Television - Cable vs. Over-the-Air

A very limited income has made Over-the-Air TV mandatory for me for a long time. It's gotten more difficult to deal with since the change to Digital TV over the air, though. The pictures are nice and clear and sharp, but only when I can get them. I can still get PBS, NBC and ABC. But CBS and Fox, the networks that have most of the shows I watch, are frequently useless since the changeover. The CBS channel did upgrade their transmitter about a month after the change, doubling its power, but it's still usually missing or garbled.

So I finally started checking on other sources like cable, which would also be nice for faster internet (much better than my dialup account!). Which has taught me how wonderful it is to have companies so large that they don't have to talk to you. I've been trying to find out how much it would cost for service. I can get prices, but they seem to be 'qualified' by references to introductory offers, special promotions, etc. And in fine print, if you click on the right fine-print links, the disclaimers say there will be additional fees, taxes and charges. So far, I've been looking over what I could get from AT&T. Most of their deals seem to involve DirecTV, and the rates they advertise, $30-$40 a month, soon change to at least $60 a month! That's for the cheaper packages, with NO HD, NO DVR, and the most limited channel lists. Internet and phone bring the total up to at least $100 a month, PLUS all the equipment rents, fees, taxes, video surcharges, and whatever else I wouldn't know about until I started getting bills. And of course there's setup and delivery charges. There may also be installation fees, but I couldn't tell.

It's getting close to retirement time for me, and I plan to spend a few months a year in Florida. Do you think I can get cable TV for less than a year? With AT&T, it's a minimum of 18 months! Unless I have the package with HD reception - then it's only 24 months.


Man, I wish I had a company large enough to buy a government!

Comcast's triple-bundle HD Starter lowest-rate package is $115 a month for 12 months.
Their web site has a spot offering to check on special deals available in my area. Just fill in my address and click. So I did. And got an error. The page says 'New Customers' (re-)enter address, and I do. The next page says there's no record of my address in their system! Surprise! I'm not already a customer - that's why I'm at that page in the first place.

So I wnet back to the Bundles page and tried the 'Continue Shopping' button at the bottom of the description of HD Starter. So I guess I can't even order a 'Triple Play' bundle at any price.
This all seems rather odd because on that same page there's a box that asks 'Are you a current comcast customer? Call us at 1-877-xxx to see which HD Triple Play is right for you.'
So existing customers have to phone, and new customers can't order from the web page. Even there are link buttons on that page that say 'Start Shopping'.

As Jakov Smirnov says, "What a country!"

Now checking Charter cable, their lowest offer is up to 70 channels for $44.99 per month. Clicking on its 'Learn More' button takes me to a page that says "Plan Price: $51.99 per month". Wow, just clicking on a link raises the price by $7 a month. Such a deal! I wonder how many clicks it takes to actually order the service. Hmmm, maybe I just don't want to know.

One of Charter's bundle offers says 'Cable TV + Internet' for $69.98 per month. But clicking the 'Learn More' button shows a page that says 'Plan Price: $104.99/mo.' They just raised the price by 50%!!!! Holy mackerel! Do I want to do business with this company?

I wondered which channels I could get with the basic 70+ channel package. I clicked on their 'channels' list link and it lists all 200 or so. They're marked as Basic, Basic +, Basic (digital only), and others. But no way to tell which marking category is for my plan. How comforting.

I give up. Goodbye for now.