Comast/Xfinity taking a major hit

[bersaguy]

Well it is finally happening and I was wondering when it would. Their prices and entire business operation sucks and now it is coming back to bite them in the arse. People are cutting the cords in droves and it is a well deserved and well over due action by the public................

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Stock-Takes-a-Hit-Over-Cord-Cutting-Worries-139811

Edited September 12, 2017 by bersaguy

[DaveTN]

In all fairness to Comcast; they don’t have any competition. They also have government protections. That’s how they get by with the worst customers service in the industry and doing whatever they want.

If competition was allowed Comcast would have to drop their prices. And if they did drop their prices to reasonable rates Direct, Dish, AT&T and all the rest would be gone because everyone would be on Comcast.

I’ll have to get something else when I retire; I been a Comcast customer pretty much since they started. Of course they won’t care about that; they are more interested in giving deals to new customers than taking care of the ones that put them where they are.

[bersaguy]

1 minute ago, DaveTN said:

In all fairness to Comcast; they don’t have any competition. They also have government protections. That’s how they get by with the worst customers service in the industry and doing whatever they want.

If competition was allowed Comcast would have to drop their prices. And if they did drop their prices to reasonable rates Direct, Dish, AT&T and all the rest would be gone because everyone would be on Comcast.

I’ll have to get something else when I retire; I been a Comcast customer pretty much since they started. Of course they won’t care about that; they are more interested in giving deals to new customers than taking care of the ones that put them where they are.

Yep, existing customers really get pi$$ poor service and new customers get their butts kissed!! I have to fight them every year to get my price increase removed. So far they have worked with me after a long dragged out fight. About 2 years ago I finally told them at the end of that month they could cut my cable and the next day they called me back and agreed with me on what I wanted and brought my price back to what I have been paying for the package I have. Will Probably go through it again in February when they have their annual increases.......................

[jpx2rk]

Not any real difference with Directv, I've been with them for 15+ yrs, the rates only go up on an annual basis, I can get new equipment but have to go with a 2 yr agreement then.  They don't do anything special for existing or long time customers either.  They'll cut the prices a bit if you threaten to leave and go to cable or Dish, but don't count on a huge savings.  

[Slappy]

I cut the cord with Uverse. That was a satisfying phone conversation to make when I finally made up my mind that I've had it with paying $180/month!  It was an adjustment at first. But after a few weeks of cold turkey tv watching, I'm much better off and get to keep more of my money every month.  

[bersaguy]

5 minutes ago, Slappy said:

I cut the cord with Uverse. That was a satisfying phone conversation to make when I finally made up my mind that I've had it with paying $180/month!  It was an adjustment at first. But after a few weeks of cold turkey tv watching, I'm much better off and get to keep more of my money every month.  

My neighbor has AT&T Direct Satelite and computer service and I have looked at it as he pays $100.98 a month and got to pick his channel package with all of his favorite channels minus any Pay channels like HBO or Starz but he did not want them anyway. Like most have said on Comcast like I have they are stuck paying for a bunch of Spanish speaking channels they don't want and he does not have that problem. I already have AT&T Go Phone for my broad band for online computer and pay $50.00 a month for 5 GB which I seldom use it all but got close a few times. He has unlimited online internet service on his. I'm paying 70.00 for cable and 50.00 Broad band so not really enough savings to change but I would be able to get a better choice for TV channels and would have unlimited On line instead of 5 GB. Since I don't have a lot of things going these days with bait business in the cellar and not getting any bait orders, having TV channels I can enjoy and being able to be online without a time frame might be worth the change. The only real thing holding me back is they require access to my checking account and I would be on automatic billing pay. I don't to this point allow anyone to access my account  for bill pay. That may be the only reason I don't go that route................jmho

[E4 No More]

On 9/12/2017 at 0:31 PM, DaveTN said:

In all fairness to Comcast; they don’t have any competition. They also have government protections. That’s how they get by with the worst customers service in the industry and doing whatever they want.

If competition was allowed Comcast would have to drop their prices. And if they did drop their prices to reasonable rates Direct, Dish, AT&T and all the rest would be gone because everyone would be on Comcast.

I’ll have to get something else when I retire; I been a Comcast customer pretty much since they started. Of course they won’t care about that; they are more interested in giving deals to new customers than taking care of the ones that put them where they are.

Tennessee just pasted a law allowing other companies to compete with Comcast and budgeted millions of dollars to help them. I can't wait to see Middle Tennessee Electric string some cables to my house. Hopefully, it won't be much of a wait.

