My cable bill went up $4.03 due to a 'rate increase' without adequate explanation

[DainBramaged]

NOTHING gets my blood pressure up more than to be told my rate was increased without giving me any details. I am so fucking sick of Cablevision and their bullshit service.

[The Straight Story]

1. Just send them $10 less each month with a note thanking them for the cut in costs

When they call and want you to explain, tell them to go first :)

[geckosfeet]

2. That sux - dump the bastids.

Just about anything you want to know is out on the intertubes. And - you can be much more selective about what you read and view.

But get it fast - pretty soon the intertube service providers will be soaking us as well.

[Loge23]

3. How dare you ask!

They can do whatever they want. There's no regulation, there's no competition.
....and if you want a good picture, you pay extra.

[robcon]

4. Why do you think you're owed an explanation?

Nobody gave me an 'explanation' when the prices of beef went up a couple of months ago.

[Divernan]

5. You didn't have a contract with your beef supplier.

[DainBramaged]

8. Listen, they claim it was sent out with the statements. I don't GET a statement

I e-Pay. They are REQUIRED to notify their customers because they are regulated by the State. They made the notification for E-Customers almost impossible to find, and I didn't find it until the attendant pointed me to the correct web address.


If you don't know what you are talking about, sit back and learn.

[snooper2]

22. So after you got some help to find the statement

was the explanation for the rate increase satisfactory?

[DainBramaged]

6. I dropped my 'Boost', which cost $14.95 a month and wasn't worth it

I told the person who was NOT happy because it appears they are getting a lot of calls that every time they jack my rate, I drop another service. Next, I drop 'Family' cable and go to basic and save $50 a month. Today I research satellite. Unfortunately I have to keep their Internet package, but if necessary, I'll stick a antenna out the window.

Fuck Cablevision.

[KurtNYC]

7. you could try a month without cable

many cable services will let you shut off temporarily if you are going on a long vacation, etc.

Every day there is more content on the internet -- Hulu, Comedy Central, NatGeo -- what you want, when you want.

I shut off for a month and then never went back. Haven't had cable in 3 years. At $900/year ($75/month) I have saved $2700 so far.

[MannyGoldstein]

9. $5 says that if you call and bitch they'll remove the new charge

We call at least once a year to threaten to switch to another company - we have Verizon FIOS with with phone, Internet, and TV (no premium channels) for $80 or $90 total. They keep trying to move it up to $120-$130, we keep calling and getting it set back

[DainBramaged]

10. I called twice, they didn't, so I dropped a service (see above)

[MannyGoldstein]

29. That sucks! nt

[cbdo2007]

11. Well are you going to cancel???? ha ha, didn't think so.

Therefore, expect more unexpected increases in the future.

[Fumesucker]

12. A family member of mine got a Roku box recently..

HD Television over the intertoobz.. It works great and with their Netflix account and a couple of other services they have a great many options to watch programming that comes to a total of about $20 a month additional over their internet provider bill which they were paying anyway..

You don't necessarily get *all* the same programming but there is a hell of a lot available, enough to keep you watching 24/7/365 if you wished and the box is no harder to use than a cable box.

[masmdu]

13. ROKU player or HTPC

Yes we still have cable but only for our internet service broadband. ALL of our media comes through our ROKU player ($100) and our HTPC ($200 used off of CraigsList). Cost a bit upfront to get it set up but it's just fine. We even find content that is superior to what is offered on cable TV as well as foreign content.

The cheapest ROKU is now only $60

Havent had cable TV since 2006

[NorthCarolina]

16. Any idea how this new net 'neutrality' will affect cost for using ROKU?

I am assuming that this new ruling will enable broadband providers to charge on the basis of bandwidth used. Since streaming video uses a lot of bandwidth, do you think the new rules make something like ROKU a pricey proposition? I like the idea of replacing cable with something like ROKU, but in light of recent developments, I am wondering if I would be too late to the party to get into it now. Also, is there any way to get C-SPAN or MSNBC on ROKU?

[masmdu]

17. Hadn't thought of NN's effect on Roku...I hope you are wrong..

CSPAN and MSNBC are available live with Roku through the Justin.Tv channel and as podcast/recorded earlier with various other Roku channels.

[NorthCarolina]

21. This is what I've seen on that issue, and what caused me to raise the question

"Genachowski said during his speech that the proposal will allow broadband providers to impose usage-based charges so that customers using more bandwidth would get charged more than customers using less. The FCC will also allow providers to experiment with offering specialized services that could provide higher-quality access to consumers rather than sending applications and content over the public Internet."

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20024241-266.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

[pstokely]

14. Except for sports, you don't need cable TV anymore

But if you want sports, you have to have cable with more sports moving because sports generate more $ on cable network from increasing subscriber fees

[HopeHoops]

15. The Cablevision CEO needs a new BMW - his "old" one is almost six months old.

[EnviroBat]

18. I go through this shit annually with them.

They always tell me that I'm on some "promotional pricing package" and that it has expired. I tell them to fuck off and come and get their shit out of my house. Then their tune changes. They offer me the rate that I've been paying for over three years now. I tell them that their "promo package deal" is over now, and that I don't expect my rate to raise for no damn reason. I've won this fight three years in a row now.

[DainBramaged]

20. I called , told them Dish is offering a $34.99 one year 200 channel promotion

that goes to $54.99 the second year. They said they have no package to match unless I wanted their stupid phone for a year , sorry no I don't need a phone to pay less, so I'm calling Dish this morning to set up an appointment.

Fuck Cablevision, fuck them.

[EnviroBat]

25. Good for you!!!

This is the kind of option we all need to exercise against these assholes.

[DainBramaged]

30. i GOT ME DA dish TODAY, fuck cABLEVISION......

$39 a month for more channels PLUS Sirus music PLUS 3 moths of HBO and a couple of movie channels free, PLUS free installation, PLUS free DVR for 6 months.


I am cutting the cable Jan 8.

[notesdev]

19. Cable companies practice deceptive billing and marketing

I went through this several times until I learned never to accept any "deal" offered by the cable company. Whatever deal you take, it will expire at some point and then they will charge you a price you are not willing to pay and be real hardasses about reversing the charges.

[dionysus]

23. i just got the same thing from time warner. merry christmas!!

[sarcasmo]

24. Getting ready to dump Comcast, it's the same thing with them. Every six months

or so they tact on a new fee.

[truebrit71]

27. No shit. I cannot believe how much i pay for their shit service...

...but what's the alternative? There is no cable competitor (hey wouldn't htat make it a monopoly?) unless I go with a Dish...not ready to pay that much money..

[sarcasmo]

28. I know, and we live with in a half hour of Lake Michigan and it's always windy. A friend

has the dish and it goes out on a regular basis.

[Ahpook]

26. Knology moved six movie channels to a higher tier recently

They didn't even tell their installers or phone operators. I called them and asked if my bill was going to go down accordingly. Of course not! I'd like to know who thought that a good idea? They even had the balls to tell me I can get them back with an extra 10 bucks a month.

Anyway, that was the final rub. Paying all that money to watch motherfucking commercials or one of many lying "news" networks was pissing me off. We decided to do without all together.

[Statistical]

31. How about cancel cable? Easiest $70 a month you will ever make.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

32. Rate of inflation adjustment...

...explain to them that we've been in a deflationary economy for over a year.