I am sure I have mentioned more than once recently how very tired I am of dealing with Time Warner Austin. I continue to be tired of it. After sitting down and looking over the cable bill carefully today before paying it, I am even more tired of it. I can’t shake the feeling that we are somehow getting screwed.
We have had cable for ages … at least 14 years … and in all that time, they have come up with new packages and new ways to put together channels and pay for them. Up until recently, we just stupidly assumed they would give us the current package price for what we were getting, but the last few years, I have determined Time Warner is both stupid and evil, so I don’t trust them to do anything by themselves. It just seems to be that $172.37 a month for digital cable, the HD tier, one additional movie channel, DVR service, and internet seems, well, a bit more than pricey. It seems particularly pricey when I start looking at the offerings from Dish Network and realize I could be getting much more in the way of HD channels and such for significantly less money.
They make it confusing on purpose, and their web site explains exactly nothing about pricing and packages. In fact, the only way to see how much the packages cost is to pretend you want to sign up for services on line, and when I do that, I find I could get the highest cable package with ALL the movie channels, plus internet, plus the HD stuff for exactly what we are paying now.
Needless to say, emails have been sent off to Time Warner. I’d call, but the chances of getting someone on the phone that has a brain cell or two to answer questions is no higher than by emailing them, and at least with email, I don’t have to actively listen to the stupidity.
And if it turns out we are paying $20 a month to have Cinemax and Cinemax HD, that is getting dropped ASAP. I suspect this is true, and I think that’s exactly where they have been screwing us … for years.
I woke up on the grumpy side of the bed this morning, mostly because I knew I had to deal with the cable company today. I freaking hate Time Warner.
That is why I dropped TW and went with DirecTV: Cost! The only problem I have had with DirecTV is their billing practices. They just had a hard time believing I didn’t want their 250 channels special, all I wanted was the 185 channel special. But in the end I got the 250 channel special for the 185 channel special price. Even when this 4 month special is over I’ll be saving myself a minimum of $50 a month. Over Thanksgiving I was over a friends home who is dropping TW HD service as the service keeps cutting off, usually in the middle of a movie. They too are going to DirecTV. Don’t be taken. :mad:
For a while, we didn’t even get a paper bill, because we used the autopay through our bank. When they screwed up applying the payment to our account once too many times (and once is really too many, but they did it there times), I started getting the bill, scrutinizing it and paying it myself. I just know we are getting screwed, because that just seems like a LOT Of money, and they appear to be charging us twice for Cinemax (which I could live without).
I’ve looked at Dish Network and DirecTV. DirecTV does have a good deal going, and at the very least, we’d be paying a little less and getting a WHOLE lot more HD channels (and less of the crap we don’t watch anyway). AT&T is coming to our neighborhood soon too with some kind of cable/internet service, as well as a new cable/internet company (local), so once this holiday season is over, I think there’s going to be some switching going on. We’ve just had far too many problems this year with TW, and for what we pay every month, we shouldn’t be having so many problems. They just seem extremely clueless, and they aren’t adding enough HD channels fast enough. In fact, we lost two recently and they axed Showtime East, which sort of annoyed me.
I just hate TW, and they used to be the only game in town. They aren’t anymore, especially now that we have a house, so switching is definitely on the table.
I am switching to ATT Uverse on Saturday. I am supposed to be getting more channels, more HD channels, Phone and internet, and 3 boxes with DVR
for less than the same package with TW with 1 dvr. Will let ya know how it goes.
Do let me know how you like it! AT&T came by a few weeks ago letting us know Uverse was coming to our area, and they talked some good talk. I’d forgotten about that option being available soon here. I just know Time Warner does not need to keep getting $2000+ a year from us. This year, the service has been really, really bad.
It’s the same flavor here in Chicago (Comcast). I just got off the phone w/a tech support and explain that I have no internet service again. I’ve had this same problem last weekend (fri, sat, sun). I talk to 5 techs and they had me running all sorts of test last week (disconnect your box, type in p i n g, unplug wirless network etc.)and finally said they have to send out a tech to my home the following Monday. I get a call Monday Morning saying that it wasn’t my fault at all but a pole problem in the area! My cable wasn’t effected (movies)just my internet. Any today all over again 4 days later! Support has me doing all sorts of test to get online to no avail, till finally I told her “this is BULL****”). And I’m a prcaticing Christian! Well, to make a long story short : ) I had to reschedual a tech to come out Monday (i yelled and said i want someone today! ) to no avail. So before going back to bed and POUT, I tried it again and it popped up (internet!). Your page is the first I’ve seen and I think God is telling me that it was okay to Curse and let it out, I’m not the only one frustrated. OH by the way did I tell you My Xbox 360 broke down last week also and they picked it up last Wednesday, and I’m a Halo Junkie! Thanks for letting me VENT!
Yeah, our cable TV we haven’t had too many problems with (though sometimes we lose channels for a few minutes), but the internet has been horrible lately. A few weeks ago, they blamed it on the modem, so they came and switched it out (only taking a day to get here — wow). At first, that seemed to help, but now we are back to having strange lag and outages. Never for very long, but just long enough to be annoying. Eventually, I will have to call them again, but it won’t do any good. They can test the stuff in my house all they want. I think the problem is out in the main lines.
And you are always welcome to vent here. That’s pretty much what my site is for … venting and yapping about food, cats, and crafts. :D