So angry, cable company completely lied to me!

[mistysue]

I post this here because I feel like this is the most likely board for people to get why this is bothering me so much. We have been trying really hard to cut out extra costs right now. I have had the same internet service for years, and they have a monopoly here so there are no choices for anybody to switch to. Well, in December our bill was $29.99. In January, they raised the rate to $44.99. Annoying, but I expected it to go up someday. In February, it went up to $54.99. Of course I responded by going to their local office and asking if they had any sort of specials.
The woman there told me that no, they are not running any sort of specials on one service, but if I want to bundle TV/internet/phone the services are $29.99 each. So I could get any two for $59.98 and all three for $89.97. I figured it wasn't perfect, but I could turn TV on and my bill would go up $5- but I would cancel Netflix and be ahead of paying for Netflix and internet only.

So this morning we went to register to watch the Disney channel online. When I logged in to figure out how to do it it posted my next bill- $143.99!!!!
I looked at the details and my internet did go back to $29.99, but TV is $59.99! That is NOT what I agreed to, so I called and the special they quoted me in the store does not exist! $30 of that is a start up fee, so my regular bill after taxes is going to be $114, that is not anything like $60! Now I can either pay them $50 per month more than I agreed to or pay a cancellation fee and have to break it to my kids that as soon as I broke down and got them cable TV I am going to turn around and shut it off in the first week!

This is so completely unfair. I want to respond by going with another company because they intentionally misled me and I am completely powerless. My house has ZERO phone lines- the person who built the house didn't plan on needing a phone so we can't even back down and get DSL. Because it is a new location, the phone company would charge $300 just to turn a line on, and all they will do is connect it to a box outside, we then have to run the wire into the house. Satellite is too sketchy here (tons of trees and low land) My husband needs internet for work and we use way too much to use our cell phones alone, so we are really stuck with this company. I feel like this is some sort of nightmare.

That is $600/year. We could go to an extra 5 character meals on our next trip with that money.

 

[kim929]

I had cox cable for years as they were the only choice we had. Verizon Fios became available and we switched but before we did, I called them to see if they could match what Fios was offering. Their big money savings they offered was the same amount every month 169.00 and rising but at the end of the year they would give us a 20.00 credit. Woo Hoo.... I switched to fios and love it. I feel for you. I am not one of those that rant and demand a supervisor, but in this sitituation I would

 

[smkiya]

I post this here because I feel like this is the most likely board for people to get why this is bothering me so much. We have been trying really hard to cut out extra costs right now. I have had the same internet service for years, and they have a monopoly here so there are no choices for anybody to switch to. Well, in December our bill was $29.99. In January, they raised the rate to $44.99. Annoying, but I expected it to go up someday. In February, it went up to $54.99. Of course I responded by going to their local office and asking if they had any sort of specials.
The woman there told me that no, they are not running any sort of specials on one service, but if I want to bundle TV/internet/phone the services are $29.99 each. So I could get any two for $59.98 and all three for $89.97. I figured it wasn't perfect, but I could turn TV on and my bill would go up $5- but I would cancel Netflix and be ahead of paying for Netflix and internet only.

So this morning we went to register to watch the Disney channel online. When I logged in to figure out how to do it it posted my next bill- $143.99!!!!
I looked at the details and my internet did go back to $29.99, but TV is $59.99! That is NOT what I agreed to, so I called and the special they quoted me in the store does not exist! $30 of that is a start up fee, so my regular bill after taxes is going to be $114, that is not anything like $60! Now I can either pay them $50 per month more than I agreed to or pay a cancellation fee and have to break it to my kids that as soon as I broke down and got them cable TV I am going to turn around and shut it off in the first week!

