Cable service providers

[ragtop69gs]

I've watched as my rates have crept up over the last 6 months, Comcast has nickel-dimed me to the point that I'm done with them [emoji35] !

 

The only other choice I have is AT&T Uverse whose offering me service at 1/3 the price. Anybody have experience with Uverse and comcast that can give me opinions after using both services.

 

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[Freebird]

My only experience is that once they get you to swap, you will get about 6 months to a year at that price and then they will start raising it and you'll be right back where you were.

[ragtop69gs]

My only experience is that once they get you to swap, you will get about 6 months to a year at that price and then they will start raising it and you'll be right back where you were.

 

AT&T says 1 year commitment with a 2 year price lock @ $137 including taxes etc. + a $350 visa card . I'm ready to bounce back and forth between providers to take advantage of their "new subscriber" offers. My last comcast bill was $304 !

[cecdoo]

AT&T says 1 year commitment with a 2 year price lock. I'm ready to bounce back and forth between providers to take advantage of their "new subscriber" offers. My last comcast bill was $304 !

 

 

Man!! thats alot of HD Porn:big-grin-emoticon:

 

Craig

[ragtop69gs]

Man!! thats alot of HD Porn:big-grin-emoticon:

 

Craig

 

 

If that were the case I may have been able to justify that crazy bill.

[CaseyJ955]

I bounced back and fourth a few times. Now I have stand alone internet at $28/mo and netflix at $9/mo. With internet we can really watch anything we want anytime we want without charge, and most importantly, without advertisement. I think all the annoying ads were as big a factor as a nearly $200/mo bill I was paying for the privilege of having it piped in. Its been 3 years now since the cable clipping and after a minute learning curve I have never been happier to save hundreds a month and not endure the mind-numbing advertising. Not sure if this is the dark side or not, but its awful dern pleasant!

 

I never thought of it like this, but what I have saved in that 3 years has covered the purchase cost of my vmax and venture with scratch leftover. $2000+ annually is no joke for a cheap a$$ like me.

[ragtop69gs]

I bounced back and fourth a few times. Now I have stand alone internet at $28/mo and netflix at $9/mo. With internet we can really watch anything we want anytime we want without charge, and most importantly, without advertisement. I think all the annoying ads were as big a factor as a nearly $200/mo bill I was paying for the privilege of having it piped in. Its been 3 years now since the cable clipping and after a minute learning curve I have never been happier to save hundreds a month and not endure the mind-numbing advertising. Not sure if this is the dark side or not, but its awful dern pleasant!

 

I never thought of it like this, but what I have saved in that 3 years has covered the purchase cost of my vmax and venture with scratch leftover. $2000+ annually is no joke for a cheap a$$ like me.

 

 

What speed is your internet? I've explored the option but with the subscription fees we'd be real close to what uverse is offering. Data caps could be a problem with cord cutting.

[Venturous Randy]

Yeah, my Comcast just jumped again for Jan to $156 a month. I have a package with about six HBO channels that are absolutely junk. They show the same stupid stuff over and over again. They do have a couple of good soft music channels to sleep by. The problem is there are only about a half dozen channels that I ever watch. Also, since they changed their format, it is not as easy to just use the "favorites" channel. I gave up on that. I also don't have a landline phone package with mine.

I am thinking about going with something else because most of what I have is junk.

Randy

[ragtop69gs]

Same here Randy. Triple play, we never use the phone, it only rings when someone wants my blood or money. Hundreds of channels but I can count on both hands the number of channels we actually watch. Why do they charge for equipment when without it you can't view their cable service?

 

COMCAST

[cecdoo]

Yep thats my biggest gripe, you buy the latest TV with the best tuner and its useless without their box! @9.95 for each box just to recv their HD signal.

[ragtop69gs]

Yep thats my biggest gripe, you buy the latest TV with the best tuner and its useless without their box! @9.95 for each box just to recv their HD signal.[

 

And with 5 TV's in the house + 1 in the garage

[CaseyJ955]

I have stand alone dsl. Unless your on a dish or cellular data you should not have a data cap. Im a heavy data user and my internet is slow at about 1.5 dl and half that up, but the reason for that is my distance from the city, im out in the sticks and the lines suck. Its fast enough for low def netflix w/o buffering but other streaming requires some buffering first. It would be like 10 dl in town for the same price, but I would rather pass a dirty sweatsock full of broken glass and sheetrock screws than move back into a town or city.

 

I think most localities can get you internet fast enough for HD streaming for under $50/mo if you go with no frills. I watch HD with a buffer period first and fine with that, its sure no more time than I used to waste watching ads. I absolutly love it but there is a little learning curve for streaming outside netflix type services. No going back for me now, never again will I overpay for all the ads and garbage channels.

