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Comments on news posted 2014-01-03 10:38:59: For a while Verizon and Cablevision competed intensely for users in the New York City area, offering a steady stream of bundle promotions in order to lure users to one side of the fence or the other. ..


camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

camper

Premium Member

I wonder what took them so long?

 
All the "promos" and "serious competition" did was benefit the consumers with lower prices. We can't have that now, can we.

However, now it appears that (to quote the summary) "both companies have rather quietly and unofficially agreed to stop competing quite so seriously", there can and will be an increase in revenues; if for no other reason than the lack of customer-beneficial competition between the two giants.

Once again, a competition-stifling duopoly is formed,prices apparently rise and consumers are screwed.

MxxCon
join:1999-11-19
Brooklyn, NY

MxxCon

Member

Re: I wonder what took them so long?

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collusion
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

1 recommendation

tmc8080 to camper

Member

to camper
Basically, this begins a race to the bottom, with consumers who now pay $200+ for three services cutting them to the bone & buying one or two (and at lower tiers)..
As for me, I'm already down to one service, but not the bottom tier of broadband, yet.. If push comes to shove... I will be writing my letters of complaint to the NYS PSC and others who will have regulatory authority.. as it is against the consumer interest for these companies to have a duopoly and sit on their hands with it offering less for more.. I'd really love for google fiber to come in and offer $70 gigabit broadband while these companies sit on their hands then.. with cablevision raising their stand-alone broadband 15/5 to $60, it just smacks the consumer in the face about greed for their MINIMUM RPC, or revenue per customer choices. It's quite possible, cities like NYC could deny these companies their semi exclusive franchise rights and allow other companies build access. The infrastructure isn't that crowded, yet that it couldn't withstand a 3rd or even a 4th competitor in virtually every part of NY metro..

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: I wonder what took them so long?

Can you please show me some kind of statistic that shows that the Verizon WIRELINE division or Cablevision are making a ludicrous amount of money?. Verizon is barely breaking even, and Cablevion is taking on LOSSES for several quarters now, and your logic dictates that price DECREASES are in order? Please explain.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

Re: I wonder what took them so long?

Many of the proposed tariff increases by Verizon have been denied by the NY state PSC. For time these docs were easily searchable by google search engine... for some reason not so much anymore, now you have to dig in the NYS archives themselves. As for cablevision, the lower labor costs have been fodder for some time now with workers getting as low as $20 an install price, no matter if it took 15 minutes or 15 hours (aka per customer connected). The strife nearly cost Cablevision a loss of customers due to some alleged sabotage of it's network by line workers in NYC. Conveniently, this was just before and around the time of the network upgrades, of which they used some cheap 3rd party labor for as well. In many parts of the country... entry level internet (standalone) prices are still coming down. Cablevision just raised 15/5 internet to $60. The bell curves are now going in the opposite direction for NY metro rates vs the rest of the country, despite having a much larger marketplace. I could see higher prices as part of natural inflation happening, but only minimum wage rose slightly in NY, NJ, CT.. that doesnt' mean the rest of the wages above minimum will rise in lock step.. you will see a multi-year delay before those wages rise as well-- meaning these rate increases will not be affordable or jusitfyable for at least another 4 years (since is it primarily the middle class who are subscribers to triple play services).

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

1 edit

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: I wonder what took them so long?

You did not answer my question in any way shape or form. Please show me documentation that Verizon Wireline and Cablevision are making so much profit, that they should not be increasing prices, but continued price decreases are in order.

Everyone on here has so many theories and opinions, but when it comes down to it, the only things that matter to these companies are PROFITS. Market share means jack if there is barely any positive cash flow, and these two companies in question have hardly any. When you subtract all their carriage fees from a 2year $69-$99 triple play how much profit do you believe is left?. ESPN
s part is what.. $5 a month per subscriber?. Seriously. Add up all the carriage fees for each channel, then tack on the cost of labor and equipment for installations. Then, once promotions are up, people jump ship to go get another unprofitable promotion from the other company.

