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HBO8
join:2007-10-09
New Bern, NC

HBO8

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Suddenlink needs to get with the program.....

Some time ago, I went to Suddenlink's online "live" support to get information on digital television service and high definition. I explained to the CSR that I was unable to obtain ANY pricing or service offerings ANYWHERE within their website. You still can't today, as a matter of fact!

She offered to send me the following email with their services. Now if this is the way they expect someone to sign up for digital cable, they aren't going to grow much more! I can't make heads or tails of it. My rant continues afterward:
____________________________________________________________
The following is a list of the cable TV services we offer, and the regular
monthly rate for that service:

Limited: $ 6.34 per month

Expanded: $ 27.21 per month

Digital Gateway: $ 5.95 per month

DVR $9.95 per month

DVR (service) $4.95

Digital Tiers (all for $15.00 monthly)

Sports and Info

Movie

Variety

Discovery

With Digital service we offer multiplexes of all Premium channels for the
following price:

HBO, CINEMAX, SHOWTIME, TMC, STARZ

1 premium - $11.95 per month

2 premiums - $16.95 per month

All premiums - $26.95 per month

The premium prices are in addition to your monthly cable rate.

Suddenlink Limited Service
Minimum level of service available to customers.

Local Broadcast Affiliates (ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.)

Government, Educational, and Public Access (see individual lineups)

Superstations (not on all lineups), QVC, Animal Planet (not on all lineups),
and Local Programming

If the customer requests, customers with Limited Basic may also order
premium or PPV services with the use of a special trap.

Suddenlink Expanded Service
Includes a variety of the most popular cable TV channels such as ESPN, MTV,
CNN, USA, Nickelodeon, etc. See Channel Line-ups for complete list for each
area.

Suddenlink Standard Service

(complete basic channels)
Chosen by 95% of Suddenlink customers, Cox Standard Service Includes all
"LIMITED," EXPANDED" services.

This service comes with a regular activation as low as $30.00. All new
accounts are subject to a credit check that will determine whether a $40.00
service deposit will be applied to the account. We will require the first
month of service, activation and any deposits to be collected before
installation.

The following Internet services are available with seven email accounts and
personal Web space:

Value Package - $24.95 per month – 1Mbps / 256 Kbps The Value Package is
best suited for customers who are looking for an affordable alternative to
dial-up service.

Preferred Package - $39.95 per month - 4 Mbps / 512 Kbps The Preferred
Package is suited for customers who are looking for a fast connection that
is always accessible and can handle media-rich applications.

Premier Package - $54.95 per month - 5 Mbps / 768Kbps The Premier Package
works well for users who work from home and need constant access to a
reliable high-speed connection and advanced features.

Internet rates are based quoted with an assumed cable TV subscription.

The cable modem required for cable Internet access can be rented for an
additional $15.00 monthly fee. Suddenlink offers our subscribers the option
to purchase a new cable modem from your local cable office for $99.95 or
from a retail store.

These prices are subject to change.

Also would you like to add our Wire Maintenance Assurance Plan?

Wire Maintenance Assurance Plan (what is covered) 3.95 monthly

Repair/replacement of inside coax and fittings (regardless of
installer/vendor)

Coaxial jumpers connecting equipment or to the wall outlet

Loose fittings

Wall fish repair/replacement

If we must contact a customer because signal leakage was discovered at the
home, we will make repairs at no charge to avoid unnecessary confrontation
with the customer.

Phone services have not been launched in your area at this time. We are just
as excited as you are about our new product and services. Unfortunately, we
do not have an availability date to offer you at this time. Please know that
we are working as quickly as possible to bring the new services to the local
market.
____________________________________________________________

It wasn't long afterward that we had signed up for their phone service. It took 2 weeks for it to work correctly, with three service calls by their techs! Even after that, they miserably failed to fix it and it wasn't until someone on THIS forum told me what to do, that it was fixed. It's been functioning fine ever since.

We are finally buying an HDTV next week, so to prepare, I once again looked into the HD offerings of Suddenlink. Sent them a couple emails from their website, but to no avail, they never once answered my inquiries.

I have a couple of observations about Suddenlink:

- Cox had it all over them in every department. I was one of the original customers on broadband cable in the country when I lived in California. It was @home back then, but once Cox took over, it just got better and better. The opposite has happened after Suddenlink took over Cox around here.

- If they would spend a tenth on Customer Support than they do on their commercial advertising, they'd be doing much, much better in my opinion.

- Practically everyone I talk to either has or will have soon, HDTV. Suddenlink offers squat for HD programming in my town. Who wants to spend 2-3 grand on equipment and be limited to 10% of what the other services offer for the same price?

Pretty poor business plan there, Suddenlink. You're in the ditch now and will be playing catch-up for the next 5 years if you don't get with the program soon! Not answering numerous emails is completely inexcuseable to me.

