States Waking Up To AT&T, Verizon 'Franchise Reform' Con > Just another chapter in the "Book of Duh"

reply to aSic

Re: Just another chapter in the "Book of Duh"

I tend to agree with you on this. People do have other choices than the franchise provider their state / county / town approves. Generally most if not all of us can get Dish or DirecTV. In my area, there is competition between Comcast and AT&T. In many areas there is competition between a franchised cable company and an incumbent telco (usually AT&T or Verizon).

It appears cable companies also lobby to impose extra taxes on satellite providers. The lobbying problem isn't just about getting a better deal for a franchise, its also about imposing higher costs on alternatives.

DirecTV has a site, to help customers petition to stop new taxes which are often lobbied by cable and telco franchises at - »www.stopsatellitetax.com/
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"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."

reply to openbox9
Try telling Comcast that they're competing against Dish and DirecTV.

Earlier this year I canceled video services from Comcast in favor of going with DirecTV. When I tried pitting Comcast against DirecTV to get a better deal from Comcast, their response was that DirecTV could offer better prices because they didn't have miles and miles of cable to maintain, rights-of-way to deal with, and pesky counties and municipalities to prevent them from "helping" the consumer (helping themselves to the consumer's wallet is more like it). No price competition. No specials. Nothing other than an "I'm sorry, we don't compete with DirecTV" response.

Perhaps your experience has been different, but right now Comcast doesn't seem to be affected by satellite providers... only something like the availability of FIOS seems to get them to change their tune when it comes to charging customers a premium for average to sub-par service.
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Trusting the Democrats to fix our economy and give us health care is like trusting the fox with keys to the henhouse, a brand new gas stove, and a pantry full of goodies for side dishes. In the end, all will be dead and nothing but lies will be told.

I've never done business with Comcast so I can't comment on their retention policies, but I will say that with my previous Mediacom experience, they were more than willing to throw around "intro" and "retention" discounts...at least for a while. Eventually, unbundling my services simply became more economical and I ended up with Dish for TV and Mediacom for my HSI. Mediacom did offer me a welcome back offer after I cancelled their TV service, but it wasn't enough to entice me back.