Based on the facts Im extending to you, your dream of having Google Fiber come to a Cablevision/FiOS area will happen : NEVER. Expect more price increases, and it has nothing to do with collusion as some above claim, it has everything to do with running a business properly. Despite the claims, monthly bills would be so much worse if FiOS didnt exist. Someone simply needs to analyze the monthly Cablevision bills in areas where Verizon didnt expand to.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

Re: I wonder what took them so long?

short of appropriating the "REAL" accounting info, all one can do is speculate. in a triple play service these are the costs that have risen:

labor: (7-10 year windows, +20% since 2006 rates)
programming/video: +40% (some of this is their own doing)
phone: - 10% (for Verizon, it's cheaper to pay copper PUC fines than do copper maintenance).
broadband -25% (the cost to deliver this goes down but SHOULD break even on the higher labor/upgrade/install cost).

Verizon regularly boasts about the profits for wireless and as of their last transaction (Vodafone) were projecting a net PROFIT of 15 - 25% revenues, or 5+ million per quarter. Wire line was bringing in about 1 - 3 million (profit) network wide per quarter last time I checked. Verizon had a nice warchest to repay Vodafone, so it goes to show for a while at least, they had tons of cash. Now if they can gouge(my opinion) the cellular industry for 20+ years they can re-gain that warchest. However Verizon's obviously not satisfied with 1-3 mil from wire line, why not make it 5, 6 or 7 million per quarter? They only way to do this is collude with cablecos and raise wire line rates across the board.

Since Cablevision is more chinzy with their publicized numbers, let's say it's 1 million per quarter net profit which isn't too shabby given their size. As further evidence Cablevision is doing ok, they have NOT sold their business to a Comcast, Time Warner or merged with another cable company. It's not just pride, if they felt the industry as a whole as going south, they'd be out of the business before the ink was dry on the transaction.

No, we're not talking OIL industry profits, or healthcare.. but you can sure bet they are in-line with some of they local electricity utility companies which are actually making a profit vs those on the verge of bankruptcy (you can guess which are which-- many of these financial disclosures happened during hurricane Sandy).

It is also sour grapes for these companies to jack up the price of standalone broadband because these consumers are not video subscribers.. IMO, this more than anything is where you can look at the cost to deliver the service and say they are not charging a fair price. While expected, that doesn't make it fair when the price of broadband by itself is between $5 and $15 price difference to a dual play WITH video... granted they'd tack on a whole bunch of fees so that $5-$15 is really closer to $30 by the time all is said and done-- but if you look at plain advertised prices, just on the surface it doesn't look right. Even if your all pro business, consumers know when something doesn't pass the smell test. This is based on $60 for 15/5 megabit entry level internet (which should be 50/XX by now).

** BTW, I've suspected that with many of these companies which rake in BILLIONS in revenue.. it's extraordinarily difficult to guess accurately how many millions in profit they actually walk away with (assume for a moment it's 10 - 20% above what's reported). The wall st & irs numbers are just two sets of books for required legal disclosure. More often then NOT, if many of these companies were posting the true numbers... during the last few financial crises they would have been put out of business-- so they do allow for cash cushions to weather storms while the mainstreet Joe goes out of business.

With Long Island, more political pressure will come to Verizon to get projects done (or get out of the way). These muni residents pay far too much in taxes to be ignored forever. Maybe it wont' be a google fiber instead, since they do BIG city projects, but you can't rule out muni's going it alone. I still predict a northeast project & possibly a southwest project will be announced in sometime in 2014-- much to the annoyance of the big incumbents.

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: I wonder what took them so long?

You really should learn how to read a quarterly report, your numbers are astoundingly off.
kerya666
join:2002-12-20
Valrico, FL

kerya666 to ITALIAN926

Member

to ITALIAN926
Look at many companies ... many claim "losses".

It all could be a manipulation, many hospitals claim and charge you $50k for a simple surgery where in reality it only cost them 1-5k to break even. If you don't pay and they sell/put it in collection or you or your insurance negotiate for a fraction of the initial charge they still claim a loss for taxes... while in reality they either broke even or made a profit.

It might not be as prevalent and overpriced in the networking field but it still happens occasionally. Not like IRS knows what it costs to do what they do.
ansky
join:2009-05-18
West Orange, NJ

1 recommendation

ansky

Member

Verizon

These companies know that the majority of people who threaten to cancel or switch providers never actually do so, so there is no reason for them to keep offering discounts.

