A bit of a rant about Comcast in particular and cable companies in general

[PatrickforO]

On Oct. 10, Comcast moved the Turner Classic Movies channel to its sports package.

Think about that for a minute. I have to pay another $9.99 a month for basically one channel, as neither my wife or I are interested in sports at all. We are having a sports 'package' rammed down our throats so my wife can watch her favorite channel.

Sigh.

So I pitched a big bitch. I called Comcast, and also completed a chat with them. I found out when my contract is over and I will be cutting the cord (cable) at that time unless they reverse this gouge.

I'm sick of getting the shaft. Seems like we get nickel and dimed mercilessly - that is capitalism at its best - you pay DEAR for as little as they can get away with giving you.

I looked over Comcast's 10K report for 2018 - wait for it............

Net profits - $11.3 billion
CEO salary - $35 million

OK...rant over.

[Sherman A1]

1. Yup,

Well said.

[Auggie]

2. YouTubeTV has TCM ...

MSNBC, and unlimited DVR storage.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. I agree...I just got a bill that increased by $5 and nothing on the bill insert, etc., nothing ...

said one word about the increase. All I have is internet connectivity. It keeps going up, nickel and dime at a time and I'm getting tired of it too.

[Afromania]

4. Just got a letter from Spectrum that the boxes were going up in price and the package $ was also.

Why? who the hell knows...... I know I said that cord cutting was only going to be a way to go before they eventually price/push folks back into using cable packages. That said, if it wasn't for the other folks in my household I'd drop cable in a heartbeat for OVA/Streaming for however long we have left before they really start sticking a fork in us on internet speeds/ISP pricing.

[Submariner]

5. And they are the only cable provider to charge for the Military History Channel

which is really only viewed by the bed ridden, confined to their homes, horribly injured military veterans who can least afford another $10/month. They also just dumped the popular MGMHD movie channel, in the northeast anyway..

I tried to embarrass Comcrap into taking off the charge to veterans, but they're money grubbers, not patriots. I moved away recently and swear will never again live in a Comcrap only service area. I have Hotwire now. Much better customer service.

[Martin Eden]

6. Same thing happened to us

My wife (who handles the bills) is PISSED, and is going to speak to them in person.

[elleng]

7. bad news. glad my netflix has tcm, and maybe some sports which i don't watch.

[Ahpook]

9. They are all a joke

I moved to ATT last year because WOW was ripping channels to a higher tier, but the fucking bill kept going up. How is that explainable?

Anyway, I still have TCM and all the pay channels so far, and at a decent price.

I am certain that won't last very long. Looking at other avenues

On edit: I have half a mind to tether my phone to PC and watch my stuff that way If possible?

Very tired of these scams!

[blaze]

10. Thank you!!

Mom, in a retirement place, called me to tell me she can no longer get TCM.

At least now I know why and how to deal with it.

Thanks!

[csziggy]

11. Comcast has sucked for at least forty years

Back in the mid 1970s, while I was in college, I rented an upstairs apartment in a converted old house. My Dad had just given me my first color TV so many friends would come over to watch it. With the rabbit ear antenna that came with the TV, I could get the local CBS and PBS stations all the time, but in the middle of the night I could also pick up Georgia Public TV and Turner Broadcast from Atlanta - this was in Tallahassee, a good distance away.

I soon figured out that as long as Comcast was not on (they only provided cable from 6 AM to midnight) I got those channels, but the moment they came on, my reception even on the local channels went to shit. It turned out that one of their junction boxes was on the pole right outside my apartment and it was interfering with my reception. So I called Comcast- they basically sneered at me. Not only did they not care about the interference, they also refused to provide cable to my apartment, and told me it was my fault since I chose to live in an "old run down crappy apartment" (the words of the Comcast 'service' representative).

Since then I have lived in places where I could get Comcast and I have refused to give them a penny of my money. They have never cared a bit about their customers (or prospective customers) and are only out to take peoples' money. Fuck them.

