<p>I use an indoor antenna for TV receptions, that gives us about 30 “on the air” channels and that is enough for me. We watch very little TV… and the less is the better…</p>
<p>Comcast IS our internet service provider, you have to watch the bill carefully, they did add the cost of “blast” to my bill without authorization and I had them to roll back. If I did not catch them in time I wonder if they will ever admit…</p>
<p>Thanks for the heads up. I just checked my Comcast bill. It looks OK so far. I will be looking for ‘blast’ in future bills. I also had a few run-ins with Comcast. Their explanation of subscription plans were so complicated, I opted for a basic service. I had no idea how limited that was. To get those channels one wouldn’t need a cable service.</p>
<p>Not sure what the fear of having your credit card billed for cable/internet is about. I have as many monthly bills as possible billed to my credit card. It’s that many less bills to pay, and I get 1.5% cash back to boot.</p>
<p>I haven’t had any serious issues with Comcast. They’ve been pretty reliable, and I don’t have any service horror stories either.</p>
<p>When we moved to our brand new house 15 years ago, the Comcast line ended about 3 houses west of ours and on the other side of the street. None of the 10 new houses on our side of the street were connected. They wanted us to pay the actual cost of installing the wire on our side of the street. Unfortunately, in our area we can only get one local channel with a regular antenna, so that wasn’t an option. We went with DirecTV which we installed ourselves. </p>
<p>About 8 yrs later (when the city attorney moved next door and wanted to watch Thanksgiving football), they installed the cable on our side of the street (which they were obligated to do by a contract with the city). Then they started the hard sell to get us to connect. I said we were more than happy with our DirecTV which is only ever out when there is really heavy rain right overhead (never more than 5-10 mn). </p>
<p>We get our internet and phone through Frontier.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You have to compare month to month and to the first non-prorata bill after you ordered the service. On my bill, there is the “regular” service charge and then there is a discount to come up with the AGREED charge. What they did was sneak in another 10 by reducing the discount. When I called, they told me its the “blast” service which increased my internet speed from “normal” to “supercharge”, I was ****ed, because the “supercharge” speed was agreed upon to begin with.</p>
<p>Anyone want to PM the comcast CE phone number :D</p>
<p>RETENTION!</p>
<p>It was a lucky day when Verizon came through our neighborhood and installed Fios.
NOT because I want Fios service mind you. But now, I can call each year to my wonderful Directv folks and speak to the RETENTION dept.
I mention the bundle ‘deal’ that is currently offered by Verizon…and magically, just for calling, I get a year’s worth of $10/month credit OR 6 months free of HBO or some such.
NO contract extension needed either…</p>
<p>This has been working for about 6 yrs now…</p>
<p>artlover, That’s why we have a basic service. That’s the only plan that’s clearly spelled out. For years we had a premium something until the bill went up suddenly almost twice as much. By then we were hardly watching any TV. I keep a basic plan just in case, along with the internet.</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>Funny, we have had Comcast for some time with no problem. I have had to sit on hold waiting for customer service, but have had no issues otherwise. We have a local office I have visited to exchange/upgrade old boxes, also with no problem. I dropped a package of HBO/Starz/etc for just HBO and by mistake they them dropped them all. When I called back, they gave me HBO back for 6 mos for free, and the rep said the first rep was doing me a favor, because once you don’t have HBO and you add it, they can offer you a great deal. </p>
<p>Funny, but after getting hit by hurricanes Frances, Jean and Wilma, we had cable long before we had power to use it. I know because we had a generator and checked. We have not issues with the signal.</p>
<p>It likely is regional. Perhaps it has to do with the fact we had Adelphia for years, before Comcast took it over?</p>
<p>We do not use Comcast for internet or telephone, only for TV.</p>
<p>Wow, I’m glad we’re with Cox Communications then. Very good customer service, though we seldom need it. But, H and I have been talking recently about the ridiculous amount of money we send to Cox each month for our TV/internet/phone bundle. $191.00—in other words, way too much. If we’re receiving a discount for “bundling”, I shudder to think what we’d be paying ala carte.:eek: </p>
<p>We additionally have cell phones through Verizon, which scares the heck out of $100.00 per month. Something’s got to give. I’m asking myself, do we really need all the communications services we subscribe too? Do we really need a land line (though I know one through the cable company can’t really be called a true land line)? Or can we live without cell phone service? At times, I’d immediately opt to give up our land land, except there are also times when I would gladly throw my cell phone out a window. Honestly, being available to talk no matter where I am can feel like a massive intrusion. Sometimes, a person just wants to be out of the house and unavailable. Then again, when you get right down to it, a cell phone is also a major safety net, especially when one is away from home or on the road. </p>
<p>I’m also asking myself if we absolutely need cable TV. If I could get CNN without it, I’d probably seriously consider dropping cable. One can stream a lot of shows directly from the major network’s websites, including PBS, after all. And it really irks me more and more, that I’m mostly paying for inane “reality TV” programming (most of which I’m loathe to watch), and over half the time, feel like I’m channel surfing in a vast cable Television wasteland.</p>
<p>When you really get down too it, a lot of the reason why the cost of living is so high for the average American, is because we’ve been convinced that we “need” so much more than we use to need. How ever, for instance, did people live without access to a cell phone at their finger tips 24/7 20 or 30 years ago?</p>
