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I think I reached the end of my rope.i have had Cablevision for years. Triple play. For the past few years, it has been about $160 and the $190 for a premium package. Two boxes. Ever service. No hbo or any of those stations. No sports. Never paid for a movie. Suddenly, our bill jumped to $225 last month. I kept trying to chat from work to ask why and they wouldn’t speak to me because the account is in my wife’s name, even though I pay the bill. Today I finally had her call and hand the phone over to me. I asked why the bill jumped $35 overnight. I was told our promotion had ended on oct 31. I asked what promotion since neither of us ever approved a promotion. They said if I looked at page 3 of my bill, it would describe everything in detail. I told them we are signed up for paperless billing and automatic payments so I never read the bill. I asked if it is common practice to give us a protium we never asked for and it is up to us to catch them? Anyway, I told them this it’s way to much money for my kids to watch sponge bob,a do me watching Me TV and my wife watching Long Isalnd Medium. I asked how to bring my bill down.’ Was told if I go down to the Value package, I would lose a bunch of channels like Lifetime and VH1 and the cost would go to $200 plus tax. So I would save $15 for less channels.
That is crazy! I gotta pay $2300 a year for those few shows we watch. I told them I am going to cancel. He didn’t flinch and said this is the best price they can offer.
If I go to Verizon, can I keep my existing wiring? Do they simply hook up to the coaxial cable outside the way Cablevision does? I wired my entire house a few years ago so I have all home runs going back to a splitter and would hate to have to re-wire everything.
Call and speak with someone in the retention department. I have 4 boxes, the triple play, Optimum value with the Silver package, Optimum 300 internet and the bill is 160 per month - don't get me wrong - that is still too much but its better than what you are paying.
I use Verizon for a 'triple play' type of service (phone, tv, internet). I rarely use the phone service but keep it because my Mom tends to phone me first on the home phone before trying my cell. I pay @ $150 for the 3. Also do the 'paperless' billing so cannot offer the breakdown of such. Also can relate to the desire to have the wiring simple/efficient/functional & so on. Not sure about the TV channel breakdowns either but I know I have HBO & I think Showtime too?
Some folks seem to be attached to the local news channel offered by Optimum but I'm not one of them.
Optimum sales reps have been very aggressive in my neighborhood & that turns me off ( 1 guy was waiting for me as I got out of my car @ home ).
Maybe phone Verizon & see what they can do for you?
I remember when they built the first tall antenna tower for "cablevision" on Rt 25 just outside of Riverhead in the mid-sixties. Up until then Dad would send me up to rotate our rooftop antenna to get the best reception emanating from the top of Empire State Building 80 miles away. Now the signal came from the tower via cable direct to our house. They had a business office right at the base of the tower and we kids liked going inside as they had a closed circuit TV system and we could actually see ourselves on a television monitor. Which was a very big deal back then. And so was getting all 13 channels crystal clear for the very first time.
I think I reached the end of my rope.i have had Cablevision for years. Triple play. For the past few years, it has been about $160 and the $190 for a premium package. Two boxes. Ever service. No hbo or any of those stations. No sports. Never paid for a movie. Suddenly, our bill jumped to $225 last month. I kept trying to chat from work to ask why and they wouldn’t speak to me because the account is in my wife’s name, even though I pay the bill. Today I finally had her call and hand the phone over to me. I asked why the bill jumped $35 overnight. I was told our promotion had ended on oct 31. I asked what promotion since neither of us ever approved a promotion. They said if I looked at page 3 of my bill, it would describe everything in detail. I told them we are signed up for paperless billing and automatic payments so I never read the bill. I asked if it is common practice to give us a protium we never asked for and it is up to us to catch them? Anyway, I told them this it’s way to much money for my kids to watch sponge bob,a do me watching Me TV and my wife watching Long Isalnd Medium. I asked how to bring my bill down.’ Was told if I go down to the Value package, I would lose a bunch of channels like Lifetime and VH1 and the cost would go to $200 plus tax. So I would save $15 for less channels.
That is crazy! I gotta pay $2300 a year for those few shows we watch. I told them I am going to cancel. He didn’t flinch and said this is the best price they can offer.
If I go to Verizon, can I keep my existing wiring? Do they simply hook up to the coaxial cable outside the way Cablevision does? I wired my entire house a few years ago so I have all home runs going back to a splitter and would hate to have to re-wire everything.
