I cut the cord, and it feels so nice

[SteveRiley]

Warning: this post contains strong opinions!

---

Those miserable bastards at Comcast raised our rate again. Now they want $228 per month for a "triple play" bundle of Extreme 105 data, HD TV of everything except premium movies, and voice, along with an HD DVR, an HD box, and a cable modem. Since no one in my family ever used the voice and we watch only 1% of the zillion useless channels, I decided it was time to sort-of divorce ourselves from the monopolist.

After some research, my wife chose the new Amazon Fire TV. We're already Amazon Prime members, so Fire TV made the most sense. The unit's hardware specs are also much beefier than the Roku 3 or similar; it's obvious that Amazon is in this game for the long haul. I also subscribed to Netflix and Hulu Plus. And I ordered an indoor HDTV antenna. This should be enough to slake everyone's varied TV needs.

The part I was dreading the most was making the call to Comcast. I dialed and got their usual voice response unit. I loathe VRUs with the heat of a thousands suns. Shouting "representative" into my phone got me to a level that Dante never imagined. I mashed on the zero so many times that I thought my phone's LCD would crack. Finally a ring, and a voice: "You've reached the Comcast customer loyalty department. How may I help?"

Isn't that weird? Are they detecting frustration by measuring the rate of zero-button presses? Anyway, take the previous as a tip!

ME: "I would like to discontinue cable TV and voice, and keep Extreme 105."
CCREP: "Not watching TV much anymore, then?"
ME: "Yeah, not really." Sometimes I just don't have a problem with lying.
CCREP: "Alright, I can help you with that. One moment."
ME: "Sure."
[...time passes...]
CCREP: "Mr. Riley? Apologies, we're still working on this for you."
ME: "OK."
[...time passes...]
CCREP: "Mr. Riley? Apologies, we're still working on this for you. Just a bit more time."
ME: "OK."
[...time passes...]
CCREP: "Alright, we're all set. Your new rate is $122 per month. Is that OK?"
ME: "Yep, it's about what I was expecting."
CCREP: "Again, sorry for the delay. We've never had someone cancel TV but keep Extreme 105."
ME: "Interesting."
CCREP: "Anything else we can do for you today?"
ME: [Pondering potential ways to tell him that Comcast can go fsck themselves sideways. Decided not to.]
ME: "Uh, would you confirm what equipment of yours I have?"
CCREP: "Sure. You have one HD DVR, one HD box, one digital converter, and remotes for all three."
ME: "Yes, that's right. OK, thanks, that's all I need today."
CCREP: "Alright. Thank you for being a valued customer. Have a good day."
ME: "And you. Goodbye."

I am rather surprised that I didn't have to put up a fight to keep Extreme 105, because from what I understand, that's available only in bundles. Perhaps Comcast allows customers to de-bundle after some time, I'm not sure. I still think paying $122 for 100 Mb/sec is tantamount to getting raped, but we have no choice in Seattle -- Verizon never built FiOS on this side of Lake Washington, Centurylink DSL tops at 20 Mb/sec, and Sprint's gobbling of Clearwire means WiMAX is effectively dead. (Craig McCaw, rot in hell.)

Let's take a look at the math.
* Chaging from my triple play plus equip to Extreme 105 plus equip reduces my monthly cost by $228 - $122 = $106, or $1272 per year
* Netflix and Hulu Plus are each $7.99 per month = $15.98, or $191.76 per year
* Amazon Prime is $99 per year
* Savings: $1272 - ($191.76 + $99) = $981.24 per year

Holy shopt! I should have done this aeons ago. If any of you are considering cutting the cord, I suggest now is the time.

[vinnywright]

I pay $45.00 A month for net (not as fast as yours but hay) and split the cable off to the TV to get the basic channels whether they want me to have them or not

no DVR no HDbox ,,,,just net and basic cable .