I also save $35/mo by using Ooma instead of traditional landline (no cell service at my place). I got to thinking about how many more hours a month I had too work just to pay that cable/phone bill. When I used to binge watch for 3 hours, literally about one FULL hour of that was advertising, unless I dvr then have to hassle with fast forwarding and precision stopping at the right spot,

 

I would consider getting cable again only if I could cherry pick the channels I want and the money I paid would get me advert-free viewing. I had Direct TV and there were only 5-6/channels of value to me. I would pay ~$20/mo for 10 good chosen advert free channels but I know thats just not how they do business. If I could get FREE cable right now I would decline just based on the excessive, relentless noisy annoying advertising. Sorry the long response but I put a lot of thought into this transition, my defiant nonconformist displacement has actually made this very enjoyable after all the bills I opened and wondered how I could get these financial parasites out of my life. I get a warm fuzzy glow every time I get flyers too return to cable and landline, giddy like a school girl when I watch a full season of Walking Dead with narry an ad.

[videoarizona]

I stopped cable five years ago after repeated conversations with them about upping my bill. They wouldn't stop so I left. Only have internet and OTA tv. Large antenna on roof gets free tv from 47 miles away. No home phone either.. Cut that out and went cell only.

Just not worth it.....

[CaseyJ955]

My only experience is that once they get you to swap, you will get about 6 months to a year at that price and then they will start raising it and you'll be right back where you were.

 

Exactly what he said. ∆

Read the contract very carefully. I stopped using Yahoo, Verizon and Google over what was in the fine print, I do have a Yahoo junk account but all my business runs through a secure donation based server. Its essential to see what you are giving them legal permission to do, often contradictory to what the sales rep may tell you. There is a reason they put the contract in gray font and all capitol letters, it makes it even more difficult to read but be warned when dealing with AT&T, and others like them, there are things in there you are definitely going to wanna see before accepting their terms of service.

[snyper316]

Yep thats my biggest gripe, you buy the latest TV with the best tuner and its useless without their box! @9.95 for each box just to recv their HD signal.

 

Your getting off cheap!!! My box is $16 a month, Now they are charging me for sports channels I don't even watch. Its kind of like the 911 FEE.

 

I bounced back and fourth a few times. Now I have stand alone internet at $28/mo and netflix at $9/mo. With internet we can really watch anything we want anytime we want without charge, and most importantly, without advertisement. I think all the annoying ads were as big a factor as a nearly $200/mo bill I was paying for the privilege of having it piped in. Its been 3 years now since the cable clipping and after a minute learning curve I have never been happier to save hundreds a month and not endure the mind-numbing advertising. Not sure if this is the dark side or not, but its awful dern pleasant!

 

I never thought of it like this, but what I have saved in that 3 years has covered the purchase cost of my vmax and venture with scratch leftover. $2000+ annually is no joke for a cheap a$$ like me.

 

Where the heck you getting internet for that cheap the slowest my Cable Provider has is 30MBS and has a data cap of 100gb. It will cost 48 a month. The 100mbs I have now is unlimited for an additional fee of 15 dollars as the first of this month My bill now is $186.00 without the fees & Taxes.

 

I have stand alone dsl. Unless your on a dish or cellular data you should not have a data cap. Im a heavy data user and my internet is slow at about 1.5 dl and half that up, but the reason for that is my distance from the city, im out in the sticks and the lines suck. Its fast enough for low def netflix w/o buffering but other streaming requires some buffering first. It would be like 10 dl in town for the same price, but I would rather pass a dirty sweatsock full of broken glass and sheetrock screws than move back into a town or city.

 

I think most localities can get you internet fast enough for HD streaming for under $50/mo if you go with no frills. I watch HD with a buffer period first and fine with that, its sure no more time than I used to waste watching ads. I absolutly love it but there is a little learning curve for streaming outside netflix type services. No going back for me now, never again will I overpay for all the ads and garbage channels.

I also save $35/mo by using Ooma instead of traditional landline (no cell service at my place). I got to thinking about how many more hours a month I had too work just to pay that cable/phone bill. When I used to binge watch for 3 hours, literally about one FULL hour of that was advertising, unless I dvr then have to hassle with fast forwarding and precision stopping at the right spot,

 

I would consider getting cable again only if I could cherry pick the channels I want and the money I paid would get me advert-free viewing. I had Direct TV and there were only 5-6/channels of value to me. I would pay ~$20/mo for 10 good chosen advert free channels but I know thats just not how they do business. If I could get FREE cable right now I would decline just based on the excessive, relentless noisy annoying advertising. Sorry the long response but I put a lot of thought into this transition, my defiant nonconformist displacement has actually made this very enjoyable after all the bills I opened and wondered how I could get these financial parasites out of my life. I get a warm fuzzy glow every time I get flyers too return to cable and landline, giddy like a school girl when I watch a full season of Walking Dead with narry an ad.

