What do you do when your tuners lock you into a provider?

[foxwood]

Verizon FiOS double play, or just naked FiOS internet in some instances is more expensive than Triple play bundle. We pay $65/month for FiOS triple play. FiOS internet alone for lower speed is $60/month.

And yet when Microsoft bundles IE with Windows, it's an abusive Monopoly.

[mcewinter]

A bit off topic but I recommend Ooma for phone service. It's free with the exception of whatever taxes are involved which is minimal. Paying for only two services is cheaper than paying for three in the long run, don't let anybody sucker you into phone service without doing a little research on Ooma first. My Comcast bill is currently less than $80 for internet and TV on the current promotion.

Verizon FiOS double play, or just naked FiOS internet in some instances is more expensive than Triple play bundle. We pay $65/month for FiOS triple play. FiOS internet alone for lower speed is $60/month.

Same with Time Warner, Triple play is $87/month ($29 per service per month) vs TV alone is $60 and Internet alone is $45.

Are you quoting actual pricing or promotional? I don't doubt that triple may save a few bucks if packaged and purchased properly but free is free. I don't pay for phone, this is not temporary. My internet and TV pricing IS temporary but the inherent flexibility holds some value in itself. With Comcast, the triple play pricing after the promotion ends is astronomical.

[slowbiscuit]

For example, power was out for 3 weeks in my area after Wilma. One of my cousins from Long Island has a second house 3 hours North of me. He was on vacation at the time. When he got home to Long Island he called his neighbors down in Florida and discovered they had power in that area. When he found out what happened by me, he called me up on my landline (after a week and a half without power on my end) to let me know I could go stay up at his place until power was restored at my home. Others were stuck in that area without power for the full 3 weeks. I'm sure the ones who had landlines appreciated it.

There are no guarantees that landline service is going to be any more reliable than power or cable. None. In my area they all run on the same poles so I can't see how phone would be restored any faster than the other two.

But as you said it all depends on your perceived risk. Even if I lived in a hurricane-prone area, I'm sure I could live without a phone for a long time. Lack of power would lead me to seek temp accommodations elsewhere long before my cell or gas ran out. Even if all the cell towers were down it's not the first priority. To each his own, but I doubt I'll ever pay for a landline again.

[blueiedgod]

A bit off topic but I recommend Ooma for phone service. It's free with the exception of whatever taxes are involved which is minimal. Paying for only two services is cheaper than paying for three in the long run, don't let anybody sucker you into phone service without doing a little research on Ooma first. My Comcast bill is currently less than $80 for internet and TV on the current promotion.

Verizon FiOS double play, or just naked FiOS internet in some instances is more expensive than Triple play bundle. We pay $65/month for FiOS triple play. FiOS internet alone for lower speed is $60/month.

Same with Time Warner, Triple play is $87/month ($29 per service per month) vs TV alone is $60 and Internet alone is $45.

Are you quoting actual pricing or promotional? I don't doubt that triple may save a few bucks if packaged and purchased properly but free is free. I don't pay for phone, this is not temporary. My internet and TV pricing IS temporary but the inherent flexibility holds some value in itself. With Comcast, the triple play pricing after the promotion ends is astronomical.

I am quiting actual pricing. Usually you get best pricing by agreeing to a term contract, in most cases 2 years, which is fine with me. I am not afraid of commitments, especially if it saves me money.


You are right at the end of a 2 year commitment prices revert to "regular" which is when we switch to a competitor. They usually offer $200 to $300 incentive to switch all 3 services. Rinse and repeat.

[leebo]

In my experience, dealing with cable promotion expirations is kind of like being in a hostage negotiation: except you're the kidnapper! By that I mean to be successful, you must be prepared to follow through with your threat.

You ask if they can offer any better deal, and they say no. You then threaten to cancel service because you can get a better deal with (insert satellite/ATT here). They usually respond with: "Let me transfer you to blah, blah".

If the next thing you hear is, "Hello, this is Mr. So and so from retentions", it means you won. Checkmate.

[barnabas1969]

I haven't been following this thread very closely. staknhalo has a good point about power outtages, especially when you live in Florida, as he and I do. It can happen in places where heavy snow is a possibility too.

Regarding slowbiscuit's comment about landline service being just as unreliable, he is probably unaware that almost all landline telephone service in Florida (at least in every part of Florida where I've lived) is underground. There has been a big push in recent years to move all power service in Florida underground too. That's a much larger undertaking than moving phone service underground. High voltage lines are much more difficult to service when they are buried as compared to low voltage phone lines, and underground high voltage lines are much more susceptible to lightning damage than underground low voltage lines. I've personally experienced a long-term outtage due to buried power lines getting hit by lightning. It blows the insulation off of the cables, and takes a LONG time to replace!

Still, even when phone lines are strung on poles, they are still more reliable than Internet service from your cable provider.... because the cable company's equipment relies on local power to be working (because they have amplifiers every so many feet), while telephone service only relies on the (usually very large - think building-sized) batteries at the nearby "central office" to be working.

However, I happen to have a natural-gas-powered generator. Natural gas service, obviously, is under ground. As long as my house is still standing, and as long as the natural gas distribution system is still working... I will have power. While that won't help me if my cable-Internet service is down (because my house can't power the cable company's equipment), I will still be able to charge my cell phones. And, cellular service is usually among the first things to be restored after a natural disaster.