Edited September 13, 2017 by SWJewellTN

[mikegideon]

16 minutes ago, SWJewellTN said:

Tennessee just pasted a law allowing other companies to compete with Comcast and budgeted millions of dollars to help them. I can't wait to see Middle Tennessee Electric string some cables to my house. Hopefully, it won't be much of a wait.

I had a friend that owned a small town cable system years ago. In his case, there wasn't room on the poles for another competitor. There are minimum spacings between services, minimum clearance above ground, and maximum pole heights. And, it doesn't matter if some poles have clearance, and others don't. That's why there is generally only one cable provider, and one phone provider. 

Sure, there are underground spans. But those are covered by easements too. It ain't that easy to string a wire across property lines. I've done it.

[jpx2rk]

1 hour ago, SWJewellTN said:

Tennessee just pasted a law allowing other companies to compete with Comcast and budgeted millions of dollars to help them. I can't wait to see Middle Tennessee Electric string some cables to my house. Hopefully, it won't be much of a wait.

Yeah, I got a flyer/survey in the monthly electric bill a while back, seems like the local co-op might get into the wi-fi biz.  LOL

[DaveTN]

They have been talking about “Broadband Over Power Lines” for years. Maybe that will work someday.

[bersaguy]

I think what is hurting all of the cable and satellite companies are all the different phone companies that are getting in the business of showing all kinds of TV shows on Cell smart phones. I don't know if they have to have a Cable provider or not in order to provide all these programs on phones. I do know that I don't want to watch a foot ball game or a Nascar race on a 4 inch screen for any reason. I guess that is why I don't have a smart phone. I know many folks almost could not live without one but I can and do. I have a standard flip cell phone that I don't even get pictures on and can't send any. Yea, I'm old fashion but I think a phone is made for making and receiving phone calls and maybe voice mail messages.............JMHO

[i1afli]

Cable tv is going the way of the dodo bird. My 2 teenagers watch absolutely NO tv...they're just not interested in it.  They watch YouTube channels and streaming video so they need the Internet service but no tv shows. 

[Murgatroy]

Cut the cord a year or so ago. We pay $99 a year for Amazon Prime, $10 a month for Netflix, free Youtube and several OTA channels. Factor in the broadband internet, which supplies four smart televisions, two gaming consoles, three tablets, two laptops, three gaming desktops and two Raspberry Pis, we are about about $80 a month for all of it.

 

Much less than the $180 a month we were paying for the same plus cable television, that we watched five channels of...

[Ronald_55]

Just now, Murgatroy said:

Cut the cord a year or so ago. We pay $99 a year for Amazon Prime, $10 a month for Netflix, free Youtube and several OTA channels. Factor in the broadband internet, which supplies four smart televisions, two gaming consoles, three tablets, two laptops, three gaming desktops and two Raspberry Pis, we are about about $80 a month for all of it.

 

Much less than the $180 a month we were paying for the same plus cable television, that we watched five channels of...

So who do you use for internet if it is not the cable company?

Even better yet, what ared you using the Raspberri Pis for?

[Murgatroy]

I forgot, we just added HBO Go to our Amazon, so that is $14 a month for that single channel. But the wife loves her some GoT. And it comes with several movies, offsetting the cost of renting, which she does. And Westworld is awesome.

 

 

We do pay the cable company for the broadband. We could have used ATT, but they don't offer the speeds the cable company does. However for the uprated speeds we pay $55 I think a month.

 

The Raspberry Pis are used for small formfactor basic computers for the television in the garage and the television in the kitchen. The office is upstairs, so having a wireless keyboard/mouse combo on a shelf and you flip the input on the television over to the Pi, you can perform rapid internet searches for recipes or instruction. They also work great on vacation for the same reason. It is smaller than a laptop and can hook up to any television with an HDMI port. For a basic computer for surfing the web and email, you can't go wrong with one. Even with the Logitech wireless keyboard, I am into one (with a touchscreen) for less than $80 including the HDMI cable.

 

They started as a school project for my daughter last year. She built one for her 5th Grade year end project. She can program Minecraft on it. She was thrilled.

[Sam1]

3 hours ago, DaveTN said:

They have been talking about “Broadband Over Power Lines” for years. Maybe that will work someday.

BPL works great, I had it through Duke Energy in Cincinnati about 15 years ago.  It was $30/month for 50mb, which was faster and cheaper than anything Time Warner offered.