 

Commercial last about 5 minutes here. Then back to tv for 10 minutes then back to stupid Commercial.

 

 

When I first got cable here in 2010 My bill was $65 a month with no box. Then they went digital I had all the music channels plus 120 channels on my tv so wasn't worried; went on for a month like this then all the sudden all I could get on my Tv was 61 worthless channels. I feel I was forced into getting cable because no matter what I did the only channel I could get was Opt which is Springfield And same as PBS. When everything was still analog I got 28 channels crystal clear. Got the free box for digital and when it went digital I was getting 2 channels, and if it spit rain they went out or if the wind blew. Would have went to satelitte but someone got Dish Network and Direct Tv while I sat in jail... I would assume if they are doing an install they would check Id's before they sign. I had to when the cable was installed. Needless to say I got tired of my cable going up so I tried Uverse they told me it was very fast. Got it and Netflix would continuesly Buffer. Ran speed test on it I was getting 30mbs down and 512kbs up. Called them up told them there was a problem they told me That was very good readings. As there service here was 25mbs down and 486kbs up. I told him the lady I talked to told me I would get 125mbs up and down, with no data cap. He then informed me I went over my 50gb data cap that it would be $15 dollars for every 10gbs over. I dropped them got a full refund plus I had gotten the $50 visa card for switching to them. I have never heard anything good about U-verse from people who have tried them. I had there dsl years ago tho I will say they were the fastest around at the time I was getting 30mbs down and 25mbs up. That was something else I didn't understand about the U-verse why would it be slower in the same damn town that I was getting the dsl in. Also on other thing I think they made me rent a special box to get internet as my att dsl modems wouldn't and nothing you could buy personally. I just wished I could just get internet and go back to antenna but until the stations here boost there signal or I move to Joplin which I will never do...

[ragtop69gs]

OK,,,, So back to my original question, has anyone used both Xfinity and Uverse that can give a fair comparison of service quality? The FTTN box is less than 1000 feet away.

[Flyinfool]

 

 

I just wished I could just get internet and go back to antenna but until the stations here boost there signal or I move to Joplin which I will never do...

 

Either a bigger antenna and/or a better preamp.

[CaseyJ955]

DSL should not have a cap, whereas dish/satelite systems have terrible caps and absolutely not cost effective for moderate to heavy users. If you have more than one provider check with them all on basic no fixins' DSL. This is the first I have heard on capped DSL. Mine is through Centurylink. They suck, worst cust svc ever but its cheap as I make them constantly give me a promo rate. Promo expires, I call to cancell and they renew the promo w/one year continued contract. Im looking for property through SD, ND and WY and a few homes I have considered I looked up internet providers and price packages and all are similar to what I have now with 10 or better down and no caps. Most between $30 and $60, which I consider the high side of acceptable. If you see DSL with a cap then I would say they are nickle-n-diming. I am soooo effin fed up with being nickled-n-dimed, IM OUT.

 

The easy reason they charge equipment fees/rentals monthly because still too many customers are willing to pay. Its time for free enterprise to put the skids on all this. I own my own modem, and a spare I got at a G-sale for 0.25c haha. Regardless of what they say, you can almpst always use a quality modem in leiu of their modem and their own tech support guys are usually happy enough to walk you through modem settings if need be. If I have to rent/lease a stupid box on top of tbeir already lofty fees IM OUT, they can gouge someone else, I find that sort of business deplorable, especially if I cant buy the equip elsewhere and avoid the additional rapey fees. They can take their absurtly priced packages, hidden fees, rents/leases, reprehensible customer service, relentless soul-crushing advertising and sshady business tactics and slip righ on up inside, stapled bindings and all! Yup, thats what I really think:thumbsup2:

 

One thing for sure, cable providers have good reason to be scared as we start too see that we simply dont need.them anymore.

 

EDIT, sorry man, didnt mean to hijack with my rant. Ill go silent so you can get an A to your Q:beer:

Edited January 1, 2017 by CaseyJ955

[Venturous Randy]

Another thing is we have both Comcast and Charter in town, but they don't overlap, so according to which block you live on, you get what is available. Nice way to cut down on competition of pricing, huh?