This is neither here nor there for me now, I will be going satellite in a couple of weeks. Hey, BOTH services even answered my email inquiries in a timely manner! Imagine that?
JBrown07
join:2007-11-26
Wayne, WV

2 edits

JBrown07

Member

Is this how Cox was? That is very different than what I get (but my area was Charter) You need to remember that all areas are different like mine:

Regular Services
Basic $19.99/month (Locals, Public Access, Government, Shopping, WGN)
Expanded Basic $35.00/month (Animal Planet, ESPN, Discovery, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central)

Family & Information Tier $6.00/month
Sports Tier $6.00/month
Movie Tier $6.00/month (Includes Encore movie channels)

HBO/Cinemax $15.00
Showtime/TMC $13.00 (Includes Showtime, TMC, Flix)
Starz/Encore $15.00 (Encore movie channels also available in the Movie Tier)

Anime Network On Demand $6.99/month (free sample on Ch. 996 under 'Anime Free')
Karaoke On Demand $6.99/month

HD Basic/HD Broadcast Included with HDTV Box (see below)
HD Plus $7.99/month
-Includes: MHD, HD Net, A&E HD, History HD, HGTV HD, Food Network HD, HD Net Movies, National Geographic HD.
HD Premiums Free with HD service and subscription to corresponding premium service. (HBO HD/Cinemax HD, Showtime HD, Starz HD)

Programming Packages
(Note: None of the packages include a converter box)

Basic Link $74.99/month
-Basic, Exp. Basic, 1.5 Meg. Internet

Value Link $55.99
-Basic, Exp. Basic, One Digital Tier

Value Link Silver $79.99
-Basic, Exp. Basic, One Digital Tier, 1.5 Meg. Internet

Value Link Gold $89.99
-Basic, Exp. Basic, One Digital Tier, 6 Meg. Internet

Equipment
Standard Receiver $6.99/month
Additional Digital Receiver $6.99/month

DVR $9.99/month
-Includes: DVR Service, DVR Box
HDTV $9.99/month
-Includes: HDTV Box, ESPN HD, ESPN 2 HD, TNT HD, TBS HD, Locals in HD.
HDTV/DVR $14.99/month
-HDTV & DVR service.

CableCard $1.50/month

Internet
1.5 Meg. Internet (1.5 Meg down/256 kb up) $29.99/month
6 Meg. Internet (6 Meg down/256 kb up) $39.99/month
12 Meg. Internet (12 Meg down/768 kb up) $59.99/month ($49.99/month with TV & Phone)

Wire Maintenance Plan $4.99/month

Telephone
Telephone Only $49.99/month
Telephone Plus $44.99/month (must have Cable TV or Internet)
Telephone Preferred $39.99/month (must have both TV & Internet)

Voice Mail $4.99/month
Non-listed number $6.50/month
Non Published $6.50/month

Telephone Packages
(Note: You need to rent a digital receiver. See equipment above.)

Basic Link Phone $100.98/month
-Basic, Exp. Basic, 1.5 Meg. Internet, Telephone

Value Link Phone $100.98
-Basic, Exp. Basic, One Digital Tier, Telephone

Value Link Silver Phone $119.98
-Basic, Exp. Basic, One Digital Tier, 1.5 Meg. Internet, Telephone

Value Link Gold Phone $129.98
-Basic, Exp. Basic, One Digital Tier, 6 Meg. Internet, Telephone

Suddenlink Connections $74.99
-6 Meg. Internet, Telephone

(I edited this post on 3/8/08 because I forgot to include premium only Video On Demand channels.)
scsiguru0
join:2000-11-18
Parkersburg, WV

scsiguru0 to HBO8

Member

to HBO8
You make some very good points here. I'd like to see a SL rep chime in on this one. SL certainly doesn't have the best marketing and customer service.
Laker
join:2007-10-06
Belpre, OH

Laker to HBO8

Member

to HBO8
Everytime i've tried to get help online...if you want to call it that,know one has came on.would give after 30minutes.
JBrown07
join:2007-11-26
Wayne, WV

JBrown07 to HBO8

Member

to HBO8
With Charter we never could get pricing information online, we always had to call in.

I had to request for Suddenlink to send me complete pricing information on all their services due to the fact that some lied to me offering me packages that they no longer offered back in January.
HBO8
join:2007-10-09
New Bern, NC

HBO8

Member

said by JBrown07:

With Charter we never could get pricing information online, we always had to call in.

I had to request for Suddenlink to send me complete pricing information on all their services due to the fact that some lied to me offering me packages that they no longer offered back in January.
"Complete pricing information" will be, at best, VAGUE. I asked for it and you can see the mumbo-jumbo list they sent me with nothing concrete.

I'm quite sure this is deliberate, hence the reason they don't have their prices listed on their website.

I don't like venturing into the unknown when it comes to their pricing. The satellite companies at least TELL you what you pay....at least for that week!
SteveP75904
join:2008-03-29
Lufkin, TX

SteveP75904 to HBO8

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I know of 3 avenues for getting the lowest pricing for your needs. First write down what you would like to have for your services (hsi, DVR, HD programming, etc.) lets say I don't have cable or anything. i would call suddenlink first as they ussually have some sort of campaign going or a promotion, write down the price of all the services you want. then goto the local office and see what they will offer you, they may have a "local" promotion goin on that will beat the deal made by the call center. sometimes they can hook you up with limited and expanded, then after it is installed they can give you an upgrade package and it may all cost less that way than having it all done at once. another way is to check the website for any promotions and so forth. I've found the best avenue for upgrading/signing up for service is to visit the local office.