<p>poet,</p>
<p>with $300/mo, the services should be kissing your a**!</p>
<p>Seriously, you can cut down the cost for at least $100 by:</p>
<ol>
<li>employ third party VOIP for land line. You ARE using VIOP already from Cox. Using a third party VOIP will give you much lower cost. I use Ooma, and after the initial cost, I brought my monthly home phone cost to $15ish.</li>
<li>Drop cable, as you mentioned, you don’t need all those channels. Most shows are avaliable on the net, if you don’t mind to see it at a later time. Using a $15 antena, I cut the cable cost to $0 and I can still see news and all the others including PBS… If the reception is no good on a cheap antenna, splurge a little to get an higher powered roof top one.</li>
<li>Get a TV that have Netflix or Hulu or others, for $7 on Nextflix, you will have unlimited entertainment. Also hook up the TV to a computer, then the choices are even greater. I bought one for $600 and its a big 50 inch one, no, it is not the best and best, but it served my purpose.</li>
<li>get the highest speed internet service you can, that will serve you lot better than any thing else.</li>
</ol>
<p>As far as wireless concerned, the data/text plans are the killers, if you are not in need, get only the voice plan.</p>
<p>I am confused. </p>
<p>If you have a cable box do you still need to obtain the digital adapter?</p>
<p>Or. Do you need the digital adapter if you do not have a cable box? </p>
<p>After 9/13/2011 if you do not have a digital device your tv will only get channels 2-19.</p>
<p>The ‘verbage’ on the mailing I got is confusing to me. As a Comcast ninja, I can hook up a digital device but I just do not understand the ‘verbage’ because I can’t infer what it means or something. </p>
<p>If anyone can help me I would greatly appreciate it with all my heart. I am a bit on the LD side and am confused to the point where I do not know how to explain my question after being on hold for thirty minutes or so with these Comcast/Xfinity folks. It is like neural fatigue sets in with me if I am on hold a long time :)</p>
<p>A Digital converter is always referring to convert digital signals “in the air” from antennas to analog signals for Analog TV’s. Currently, there are only VERY few stations still transmit analog signals “in the air”.</p>
<p>The comcast or any other cable services should be fine with Analog TV’s but you will not be able to see HDTV programs for the obvious reason.</p>
<p>
Comcast has switched to only digital signals in most if not all areas by this time.</p>
<p>This means you can no longer just plug the cable into the TV like you could in the good old days (I even got HD channels via Comcast’s analog signal).</p>
<p>Instead you must either have a cable box that can handle the digital signal (a DVR for example), or for each TV you have to get a small adapter that converts the digital signal into an analog one that feeds into your TV. In my area, Comcast provides two of these for free, any extras cost $2/month each. And, with these adapters you lose HD.</p>
<p>^^ I still can view all analog channels on my Analog TV directly from Comcast without a box…</p>
<p>^ We lost that ability about a year ago. From ssimyram’s post, it sounds like they are losing the ability next Wednesday.</p>
<p>I used to get 7 or 8 HD channels from Comcast’s analog feed, with the converter I get 0. It would cost me an extra $15/month or so to get the HD channels on my TV’s not hooked up to the DVR. I don’t listen to the music channels or really need the guide, so I haven’t bothered.</p>
<p>^^ That means I will be losing that ability as well in the near future.</p>
<p>My D1 and her roommate tried to get cable/internet service to their apartment from Comcast. They were told it would take 10 days or so. Bad enough, but they never heard back about an appointment. Roommate did some digging and found out that their particular apartment was “blacklisted” because the previous tenants had left without paying their bill.</p>
<p>They called Comcast back and were told that they would have to prove they were different tenants (copy of lease, driver’s licenses, and social security cards) and then it would be another 10 days until they could set up an appointment to make sure cable could go to the apartment, and then a further 10 days to set up the installation appointment, and then one more set of 10 days for the installation to be “complete”!!! When roommate wondered why they would need to certify the apartment as cable-ready when the previous tenants had had a cable bill, she was told it was standard procedure and couldn’t be skipped. </p>
<p>They went to Dish Network which is the only other provider in their area. Thank goodness they had a choice!</p>
<p>We have the Comcast bundle and (knock on wood) have had no problems.</p>
<p>BUT… last year the FIOS folks came thru the neighborhood. Well our Comcast bundle deal had expired, so H decided to listen to the FIOS people. They chatted on the porch for at least a 1/2 hour, then they said they’d come back the next day so H could discuss it with me. Bottom line, we would save nearly $40/month for the first year. Sounded good.</p>
<p>They came back the next day with 2 people. Then ANOTHER guy came in a car. Altogether there were 3 Verizon folks with H on the front porch for an hour and a half. They went thru all the steps to set us up, then had to re-do it all on paper because the sales guy was in training and it couldn’t be done over the phone (?? ok, whatever). We were told they’d be here the following Monday.</p>
<p>Monday comes, no Verizon. Tuesday H goes to the Verizon website, puts in our confirmation # - “No such number.” He called the phone number on the paperwork Verizon left us - no human contact, but he was encouraged to leave a message, which he did. A week went by, no one called back. So he left another message. Still no call back. It’s like we don’t exist.</p>
<p>Fine, we’ll stay with Comcast.</p>
<p>6 months later Verizon starts again, with the phone calls to get us to switch. I tell them our story, they always apologize and get off the phone.</p>