That said, by my calculations, running my generator 24x7 will cost me 3 to 4 times as much as I pay for electricity.

As for the frequency of such disasters in Florida: My house was built in 1961. It's nowhere near as strong as houses that have been built in the last 20 years due to all of the changes to Florida building codes since 1991. Even so, it's still standing.

In light of the construction methods used in 1961, I wouldn't stay in my house during a hurricane that exceeds a category 2 because I wouldn't want to take a chance at putting myself or my family in danger. My last house, built in 1999, was built to withstand a category 3 (and sustained very minimal damage during hurricane Frances... the shingles on half of my front porch blew off). Since the hurricanes of 2004, houses in my area are built to withstand a category 4, with solid concrete walls (formed and poured on-site), mandatory hurricane shutters on all windows, etc.

But, even in a tropical storm, it is possible to lose power. So, a natural gas generator makes sense. I test mine occasionally. It will run everything in my house except for the central air conditioning. I have a gas water heater, gas range, gas outdoor grill, gas central heating, and a gas clothes dryer. So, as long as the gas is working... I can take a hot shower, cook, wash/dry my clothes, and generally live a normal life. For air conditioning... I can use a few small window air conditioners to keep the bedrooms cool. Life won't be so bad, as long as my house is still standing!

[barnabas1969]

Are you quoting actual pricing or promotional? I don't doubt that triple may save a few bucks if packaged and purchased properly but free is free. I don't pay for phone, this is not temporary. My internet and TV pricing IS temporary but the inherent flexibility holds some value in itself. With Comcast, the triple play pricing after the promotion ends is astronomical.

I am quiting actual pricing. Usually you get best pricing by agreeing to a term contract, in most cases 2 years, which is fine with me. I am not afraid of commitments, especially if it saves me money.


You are right at the end of a 2 year commitment prices revert to "regular" which is when we switch to a competitor. They usually offer $200 to $300 incentive to switch all 3 services. Rinse and repeat.

That would be wonderful if I had multiple cable providers in my area. My choices are Brighthouse Networks (BHN), AT&T Uverse, or satellite. BHN is my only choice with Media Center, unless I want to get into multiple set top boxes and HD-PVR's or Colossus cards. I have ten tuners now, and yes, I use them. When the kids are all here, I could have four or five live TV channels in use at one time, and I frequently have 3-4 recordings going simultaneously at prime time, and sometimes more. When I first installed the whole system, with extenders and all, the kids were reluctant to use it. But now, they realize that they can use the extender to watch live TV and they can pause/rewind. Plus, they can schedule their own shows (stuff my wife and I would never watch) to be recorded.

My step-daughter is here all the time. She's only 5, so she doesn't record stuff. But her mother records lots of kids' movies for her. Then, when my two kids (14 and 17 years old) are here on the weekends, they schedule all the stuff they want to see so it will be waiting for them the next time they are here. My HTPC is a very busy machine.

U-Verse is not an option for me. It has limited bandwidth. You can only watch/record two HD programs in the entire household with U-Verse. Once two HD programs are being watched/recorded, you can watch/record an additional four SD shows. That's a whole-house limit... and it's not enough for me.

[blueiedgod]

Depending on what you watch/record, OTA is also an option. Then, after a short stint with OTA, you become "new customer" to your cable provider.

Are you quoting actual pricing or promotional? I don't doubt that triple may save a few bucks if packaged and purchased properly but free is free. I don't pay for phone, this is not temporary. My internet and TV pricing IS temporary but the inherent flexibility holds some value in itself. With Comcast, the triple play pricing after the promotion ends is astronomical.

I am quiting actual pricing. Usually you get best pricing by agreeing to a term contract, in most cases 2 years, which is fine with me. I am not afraid of commitments, especially if it saves me money.


You are right at the end of a 2 year commitment prices revert to "regular" which is when we switch to a competitor. They usually offer $200 to $300 incentive to switch all 3 services. Rinse and repeat.

That would be wonderful if I had multiple cable providers in my area. My choices are Brighthouse Networks (BHN), AT&T Uverse, or satellite. BHN is my only choice with Media Center, unless I want to get into multiple set top boxes and HD-PVR's or Colossus cards. I have ten tuners now, and yes, I use them. When the kids are all here, I could have four or five live TV channels in use at one time, and I frequently have 3-4 recordings going simultaneously at prime time, and sometimes more. When I first installed the whole system, with extenders and all, the kids were reluctant to use it. But now, they realize that they can use the extender to watch live TV and they can pause/rewind. Plus, they can schedule their own shows (stuff my wife and I would never watch) to be recorded.

My step-daughter is here all the time. She's only 5, so she doesn't record stuff. But her mother records lots of kids' movies for her. Then, when my two kids (14 and 17 years old) are here on the weekends, they schedule all the stuff they want to see so it will be waiting for them the next time they are here. My HTPC is a very busy machine.

U-Verse is not an option for me. It has limited bandwidth. You can only watch/record two HD programs in the entire household with U-Verse. Once two HD programs are being watched/recorded, you can watch/record an additional four SD shows. That's a whole-house limit... and it's not enough for me.