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IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Cat food and cable TV rates

One example of how bad inflation has gotten is cat food. The prescription diet cat food that I bought for a cat that unfortunately passed away in 2004 cost about $24 per case at the vet's office in 2003. Now my current cat (who is getting up there in age, about 8 years old) now eats that same cat food (vet just switched him to it when I took him in last night) and I was hit with sticker shock when that cat food was a whopping $37 per case for the exact same cat food nearly 9 years later.

Cable TV rates are not as bad with inflation as the sticker shock that I was hit with last night at the vet's office (and I have been using the same vet since I moved to Springfield (MA) back in 2002). Cable TV rates around here seem to be stable. The real reason they seem higher is now you are throwing home phone and high speed internet into the equation. With the recession and the trend of cord cutting, the cablecos have been offering some real sweet deals. And when your promotion expires, call the retentions department, threaten to switch to DSL/POTS/DirecTV and they will renew that sweet deal.

When I first subscribed to Cable TV back in the year 2000, I would never go back to an antenna. Back when I had an antenna, I always had issues with bad pictures, poor reception, and lack of quality programming. I will tell you firsthand that an overbuilder does keep cable rates in check. Cedar Rapids, IA has an overbuilder (Im'ON communications, formerly McLeodUSA) and they had cheaper cable rates than Comcast (sole provider) in Springfield, MA and my cable bill went up a good $20 just by moving.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Imon is just an awesome company. They still don't have a cap and have great customer service.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

I miss living in Cedar Rapids (IA) as everything there was cheaper. My mom took a job in Springfield (MA) and with my aging grandmother (who lives in Maine), we relocated to Springfield, MA. I heard that Mediacom went downhill since I left CR.

As for Comcast, I have yet another truck roll scheduled today and I'm afraid they'll plug the meter in, say the signal is fine, and refer the issue to their do-nothing line techs.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Mediacom's customer service could use some help, but I think they are improving. They were pretty bad for a while, but Imon and Centurylink have been pretty aggressive lately, so they have had to wake up. And Southslope is giving them some pretty good competition outside of Cedar Rapids.

Good old comcast. Glad they are not in this area. Who is the telco in your area? Centurylink?
ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL

ISurfTooMuch to IowaCowboy

Member

to IowaCowboy
Not sure if any of these cat foods are the one you have to use (they don't seem to require a prescription), but it's worth a look.

»www.entirelypets.com/pet ··· od1.html

I've never bought food from EntirelyPets, but I've bought flea, tick, and deworming meds from them, and they've been great to deal with. One tip is to sign up for their e-mail ads, as just about every one will have some sort of discount code.

Hope this at least helps to lower your cat food costs a bit.

nonamesleft
join:2011-11-07
Manitowoc, WI

nonamesleft to IowaCowboy

Member

to IowaCowboy
said by IowaCowboy:

One example of how bad inflation has gotten is cat food. The prescription diet cat food that I bought for a cat that unfortunately passed away in 2004 cost about $24 per case at the vet's office in 2003. Now my current cat (who is getting up there in age, about 8 years old) now eats that same cat food (vet just switched him to it when I took him in last night) and I was hit with sticker shock when that cat food was a whopping $37 per case for the exact same cat food nearly 9 years later.

Cable TV rates are not as bad with inflation as the sticker shock that I was hit with last night at the vet's office (and I have been using the same vet since I moved to Springfield (MA) back in 2002). Cable TV rates around here seem to be stable. The real reason they seem higher is now you are throwing home phone and high speed internet into the equation. With the recession and the trend of cord cutting, the cablecos have been offering some real sweet deals. And when your promotion expires, call the retentions department, threaten to switch to DSL/POTS/DirecTV and they will renew that sweet deal.

When I first subscribed to Cable TV back in the year 2000, I would never go back to an antenna. Back when I had an antenna, I always had issues with bad pictures, poor reception, and lack of quality programming. I will tell you firsthand that an overbuilder does keep cable rates in check. Cedar Rapids, IA has an overbuilder (Im'ON communications, formerly McLeodUSA) and they had cheaper cable rates than Comcast (sole provider) in Springfield, MA and my cable bill went up a good $20 just by moving.

The vet and cable rates are a good comparison. You know its gonna come with a shock!

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy to silbaco

Premium Member

to silbaco
said by silbaco:

Good old comcast. Glad they are not in this area. Who is the telco in your area? Centurylink?

In most of Southern New England (Massachusetts where I live and most of Rhode Island) it is Verizon. In Connecticut, they have AT&T. Verizon sold off most of Norther New England (ME, NH, and VT) to FairPoint. Verizon lately has neglected their DSL/POTS network, sold off their payphone business to PTS, and they are focusing their resources on their FiOS (FTTH) network available in the eastern third of Massachusetts and parts of RI. They seem to refuse to upgrade the part of the state of Massachusetts (Springfield) where I live to FiOS so it gives Comcast a defacto monopoly on Broadband as DSL only goes to 3/768 where my current Comcast connection goes up to 50/10.

Verizon is the dominant telco in much of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states with the exception of the areas they sold off to cut rate telcos.

thedragonmas
Premium Member
join:2007-12-28
Albany, GA
Netgear R6300 v2
ARRIS SB6180

thedragonmas to IowaCowboy

Premium Member

to IowaCowboy
said by IowaCowboy:

I heard that Mediacom went downhill since I left CR.

well, when i first got mediacom ~4 years ago, we did not have a modem rental fee, did not pay extra for voice mail on phone, did not have bandwidth caps with overage fees, did not have an MTA rental fee (phone modem) and did not have a 3 strikes and your banned for life DMCA policy.

we have all of that now. and dont even get me started on the DVR rental fee's...