Randy

[ragtop69gs]

DSL should not have a cap, whereas dish/satelite systems have terrible caps and absolutely not cost effective for moderate to heavy users. If you have more than one provider check with them all on basic no fixins' DSL. This is the first I have heard on capped DSL. Mine is through Centurylink. They suck, worst cust svc ever but its cheap as I make them constantly give me a promo rate. Promo expires, I call to cancell and they renew the promo w/one year continued contract. Im looking for property through SD, ND and WY and a few homes I have considered I looked up internet providers and price packages and all are similar to what I have now with 10 or better down and no caps. Most between $30 and $60, which I consider the high side of acceptable. If you see DSL with a cap then I would say they are nickle-n-diming. I am soooo effin fed up with being nickled-n-dimed, IM OUT.

 

The easy reason they charge equipment fees/rentals monthly because still too many customers are willing to pay. Its time for free enterprise to put the skids on all this. I own my own modem, and a spare I got at a G-sale for 0.25c haha. Regardless of what they say, you can almpst always use a quality modem in leiu of their modem and their own tech support guys are usually happy enough to walk you through modem settings if need be. If I have to rent/lease a stupid box on top of tbeir already lofty fees IM OUT, they can gouge someone else, I find that sort of business deplorable, especially if I cant buy the equip elsewhere and avoid the additional rapey fees. They can take their absurtly priced packages, hidden fees, rents/leases, reprehensible customer service, relentless soul-crushing advertising and sshady business tactics and slip righ on up inside, stapled bindings and all! Yup, thats what I really think:thumbsup2:

 

One thing for sure, cable providers have good reason to be scared as we start too see that we simply dont need.them anymore.

 

EDIT, sorry man, didnt mean to hijack with my rant. Ill go silent so you can get an A to your Q[emoji481]

Nothing to be sorry about. Sharing our experiences with these f'ed up company's will help others at some time.

 

AT&T has a 650gb cap that is not strictly enforced except on those who exceed by a lot often. They are offering 45mbps speed with their u300 level tv, free equipment & HD programming plus a $350 rewards card after 90 days of service. 1 year service commitment .

 

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[ragtop69gs]

Another thing is we have both Comcast and Charter in town, but they don't overlap, so according to which block you live on, you get what is available. Nice way to cut down on competition of pricing, huh?

Randy

We have a choice of att or comcast. There is 2 other providers but they are not competitive in either price , service or both.

 

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[GAWildKat]

I'm on Cox, I have a choice, Cox or AT&T. We have a data cap on Cox. I forget what it is. We went with DirectTv for Tv because we had a better channel selection and it offered us a way to free up internet speed since digital cable uses the internet to transmit information to the cable box. My IT husband will never use AT&T because it's too slow, and insecure.

 

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Edited January 2, 2017 by GAWildKat

[snyper316]

I am fed up with it all utilities included... Yeh I don't remember a data cap on my DSL but the U-verse was completely different. We have a place here in town I want to check into I guess you get some kind of wireless internet thru an antenna. But that kind of concerns me but they don't have data cap. But I believe the last I checked before they switched company names it was gonna be 80 a month for 50mbs of service.

 

Living life one curve after the other. Vroom scooting, thru the countryside.

[CaseyJ955]

I am fed up with it all utilities included... Yeh I don't remember a data cap on my DSL but the U-verse was completely different. We have a place here in town I want to check into I guess you get some kind of wireless internet thru an antenna. But that kind of concerns me but they don't have data cap. But I believe the last I checked before they switched company names it was gonna be 80 a month for 50mbs of service.

 

Living life one curve after the other. Vroom scooting, thru the countryside.

 

That sounds lile satelite, like houghnet or dish. Definately not good, unless its some.sort of different way to get dsl to individual properties from a central hub, totally new to me.

 

On utilities, i hear ya. Im buying a home this winter or spring and some of the things it must have are private well and septic. Im skipping the realtor too. My lawyer can do what needs to be done without all the greed. When I said I was sick of getting squeezed I was not kidding. Its just as much principle as monitary.

[snyper316]

We have two electric companies here... But it depends where you live. Any over the summer my bill was running around 150 a month then all the sudden in August it shot up over 300 they told me they needed to replace the meter and went back and did average use socked me with a 1300 bill in September. I was on an app agreement. So I was being very mindful started switching outlets off and switched to LEDs. A couple of friends told me when the app ends you somehow owe them... Wished I could go 90 percent solar. The guy who is redoing my seats for the bikes also noticed his bill went from 80 a month for his shop and house to almost 200 a month they also replaced his meter because they said it was failing because it slowed down.... Anyways it just conspiracy if you ask me...

 

Living life one curve after the other. Vroom scooting, thru the countryside.