me. And Charter did not impress. Low PQ, very few HD channels, and ridiculously high DVR rental fees (not to mention their awful DVR's and minimal internal hard drives). So I just have their internet and I like it better than AT&T but it's not that much better. But at least I don't have to pay for a phone line. Now if I can just get Charter to leave me alone about coming back for TV and getting phone. They don't know how to take no for an answer.

[Fenway]

I had my own problems with AT&T to the point where I just wanted to drop their phone service all together and just keep internet. I use use my cell phone 99.9% of the time anyway. But of course with DSL you need a phone line. So I looked into Charter for their internet which is faster and cheaper considering I won't have to pay for a dial tone. Of course they talked me into their TV service. I didin't cancel DirecTV because I had low hopes that Charter TV would impress me. And Charter did not impress. Low PQ, very few HD channels, and ridiculously high DVR rental fees (not to mention their awful DVR's and minimal internal hard drives). So I just have their internet and I like it better than AT&T but it's not that much better. But at least I don't have to pay for a phone line. Now if I can just get Charter to leave me alone about coming back for TV and getting phone. They don't know how to take no for an answer.

They never will leave you alone. We have Charter HSI, and not a week goes by that we don't get mail from them about switching and bundling and whatever. I called and requested they cease from these - and was told they cannot. As long as you are a customer, you will be on the list.

[Mertzen]

I have 4x HD-DVR, 1x SD-DVR, and 1x HD receivers. Their monthly rental for this equipment was $80! Then, I'd need to pay another $70/mo to equal my D* service. So, for $150/mo, I could get the same service from Charter that I get from D* for ~ $107/mo! Uh, no thanks! :)
That's what really gets them, all their ads for free HD don't mean anything when they rape you with their outrageous monthly equipment fees.

[harsh]

That's what really gets them, all their ads for free HD don't mean anything when they rape you with their outrageous monthly equipment fees.This may have something to do with the mindset that DBS subscribers develop that every TV needs one (or more) receivers to support it.

If the cable company never leaves you stranded for phone and internet, you have to assign some added value to that.

[Stuart Sweet]

Well, why would a TV not require a receiver? Sure, some cable companies still have an analog tier but most of them will move to a digital tier and not every TV has a QAM tuner.

[harsh]

Well, why would a TV not require a receiver? Sure, some cable companies still have an analog tier but most of them will move to a digital tier and not every TV has a QAM tuner.Precisely because most of the HDTVs that are currently in use have at least a clear QAM tuner. Surely CableCard tuners aren't de rigeur but for many, a QAM tuner is sufficient. QAM capable tuners have been available in even the smallest TVs for a few years now.

[Stuart Sweet]

...and in an increasing number of cases, receivers with upstream and downstream capacity are required for all but the most basic services. That may be ok for some, and may not be ok for others.

[rudeney]

I had my own problems with AT&T to the point where I just wanted to drop their phone service all together and just keep internet. I use use my cell phone 99.9% of the time anyway. But of course with DSL you need a phone line.

At least in my area, AT&T offers DSL w/o voice service. I still need a landline for the alarm monitoring, though. The good thing about Charter's phone service is that it's actually not VOIP - it does do analog to digital conversion, but it's compatible with most all low-speed transmissions - alarms, fax machines, etc.

[jacksonm30354]

At least in my area, AT&T offers DSL w/o voice service. I still need a landline for the alarm monitoring, though. The good thing about Charter's phone service is that it's actually not VOIP - it does do analog to digital conversion, but it's compatible with most all low-speed transmissions - alarms, fax machines, etc.

Have you looked at using NextAlarm? I bought their internet adaptor and don't need a phone line for the alarm now. Monitoring runs about $12 a month vs. the $24 I was paying with ADT.

I ended up getting POTS again though as I work from home and my experience with VOIP is that folks sound find on my end, but on their end I sound like I am talking under water. That includes Comcast's phone service. Which I might add goes out when the cable goes out. When I have had POTS I don't recall it ever being out.

[PCampbell]

They never will leave you alone. We have Charter HSI, and not a week goes by that we don't get mail from them about switching and bundling and whatever. I called and requested they cease from these - and was told they cannot. As long as you are a customer, you will be on the list.

I switched to Directv from Time Warner in 1996 and I still get mail from them.

[rhipps]

I would consider switching IF we sold our motorhome (lotsa luck there) AND Cox gave us a better deal than we get from D*. Don't see either of these events in our near future, though.