The cost of all goods and services rises over time, so it amazes me how people think they should be getting special discounts or that they are somehow being treated unfairly if the cost of their cable bill goes up.
BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Wakefield, MA

BosstonesOwn

Member

Re: Verizon

I love it i have 4 options , comcast fios rcn , and a local muni. Ill gladly drop fios once that bill gets over $200. I refuse to pay more then 200 for net phone and cable tv when I dont even use 3/4 of the channels.

hello123454
Premium Member
join:2002-02-02
21845

hello123454 to ansky

Premium Member

to ansky
I never have been able understand the price of a product going up when the cost to do business goes up. If a business was smart they would keep the price the same so the brand isn't diluted. If your costs go up then as a business you have to be creative and build a better model. But it's annoying when they pass the costs off.

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

1 edit

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: Verizon

Their increased costs are primarily due to skyrocketing carriage fees, a situation that is brought by US, the CUSTOMERS. When theres a re-trans dispute, people cant go a week without watching Zombies eating human flesh, so all the power goes to the networks when you threaten, or leave the provider.

Now its that part of the viscous cycle when bills go up, and people actually have the audacity to complain. A guys shoots himself in the head and blames the ambulance. Makes sense?
thetick
join:2009-06-22
White Plains, NY

thetick to ansky

Member

to ansky
said by ansky:

The cost of all goods and services rises over time, so it amazes me how people think they should be getting special discounts or that they are somehow being treated unfairly if the cost of their cable bill goes up.

It's supply and demand. I called retention and after some short discussions about Cablevision's offers got ExtremeHD, DV phone, 50M/25M for $94.99/month and kept my $10/month off "additional savings" discount until it expires in August..so only $84.99 til September. With taxes and 1 STB expected bill: $103.79

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

camper to ansky

Premium Member

to ansky
said by ansky:

...The cost of all goods and services rises over time, ...

 
Really?

The computer industry has proven your statement to be false.
thetick
join:2009-06-22
White Plains, NY

2 edits

thetick

Member

Re: Verizon

said by camper:

said by ansky:

...The cost of all goods and services rises over time, ...

 
Really?

The computer industry has proven your statement to be false.

Depends how one defines equal goods and services. Some technology goods do get considerably cheaper.

The average PC price in 1980 was in the many thousands of dollars
The average PC price now is only a few hundred dollars

vs

The price of TV rights has only sky rocketed especially the last few years.

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

camper

Premium Member

Re: Verizon

I agree with you, many goods are cheaper now than previously, e.g., computer goods.

However, the comment asserted that the cost of all goods and services rises over time. You and I have shown that assertion to be false.

Which makes me question another statement that was made in that same message, "the majority of people who threaten to cancel or switch providers never actually do so." No substantiation for that assertion is provided, so I must presume it, too, is incorrect.
thetick
join:2009-06-22
White Plains, NY

thetick

Member

Re: Verizon

said by camper:

Which makes me question another statement that was made in that same message, "the majority of people who threaten to cancel or switch providers never actually do so." No substantiation for that assertion is provided, so I must presume it, too, is incorrect.

Words are cheap! Actions cost time, unforeseen problems, and sometimes $$.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt to thetick

Premium Member

to thetick
The goods got cheaper, the services did not.
Part of the drop in PC prices was technological advancement the rest was by no longer including the services (help desk, training, warranty, tech support, etc.)
The service cost (employees, equipment and training) always rises for EQUAL service.
elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

elefante72 to ansky

Member

to ansky
For Verizon losing a customer is VERY costly because they have to pay the depreciation of the ONT sitting on the side of your house. The cable guys are out some occasional node balancing and a coax cable.

The problem is that if you are going to threaten to leave, then leave. Once you do that, your account gets flagged (I did this @ Verizon last year), and they know you are for business ever more.

I just recently found out on my two year contract that the price was only good for Y1 and on Y2 the price was going up $15 which was bs because when I signed up the rep said no change.

So I went out to the website and said for new customers no step charge in Y2, so lets make a deal. I reupped 1 year into a 2 year contract and the price went up $5 (vs $15) and I negotiated HBO free for a year, which @ Verizon is like $18 a month.

I also used the direct forums and contacted TWC but their package was $45 more a month (translating to 60% more cost) for inferior internet and service. That was dead. TWC only has 1 of the 12 houses on my block, Verizon is wiping the floor with them because their price is SO out of whack w/ reality.

So end of story, you actually have to follow through on your threats, otherwise they will keep peeling away the bennies. Hey, I negotiate business all day, and I know when a person is bluffing and can get an extra few points out of them. They are doing NOTHING wrong, they are trying to run a business.