This is so completely unfair. I want to respond by going with another company because they intentionally misled me and I am completely powerless. My house has ZERO phone lines- the person who built the house didn't plan on needing a phone so we can't even back down and get DSL. Because it is a new location, the phone company would charge $300 just to turn a line on, and all they will do is connect it to a box outside, we then have to run the wire into the house. Satellite is too sketchy here (tons of trees and low land) My husband needs internet for work and we use way too much to use our cell phones alone, so we are really stuck with this company. I feel like this is some sort of nightmare.

That is $600/year. We could go to an extra 5 character meals on our next trip with that money.

That's quite a steal to go from $54.99 for internet only, to $59.98 for internet AND cable.

Can you go back to the local office and speak to the woman who gave you this information? Did they give you a contract with the amounts she quoted? I hate when things like this happen. Good luck!

 

[ibob52]

Claim the internet as a work expense on your taxes/deduction.

 

[delmar411]

Well until you signed a contract then you can't e charged anything for canceling it. If you signed a contract that says $30 each then bring that down to the.cable company and deal with them in person.

 

[mistysue]

That's quite a steal to go from $54.99 for internet only, to $59.98 for internet AND cable.

Can you go back to the local office and speak to the woman who gave you this information? Did they give you a contract with the amounts she quoted? I hate when things like this happen. Good luck!

Is sounds like a steal right now, but in reality they just upped the rate by $25/month.
I am planning to go in tomorrow and speak to the local office- I'm home with the kids today and not really up for that adventure with them all.

 

[Halbleib1]

It looks to me if they quoted just under 90 for all three that at 114 a month that is the right price after taxes are added. When the cable company quotes a price it usually does not include taxes and fees. If you have Comcast the cable portion of a package through them is always priced higher than internet and phone. Also the phone and internet deals sometimes only last for 6 months when the rate goes back up. So be careful with that part of it as well. I would be calling about the fee they added for switching. That I would not be paying.

I would not complain to be paying 114 a month for all three. We are paying almost 200 a month for all three and our next bill it is going up 10 more dollars. I am going to be calling next week and asking for a lower price for sure. I should have done it way back in October when they raised us from 160 to almost 200. I got busy and lazy and never called though. We have Comcast and it is a pain because you have to call once a year to get the new rate. They lock it in for 12 months but without warning once the 12 months are up your bill goes way up as well. They give great deals to new customers but yet do nothing for their loyal customers until they call and complain it is too high. Pain in the butt.

The rate the OP was quoted is offered often here by Comcast for their lowest tier triple play package but they are always quoted before taxes and fees. Taxes and fees vary on the phone part of it because it is based on how much you use the phone to make long distance calls. It does not vary all that much from month to month but it does vary.

 

[Halbleib1]

Claim the internet as a work expense on your taxes/deduction.

That only works if you work from home.

 

[Zerosinthecloset]

You could look into Straighttalk's Home Phone device for your phone needs...no phone lines needed. The unit itself costs $99, and service is $15/month unlimited domestic calls...around $16.50 with tax.

 

[pklein09]

Claim the internet as a work expense on your taxes/deduction.

First of all, it doesn't sound like this is a business expense. Second of all, it's still money out of her pocket that she doesn't appear to have.

 

[DawnM]

And it is still not free or even greatly reduced. Depending on their tax rate, it is just a portion of the bill anyway.

First of all, it doesn't sound like this is a business expense. Second of all, it's still money out of her pocket that she doesn't appear to have.

 

[DawnM]

OP, I am sorry you are facing this. I hate when companies aren't up front and the cable company is a huge one. When I talk to them I always make sure to ask details. They hem and haw and try not to give them but I am very clear to ask what the bottom line will be.

We only have internet. They always try to get me to have more (TV and phone), so we go through this quite often.

What I don't understand is the start up fee and breaking a contract. Does your cable have a contract? Ours is always no contract with Time Warner Cable. We had cable TV for about 8 months and cancelled it. No start up feee/connection fee and no early termination fee.

 

[cluvsdisney]

It sounds like they signed you up for the wrong plan. I'd review the paperwork and talk to the rep you signed with to get it straightened out. Good luck!

