nokken join:2001-02-07 Germantown, TN |
nokken
Member
2012-Oct-16 7:57 pm
[Price] Rate Hike and new Additional Outlet FeeJust got my October bill. It's about $15 higher...
Looks like the price of Digital Preferred went up ~$3 and I'm now being charged ~$10 for "Additional Outlet Fee" that I've never seen before. I've had 1 HD box (non-DVR) and 1 DTA for at least 2 years now with no additional outlet fee.
Is this new or should I have been charged for the DTA all this time? |
|
|
|
If they are changing a outfee for that DTA then you better get a Full box to get all the preferred channels.
likely it is a error as the 1st outlet is part of the base price.
Any way directv is way better outlets are only $6 for ANY BOX. |
|
|
to nokken
The franchise fee on my next bill is going up by $3.79. |
|
owlyn MVM join:2004-06-05 Newtown, PA |
owlyn
MVM
2012-Oct-17 6:44 am
Franchise fee is a tax imposed by your municipality. Comcast has no control over it. |
|
Tekneek join:2012-02-19 Bethlehem, GA |
True, to some degree. They aren't required to make the customer pay for all of it. |
|
|
to nokken
Don't care who has control of what. An increase is an increase. |
|
|
to nokken
Generally, the DTA should be free unless Comcast is ending it's grandfathering. Even then, I think it should only be $1.99 (if I remember right.)
Basically, call and ask what is going on with that fee. On my bill, the DTA is listed as a DTA and not a regular box. |
|
rody_44 Premium Member join:2004-02-20 Quakertown, PA
1 recommendation |
to Marcus Carr
Thats like holding your accountant responsible for a tax increase. Comcast is in no way responsible for franchise fees. If you dont like them go complain to your local township building. |
|
|
Nobody said I was holding Comcast responsible, oh wise one (except you). |
|
Robert Premium Member join:2001-08-25 Miami, FL |
to Marcus Carr
said by Marcus Carr:Don't care who has control of what. An increase is an increase. And people say our taxes aren't going up! |
|
|
to Marcus Carr
that fee is paying for your local access channels, plus to wire government buildings, schools and libraries with cable. My city is against a franchise fee as is the county. |
|
owlyn MVM join:2004-06-05 Newtown, PA Netgear CM2050V Netgear RBRE960 Netgear RBSE960
|
owlyn
MVM
2012-Oct-18 10:12 pm
said by mikedz4:that fee is paying for your local access channels, plus to wire government buildings, schools and libraries with cable. My city is against a franchise fee as is the county. Each franchising authority does whatever it wants with the money- it is not necessarily going to anything cable related. My township has a typical situation- we negotiated with Comcast to build the infrastructure to the schools and libraries, and provide some level of free service to them. The franchise fee goes directly to the township's general fund- just like any other tax. Again, this is a very typical arrangement- we are not alone in this- by any means. |
|
rody_44 Premium Member join:2004-02-20 Quakertown, PA 3 edits |
to Marcus Carr
No, the topic was about a rate increase. A franchise fee is in no way a rate increase. You ARE the one that came in and said a rate increase is a rate increase when it is no such thing when that company being comcast ISNT the one increasing it. Its like complaining that postage went up one cent to mail your cable bill in. Its something comcast has no control over. |
|
|
My bill is higher now. It has INCREASED. Simple concept. |
|
rody_44 Premium Member join:2004-02-20 Quakertown, PA 1 edit |
rody_44
Premium Member
2012-Oct-19 9:57 am
No just your franchise fee increased. Comcast gets no more , no less. had you said bill earlier i would agree. But you said your rate increased. Your monthly rate would be comcasts portion. Not taxes and fees. |
|
|
Bill, rate, whatever. Bottom line, I'm paying more. |
|
|
mikedz4
Member
2012-Oct-19 12:39 pm
switch to satellite or fios or cut the cord. Those are the only ways to avoid rate increases. |
|
1 recommendation |
said by mikedz4:switch to satellite or fios or cut the cord. Those are the only ways to avoid rate increases.
Fixed it for you; I assume you must be (temporarily) on crack, to even suggest sat or FiOS do NOT have rate increases... |
|
|
WOW has same price for 2 years |
|
|
to mikedz4
As this article shows, the cost of "cutting the cord" may not always be as (initially) cheap as it might seem: The Cost of Cutting CableBy Steven Rosenbaum, Forbes - November 12, 2012 » www.forbes.com/sites/ste ··· g-cable/From the article: Today, more than a year later weve recovered. Weve re-invented how we discover, consume, and share media. But, a word of warning. It wasnt easy and it wasnt cheap. Yes, we pocketed the bulk of our Time Warner bill (we dropped from $130 to just $33 for broadband). But did the $97 a month go to VOD or other subscriptions? Sort of. And what about hardware? Ugh, ok hold on for some sticker shock there. |
|
GTFan join:2004-12-03 Austell, GA |
GTFan
Member
2012-Nov-14 9:56 am
LOL, he bought a $1000 Panny 42" plasma. That should tell you everything you need to know right there, which is that he way overspent to 'cut the cord'.