As for me I find FiOS so superior to Time Warner, you can't even compare on service, price, and quality.

If you are going to follow through be warned if you have the 3-play that porting your phone could take weeks and you will need to time that. Companies ON the surface offer better carrots (gift cards, etc) upfront if you bundle phone, but if you go for the 2-play you can always find a good deal there and for less cost.
itguy05
join:2005-06-17
Carlisle, PA

itguy05

Member

Re: Verizon

said by elefante72:

For Verizon losing a customer is VERY costly because they have to pay the depreciation of the ONT sitting on the side of your house. The cable guys are out some occasional node balancing and a coax cable.

They don't "pay" depreciation. It's simply an accounting trick to push assets to liabilities. It's the same no matter what. The ONT is already paid for. Yes it makes sense to have a customer paying $$ to offset the depreciation but depreciation is the same no matter if you are a paying subscriber or not. If your deal makes no financial sense they will let you go.

I agree 100% that if you threaten actually make good on it. That's the only thing they understand.
elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

1 recommendation

elefante72 to ansky

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to ansky
100% agree w/ the first sentence.

As to the second line, you must have missed the last 20 years and Made in China. Transit costs have bottomed and network equipment costs per GBit as well. And every year it will get less expensive.

I have to think REALLY hard for goods which have had less features and prices have risen, except in maybe the luxury market. You can argue on cable quality(which is subjective), but there are more channels and choice then ever. Even in margin-rich Apple the prices have gone down or remained steady, BUT the features/specs is amazingly better. So you get more bang for your buck.

Services are tied to labor, and labor does go up over time, primarily driven by inflation, government cost (regulation expansion), and medical. Sadly wages are dead in the water because of those three items I mentioned.

Cable, today is a simple example of inelastic demand:

A situation in which the demand for a product does not increase or decrease correspondingly with a fall or rise in its price. From the supplier's viewpoint, this is a highly desirable situation because price and total revenue are directly related; an increase in price increases total revenue despite a fall in the quantity demanded. An example of a product with inelastic demand is gasoline.

Content is even WORSE because the marginal cost is infinitesimal (the cost to broadcast to 100 versus 200 people is the burden of the carrier, NOT the content creator). It costs exactly the same for the content creator... So IMHO we need to focus the laser on the content creators, not the operators. Somewhat misplaced anger...

The rise in cost of content is directly proportional to the wages and protection built into the content/cable model. If cable were debundled wages would drop like a rock, and quality would actually go up. Look @ HBO, etc which are debundled (somewhat). The quality of programming is unbelievable. Now Netflix and Amazon are joining the game. Successfully monetizing old content will lower overall cost and subsidize new content development which provides better quality entertainment.

Toguro
join:2003-10-23
Rockford, IL

Toguro

Member

Why would they care

In most area they have no competition or limited competition so threatening to leave is just a threat when they know there is no competition in your area.
CXM_Splicer
Looking at the bigger picture
Premium Member
join:2011-08-11
NYC

CXM_Splicer

Premium Member

Of course cord cutting will increase

When you remove a $20 'discount' that a customer has been getting for the term of their current service, it is effectively the same as a $20 rate hike. If the cable companies whine about increasing retrans fees (and boy do they whine!) because of increased subscriber loss when they pass on the increase, how do they think this is going to go over?
malletto
join:2009-01-03
Purcellville, VA

malletto

Member

price fixing?

If 2 companies are quietly agreeing to price the same way (basically removing promotions) that should be illegal. Price fixing right? Now of course a company doesn't have to offer promotions but if they are communicating with each other and decide to act the same way, that can't be legal.
elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

1 edit

1 recommendation

elefante72

Member

Re: price fixing?

Price fixing assumes collusion, which has been practiced many times in our past but is not what is going on here. Cable is an oligopoly and a mature market, and the behavior is TACIT COLLUSION. You are dusting off my b-school memories... If you are really interested, go look up Nash Equilibrium.

