Yesterday I went by the Charter Cable office to return the digital box. We signed up for one of their special packages a year or so ago — you know, the ones that they sell you over the phone with “introductory pricing” for a trial period. This package was internet (which I must have for my job), one digital converter box, and a package of channels that included something like 50 or 60 more than the “expanded basic” channels. All this, and we’d save $30 a month or so while the introductory price was good.
It didn’t take too long to figure out that 120 channels of useless crap wasn’t appreciably better than 60 channels of useless crap. The digital box never worked right and Spouse could not get accustomed to the remote you had to use with it. #1 Son hooked up the box to his TV for a short while, but he too soon figured out that the additional channels weren’t worth watching.
So the introductory pricing came to an end, and our cable bill jumped from $79 to $120 a month. We had a quick discussion about how much TV we actually watched (me — none; Spouse — occasional movie on Turner Classic Movies, plus Mystery! on public television; #1 Son — the local NBC channel only, because anything else he watched through Hulu.com). So I took the box back and downgraded to internet plus “basic basic” (public television and the local channels), which dropped the bill back to about $70 a month.
The interesting thing was this. There were seven or eight people in line when I went to the office. Every single one of them was either canceling or downgrading service. No wonder the number of Charter’s robo sales calls has been ramping up lately.
15 Comments
Interesting! Sweetie and I did that last year. We have basic cable (we mostly watch CBC and Public TV, Mystery!, ever seen the BBC’s “New Tricks”?) and broadband for the price of broadband alone. Useless crap is still useless crap, no?
Most of our friends either don’t have TV or watch programs (Jon Stewart/Colbert, etc) on the intertubes.
I’ll have to look up Hulu.com. I usually get stuck in YouTube in English/Irish Music or silly pet tricks.
We started renting series on DVD from the library. So far, Foyle’s War, I Claudus, Cadfael. We are on waiting lists for so many. It’s popular here!
Fun thing to do, put 3 DVD’s behind your back that you want to watch and have your spouse pick 1, 2 or 3. Did that last night and we both enjoyed the movie.
Yea. I have Directv and am planning on cancelling it in June, as they keep extending my contract.
I only pay $24 a month, but damn, that’s $24 I can use for other things.
Speaking of which, did you know buying bulk on Amazon can save you humongous amounts of money? Eg, I simply LOVE Ancient Harvest’s Quinoa Pasta (even though it does taste suspiciously like corn … which i actually kind of like) and bought a case of it thro Amazon for $26 + free shipping yesterday. That’s $26 divided by 12 = $2.16/box. The price for it here ranges from $2.59/box if you’re lucky to $3.50!!!! which is the price I saw it for today at the store.
Check it out!!!!
By the way, Scotia, I am crazy for I, Claudius! I have Maria Full of Grace from netflix right now, but haven’t yet watched it.
I, Claudius is really good and VERY disturbing. I watched it many years ago when I worked for the station in Dallas. Now, wow, that was one sick era. Please try “New Tricks” from BBC. It is so good!
Evil evil Paula Dean! Why am I even bothering to watch her? She’s cooking a dish in which there is – so far – butter, pancetta, heavy cream and chicken fat, and jarred artichoke hearts meaning they’re in oil.
She’s evil. How in gawd’s name is that Southern Cooking, unless Southern Cooking just means let’s see how quickly we can shut our kidneys down and cause ourselves coronary artery disease.
Rats. I had a long comment about Amazon grocery shopping and the internet ate it.
That’s Southern comfort cooking. Not the everyday stuff at all… but you wouldn’t know that if you watched her show.
She’s full of bull. And evil.
As for Amazon grocery shopping, what do you think? Good? Bad?
Excellent!
I’ve been buying staples that I can’t find locally. Sometimes the prices aren’t much less on Amazon, but hey, a smartly uniformed young man delivers it to my door.
Take a look at some products that you can put on auto-ship to save even more. You can cancel the auto-ship, or skip a shipment if you need to. I buy Nido milk powder this way and save about $1.50 a canister.
Tea, too. I can get some of the flavors on Amazon that I can’t get at the store.
Hm. Pay student loans? Or stock up on Amazon?
Hm.
Amazon is great if you don’t live in the state like I do. State tax plus shipping is not a good thing. Actually, I’d rather motor up to Seattle and find something in the shops there and have a good day on the Sound that sit at the computer and buy+sales tax+shipping.
Double rats. The internet just ate another comment.
I said: Amazon Prime! I pay $75 a year and get two-day shipping at no additional charge on any item Amazon sells.
As for sales tax: I just bought a new computer from Tiger Direct (Florida) through Amazon and saved about $150 in sales tax. The computer prior to that came from PC Connection (New Hampshire) and I did have to pay tax. Go figure.
I’m too cheap for Amazon Prime.
It’s worth it for us. Spouse buys a lot of movies and CDs and books. We come out ahead on shipping every year. But the $25 super saver is good too.
I don’t pay shipping or taxes. I only buy stuff that’s eligible for free super saver shipping. So it really *is* cheaper for me.
Living as I do in a town (city, some would call it, but it’s small), some things do cost more. I shop closeout places all the time and pick up all kinds of deals, but it’s variable. And I could drive 40 miles to the nearest big city, but bah.
So I improvise.
And right now that improvisation includes Amazon (with whom i’m now shopping for laundry products but am finding my closeout stores are much cheaper, unless I hit a bargain soon).
I have to go south 150 miles to get sales tax free purchases.
Um, I just bought 12 lbs of baking soda, 25 lbs of salt, 20 lbs of pinto beans, 4 gallons of white vinegar, 10 lbs of white rice, 5 gallons of olive oil, gallons of canola oil in the last two months from Costco. Nothing like being prepared. It was all fairly cheap and only sales tax. I am planning on my own laundry soap, hand soap, etc., etc.
I’d rather pay my 8% and get what I want locally than get some weird product from Amazon and pay sales tax and shipping!
Scotia, you have to tell me how your laundry soap works out. I tried homemade laundry soap, but I abandoned the idea – the mix I had didn’t really do the job and, after a few months, my clothes just STANK! So I gave the whole idea up …
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