[hunter]

12. My wife and I quit Comcast a long time ago.

We've never regretted it.

[Niagara]

13. We had Spectrum for cable tv

They play these games where they give out an introductory rate of $44.99 a month. After the introductory rate expires, the monthly bill then go up to $140 a month, without Turner Classic Movies channel being available at that price.

We recently cut the cable cord and Spectrum still provides our internet, but the internet price is affordable, unlike the cable prices.

I can still watch MSNBC and TCM using this link: http://watchnewslive.tv/watch-msnbc-live-stream-24-7-free/

[Blazesweetie]

14. Thank you for this link - one question

Is there any way to watch those channels on your television and not just on the computer?

I currently have FIOS, which isn't bad, but like everyone else, my bills have continued to increase like crazy. When my contract expires in a few months, I'm due for a huge increase and Verizon has become very stingy about applying or extending discounts. I was considering going back to Comcast to get my bill back down but now that they've done this with TCM, I don't know that I want to. Don't know what I'll do. Thanks for the link though -that is really great.

[hunter]

17. Our adult children use Chromecast in their homes.

They control their televisions entirely from their phones. One kid doesn't even have a remote control or DVD player.

New televisions might have Chromecast built-in. You can also buy a little dongle that plugs into an HDMI slot on your television.

My wife and I have a Chromecast dongle our kids gave us but I'm a paranoid sort who didn't feel comfortable letting Google know everything about our television watching habits.

There are other similar products like Roku or Amazon Firesticks.

My wife and I have an inexpensive DSL connection and an $8.99 Netflix subscription. We watch Netflix through our DVD player. We rent newer DVD movies from the Redbox in our grocery store. I also find a lot of old DVDs in thrift stores.

I think people are getting rid of their DVD collections as they upgrade to Blu-Ray or higher, or they switch to on-demand internet services entirely, so DVDs are cheap in our local thrift stores.

[Blazesweetie]

18. Thanks -

Thanks for your reply. I actually have a Chromecast that was given to me as a gift a few years ago but I never could get it to work right. I also have a Firestick. Without a Smart TV though, I'm still not sure how I would watch those websites on my television with those devices. I'm not very good at this kind of thing though. I will google and see if I can figure it out.

[Niagara]

19. You're welcome for the link. We have Roku for our television viewing pleasure

I believe Roku is about $25 a month and we still can watch live tv on certain channels on Sling. The only news channel that we get on Sling is CNN, although there might be other news channels available at an extra cost. Besides Sling, we can also watch Hulu, Netflix and Youtube through the television and not just on the computer. I'm fairly positive that these channels provided in the link could be viewed from the television instead the the computer. Sorry, I'm not much help in that department. You're very welcome.

[wishstar]

15. My pet peeve is all the digital glitches on my channels of Spectrum cable and OnDemand

Often channels are virtually unwatchable for hours at a time. Last week one morning the Weather Channel had no sound, just picture and earlier they had no picture, just sound for hours. Basic PBS last week was so garbled and glitchy one evening lhat their entire evening news shows were undecipherable. MSNBC has also frequently been unwatchable due to the glitches. And my favorite cable feature, the On Demand to watch TV shows and movies at my convenience has often halted and interrupted with error messages which really messes up our viewing because I refuse to pay even more for the DVR feature. I can watch live streaming of MSNBC and other shows on my laptop, but my spouse is not a computer person and easily triggered by the disruptions on cable TV without having the online alternate options. For what we pay for cable, the quality is lousy.

[Fyrefox]

16. The vast wasteland...

Even paying the exorbitant Comcast monthly fee doesn't guarantee that you'll be getting the shows that you really want to see. Shows like "Star Trek: Discovery" are hidden behind paywalls, and are available only if you want to shell out an additional $10 or more per month. Meanwhile, I wonder why I have all of the unwanted sports, home shopping, and foreign language channels...