If you have cancelled cable completely

[DawnM]

have you gotten offers from them to come back at reduced rates?

We are ending our promotion with cable and they aren't offering us much to stay with them. Unfortunately, with our location we can't get satelite, so we are stuck.

We are heading on vacation in 2 weeks and I thought maybe if we cancelled for the 2 weeks we are away they might have some good offers to return to them when we get back.

Thoughts?

Dawn

 

[Tink-n-MrIncredible]

Where I live you can only get the promotion if it has been a period of 6 months.

 

[bumbershoot]

For us, all it takes is the sentence "we're thinking of canceling" for our cable company to send us over to the people with the ability to make deals.

But we have at least 2 satellite companies we could use AND our city has its own internet/cable company, so they might take it more seriously than your company might.

Good luck!

 

[ajk912]

Are you with comcast? Comcast stinks, I tried this before. I hate that I pay $105 for just internet and basic cable!

BTW, what I have considered is flopping back and forth between verizon and comcast..we have both here..and when one promo is up go from one company to the next...Seems like a lot of work though, and the wires under my house could get messy! Or so they say....

 

[princesspwrhr]

We cancelled cable (cox) completely in September. We kept our internet because I need it for work. the only specials we get stuff for is the usual 'bundle' packages that they offer everyone. Doesn't really matter in our case as we're not going back to cable - or satalite - or anything - for a while.

Verizon just laid FIOS in our area, so I'm sure once everything if finalized with that both Verizon and Cox will start offering something. Does your cable provider have any competition in the area?

 

[dakcp2001]

You will prob have to pay activation fees and sign a new contract. You might be in a contract now with an early term fee, better check on that first. The cable company wont know that you cant get a dish, tell them you are thinking of giving dish a shot.

 

[sk!mom]

We get offers but there is competition here between a couple of cable companies as well as satellite companies. If there is little competition where you live then I doubt you will see much of an offer.

 

[powellrj]

We had been cable customers for over 30 years. Comcast took over our cable company after many many happy years with Insight. I wasn't happy because Comcast was playing with our rates and changing channels. We canceled in August and went with AT&T Uverse which we love. We never heard a word from Comcast and they never asked why we were canceling.

We get letters from them every few weeks, but they are never deals, they are just letters saying how much better they are than the other guy.

I have to say, the same thing happened with XM radio. I wasn't happy when they changed the channel line-up a few months ago and called to cancel. They asked why I was canceling and I say I was disappointed in the new channel line-up. She told me she was sorry to see me leave and that was the end of it. Not that I would have stayed, but I thought they might offer some kind of incentive. I guess I wasn't that great of a loss to them.

 

[DawnM]

Unfortunately, we have NO options here. We are not in Charlotte proper so Verizon and FIOS aren't available to me at all. We can't even get TV with an antena.

I guess I will just take them up on the offere they gave me, but I would really like to get a better deal.

Offer:

Cable TV with 2 DVRs
Internet

for $145 with tax. Then phone is with Vonage for an additional $30.

(I ran the numbers and it is cheaper to stay with Vonage, even with their bundle package and I am limited when we move as I can't keep the number if we move out of Time Warner Cable's area.)

 

[Melrosgirl]

If they know you can't get satellite in your area, I doubt you'll receive many "stay with us" offers. No competition.

 

[DawnM]

They don't know that.....our neighbors across the street can get satellite. We just can't. They don't know our trees block it.

Dawn

If they know you can't get satellite in your area, I doubt you'll receive many "stay with us" offers. No competition.

 

[bumbershoot]

Are you with comcast? Comcast stinks, I tried this before. I hate that I pay $105 for just internet and basic cable!

WOW! That's like twice what we pay. With Comcast. DVR, digital cable, and internet. Hubby calls when our rate is about to expire, tells them we're switching, they hand him over to the "retention" people.

They don't know that.....our neighbors across the street can get satellite. We just can't. They don't know our trees block it.

Dawn

Then tell 'em you're switching to satellite.

But if they do NOT offer you anything, I wouldn't cancel, b/c like someone else said, you might end up with fees for renewing it if you hook it back up in the future.