Yep, we have had Cablevision for thirty years. Until the Altice takeover, you could negotiate to get your bill down twenty or thirty dollars a month. It seemed every month they would have a different promotion where they would offer a premium package to you and even lower your bill.
Now, since the Altice takeover, they never offer anything to lower your price. Any offer made will not decrease your bottom line. Perhaps an increase in internet speed, or "we can offer you HBO for $10 a month instead of the usual $20". Meanwhile the new business model everyone they (and everyone else) use gives new customers great deals (similar to the criminal practice oil companies use) at the expense of existing customers.
Altice provides good customer service, and I *think* they do a pretty good job protecting emails and customer data. I liked Cablevision much much better though.
BTW, beware that Verizon does not include taxes in their advertising. Your bill ain't gonna be $99.
I'm pretty sure you can halve your price switching to FIOS, at least for the first couple years. They send promo flyers in the mail all the time. 2 boxes and nothing added should be around $100 on a new customer promo depending on service levels. Also $10/mo off with Verizon Connections if you work for a qualifying company.
You can keep your existing coax wiring within the house.
I asked how to bring my bill down.’ Was told if I go down to the Value package, I would lose a bunch of channels.... If I go to Verizon, can I keep my existing wiring? Do they simply hook up to the coaxial cable outside the way Cablevision does? I wired my entire house a few years ago so I have all home runs going back to a splitter and would hate to have to re-wire everything.
I was in the same situation about a year ago, after being on various renewed promos since 2013. The last resp told me that there's a limit on how many times they will "re-up" a promo; if I recall correctly it's either three or four.
The last package we had was the Value and it went from $130 to $160 when the promos expired (that's with no added movie channels) which was unaffordable, so I went "a la carte" with just the Economy package + internet. No interest in or use for their phone service and I dropped the DVR service we formerly had. This keeps the bill at $130 but I have a sneaking feeling that they are going to hike everyone's rate bigtime early next year. Why else would they have been giving out freebie channels for this last quarter? LOL
I figured out that the switch from Value to Economy actually only killed 4 channels that I formerly watched regularly. But to be honest, two of those channels only had a single show that ran for less than half (or a third of) the year. It just wasn't worth almost $400 to keep those shows/channels. Especially when living on a fixed income.
We just had our house re-sided and the Cablevision exterior wiring is now neatly hidden for the first time (it was a real rat's nest before) with all penetrations properly sealed, so I too am reluctant to switch providers and end up with a rewiring issue both inside and out. Don't have or want wireless/router which means it's either Cablevision/Optimum/Altice or FIOS; wouldn't ever have satellite again after experiences at our previous house with signal losses every time there was bad weather.
Last edited by BBCjunkie; 11-22-2018 at 09:46 AM..
We have Optimum for TV/internet and pay $182/month which includes the iO silver package (its like 3 -5 movie channels but not Starz or 1 of the premium channels), 3 boxes, internet (not the high speed option) and cable card. We also have Netflix and Amazon video (prime) on top of this. It stinks how with all these options, i am still spending 45 min trying to find a decent movie to watch on any given night.
LOL, I can totally imagine! Optimum currently gives everyone(?) who doesn't already have Showtime free access until the end of the year and so I added those channels to my favorites. I think that since September (which I think the promo began) I have watched maybe four (?) movies on those channels. The others I just had no interest in and certainly wouldn't consider paying for access to. When the Showtime channels disappear in about six weeks I won't shed any tears over it.
I divide my movie-watching between TCM and the Movies! channel, both of which are in my Economy package, DVDs on loan from the library system, and my own video library.
My philosophy on movies is that there are certain ones that I know I'll want to buy (for example, anything in the Star Wars and certain other sci-fi and animation series), and then there are those that I am content to wait on the eventual DVD release and request it from the library. Of course that's not "instant gratification" because I'm on a waitlist like everyone else, but if I want to see a movie THAT badly I'll just buy it outright. I do find that in recent years I'm buying fewer movies and more tv show complete-series sets. This is probably because I'm not a fan of certain things that have become more common in dramas made in recent decades than in films from the 1940s-1980s. Most of the time when I finally watch a highly-touted or awarded movie I come away disappointed. Not all, but many.
I once had to be completely without internet and non-cable tv (had a roof antenna only) for a little over a year and the combo of the public library and my DVD collection was a sanity-saver for sure.
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