Cost of cable

I just got my last cable bill, and again, the cost has gone up. This
is really starting to annoy me. I'm sick of having the cable company
escalate my costs w/o me having any knowledge of it. Anyone else have

Margarita Salt...

Luckily, expanded basic cable is included in my lease.

this going on?

Barry Margolin...

I'm pretty sure they can't do that, I think they have to notify you
ahead of time when they're going to change rates. My Comcast bill this
month came with extra pages detailing the new prices that start next
month. And even though I normally get my bill online, with an email
reminder when it's ready, they still sent this one by snail mail.

jjj_soper...

I have a DirectTV to keep the wife and child happy, but if it was just
me, I'd probably go with an antenna and a $20 Netflix account. There's
so many tv series on dvd now that you probably wouldn't feel too out in
the cold unless you're a sports addict.

Taylor...

Oh, the days when you could "stick it" to them by using a cheater box
(those brown faux-woodgrain Zenith descramblers) to steal their
(analog) paytv and ppv offerings.

Can't crack digital cable and even if you could, it's a two-way
transmission, so they'd know it.

Man, I almost miss those days.

Irulan...

Comcast did raise our bill $5 but they told us with our last month's bill.

ANIM8Rfsk...

Cox raised the base price but lowered the high tier price so we broke even.
:\

elf...

And how many things are you currently paying less for than you did last
year? Gas? Food? Electricity? Heating oil? Face it, everything goes up.
The cable companies have the unfair advantage of having a monopoly,
meaning you can't choose your cable company except by moving. If cable
companies actually had to compete for your business then I bet you'd see
prices start dropping, though the level of service would likely plummet as
well. The only true competition cable has is satellite dishes, and then
you have the accompanying hassle of long-term contracts, hardware
installation, and even then the satellite companies can raise their fees
whenever they feel like it as well.

Steven L....

For many of us in North America, satellite dishes are physically
impossible because we live in condos and apartments without southern
exposure. The dish has to point south, so you need a window or deck or
patio that faces south.

Nancy1...

For DTV, there is no "long-term" contract (unless one year is long-term
to you) and hardware installation was free. They can raise their
rates, however.

elf...

Well, there was a time when it seemed like I moved on practically an
annual basis. so one year can be a long term to some, particularly if you
become dissatisfied with it in a short amount of time.

Someone else below mentioned the possibility of getting TV service via
phone lines sometime in the future and I'd love to see that, particularly
if you could choose your TV provider in the same way you can pick
different DSL providers now.

So the bottom line is you're screwed. Get used to it. OK, that's not
necessarily true, but I don't know if there are any moves afoot to take
away cable companies' monopoly status and allow for free competition over
the cable lines in the same manner that you can now choose your own local
phone service.

Obveeus...

It wouldn't happen if you would learn to read your mail. I can pretty much
guarantee you that your prior bills and probably some other specific mail
from the cable company informed you that the cost would be going up.

Stan Brown...

Then you're wrong.

I _do_ read my mail, and there was no prior notice of this month's
increase of about $10 or $11 (from about $91).

obveeus...

Sure Stan. I believe you.

If you don't like it, look into dish or tv from the phone company or tv
through the streaming internet setup.