And he didn't address a major issue for many, which is how to replace live sports and news. Sports in particular can get expensive a la carte if you have to subscribe to multiple feeds, and even then some of it is not available on the net (like NASCAR). |
|
|
It's available on SIRIUS if you JUST want to Listen to it. Plus I think you can subscribe to nascar package but that is expensive. |
|
|
oj829Jr to GTFan
Anon
2012-Nov-24 7:46 am
to GTFan
quote: And he didn't address a major issue for many, which is how to replace live sports and news.
Sounds like sports wasn't a big deal in his house, which is the kind of house where cord-cutting might start to make some sense, as one is no longer burdened subsidizing "pro" sports. But it ALSO sounds like he had no millenials in the house, which means that few of his gadgetry gotchas and hardware heartaches could have been addressed ahead of time. Had he rented an available nephew or niece for an afternoon, things could have gone a little bit better. But overall, "cord cutting" has always meant getting rid of a reliable (if mediocre) appliance in favor of a high-maintenance regimen of subscriptions and configurations and connections and payments, etc. It's always been a no-brainer for tech-savvy millenial multitaskers but not necessarily worth the hassle for someone like this article's author. So, yet another "Stupid old guy cuts cord" story. Great. Doesn't address the long-term problem cable still has of making anyone under 30 think TV is worth paying for. |
|
2 edits |
to telcodad
said by telcodad:As this article shows, the cost of "cutting the cord" may not always be as (initially) cheap as it might seem:
The Cost of Cutting Cable By Steven Rosenbaum, Forbes - November 12, 2012 »www.forbes.com/sites/ste ··· g-cable/
From the article: Today, more than a year later weve recovered. Weve re-invented how we discover, consume, and share media. But, a word of warning. It wasnt easy and it wasnt cheap. Yes, we pocketed the bulk of our Time Warner bill (we dropped from $130 to just $33 for broadband). But did the $97 a month go to VOD or other subscriptions? Sort of. And what about hardware? Ugh, ok hold on for some sticker shock there. Who was that written by? A cable industry lobbyist? That was one of the dumbest articles I've ever read. He counts the cost of a new TV against the money saved from dropping cable? (Guess he didn't know they sell HDMI to component converters for $35.) Then he buys Apple TV, Google TV as well as TiVO and counts THAT against the cost of dropping cable? The real world consumer would buy ONE service. At the end of the day, cable rates are exploding out of control and there is more backlash than ever to the overall ripoff of this industry. If that pushes people in the direction of being creative, I'm all for it, but articles like that are designed to "prove" dropping cable costs more money will not help the consumer decide. I honestly wonder if this writer was in the tank for the industry. If a reliable a-la-carte option, delivered over IP, arose, I would most certainly take advantage of it, and I think this is the eventual solution. It's absurd to pay hundreds of dollars to watch maybe 20 channels. How much do I pay for 50 sports channels I never watch? Women's channels? Movie channels? Aside from the networks, I watch NatGeo, Discovery, TBS, USA, Universal HD, and a few other channels on a random basis. If some company ever comes up with a "choose 10 channels" package or "choose 20 channels package" for some flat rate, I think they'd have a hit. I know plenty of people in the 20s set who just don't bother with paying for cable, and download the shows they like minutes after they air, either through something like Hulu Plus or simply a torrent file. Paying outrageous sums of money for hundreds of television stations is something people will laugh hysterically at eventually, like renting your phone from the phone company. "Hey, remember back in the day when we had to pay for all those channels whether we watched them or not?" |
|
|
Another "cut the cord" article (but without all those upfront costs): My Life as a Television ThrowbackBy Taffy Brodesser-Akner, The NY Times - November 23, 2012 » www.nytimes.com/2012/11/ ··· edy.html |
|
telcodad |
But as I just posted in another thread (» Re: Say goodbye to ClearQAM ), a new caveat on "going OTA": Rovi Phasing Out Over-the-Air Guide Listings Vendor Cites End of Data Broadcast Agreements; Service to Fully Cease by April 2013By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News - November 27 2012 » www.multichannel.com/tec ··· s/140422From the article: Rovi has started shutting off the TV listings data it has provided in over-the-air broadcasts to dozens of consumer-electronics device models in North America -- and will completely end the service by April 2013 -- a move that has infuriated consumers who claim it will render their DVRs useless.
The company said its agreements with data broadcasting partners CBS and National Datacast Inc. (NDI), a for-profit subsidiary of PBS, are coming to an end. : All Rovi guides in analog TVs, digital TVs and consumer-electronics DVRs that receive over-the-air broadcast data via an antenna or a cable TV connection in the U.S. and Canada, including the Rovi Guide Plus+ and TV Guide on Screen products, will be affected by the change. |
|
|
to nokken
latest bill ONLY SAYS: Performance from $62.95 to $64.95 Blast! from 72.95 to 74.95 that is standalone. Nothing about packages. |
|
insomniacOh Yeah Premium Member join:2002-09-22 Naperville, IL |
Mine shows increases in Internet prices for TV customers as well, in smaller print underneath the standalone price. |
|
|
Ours was only a small paragraph no big notice. |
|
|
An article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal on some reasons to cut the cord: Ten Things Cable-TV Companies Won't SayBy Jonnelle Marte, The Wall Street Journal - December 2, 2012 MarketWatch's Jonnelle Marte looks at the things cable companies won't tell you, such as why rising prices are part of their heritage and good service exists but not in your area. » online.wsj.com/article/S ··· news_wsj |
|