 

[poohfriend77]

I feel your pain, OP! Cable/satellite/Internet companies are the worst to deal with! We switched a few months ago to try to get better rates by bundling our services (we have a land line also), and it was sooooo hard to get a accurate quote from anyone.

They'd quote great prices for 6 months, but couldn't tell us exactly how much they'd go up after that. Or they'd say "plus fees and taxes," but no one could tell us how much that would be. I don't understand why it's so hard to tell a customer what their final bill will be.

OP-- I'd go back to the store in person. I agree, if you didn't sign a contract, they should be able to charge you a cancellation fee... and if you did sign a contract, I should have the rate on it!

 

[Chuck S]

What cable company do you have, OP? I have TWC and complained about the prices, especially since they were offering specials to "new" customers. I have basic cable (only a few channels) but I don't watch too much TV anyway and 3 Mbps internet. I told them I'd have to look at other alternatives if they didn't seem to value existing customers that almost always pay on time. I was late twice in 15 years, and only because I simply forgot to pay it.

They cut my bill in half, it is just about $35 per month now, including taxes.

 

[Ariel484]

What cable company do you have, OP? I have TWC and complained about the prices, especially since they were offering specials to "new" customers. I have basic cable (only a few channels) but I don't watch too much TV anyway and 3 Mbps internet. I told them I'd have to look at other alternatives if they didn't seem to value existing customers that almost always pay on time. I was late twice in 15 years, and only because I simply forgot to pay it.

They cut my bill in half, it is just about $35 per month now, including taxes.

We had a similar thing happen. We had cable and internet through TWC, and for the past 3 months the bill has consistently gone up $2-$3...so about a $10 increase since Thanksgiving. They were just tacking on small fees here and there, and our total bill was about $120 per month. When we first had cable and internet through them years ago I remember the bill being more in the $80-$90/month range, and we've never missed a payment or been late paying. My husband called to cancel the cable and upgrade our internet speed (they are the only choice we have in our area for internet besides AT&T, which is the same price) and TWC offered to upgrade the internet speed, have us keep the cable, and our bill would be lowered to $90 per month. SUPER tempting. After confirming with the person on the phone that this $90 price point would be VERY temporary (and thus we'd be in the same boat with the bill creeping up month after month) we stuck with our original plan to cancel cable and increase our internet speed.

We bought an Apple TV ($100) and an antenna ($40) and got subscriptions to NetFlix ($8/month), Hulu Plus ($8/month) and MLB.tv ($130 for the year - a must-have for us, we are HUGE baseball fans ). With the antenna we get ABC, NBC and Fox in HD, and we stream NetFlix, Hulu Plus (where you can see a lot of current seasons of TV shows) and MLB.tv to our TV using Apple TV (which connects to our TV through an HDMI cable) and the faster internet speed. I think our TWC bill is going to be $40 per month for the internet, so total we're looking at about $60 per month instead of what we were paying before.

It's definitely not a perfect solution: the upfront costs ($100 for Apple TV + $40 for the antenna + $130 for MLB.tv) were a little tough to swallow, but at least they were one-time things. I know we're going to have some issues with being able to see live local games on MLB.tv, and the antenna looks ugly (none of the sleeker options worked as well in our house...of course ). Perhaps we'll go back to cable some day (especially if FiOS comes to our area - thanks for mentioning that @kim929, never heard of it before!), but overall we like the change so far. plus, NetFlix just struck a deal with Disney to get all Disney movies streaming by 2016...so just 3 more years to wait on that.

 

[DawnM]

Ours is similar, although we have Roku and no baseball.

We also get about 20 channels or so with an antenna. We get about 8 PBS stations of various kinds, one called Create that has replaced our HGTV watching.

We get all the networks, including yours and CW, MeTV, AntennaTV.

