I'm tired of companies playing "stupid" (1 Viewer)

[Shane Martin]

Lanie,
Ala Carte isn't going to pass.
Having worked for a satellite company who billed this way. I assure you this is not the case.

 

[ZacharyTait]

Man, my cable bill is astronomical compared to some of you guys. We get the Comcast Digital Silver Package with High Speed Internet Access and it comes to about $125 a month. That includes the extra box we have. The breakdown was $67 for the cable, $42 for the internet, $7 for the extra box and $2 for the remote and then taxes and fees make up the rest. The bill is actually higher thanks to the pay-per-view wrestling that my roomate orders every month, but he pays that on his own.

I too wish I could get a la carte, but there are some many channels that that the 4 of us watch, that the price per channel would have to be under $1 per channel to justify it in our case.

 

[Max Leung]

Ugh, I hate having to read the damn Shaw bills...it's pretty difficult to tell if I'm being screwed or not. Hmmm. I think they did charge me for the next month though, but only after I cancelled cable TV. Blah. I wish I didn't throw out my older bills.

 

[Leila Dougan]

Zachary, your bill only seems high because all those services are consolidated with one company. I have Comcast, but only for the internet (well, internet plus limited basic) and it comes to about $55/month. Then we have DirectTV on top of that, which adds another $70 or so a month. So for the same services, I'm paying about what you are.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

The companies I deal with (for phones, cable, power, etc.) never PLAY stupid. Trust me, with these folks, it is no act. (To get them to do an order right, you have to give it to them wrong.)



Regards,

Joe

 

[John Chow]

'cmon Shane, don't just assure us...why don't you tell us how it works then?

 

[Shane Martin]

John,
It really depends on if the satellite/cable company will bill you for partial time. The company I worked for did not so they billed 2 months in advance to get you caught up. This changed after they changed up their billing system to bill in the rears but some still bill the other way.

 

[Malcolm R]

I've heard of "paying through the nose," but....

 

[Ryan Wishton]

For the people who only want Networks (ABC, NBC, etc.) why pay anything? I think $9.95 or $19.95 a month is too much to pay for channels you can get free with an antenna.

Do you guys just not have access to using an antenna? Stations too far away or something?

We have cable. It's very Expensive for what your getting. Digital with one movie channel (no HDTV, thats extra) is $70 a month. Crazy stuff. Will be cancelling and trying something else out.

Though we have High Speed Internet as well which adds $50 which is too much. An item that would be hell to go without. I could never imagine Dial up hell again and would never want to go back to it. Hopefully I would never have to.


P.S. A lot of these companiess try to pull scams. Nothing new. Timelife charged me for more shipping and then talked to me like I was crazy when I disputed it. I even had the printouts.

 

[Malcolm R]

A lot of this country is very rural.

Using an antenna, I get a grand total of one channel and the reception is very sketchy at times.

 

[Leila Dougan]

I live in the city so I get over-the-air stations just fine using an antenna. However, my parents live in such a place where they are separated from the nearest city by a huge chain of mountains. So without cable, they get nothing whatsoever.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

Here, basic cable is $40/month or so, but includes every non-premium channel.

 

[Chuck Mullen]

A little OT here but similar to the OP. I recently took out a Loewe's account to get 0% on a new stove and refrigerator. The first bill comes and everything seems OK. The second bill comes and there are finance charges on there. I call and it takes me a minute to navigate the automated system, but once I get a CSR on the phone she has taken care of in about thirty seconds, like this was a routine occurance. Makes me believe they do this on purpose because there are bound to be people who don't notice, wont call, etc.
Come to think of it, this happened to me once before with a different store card!