I had a similar problem with Comcast. I told them if they did not lower my rate I was going to cancel their TV service. Surprisingly they obliged.
I pray to God the cable companies fail. I will never ever understand how they were let to monopolize their grip on cities in towns here in Assachusetts. I don’t know if it’s like that in other states but I think it is.
If it wasn’t for my son and wife I would have cancelled my tv service YEARS ago.
As The Misfits once said, Die, Die my Darling!
Bye-bye cable companies. See you in hell!
ATT UVerse is growing by leaps and bounds.
I love my cable service, Cable One. I’ve had their package of 10Mbps Internet, Cable TV and Cable Phone for a couple or three years now, and it’s actually a better picture than either DirecTV or Dish.
I just scheduled installation of their new 50Mbps upgrade, and my monthly bill will drop by about $50. The cap is 100GB per month, and I have to maintain a one year contract each year, but that’s OK with me.
The employees are fabulously friendly, helpful, and dedicated. I have no complaints, but when I do have a problem, they usually have a repairman out here the same day, or the next day at the latest.
(I’m almost salivating at the thought of having 50Mbps Internet. That’s more than 6MB/sec. When I first started using the Internet, I was lucky if I got 6KB/sec.)
There isn’t anything much worth watching. I’d much prefer to read, anyways.
They have a monopoly. They need to open cable up to competition the way they did Ma Bell.
Many people are dropping cable for satellite because of sports. Younger people and families realize that they can get all the movies they want for $7 a month with Netflix, and since they can only watch one at a time they won’t pay for cable packages. So it is not just losing subscribers to a bad economy, people are downgrading to smaller packages. The result is lower revenues to the cable companies.
It is human nature. The cable monopolies charge too much, and people figured out a way to get what they want without them as a result. It is time to end the cable monopoly.
So, that’s what became of Tom Rutledge! He was my boss when he ran our little cable company back in Austin in the early 90s. He was a good boss but he was an obvious Yankee that didn’t really fit the Texas lifestyle.
FWIW, the combination of Netflix, Hulu, 4g wireless and other internet options, as well as poor programming would be as big a reason for the downturn as the poor economy.
So they are losing basic subscribers in poor neighborhoods.
But gaining in higher end services and bundles.
Lord I hate paying my $200 cable bill.
Ever since it went to no-term contracts, Verizon Fios has been kicking Cablevision’s butt in New York. Better product and better customer service. My hope is that Cablevision will soon be forced to sell the Knicks and Rangers. :)
I had to stand on line for over a half an hour to return my Cablevision equipment after I switched. Almost everyone on line was dropping off equipment, as opposed to picking it up.
When I called to cancel my service they told me it would take about 5 days to send a man out, though I had already switched to Fios. I didn’t care, until I received my final bill and found that they had the nerve to CHARGE ME for service for those days. After a lot of arguing, I got them to credit those charges.
Also, I’m sure I’m not the only one annoyed by the constant calls from Cablevision’s sleazy, obnoxious sales reps, trying to get you to come back. I have demanded they stop calling (I even kept one rep on the line asking ridiculous questions about Jim Dolan’s wig) but they won’t stop.
Originally, I thought, if the price was right, I might go back, if Fios jacked up my bill too much after my guaranteed price term ended. But after dealing with Cablevision’s horrid sales reps and customer service, I would not use them if the service was free.
I would not be surprised if Cablevision does not exist in 5 or 10 years. It is a truly horrible company. The actual product is decent, but the people and policies are vile.
I downgraded my Comcast cable last month, to where I am now only receiving local networks through them. With Netflix Streaming and Hulu Plus, I’m not missing cable channels at all. I’m also not missing the high fees of digital cable- it was mighty nice to open my cable bill this month and see that it had dropped from an average of $150/month to $20/month.
They can "afford" the $ 150/month but since it's their money, why not shop and save it?
Cablevision 300 channels and 290 are the same and any time after midnight 295 are paid programing pimping.
I think the three-way bundles from the likes of Verizon and AT&T (Broadband Internet, Phone, & TV) are cutting into traditional “cable” outfits.
Why?
I think that many customers are more inclined to trust their phone company to keep the phone service good, than they are to think the cable outfit can do the TV part better.
The experiences of three neighbors of mine was that they were unhappy with the three-way bundles from the cable-TV outfit, and took either their phone or their phone and broadband service back to the phone company (Verizon).
That has NOT encouraged me to try a three-way bundle with the local cable-TV outfit; instead my broadband Internet and Phone bundle (FIOS) remains with the phone company; and I am considering adding the TV to that setup.
Cablevision screwed themselves in the long term when they shut down their HD media production company, that was a truly value added addition that was unique to their service.
Verizon has been pushing out FiOS as fat as possible and is providing pretty good service.
Cablevision customer service is down island... manana, manana.
I cancelled cable becasue the programming simply sucks - with half of all shows being some form of reality TV.
I didn’t cancel due to price. I cancelled due to value. I got poor value for the price, as most shows were simply unwatchable to me.
Create great shows. Try shows with less homos. That’s a start. Try shows where Dad is wise and teaches his kids, instead of being an unsuccessful lout. Try shows with nuclear families intact. Try shows that trumpet patriotism. Try shows that show people being rewarded for responsible behavior and punished for behaving irresponsibly.
That would be a start.
TV programming simply sucks. It was a bad value. I wasn’t going to continue paying $70/mo. for some football and baseball and the random interesting new movie instead of the horrific repeats shown endlessly over and over.
TV programming sucks. Get a clue TV people. Make decent shows and I’ll come back. There is a reason I have been watching reruns of Moonlighting on Netflix.
Comcast is way too expensive. I am considering cutting my TV portion. It just isn’t that good.
Speaking of TV, are there any national news broadcasts anymore?
In its early years, CNN used to broadcast news continually. Now, every cable news channel has one hour of news programming a day, followed by 10 hours of talking heads reapeated twice a day.
THIS IS NEWS??? Give me a break.
If I want talk shows, I’ll listen to radio. I want news. I can’t get “news” on TV. That is why I get my news almost exclusively from the internet, with Free Republic being my #1 source for news.