 

[lovesmurfs]

We cancelled cable over 6 years ago...never looked back! Our Internet is through the DSL bundled with our phone and cell phones.

We've never gotten any "deals" that I can recall, but then we haven't been interested.

 

[Maddle]

We moved a little more than a year ago into a town that had a Time/Warner franchise that was NOT exclusive...but no other company had moved in to compete. The infrastructure was old, as they had purchased a small cable company that must have been here forever. (probably why no one else wanted the franchise rights) Because there was no competition for cable services, we were ALWAYS the last in the area to get new services. It was just terrible. (My sister in law actually LAUGHED at me when I told her the limited number of HD channels we received.)They were unreliable, and they offered no explanation or credits for service outages.

We signed up for a promotional 12 month bundle that was comparatively good deal. During that time period, Verizion came in with their new FiOs wiring.

At the end of the 12 months, the bill went up, and we were STILL waiting for upgrades. Called Verizon - their promotional price was the same as the TWC increase total - and they had so much more to offer, so I swapped.

My thinking is that for this current 12 month period, I will be happy, and TWC, if they want to stay in business, will need to push through the upgrades, or pull out. After the promo period (next Fall 2009) it could be a real headache if they don't come through...but I feel I have to get the best bang for the buck for now. (I think it's going to be rather pricey when the Verizon promo period ends.)

Now to answer your question - no, there was no concern or loyalty offers from TWC. Nothing - not even a "sorry to see you go." They just took the box back (that I had to personally return.) and that was it. No satisfaction survey, nothing! It was more like, "See ya - don't let the door hit you on the way out." It's going to have to be a really significant difference in price to get me to come back.

I have heard many people get discounts and offers when they just think "maybe I ought to drop/switch," but we were not one of them.

Good luck with your decision. (Are you CERTAIN you can not get satellite reception?)

Maddle

 

[Harmonysmomma]

For us my husband just called comcast last night. Our bill was 115 for net and cable, which was rediculous in my opinion. So he called in and said our bill is too much we are going to have to cancel. The guy dropped it down to 80 bucks and we kept everything the same!! I say keep trying different reps.

 

[DawnM]

We have had FOUR guys come out and spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to give it to us. Two from Directv and two from DISH. Apparently after the regular guy comes out and tries, they have a manager come out and make sure you can't get it.

Dawn

Good luck with your decision. (Are you CERTAIN you can not get satellite reception?)

Maddle

 

[Maddle]

We have had FOUR guys come out and spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to give it to us. Two from Directv and two from DISH. Apparently after the regular guy comes out and tries, they have a manager come out and make sure you can't get it.

Dawn

Well, I guess that is about as certain as you can get! LOL

I like the earlier poster's annecdote about calling and saying, "it's just too high, we're gonna have to cancel" - have you tried something like that?

Maddle

 

[caligirl stuck in va]

I just got the Comcast bill on Wed. It went from a completely unacceptable $135 per month to an astronomical $195 per month. To limit the words here, I was not pleased. We have only cable and internet with them. Nothing really special either. We have had HBO but only because Comcast here used to be Adelphia and if you wanted cable and internet, you had to have a bundle. I tried to cancel HBO at one point last year and I was told that my bill would actually go up $9 - due to this fabulous bundle I was roped into.

Anyway - Comcast is the only game in town. I am cancelling everything but Basic Service (my in-laws live with us and as much as I could try to suffer through without TV I know they can't) and internet. I hope the bill will be under $100. Wish me luck!

 

[TheRatPack]

I called a bit ago to cancel our Dish account, we've had it since the late 90's LOL and they offered us all sorts of stuff, free months...etc. When we cancelled cable years and years ago, they didn't offer us anything, just wanted their box back.

 

[Tinkerbelle9980]

We switched cable companies in November, since there was finally a new company in town. The old company sends us stuff all the time with a list of offers we can choose if we come back. I new company isn't much cheaper but has better service. There was one channel with the old company that had to much static to work, it works great with the new company. Plus our internet isn't down constantly. We wouldn't switch back even if the cut the price in half, it's not worth the headache. I'm sure your company will start sending you the same kind of offers. Good luck!