The newest scam from Comcast

[David G Baker]

I have Charter Cable TV (with several premium channels), Internet, and phone (with unlimited local and long distance), my bundle price ends this month. I pay around $140 a month including taxes. In the next week or so I will get an outrageous bill like I have had at the tail end of the yearly deal so I have to call them and threaten them with switching to satellite to get their best bundle deal. What happens is every year the cost of the monthly package goes up $10 a month and eventually they are going to price themselves out of my home. If I could get High Speed Internet and TV from another source at a reasonable price I would go with it. I still have the option of going back to the hardwire phone but haven't checked the monthly cost of unlimited local and long distance for a few years.

[Pat Germain]

Do admit that I miss Discovery and History channels, at least as they were years ago, but not nearly enough to get a dish.

That's the primary reason I have satellite TV. Boy, it sure is frustrating having to pay all that money every month for only a few channels I want to watch. But whatcha gonna do? Mrs. Pat likes to watch a lot of shows on many channels.

I sure wish a la carte TV was here. I would love to pay for only what I watch.

I admit when I do watch TV, I sure like it to be in HD. I mean, truly, it's a completely different experience. So, I guess that helps to justify the cost. I bought a 52" plasma over two years ago when they cost a lot more than they do now. But it was still worth it. I especially enjoy watching movies on the big TV. After seeing them only on a small, low-def screen for many years, it's also a completely different experience.

[Chris Padilla]

Satellite and HD are the bee's knees. Amazing picture. I dumped my local cable (Comcast...although they still provide internet for us) for Dish Network.

Sports in HD...WOW.

[Dan Mages]

We have been looking into satellite TV, but then run into the problem of telephone and internet. My wife needs high speed access and unlimited internet for work, so it makes things more complicated.

Dan

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Dan,

I don't know that I would call it a scam but certainly a poor marketing idea. We had the same problem arise with our telephone provider a number of years ago. We'd been with them for 30 years. They started advertising "New Subscriber" rates that were much cheaper than we were paying. When we called them "Oh...well because you've been with us so long, it'd cost more". It didn't cost me more when I switched providers!

This type of marketing decisions really burns me up when it comes to elderly folks on a fixed income! We convinced our parents to change companies about that time too for the same reason!

[Randal Stevenson]

Deregulated is a joke, when it is a monopoly. Satellite is a different service and doesn't offer what I want. AT&T keeps mailing crp to me, about DSL, yet I am not in range (quite sending your junk mail then). They do, FINALLY offer a lower cost option, but YOU HAVE TO SPECIFICALLY request it. It's like having dial up download speed, with an always on connection (surfing is quick, just downloading large files takes a while). I may switch to it out of spite. They charge me a dollar less, then they would if I didn't have the tv service, which I don't use.

When the service line was knocked down, by a tree, they said they would send someone out to put up a new one. They called and canceled coming out, because I wasn't home
No Fence, No pets, No reason they couldn't have run the service line, that I didn't need to be here for them to originally run, I had to go to the office and get someone with a brain.
I want competition, let Time Warner AND Comcast service the SAME area, then see what happens.

[Craig Nickles]

That is exactly why I swithced over to DierctTv a few years ago. Not to mention all the times when the cable went out intermitently and sometime for hours at a time. I have not been sorry, nor will I ever go back. CHEAPER TOO!

[Tim Morton]

I am switching from comcast to DirectTV on monday

[Curt Harms]

[QUOTE=Tom Veatch;1113313

Do admit that I miss Discovery and History channels, at least as they were years ago, but not nearly enough to get a dish.[/QUOTE]

Those, local news & some PBS (Norm etc.) are my only reasons to watch TV. "How it's made" engages my brain more than most prime time dreck.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Deregulated is a joke, when it is a monopoly.

It's a bad joke even when it's not a monopoly. Here in NJ, electric utilities were deregulated to allow New Jerseyans to buy power from elsewhere in the country. All deregulation did was create middle man brokers skimming revenues with no value added. Our electric rates went from 10-11 cents per KwHr, to 17 cents per KwHr almost overnight.

Back to the point of the post...At one time, the FCC recommended that internet and cable TV be regulated as a utility whereas one entity maintained the hardware, and other entities compete for service. Needless to say, it was shot down.

On the positive side, Verizon FiOS is putting a lot of pressure on Comcast these days. Fiber optic cable is going up in my neighborhood as to replace old fashion copper as I type. From what I've seen, heard and read, it's very attractive for phone, internet and TV regarding cost and quality. However, when FiOS becomes more available and dominant in the communication market, I'm sure we'll feel financial pain and poor service once again.

-Jeff