I have the opinion that all the ISP's can go to 4311 with there teared access ,,,,,,,,charging you more for opening up your net speed when it's more work to slow you down than just leave you wide open ,,,,,,,,,,A holes

VINNY

[claydoh]

Yay!!
Surprised they didn't offer you a discounted deal to keep you on. I wonder that if you were considering dropping internet as well, would the retention squad have offered you something there? They ate still getting their 122 bucks there, so maybe they didn't feel the need.

I cut the cord out of necessity, though I do have cable tv if I wanted it as part of my rent. I don't have a TV, and my monitor is big enough for me most of the time. Most TV channels are useless to me, while XBMC and other tools/addons make up for what I might miss in most cases. even if its a little late. If I ever got a boob tube, I'd just get an antenna. It is difficult only when an HBO or other cable-only series is running.

[SteveRiley]

Surprised they didn't offer you a discounted deal to keep you on. I wonder that if you were considering dropping internet as well, would the retention squad have offered you something there?

Grrrrrrr! I didn't even think to make such a threat. Oh well.

XBMC

Hulu's major downfall is that, even in the Plus tier, you still have to watch commercials. Supposedly it's to make up for the licensing fees the networks impose. My very brief research so far has revealed to things: one report that XBMC can block Hulu commericals, and a number of suggestions for hosts files that you can put in your router. I will try the second route first; if that fails, I may investigate an XBMC. The only thing worse than voice response unit are commercials of any and all kinds. I loathe them with the heat of ten thousands suns!

It is difficult only when an HBO or other cable-only series is running.

Join the swarm

[SteveRiley]

split the cable off to the TV to get the basic channels whether they want me to have them or not

I may experiment with that. I heard at one time Comcast has scrambled all the basic channels in Seattle. That said, numerous reviewers at Amazon gushed over how much better digital TV looks with an antenna than with cable. $DEITY, I was clueless that cable had been sucking so badly for so long.

[life0riley]

I was offered a discounted deal for a short period of time when I discovered the the modem they were renting to me was out dated. I wasn't getting the advertised speeds, so I looked up the modem specks and reported that to them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[claydoh]

Join the swarm

Ummmm.............many years a Tvtorrents.com member.......
Then there is icefilms on XBMC...................
and popcorn time.................though that is not embedded in the media center.

XBMC is the best media center I've tried for my uses, though as a f/oss project, it may require customization to fit each user's needs. I think more addons, repos themes, etc should be included or integrated by default. But it is stable

[claydoh]

Sorry, i stole some dots

[SteveRiley]

What.....................?

How................................

DARE.......................................

You.................................!

[GreyGeek]

I was paying $129/mo for 15Mb of Internet and 120 channels of TV from Windstream. Most of the channels are infomercials or old movies. I've never subscribed to HBO or other "premium" channels. The 15MB was an exaggeration. As a DSL connection its actual DL speed was around 10Mb. I decided to cut costs and switch to my old ISP, Earthllink. I posted that horror story here a few months ago. I ended up getting the only other option, a 15Mb RoadRunner (Hey Steve, Time Warner here in Lincoln is being purchased by Comcast ) connection for $34.99 for six months, then $54.99 there after. Before we sold our house and moved into an apartment I had built my own HDTV attenna (http://youtu.be/EWQhlmJTMzw) but I used 10 gauge Copper wire instead. It gave me 21 channels over the air, in HD. Actually, I built two, one for the bedroom and one for the cathedral room. They hide nicely behind curtains or Entertainment centers. With RR, if I plug a coax from a TV into the RR wall socket I get 12 channels of HDTV. Using one of my HDTV indoor antennas I still got only 12 channels. Amazing what a difference of 20 miles does. This mapping is pretty accurate: http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps

Anyway, a couple months after I began using RR I got a bill which contained a flyer advertising a 20Mb connection with "starter" TV for $64.99/mo, which would be only $5/mo more than what I'd be paying in a couple months anyway. "Starter TV" has about 30 channels. Several are redundate and there are several shopping channels and local DIY community channels. Basic usable channels? About a dozen. Yesterday I got my first bill: $128.85. Do you recall that ad about the banker who is in bed, dreaming of was to charge customers more money? He comes up with the idea of charging for the ink used to print the bill. His wife slugs him. Half the bill was "first time" fees, charges, taxes, etc...