[Steve Mehs]

I always ask myself the opposite, why would I want to leave cable? Price isn't really a factor, service, reliability, and getting what I want is, all of which cable wins. But even with pricing it's real close. Comparing what I want, the top package, with two HD DVRs:

DirecTV & Verizon
Premier - $109.99
HD Access - $9.99
HD Extra Pack - $4.99
Additional Receiver Fee - $4.99
DVR Fee - $5.99
Verizon DSL - $29.99
Verizon POTS - $49.99

Total - $215.93 + taxes on Verizon services

Time Warner
All The Best Premium w/ Road Runner Premium - $175.95
Encore - $3.00
HD Tier - $4.95
Sports Tier - $3.25
Equipment Rental - $7.45
DVR Fee - $20.90

Total $215.50 + franchise fees (~$5) and ~$6 total tax on digital phone service

Verizon's fastest DSL option is 3Mb which was fine in 2003, but no amount of savings will make me drop my 15Mb Road Runner package. DSL is a joke. Not to mention with DirecTV I'd lose a ton of premium movie channels, cool HD channels like Travel HD, ESPN U HD, AMC HD, Fuse HD, IFC HD, Outdoor Channel HD. And Encore HD gets added next month and the additional HBOs and Cinemax's will more than likely be rolled out by year's end in HD and the line up is getting shuffled around and there's now spots open for every movie channel in HD. Plus with all the content available On Demand and network primetime content from CBS and NBC is available in HD On Demand. But hey with DirecTV I'd gain a bunch of Viacom HD channels that I never watch that don't show much in the way of HD. I honestly cannot think of one good reason why I would ever want to switch back to DirecTV and especially Dish Network (considering no MSG HD and no YES HD) Time Warner suits my needs very well, reliability is top notch, pricing is fair and service has been excellent ever since I came back to them three years ago. Plus if my cable box dies, I hop into my car and exchange in for free no questions asked, in less than an hour I'm back to watching TV again.

[MLBurks]

I switched to Directv from Time Warner in 1996 and I still get mail from them.

At least you're just getting mail. I get calls from them after 9:00pm sometimes.

[Ken S]

...and in an increasing number of cases, receivers with upstream and downstream capacity are required for all but the most basic services. That may be ok for some, and may not be ok for others.

What if all TVs had a web browser built into them? Something with decent video/audio playback functionality...or to go further the technology that is in a Popcorn Hour?

At our vacation home we keep cable. No boxes to deal with or pay rent on. We shut it off in the winter and turn it on nine months later. No rental fees and if I want to move the TV from one bedroom to another it just requires a single cable connection (and of course the power plug). The digital tuner receives all the locals in HD. It's simple, more than adequate and under $30/month.

[RACJ2]

I always ask myself the opposite, why would I want to leave cable? But even with pricing it's real close. Comparing what I want, the top package, with two HD DVRs:

DirecTV & Verizon - Total - $215.93 + taxes on Verizon services

Time Warner - Total $215.50 + franchise fees (~$5) and ~$6 total tax on digital phone service.

Verizon's fastest DSL option is 3Mb which was fine in 2003, but no amount of savings will make me drop my 15Mb Road Runner package. Once again it's just a matter of what works best for you in your area. I see your a Sabres fan and Bills fan, so you can relate to this. Living in Texas, D* is my only option to get Bills games (and in HD) every Sunday and Sabres games in HD sometimes. Also, my only option to get NFL and NHL network. TWC has none of these options in my area.

As far as TWC internet and phone service, I had more long term outages with TWC then with AT&T. And AT&T 6.0 DSL was faster then 7.0 RoadRunner (RR) when I had both and did side-by-side comparisons. Comparing cable to D*, in my area TWC only had about 10 national HD channels when I dropped them and now have about 30.

Not taking any new customer discounts into consideration, my costs were about the same. That's was comparing AT&T DSL & Potts & D* to TWC RR, phone and cable TV package I had. Although, I couldn't bundle because I needed a separate invoice for internet, since my company was paying for that. And when I add in the discounts and referral credits, I'm saving just shy of $500 the first year with D*.

[hobie346]

I had my own problems with AT&T to the point where I just wanted to drop their phone service all together and just keep internet. I use use my cell phone 99.9% of the time anyway. But of course with DSL you need a phone line. So I looked into Charter for their internet which is faster and cheaper considering I won't have to pay for a dial tone. Of course they talked me into their TV service. I didin't cancel DirecTV because I had low hopes that Charter TV would impress me. And Charter did not impress. Low PQ, very few HD channels, and ridiculously high DVR rental fees (not to mention their awful DVR's and minimal internal hard drives). So I just have their internet and I like it better than AT&T but it's not that much better. But at least I don't have to pay for a phone line. Now if I can just get Charter to leave me alone about coming back for TV and getting phone. They don't know how to take no for an answer.

You can request a "Dry Pair" for DSL and drop your phone service.