From Wikipedia:

In an oligopoly, firms operate under imperfect competition. With the fierce price competitiveness created by this sticky-upward demand curve, firms use non-price competition in order to accrue greater revenue and market share.
"Kinked" demand curves are similar to traditional demand curves, as they are downward-sloping. They are distinguished by a hypothesized convex bend with a discontinuity at the bend%u2013"kink". Thus the first derivative at that point is undefined and leads to a jump discontinuity in the marginal revenue curve.
Classical economic theory assumes that a profit-maximizing producer with some market power (either due to oligopoly or monopolistic competition) will set marginal costs equal to marginal revenue. This idea can be envisioned graphically by the intersection of an upward-sloping marginal cost curve and a downward-sloping marginal revenue curve (because the more one sells, the lower the price must be, so the less a producer earns per unit). In classical theory, any change in the marginal cost structure (how much it costs to make each additional unit) or the marginal revenue structure (how much people will pay for each additional unit) will be immediately reflected in a new price and/or quantity sold of the item. This result does not occur if a "kink" exists. Because of this jump discontinuity in the marginal revenue curve, marginal costs could change without necessarily changing the price or quantity.

*******Explaination...
The motivation behind this kink is the idea that in an oligopolistic or monopolistically competitive market, firms will not raise their prices because even a small price increase will lose many customers. This is because competitors will generally ignore price increases, with the hope of gaining a larger market share as a result of now having comparatively lower prices. However, even a large price decrease will gain only a few customers because such an action will begin a price war with other firms. The curve is therefore more price-elastic for price increases and less so for price decreases. Firms will often enter the industry in the long run

bobjohnson
Premium Member
join:2007-02-03
Spartanburg, SC

bobjohnson to malletto

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to malletto
If both companies have plainly advertised that their $99 triple play was only good for a year and after that is $159. There is no collusion in not offering a promotion after you've reached a market penetration goal and the other company follows. Its always been the non promotion price and losing that customer doesn't hurt all that much.

Pegasus
Premium Member
join:2008-01-04
united state

Pegasus

Premium Member

Hmmmm.

Pepsi, Coca-cola?
Comp625
join:2007-12-09
CT

Comp625

Member

Indeed a 'dead end' from a business perspective...

Competition is good, but not when both companies are essentially "buying business" -- a la undercutting their own margins just to retain a subscriber.

That subscriber becomes a loss since they are continually getting the favorable pricing. The loss may not be apparent from a $ perspective, but each subscriber at a lesser margin creates extra load on the infrastructure that can't be easily upgraded due to the lack of profit that should have been generated beyond the new subscriber discounts.

This may sound like a loss to the consumer, but this gives both companies a chance to maintain/improve the quality of service. Last thing I want to see is for service to deteriorate to competitors' levels (e.g. Time Warner's cruddy speeds).
CXM_Splicer
Looking at the bigger picture
Premium Member
join:2011-08-11
NYC

1 recommendation

CXM_Splicer

Premium Member

Re: Indeed a 'dead end' from a business perspective...

That is part of the problem with today's business mentality... making less profit is still a profit, it is not a loss. No cable company would ever offer a promotional price that actually resulted in a legitimate financial loss.

amarryat
Verizon FiOS
join:2005-05-02
Marshfield, MA

amarryat

Member

Re: Indeed a 'dead end' from a business perspective...

I think government is the worst offender when it comes to that. Politicians call them cuts when they're really reductions in the increase. Still an increase, just less of one, and that's a "cut".

•••
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9 to CXM_Splicer

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to CXM_Splicer
That's like saying your salary decreasing is still a profit. Are you ok with that?

••••
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080 to Comp625

Member

to Comp625
I disagree. Comapnies, particular cable & telco companies DO NOT sell products or services at prices which constitute a net loss, EVER. At worst, they are reveue/profit neutral. Between telcos raking it in on the wireles side, and the Cable companies' non-union labor costs... they both seem to do quite well each year. As consumers become more savvy, they are realizing they do not have to buy phone & video from these providers. As such, prices have been indexing higher to punish this market force for single/dual play services. Nevertheless, when there is a difference of $5 or $10 between one service & two services... it's quite clear what they are doing. Eventually this negative reinforcement will meet with consumer backlash.. the end result of which is still unknown. If Google fiber can become a success in Austin, Tx... then it could become a success in Metro NY. Verizon, Comcast, Cablevision and Time Warner & AT&T only have themselves to blame for it.

One example of an industry selling at a loss is once in a blue moon when ethanol prices tried to make a run at competing with gasoline.. a huge marketing (tv ads), market manipulation of corn and lowering of gas prices to burn investors in ethnaol (temporarily) was the negative behavior by the oil industry (this was around 2005 - 2007ish).

