Ask HN: Would you pay $5 / month to Never deal with your cable company again? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay $5 / month to Never deal with your cable company again?

#11

Post by brudgers » Wed, Feb 11, 2015, 10:03 PM UTC

It went from $5 to $5-$10 in the time it took the link to load. And per month is not forever.

Anyway, my cable company's customer support reps are friendly enough. All the frustration comes when I cannot get whatever it is I want or effectively get the issue solved. No third party is going to be a bigger pain in the ads for $10 than I am by nature.

So I really don't see the value proposition.

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay $5 / month to Never deal with your cable company again?

#12

Post by MalcolmDiggs » Wed, Feb 11, 2015, 10:07 PM UTC

There are some Comcast resellers around here that do basically that. The problem is that they still have to go through the same BS that you do, and often can't answer your questions without a "I'll call comcast and get back to you about that". So when something goes wrong, now you have to deal with somebody who is just trying to translate for a comcast rep. Kind of a pain.

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay $5 / month to Never deal with your cable company again?

#13

Post by rajacombinator » Wed, Feb 11, 2015, 10:53 PM UTC

no, 1) wouldn't believe they would be effective, 2) don't need to talk to cable co on a monthly basis, 3) don't want to pay more for same crappy cable, that is the problem.

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay $5 / month to Never deal with your cable company again?

#14

Post by Varlski » Thu, Feb 12, 2015, 1:31 PM UTC

Expand your services to cover services other than cable companies e.g. e-commerce delievery enquiries. Then make it as easy for me as sending a text/sms on my phone to activate and you could be onto something.

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay $5 / month to Never deal with your cable company again?

#15

Post by rprospero » Thu, Feb 12, 2015, 2:12 PM UTC

jpetersonmn wrote: post #4

I wouldn't want to give my details to the 3rd party. The cable company is likely to just advise that the contract signer has to call in. I know in the past I tried to deal with the elec. company on behalf of my girlfriend. Even though I lived with her and could verify any info, including ss number they wouldn't speak to me on the issue.

I'm familiar with that one. For a short while, the local Comcast office wouldn't accept my father's death certificate, as they wanted him to deliver it in person.

Re: Ask HN: Would you pay $5 / month to Never deal with your cable company again?

#16

Post by gbarnes » Thu, Feb 12, 2015, 2:59 PM UTC

The majority of the "horror stories" I've seen lately have all revolved around customers trying to cancel their cable packages. Try to look at it from the perspective of the cable companies saying, "Hey, if you give us an extra $5-$10 a month, we'll be super nice and helpful whenever you have to deal with us". Can't imagine very many already nickel and dimed customers would be too thrilled about that option.