Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Our 25 Years of Cable TV is over - We saved more than $100 a month. We are Cord Cutters!



25 Years of Cable is enough – We cut the cord.

My wife & I decided that we had finally had enough of the nearly $200 cable & internet charge every month. We were paying for hundreds of channels we never watched, many in languages we didn’t speak.  The channels we did watch were now available in a much cheaper online format and free over-the-air TV was downright beautiful too.
I called the cable folks to slash the bill. They were expecting my call and had someone whose sole job was to talk me out of it.* Funny! We won’t name the cable TV service but will use the letters TWC instead. 

ME: I want to discontinue my cable TV service.
TWC Please hold. (8 minutes of bad music and clicking...)

 TWC Hello?

ME: I want to discontinue my cable TV service.
TWC: Why?
ME: We just don’t watch it enough and think it is too expensive.
TWC: Can we offer you a better deal? How about $150 a month for a little while?
ME: If you had a better deal, why didn’t you offer it to me all along – We have been with you for over 25 years!
TWC: The good deals are only for new customers.
ME: It’s not so bad, I still want the internet part. How much will that be?
TWC: $80 a month.
ME: That is WAY too much – You advertise internet for $39!
TWC: That’s for new customers.
ME: I am terminally ill - I won't need it soon (a lie out of frustration)

TWC: Your wife will need something to watch to get over her grief?
ME: Good grief.


As you can see, I was getting nowhere. I finally got them to switch it off – They switched EVERYTHING OFF even though I asked to leave the internet. They connected me to another lady who worked out what a terrible job the original guy had done, switched the internet back on (and my emails which they had also terminated) and offered me internet for about $41 which seemed better. When I asked why, I was told "Well you are a NEW customer now...." LOL

I raced to the cable store and dumped all their out-of-date hardware (their new equipment is for new customers) and left smiling with my receipt! GET A RECEIPT!

So now we have 50MB/s internet $41,  $20 of Sling TV  for CNN & ESPN, Netflix $8.99 and Amazon TV (which comes with our PRIME account anyway) and about 70 channels of FREE HD over-the-air TV.
Cable TV WILL change, they will have to. It won’t take the American public long to work this out. Once we have saved about 4 months of cable, I will buy a ChannelMaster DVR that records OTA and streams. The TV guide channels are now FREE if you get the right box.
Do it – Cut your cord! Be a “New” customer again! We are loving our new setup and feel much better about it.

* You may have to tell them you are leaving the country, the planet, or galaxy. The "retention" specialists are only poor folks doing a crap job so it's hard to be mad at them.


UPDATE: A year later - we are happy as clams and $$'s richer! Cut the cord if you can.
 

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