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

1 edit

ITALIAN926

Member

Re: Indeed a 'dead end' from a business perspective...

double post
JoeSchmoe007
Premium Member
join:2003-01-19
Brooklyn, NY

JoeSchmoe007

Premium Member

For me 15/5 for $39.99/year/no contract is still available

I am currently OOL customer (Internet only, 15/5 for $39.95 for a year after initial promo expired).

I just checked with FIOS online availability tool and for me 15/5 for $39.99/year/no contract is still available (Internet only). That plus I keep receiving triple play offers with $300 prepaid Visa card.
shmerl
join:2013-10-21

shmerl

Member

I don't really care for promos.

But I care for sane regular price. Optimum offers 50/25 Mbit/s for $64.95 (regular price) which is not bad. I'd prefer FiOS but it still didn't reach my area.

alchav
join:2002-05-17
Saint George, UT

alchav

Member

Re: I don't really care for promos.

You guys are missing the point, most people don't care what they get as long as it is cheap. Some people just live on Promos, going from year to year and Provider to Provider looking for that $20 Connection. Providers have a Break Even Point, and when they offer a low price they are looking to sign up a certain number to reach this point. Then they could raise the price and make some money, but people keep looking for lower prices. So now Providers have to change their strategy to make some money.
shmerl
join:2013-10-21

shmerl

Member

Re: I don't really care for promos.

I think it's still overpriced (compare to 1 Gbps for $70 from Google). So it's not like they are losing money.

MxxCon
join:1999-11-19
Brooklyn, NY
ARRIS TM822
Actiontec MI424WR Rev. I

1 recommendation

MxxCon

Member

Backwards logic

If they want to get rid of flipfloppers, why wouldn't they do it the other way?
Don't offer "new customer" promos but rather lower prices for the long term customers..
Kinda the way VirginMobile or BoostMobile carriers did it..
The longer you stay with the company(and pay your bill on time), the larger your discount is...

•••

Anon E Muss
@myvzw.com

Anon E Muss

Anon

Wasn't aware companies HAD to do promos.

The biggest reason to kill of promos is the customers attitudes. A promo by it's very nature is TEMPORARY. Yet when a customers promo pricing ends they feel ripped off that they have to pay regular pricing. Even though they AGREED to do just that when they started service with said company. If promo pricing is supposed to be perpetual doesn't that make it regular pricing then?

Jmartz0
join:2000-07-20
Tenafly, NJ

Jmartz0

Member

Employee Discounts

Cablevision provides employees FREE services. Not discounted, FREE. I know it's a perk, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made internally. Thousands of employees getting free service equals millions in lost, potential revenue that everyone else has to pay for.

•••••

DeadSurvivor
Actor (The Asylum / Mill Creek Ent.)
Premium Member
join:2013-09-03
Tampa, FL

DeadSurvivor

Premium Member

Switch-A-Roonie ...

It looks like the days of bouncing back and forth yearly or every 2 years is back in full effect.
bsangs
join:2002-08-21
Montclair, NJ

bsangs

Member

Promos, promos everywhere here in NJ

If this really is happening, why does it seem that every fifth commercial I see is from either FiOS, TWC or Cablevision offering a special deal or promo for their services? Between Phil Dunphy's voice (FiOS), Bill Cowher (TWC) and whatever crazy, annoying theme Cablevision is using, I've seen many, many promos offered in my area. (Comcast advertises too, but doesn't seem to focus on promos in its ads as much as content.)

datguy11
@verizon.net

datguy11

Anon

enough is enough with these "switchers"

Its about time both these companies say enough with the people who play games and threaten to switch every 2 years.

If you ran a business, these people would be worst customers you can have.. Always looking for a deal or a discount or some sort of reason to pay less for your services.

I understand that sometimes getting a discount, or taking advantage of a promotion is a great thing to do. But to have the attitude that you will do this for eternity?

Ask anyone who owns or runs a business- sometimes its better to lose a pain in the ass customer like that, a/k/a blood money. Those are usually the people who drain the profit out of you, after getting a better deal then everyone else. Its like the cheap Uncle that you have, never paying full price for anything and when you go to his house you see baseboard moldings that are not miter cut at the edges, cheap radio shack phone jacks with speaker wiring run as phone wiring, cable tv wiring half hanging on the floor because he had some jackass install it and now because the cable company wont restaple it for free he leaves it there looking like sh*t

Verizon and cablevision should say good riddance to people like that, send them to satellite tv!!