We had a similar thing happen. We had cable and internet through TWC, and for the past 3 months the bill has consistently gone up $2-$3...so about a $10 increase since Thanksgiving. They were just tacking on small fees here and there, and our total bill was about $120 per month. When we first had cable and internet through them years ago I remember the bill being more in the $80-$90/month range, and we've never missed a payment or been late paying. My husband called to cancel the cable and upgrade our internet speed (they are the only choice we have in our area for internet besides AT&T, which is the same price) and TWC offered to upgrade the internet speed, have us keep the cable, and our bill would be lowered to $90 per month. SUPER tempting. After confirming with the person on the phone that this $90 price point would be VERY temporary (and thus we'd be in the same boat with the bill creeping up month after month) we stuck with our original plan to cancel cable and increase our internet speed.

We bought an Apple TV ($100) and an antenna ($40) and got subscriptions to NetFlix ($8/month), Hulu Plus ($8/month) and MLB.tv ($130 for the year - a must-have for us, we are HUGE baseball fans ). With the antenna we get ABC, NBC and Fox in HD, and we stream NetFlix, Hulu Plus (where you can see a lot of current seasons of TV shows) and MLB.tv to our TV using Apple TV (which connects to our TV through an HDMI cable) and the faster internet speed. I think our TWC bill is going to be $40 per month for the internet, so total we're looking at about $60 per month instead of what we were paying before.

It's definitely not a perfect solution: the upfront costs ($100 for Apple TV + $40 for the antenna + $130 for MLB.tv) were a little tough to swallow, but at least they were one-time things. I know we're going to have some issues with being able to see live local games on MLB.tv, and the antenna looks ugly (none of the sleeker options worked as well in our house...of course ). Perhaps we'll go back to cable some day (especially if FiOS comes to our area - thanks for mentioning that @kim929, never heard of it before!), but overall we like the change so far. plus, NetFlix just struck a deal with Disney to get all Disney movies streaming by 2016...so just 3 more years to wait on that.

 

[disneymayz]

I just wanted to say a cable company can not be a monopoly. They do not stop other companies from coming and building plant. If anyone stops it, it is usually the Township/Boro in which you live. To have cable is a choice not a necessity. If you need the internet you always have the option to go to the library. Pretty sure most libraries have internet now. There you go new monthly bill = $0.

 

[Jedana]

If it's Comcast or similar, you will have to add on taxes and other fees that they don't put in as the package price. They can't charge you them as part of the package price, because the money doesn't go to them, it goes to the various government agencies.

For example, I pay $159.99 for the big package: all movie channels, tv channels, HD, highest internet, home phone,DVR etc.
Plus:
9.95 for DS's cable box.
7.00 in modem fees (for the phone)
3.45 Service protecton Plan
1.03 in regulatory fees (phone)
.42 state sales tax (phone)
.07 county sales tax (phone)
1.66 local communications service tax (phone)
.60 FL communciations service tax (phone)
.50 911 fees (phone)
.55 sales tax (cable)
11.41 state communcations service tax (cable)
8.11 local communciation service tax (cable)
.08 Federal communcations commission fee (cable)

That all adds up. An extra 34.88 a month.

 

[pocomom]

I just wanted to say a cable company can not be a monopoly. They do not stop other companies from coming and building plant. If anyone stops it, it is usually the Township/Boro in which you live. To have cable is a choice not a necessity. If you need the internet you always have the option to go to the library. Pretty sure most libraries have internet now. There you go new monthly bill = $0.

She said dh needs internet for work. The way most people work today I imagine it would be pretty unexceptable for him to stick to library days and hours- plus cost of getting to the library. People always forget the costs of "Free" For me gas getting to the library would be $3-$4 a pop- if I had to check in just once a day your "free" plan would cost somewhere around $20.00 a week. This may be a good idea for retiree's or recreational users who live relatively close to their library, but is pretty unrealistic for the rest of the world!