What cable company do you use?

[disneymom15]

Curious to find out what cable/dish company you use. We presently have Time Warner and are not happy with the service we are getting. Some channels we use to get are suddenly gone, start over doesn't work, digital freezing occurs often. For nearly $80 a month I would think we should have better service.
What do you have? Do you like it? How much do you pay?

[sassafras]

We have a local provider out here in the sticks. Would give anything to have Comcast out here (or anyone else for that matter)!

[DizneyRox]

I don't use any, just dropped DishTV. Got sick of the $100 a month payment, now there's even more money in my pocket.

I installed an OTA antenna, getting all the locals which is more than I need. Everything else is done online.

[dnickels]

Originally Posted by DizneyRox

I don't use any, just dropped DishTV. Got sick of the $100 a month payment, now there's even more money in my pocket.

I installed an OTA antenna, getting all the locals which is more than I need. Everything else is done online.

This!! If I said I could put an extra $1,200 per year in your pocket and free up almost 40 hours per week (average American watches approximately 153 hours of TV every month) would you take it? Most people would say yes, and all it takes is giving up TV.

[vicster]

Direct tv - we pay approximately $78.00/month. We've had it for over 10 years and have never had a problem.

[Ian]

We have Comcast now. We had them before and dropped them in favor of FiOS, because we had problems with Comcast and they were too expensive.

But FiOS turned out to be mostly empty promises, headaches, and exponentially worse customer service than Comcast. Their customer service was bad and so was their service. We used to lose our T.V. frequently and had major problems with the high-speed internet, so we switched back to Comcast and haven't really had any issues with them.

They're too expensive, though. Our combined cable (with HBO only), Internet, and digital voice service is like $210 a month or something. Ouch!

[brad192]

Originally Posted by Ian

They're too expensive, though. Our combined cable (with HBO only), Internet, and digital voice service is like $210 a month or something. Ouch!

I also have Comcast (w/HBO) and my bill is approximatly $100/month. Plus, since they went all digital, my nice fancy HDTV is useless for HD because the converters they use only convert to SD. Of course, you can always pay more $$ to get their HD package...

[MNNHFLTX]

We don't have cable, but subscribe to ATT's U-verse service and love it. The picture is great and we rarely suffer any interruptions. Plus you get DVR service that can record up to 4 shows at the same time. I thought at first that I would never want to record that many shows at one time, but it does happen every once in a while! The only drawback is that the receiver box seems to start to malfunction about once a year, but they are very quick about coming out to replace it (usually within 24 hours). Bundled with high speed internet service it's $120, so it's not inexpensive, but well worth it to us.

[Basket Mommy]

We have had DISH since 2006, and like someone else said, the prices keep creeping up. They were good about dropping the price if we'd call and threaten to switch, but lately they've not cared when we ask for a drop in the price. Prior to Dish we had Charter, which was okay. Customer service was not great, though.

We tried recently to switch to Direct, but we couldn't get everything we have with DISH for the same price. We currently have 2 receivers, which allow us to DVR 2 shows at the same time. We have to watch whatever is DVRing, though. The kids' TVs are hooked up to a 3rd signal, but they all have to watch the same channel at once (and please don't judge me for letting the kids have TVs in their rooms. They only watch in their rooms 30 minutes on Friday nights. That is all that is allowed, and we have the parental controls on so they can't watch anything bad...) The kids cannot DVR or watch DVRed programs on their TVs. There is a 4th signal that we use for downstairs, but again, no DVRing or watching playbacks down there, either. So, all in all we could be watching 4 different channels in our house at once, but only DVRing or watching playbacks on 2.

When the guy came to install Direct, he said we had to have a different receiver for EACH TV in our house, which required rental of *EIGHT* receivers if we wanted to watch TV on every set in our home. The package they proposed as "Watch DVR on every set in your home!" really only allowed DVRing on ONE channel at a time. If we wanted to record 2 shows at once, we had to rent an extra receiver. The price was more than double what we're paying with DISH, so we didn't switch. It was a hassle trying to get Direct to cancel the install, too, and they keep calling and calling to try to get us to switch. I'm getting seriously frustrated with Direct. Their customer service STINKS. My brief experience with Direct was awful. I warned my husband that it would be that way based on things I have read on the internet, and unfortunately I was right.

I'm (not so) patiently waiting for U-Verse to come to our neighborhood. My parents have it and I love it when we visit. I send an email to AT&T every 4 weeks or so, begging for them to bring U-Verse to our part of town. MIL, who is 5 miles away, had U-Verse and hated it, but she's kind of tech-stupid and didn't like switching from Direct TV (even though U-Verse was much cheaper, which is why hubby switched her...)

We have toyed with the thought of switching back to basic cable on Charter and buying a Roku for watching Hulu on the TV. We have a Wii for streaming Netflix movies, so I think between basic cable, Hulu, Roku and the internet, we could see just about any show we wanted to. Heck, I'd be fine with giving up TV altogether. I only watch at night, and everything I watch is available on Hulu or the networks' websites. The kids hardly watch at all, so they wouldn't miss it.

Long post, I know, but you asked. Those are my experiences.

[TheVBs]

We used to have Comcast and had no complaints until the "HD" switchover. Then we had nothing but problems. Got fed up and cancelled our cable service through them. We signed up for Netflix after that, $10 a month, 1 DVD at a time and all the online content we want to watch. We bought the Roku box for $100 to get it streamed to our TV instead of trying to watch things on the computer. LOVE Netflix! So glad we switched. There's so much more we're interested in watching than on cable and we're saving $50 a month.