[quietguy]

On 9/12/2017 at 5:55 PM, jpx2rk said:

Not any real difference with Directv, I've been with them for 15+ yrs, the rates only go up on an annual basis, I can get new equipment but have to go with a 2 yr agreement then.  They don't do anything special for existing or long time customers either.  They'll cut the prices a bit if you threaten to leave and go to cable or Dish, but don't count on a huge savings.  

I have had pretty good luck with Direct, but you have to really push them at the end of your contract.  It is almost like buying a car.  The only thing I really have to complain about is the NFL Sunday Ticket.  If that shows up on your package, cancel it immediately.  You only have 30 days, or they will charge you for the whole season.  

I have my Google Fiber install scheduled next week, and hopefully I can get rid of Comcast forever!

[Ronald_55]

51 minutes ago, Murgatroy said:

I forgot, we just added HBO Go to our Amazon, so that is $14 a month for that single channel. But the wife loves her some GoT. And it comes with several movies, offsetting the cost of renting, which she does. And Westworld is awesome.

 

 

We do pay the cable company for the broadband. We could have used ATT, but they don't offer the speeds the cable company does. However for the uprated speeds we pay $55 I think a month.

 

The Raspberry Pis are used for small formfactor basic computers for the television in the garage and the television in the kitchen. The office is upstairs, so having a wireless keyboard/mouse combo on a shelf and you flip the input on the television over to the Pi, you can perform rapid internet searches for recipes or instruction. They also work great on vacation for the same reason. It is smaller than a laptop and can hook up to any television with an HDMI port. For a basic computer for surfing the web and email, you can't go wrong with one. Even with the Logitech wireless keyboard, I am into one (with a touchscreen) for less than $80 including the HDMI cable.

 

They started as a school project for my daughter last year. She built one for her 5th Grade year end project. She can program Minecraft on it. She was thrilled.

I bought a Pi back when the v1.0 units came out. Had some plans for it and have done a few things, but life got in the way. With my current job, I travel with a laptop, even on vacation so I don't carry anything else. Plus, I try to keep everyone away from thed internet on vacation. So much so, we sometimes vacation at places with no Wi-Fi and spotty data on purpose.

[bersaguy]

I was watching Tucker on Fox last night and he has a doctor on there that is writing a book called Dumbing down our Children. She said that smart phones since 2012 have been destroying our children. She said that this generation of children will be the most uneducated generation in many years. She said children don't interact with other friends except on a Cell phone screen. The don't actually visit face to face any longer, They don't go to movies togeter like they use to, don't play baseball or sports together in the parks, They are living in a technology world and ever teachers are seeing it more and more. Kids use to get outside and ride bikes and do things kids have done for generations and smart phones have ended all of that and what she ment by Dumbing down our Children is teachers are saying that many many kids cannot even read and write by the time they are ready to enter high school...............

[ironsniper1]

i have tds 1gig and pay about 143 or so right now and its awesome, yeah its high and its just internet and phone but its great for my needs

[deerslayer]

Got tired of the $175-200/month slowly increasing TV/internet bill.  Now pay $40/month for AT&T Uverse internet and 10/month for Netflix.  Also have an HD antenna for local channels.  Until football starts, I have little use for a TV.  Gave up Comcast many years ago.  

Edited September 14, 2017 by deerslayer

[Sam1]

3 hours ago, deerslayer said:

Got tired of the $175-200/month slowly increasing TV/internet bill.  Now pay $40/month for AT&T Uverse internet and 10/month for Netflix.  Also have an HD antenna for local channels.  Until football starts, I have little use for a TV.  Gave up Comcast many years ago.  

I have comcast in the living room, but went with HD antennas in the bedrooms.  Didn't think I would care for them much but between amazon being built-in and the antennas, I'm happy & not spending $30/month for boxes on the secondary TVs.  The HD antennas actually have a better picture than comcast too.

Edited September 15, 2017 by Sam1

[DaveTN]

10 hours ago, Sam1 said:

I have comcast in the living room, but went with HD antennas in the bedrooms.  Didn't think I would care for them much but between amazon being built-in and the antennas, I'm happy & not spending $30/month for boxes on the secondary TVs.  The HD antennas actually have a better picture than comcast too.

I have the X1 system, main box and two remote boxes (DVR). The remote boxes are $9.95 each.

[mikegideon]

14 hours ago, Sam1 said:

The HD antennas actually have a better picture than comcast too.

That's because Cable normally uses more data rate reduction that the over the air TV stations. At least that used to be the case.

[Sam1]

4 hours ago, DaveTN said:

I have the X1 system, main box and two remote boxes (DVR). The remote boxes are $9.95 each.

Which equals out to $30 in my case