81–90 of 167 posts
Finally purchased my own [1], which will pay for itself after a year. This is one of the easiest ways to save money.
I have the same reaction every time I read about any cable company, and that's, "WTF are you all still giving them your money for?!" They have a monopoly on a dying service you literally don't need at all, and most people hate having to deal with them. The pricing and contracts are antagonistic to customers. Is it just momentum at this point?
In the US, cable companies are generally the only source of high-speed internet, and they sometimes charge a higher sticker price to provide internet-only service vs. bundling with TV service.
It's certainly overpriced for what it is, but it's still much, much cheaper than a complete package, which is easily twice that figure.
I have the same reaction every time I read about any cable company, and that's, "WTF are you all still giving them your money for?!" They have a monopoly on a dying service you literally don't need at all, and most people hate having to deal with them. The pricing and contracts are antagonistic to customers. Is it just momentum at this point?
In the US, cable companies are generally the only source of high-speed internet, and they sometimes charge a higher sticker price to provide internet-only service vs. bundling with TV service.
What is missing is a roll up service. I want an application that has a list of my services and then presents me a uniform search box for all them! That would rock. Thought about writing one but it would just get shutdown for violation of the terms of service. Also a Kodi plunging for Amazon, NetFlix and XM would rock at some point.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
you literally don't need at all Unless you live in a place without broadcast television, or little broadcast television, and with little to no internet service. So pretty much 20% of the United States. The nation is much larger than the east and west coasts.
Most of the people living in the US between the coasts still live in urban areas. Only a few states have a minority of urban dwellers: Maine, West Virginia, Mississippi, Vermont. Many large interior states have overwhelmingly urban populations: Arizona (90%), Colorado (86%), Illinois (89%), Michigan (75%), Ohio (78%), Nevada (94%), Texas (85%), Utah (90%). https://www.icip.iastate.edu/tables/population/urban-pct-sta.…
Here, click around: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9079984,-95.8056799,3a,75y,7...
You'll see what I mean.
I have a FiOS Motorola QIP7232 cable box with a builtin 320GB harddrive (circa 2013).[1] My last bill shows them charging me $21.99 per month for that box. (That's $263.88 a year not including taxes.) Last week, I called Frontier FiOS to cancel the cable TV but keep the internet. After the customer rep cancelled the tv, I asked if she was mailing out a shipping box so I could return the Motorola. She said she wasn't…
You might want to hold onto it for a bit. I read the occasional "horror" stories about people getting big bills for "unreturned equipment" that they were previously told not to return. Or that was returned but never logged; suggestions are, for example, that if you return your Comcast box to one of their storefronts/offices, you make sure to get a receipt, preferably one having the equipment ID's on it.
But you know damn well if I ever lose that box in my attic, some day they're coming after me.
I finally gave in and pay more per month for internet-only just so i don't have to store their damn box in my attic and I'm not inflating their TV subscriber numbers.
On a slightly related note, I am highly disappointed with the Spectrum boxes and really miss my Comcast X1 box. Spectrum and Comcast both rely on the same third-parties to supply their gear but Comcast works with partners like Arris to build their own custom boxes. They have their own custom OS running on the box. They're really fast and have a very modern UI. For instance it'll open sidebars to show current sports g…
I have the Comcast "X1 Infinity Entertainment System" and IMO it stinks. It's a bad sign when the instructions tell you to restart it to solve problems. And at best, the delay from button press to response is nearly intolerable. I think basic UI guidelines suggest something on the order of 1/4 second and this box usually takes over a second. At times I sit there wondering if I need to press the button again. Usually…
The slow button press is how I feel about DirecTV. I could simply never use it because I find the 1 second delay absolutely intolerable.
Apparently in order to deal with stolen modems, comcast simply charges whatever customer has that modem regardless of whether or not the modem itself was supposed to be returned by another customer but never was. That is one hell of a way to get your stolen modem's back. Can you imagine if you went to the golf course and had your own clubs which you bought on amazon, but the course charged you for club rental every time you went, until they demand you hand over your clubs, and force you to buy another set to be allowed to play?
That is how comcast harassed my mom for a year and a half, stole her modem, and tried to charge her rent for a different customers box.
I have not had cable or satellite since 2008 and I do not miss it. Amazon prime has tons of free stuff. Have a Netflix account. Have a proxy that lets me watch things like the BBC (hey BBC, you could make money if you allowed an online subscription for those not in the UK - I did pay for a TV pieces BTW as my address is register to a friend in the UK). There is also iTunes for things. Have Kodi with my local collecti…
FWIW I used to swear by Roku but then they started randomly adding channels to my screen. This was basically a paid ad, if you were a service provider you can pay Roku to force your channel onto the device. Once that started I chucked all my Roku devices.