cable companies suck

[caitycaity]

our cable company is horrible. we have never had a positive customer service experience with them and we have been with them for years.

we are trimming some fat from our household expenses and dh just tried to call to change our cable package.

get this: customer service for adding to your package is 24/7. customer service for cancelling is business hours only.



if i didn't laugh i would cry.

 

[gallaj0]

Call direcTv; you can call 24/7, or do changes online, etc. They'll hook it up free, and give you Tivo's too. All for about half the price of digital cable. We've had it for years, and we'll never get rid of it.

 

[caitycaity]

we currently live in an apartment so we can't have a dish, but we are moving into our first house this summer , so that is something to investigate.

 

[diznygirl]

Hate cable, love DirecTV, love Tivo even more.

 

[bicker]

We had some pretty bad cable companies until Comcast took over. Now things are great! TiVo makes Comcast even better!

 

[caitycaity]

heh! comcast is who we have too and around here they have a bad reputation.

 

[golfgal]

I like our cable company. Their fees are reasonable, we get our cable, internet and phone service through them so that is nice. We have never had any problems with our cable and the few times we have had internet issues their customer service was great. I wish they were located in our new town. The cable in our new town is much more expensive. It will cost more for just our cable and internet then it does for our current plan with cable/internet/phone.

 

[tarmand]

All I can say is that Charter Communications sucks! We had Dish Network for a while, but we were forever losing our signal so we switched to cable. We rarely lose cable, but their customer service and pricing plans are the worst. I wish cable companies didn't have such a monopoly. We only have one choice for cable - so that's not really a choice. I guess that's what I get for deciding to live in a rural area.

 

[AllyandJack]

Congrats on the house! I read recently that you put the offer in....I take it that it was accepted!

We have Dish Network. I never have a problem with signal, but I don't have any trees within 100ft of my house, so I have a really clear line. I lose service in lightening storms and that's it. I've had it for 4 years. My biggest problem with them is their disputes with companies. First, it was Viacom and I lost Nick at Nite, NBC, MTV, etc for a little while. Recently, it was Lifetime and LMN for about a month. But, they were pretty good about it. The first time, they sent us coupons for free PPV movies. The second time, they added a few stations that I love Oxygen and WE. I have only dealt with their customer service one in 4 years (guess that's good!) and it was when one of my receivers broke. They sent me a new one for free and sent me a package to ship the broken one to them. I pay $65./month for 2 rooms with the Top 120 package.

My parents have DirectTV and they love it. I wanted to make sure I was fair to them in my recommendation.

 

[golfgal]

All I can say is that Charter Communications sucks! We had Dish Network for a while, but we were forever losing our signal so we switched to cable. We rarely lose cable, but their customer service and pricing plans are the worst. I wish cable companies didn't have such a monopoly. We only have one choice for cable - so that's not really a choice. I guess that's what I get for deciding to live in a rural area.

That is who we have to switch to. We actually have 2 cable companies in our town right now. I can get the SAME exact service in our town with Charter for $30/month LESS then in our new town. It just goes to show what a little competition will do.

 

[Galahad]

We're pretty happy with Comcast too.

Now VerizonWireless is another matter. We keep them for the good network but their customer service and "policies" are the pits IMO. Maybe it's the whole "utility" mind-set. Our water company is owned by a French consortium and they not only have bad customer service, they are downright incompetent.

 

[edcrbnsoul]

Another for DirecTV I rarely lose signal and thats only during real heavy thunder storms and at that the longest had been 5 minutes.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Another for DirecTV I rarely lose signal and thats only during real heavy thunder storms and at that the longest had been 5 minutes.

Add one from me

My only cable choice when we moved into our new house was Cox cable and I already had heard that their service (at least for what you were paying) sucked, so I went with DirecTV right away.

 

[Kimberly815]

My fiance is a dispatcher for Comcast. The service around here seems to be pretty good. But it does cost an arm and a leg! Thank goodness as an employee he gets free cable/phone/internet! The best perk!

I love not paying for cable- and legally!

 

[Thumper's Tara]

Another vote for DirecTv. I love them them. I love them even more with TiVo.

The unfortunate thing is...I can't have them where I live now! I am surrounded by trees in my current apartment/cottage. So, I have had to deal with the evil cable company.

Cablevision - my cable company - has horrible customer service. The first month I had the service...
I had to call customer service 8 times.
I waited on hold at least 20 minutes each time.
I had a customer service rep insinuate I was lying about the number of times I called.
I had them mess up 2 service apptments and expect me to rearrange my weekend because they messed up.
I had them charge me for a service that wasn't even working and when I asked when it would be fixed, I was told they are working on it. When I asked about a credit for the non-working service, I was told that I would receive a credit when the problem was fixed. However, the rep wouldn't tell me when or how much.

It took a letter to the president of the organization to get my problem fixed! I kept great notes as I was going through this and when it still wasn't fixed a month after installation, I wrote the letter!

Good luck OP! I hope you get them to downgrade your service without too much pain!