[kakn7294]

Comcast. Not willing to switch to Fios or satellite tv. I like Comcast just fine! I pay for the HD service, internet, and phone and my bill is about $180.

[PirateLover]

Honestly, I would talk with your neighbors and find out who has the best results in your particular neck of the woods.
My husband and I had nothing but problems with Comcast when we still lived at home with our respective parents, especially when we switched to HD. Signals would scramble/pixelate/freeze whatever you want to call it in the middle of prime time TV. I had to "reset" my box at least once a month meaning unplug and plug back in, losing access to the channel guide and On Demand content for 30-60 minutes depending. The worst was when the signal would totally drop and you would call customer service and get a message saying all circuits are busy. This was all when I was living in the Philadelphia city limits. We moved to South Jersey and chose to go with FiOS. We've been nothing but pleased. In over a year and a half we have not dropped one signal, had one pixelation, or had to reset a box. The longest we waited for customer service was probably 15 minutes and the only problems we had was one time a show didn't playback properly on the DVR, and one bill had an extra charge on it that was easily resolved.
Our bill comes to about 150 for their Triple Play deal, one HD receiver with DVR and one basic receiver with only playback capability, and HBO.

[brownie]

We had Comcast but dropped them years ago. A year or so after we dropped them, our township added a second cable provider, Americast. We signed up with them and have been with them ever since. WOW bought Americast, so we've been with WOW for a while now. We started out with just cable, added internet a couple years ago, and added phone early last last year.

I'll do what I can to avoid using Comcast. We've been very happy with WOW.

[crazeedizneefinatic]

Avoid fios like the plague. We had comcast for years and never had a problem although their prices are way too high. My husband was sucked in by promises of a lower bill and 12 months of movie channels. I don't watch much tv so the only plus for me was a lower bill. After an 8 hour installation, yes I said 8 hours we have the worst service. And mind you our house was just built a year ago so running wires inside the house was not an issue. We spend so much time on the phone trying to just get tech support. I want to switch back but they have credited our account almost every month for substandard service so of course not paying for the service helps. I am ready to switch back to comcast pronto even with the higher prices.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by crazeedizneefinatic

Avoid fios like the plague. We had comcast for years and never had a problem although their prices are way too high. My husband was sucked in by promises of a lower bill and 12 months of movie channels. I don't watch much tv so the only plus for me was a lower bill. After an 8 hour installation, yes I said 8 hours we have the worst service. And mind you our house was just built a year ago so running wires inside the house was not an issue. We spend so much time on the phone trying to just get tech support. I want to switch back but they have credited our account almost every month for substandard service so of course not paying for the service helps. I am ready to switch back to comcast pronto even with the higher prices.

Yep. This was precisely our experience. I wouldn't go back to FiOS if they paid me. Comcast all the way.

Comcast isn't the Comcast of even five years ago. The competition from FiOS has really made them step up their game. They're still too expensive, but their service levels and customer service have improved by leaps and bouhds. They're actually really easy to work with now and I haven't had a single, solitary outage of cable, Internet, or phone in two years with them.

I'm a convert, because I used to hate them, but they're much better these days.

[princessgirls]

This is a good topic.

I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with my carrier Cablevision!!!

When they dropped the Yankees network like a hot potato a few years ago, we were with the masses that bolted to Dish Network. The Dish was going to be so wonderful....
Blah, Blah, Blah...The dish was terrible. Every time there was a weather event, no TV. Turn on the weather channel, and it was like being at the airport, nothing specific to your area!!!
A year later, Cablevision came knocking on my door (literally) and I went back happily. They had gotten Yankee network back and all was well. We moved, and got an even better deal with the triple play (triple rip-off according to my hubby). Cable, Phone, Internet.
I do like Cablevision...they own a few movie theaters one right in my town that I can go to for Free on Tuesdays and any other day/show it's $7 an adult and $5 a kid. I use that perk A LOT!!!
The price is what it is. I pay $155 per month for the Triple Play, one box with HBO. I don't have the boxes on all of our TV's, they have cable, just not the premium stuff. We get Weather, Nick, Disney, and HGTV, ESPN, and we get CBS,NBC, FOX and ABC in HD without the boxes on the other TV's so it's all good!!!
Fios is not in my neighborhood, and won't be for some time, and I don't hear such great things about them anyway...
So that's it...Cablevision for us in Northern NJ!
Julie

[jennbunn]

We use comcast. I have the triple play and have boxes in the living room, and in both bedrooms. we pay abour $180.00 a month. I have never had any major issues and if there is one they are prompt to make it right. They just added a ton of HD channels so that made me happy.

[vizsla]

We had Comcast and and had many problems as well as poor service. We canceled them out last month and now have Direct TV. So far no problems,

[DizneyRox]

Wow! It's just amazing hearing all these prices. My better half said to me yesterday, "I thought I'd miss TV, but I don't!" She grew up without cable, so she was holding on like you wouldn't believe.

We went from like $170 for phone, DSL Internet and DishTV 200, to $20 for phone (local and long distance, etc), $30 for Comcast Internet (Performance).

Internet TV is going to be a game changer. Contrary to what you read about the cord cutters.

[SBETigg]

Originally Posted by kakn7294

Comcast. Not willing to switch to Fios or satellite tv. I like Comcast just fine! I pay for the HD service, internet, and phone and my bill is about $180.

Same here. No problems and have been with Comcast for years.