The 20Mb is nice though.

[Qqmike]

Steve, I sure can relate to your frustration through it all. Interesting that you were automatically bumped through a couple menus to the Customer Loyalty dept! This is a health hazard -- gotta watch the blood pressure, too.

Having an MBA and having trained MBAs, I can imagine that these big media/telcom companies at corporate has rooms of financial-operations idiots trying to figure out how to extract a certain amount of money from each American household, perhaps as a function of demographics, zip code, whatever. Bundling -- that's a good one. The customer already doesn't want or need services #1 and #2; yet they are pressured into bundling with yet another service #3. I really think they expect--by hook or by crook--to get a certain average amount of $ from each household NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO to try to budget or intelligently select services on the basis of what you really need or really want.

The home phone line ... what good nowadays is a home phone that comes without call waiting/caller ID? Yet, it is priced as an add-on. Start with a basic line at $18/month, do the needed add-ons, add taxes & related, and you get $50 a month. If it comes with long distance, you may pay $5/month on related L-D even if you do not make a single L-D call.

What if we all rebelled? Turn all this sh* off?! Or we all call at the same time--the same month--and demand, deal, complain, and gripe?

As for television, I wonder how many consumers would disconnect cable/satellite if they were to try an indoor antenna and find how how well it can do (depending on your location).

http://www.amazon.com/Mohu-Leaf-Pape...Z2P6VMJJ7GGSKS


Companies like Consumer Cellular have figured it out in favor of the consumer -- talk about making things easy, quick, understandable, and affordable, very customer-friendly. It can be done.

Even HBO, it's a little old-fashion, but you can rent them; or buy them on DVD. I've borrowed the entire set of Sopranos from a neighbor and am working through all 6 seasons. Or, as my neighbor did, buy the DVDs used at Hastings. Even new at Amazon, it is not prohibitive (compared to paying a high monthly fee to cable). I hear that HBO has made their library on-demand at 99 cents per? Point is, people do have options -- like turn the damned TV off!

[jpenguin]

I pay around $70/month for 6mbps net. No choices here either; Northland Cable is it. They charge $5/month more if you rent their modem/router, of coarse I own my ounces modem and 2 routers

Sent from my XT901 using Tapatalk

[dequire]

Ummmm.............many years a Tvtorrents.com member.......
Then there is icefilms on XBMC...................
and popcorn time.................though that is not embedded in the media center.

XBMC is the best media center I've tried for my uses, though as a f/oss project, it may require customization to fit each user's needs. I think more addons, repos themes, etc should be included or integrated by default. But it is stable

Since most of us use a KDE distribution; i.e. Kubuntu, we would be remiss to not mention Plasma Media Center also. Although a newer project and not extremely robust, the commits are coming regularly and it's looking hella-good w/in Kubuntu. I would recommend compiling yourself to get the latest features and improvements. Worth a look!

[dequire]

I would cut cable and go the internet / antenna route in a heartbeat if there was an economical way to get live sports. At least for hockey season. I may look at streaming but (a) it isn't cheap & (b) I'd be shocked if the quality was any sort of decent. Otherwise, SR's decision is likely the right one.

although

Remotes are still a P.I.T.A. no matter what. There's just no easy way to unify both online and O.T.A. / cable experiences that I've found.

Let us know how you like the Amazon Fire - I hear it will also play games w/ joystick support!

[GreyGeek]

...
As for television, I wonder how many consumers would disconnect cable/satellite if they were to try an indoor antenna and find how how well it can do (depending on your location).

http://www.amazon.com/Mohu-Leaf-Pape...Z2P6VMJJ7GGSKS

I purchased two of those and gave them a try. Of the 17 best channels that my DIY HD antenna brought in with clear crisp reception, the Mohu Leave gave clear pictures on about 12, digital breakup on a couple and couldn't bring in the two Omaha signals. I sold them at the yard sale when I sold my house.