Founders May Be Ousted at Adelphia Rigas family bears brunt of Adelphia's woes Adelphia gets slammed by both coasts in stereo today, with increasing shareholder agitation and whispers of mutiny against the Rigas family, who run Adelphia from a small town in Pennsylvania (not well apparently). Both the LA Times and the New York Times have very interesting reads concerning the slow sinking of the cable giant.
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  JYoungG L 2814
join:2000-06-13
Sherman Oaks, CA | LA a jewel? quote:
Wall Street sources say Charter Communications Corp., the fourth-largest
cable operator, controlled by computer billionaire Paul Allen, is eager to buy
Adelphia's Los Angeles system, which serves 500,000 customers.
Yet the Los Angeles operation is the pride of Adelphia founder John Rigas,
who operated mostly in small and medium-sized communities before his
$3.4-billion acquisition two years ago of Century Communications Corp. As
part of that deal, Century founder Leonard Tow became Adelphia's largest
shareholder outside the Rigas family.
If this is how they operate their pride division, I'd hate to see how they treat the lower tier markets.....
--
If you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts, then repeat to yourself "it's just a show, I should really just relax" | |
|  |  belushiPremium,MVM
join:2000-11-08
Twinsburg, OH | Re: LA a jewel? Here in Cleveland they treat us like crap as well. You'll have to excuse me, my digital cable has been down for 48 hours and I'm venting. | |
| | |  IPPlanManHoly Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC
kudos:1 |  Re: LA a jewel?
The only different about Los Angeles is that it they have more people to treat like crap!
Adelphia seems to like 6 month intervals for promises....
It's beyond pathetic at this point....It's now in the realm of completely hopeless....
You should be ashamed of yourself Rigas. This is of your own doing.... Am I the one stringing the cable? No...I'm paying the bill for you to do that... no doubt my bill has been going to pay for somebody else's cable modem service, because the service sure as hell hasn't been here for 5 year.
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A proud card carrying member of the Right Wing Conspiracy | |
| | | | | Its funny to see all you guys sitting here complaining how bad your cable is.
There is a solution guys/gals: DirecTV
This is THE most awesome thing to happen to TV. I got mine hooked up last year. You couldn't buy it back from me. Picture is awesome, sound is awesome, the box on top of the TV is awesome (provides a great guide, on-screen CallerID, etc).
And, DirecTV was providing my major local channels up until a few months ago when they surprised me, for at no additional charge I got an additional 10+ local channels.
My bill is about $45.00/month for 3 TVs, 100 channels +30 channels of digital commercial free music. (Total Choice Plus)
Check this out... the other night I wanted to add a new package that came out with. Its was only an additional $2.00 for 6 awesome channels like Discovery Wings, Boomerang (great kids channel), etc. I did it on the web, and in 30 seconds I had the new channels on my TV's.
YOU CAN'T GET THE DAMN CABLE COMPANY TO ANSWER THE PHONE IN THAT SAME AMOUNT OF TIME!!!
Piss on the cable company. Once you experience DirecTV, you too will be sitting here beating the same drum as I am.
PS: When I called to cancel cable service, I told them (Comcast) I was getting DirecTV. They tried to sell me DirecTV as a last ditch effort to get my money!!! I guess they are an agent or something. | |
| | | | JYoungG L 2814
join:2000-06-13
Sherman Oaks, CA | Re: LA a jewel? That's all well and good but here's the problem....
Because of where I live, I can't get DirecTV!
I live in a ground floor apartment. I have no Southern Exposure unless I mount the dish on the roof. My landlord won't let me do it. For a variety of reasons, I won't be moving soon.
So Adelphia is the only option I have for decent reception (ha!). (TCI gave better service than Adelphia)
If I could get DirecTV, I'd have a DirecTiVo receiver and would be happy to flip Adelphia the bird....
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If you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts, then repeat to yourself "it's just a show, I should really just relax" | |
| | | | | | isnt this an internet site. since when did it become a tv veiwing site? im just curious. | |
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| |  JigsawStardust We ArePremium
join:2000-10-21
Cleveland, OH | said by belushi:
Here in Cleveland they treat us like crap as well. You'll have to excuse me, my digital cable has been down for 48 hours and I'm venting.
Cox is't bad.least you can get porn  .But really i remember in the 80's when cox just came out we would have MAJOR outages for 2 days 3 days(This is in the Parma area)They been ok lately. | |
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| IPPlanManHoly Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC
kudos:1
| Damn skippy....
The LA Market is a disgrace. If you haven't heard yet from other threads, Adelphia acquired Century Cable's assets 5 years ago, and we were promised "new advanced services" such as digital cable and cable modem service.....
Fast forward 5 years.....
We've were only able to get Digital Cable less than a year ago, and as lml2000 explains in other threads, it's only "baby" digital....so it's a cop out. Heck, lml still can't even get that!
We still can't get cable modem service either! The saga began with this promise letter 5 years ago, and right up until this past April 1st when Adelphia assured our homeowners association that Cable Modem Service would be available. April Fools!!!!....and the joke's been on us for 5 years...
See this article:
»www.latimes.com/business/la-0000···16.story
And look at Adelphia's rollout of Cable Modems compared to the other franchises.....disgraceful....
For four of those 5 years, the only thing Adelphia sent us was a higher bill, with a new logo, for the same damn analog service. We had one HBO, one Showtime, One The Movie Channel, One Skinimax.....
"But exciting new products are on the horizon!"
What a ripoff...They got nearly five free years out of us without really making any visible infrastructure improvements....Oh yeah....they blamed the Department of Water and Power for that in the article, the first excuse we actually heard from them in the "five years of when we're damn good and ready"....What a bunch of lame-o's....
serve's 'em right. I feel bad for the people who will get canned... They're nice people and they've been very helpful...Their managers of course will stay on or get golden parachutes....typical.
--
A proud card carrying member of the Right Wing Conspiracy
[text was edited by author 2002-04-04 16:54:03] | |
| | | JYoungG L 2814
join:2000-06-13
Sherman Oaks, CA | Re: LA a jewel? No arguement from me. As I've noted elsewhere, it appears to be a miracle that my area can get Cable modems at all. And as I noted elsewhere, based on their performance just doing cable TV, I wouldn't want to use them for broadband. I'll take my chances with DSL, thank you very much....
--
If you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts, then repeat to yourself "it's just a show, I should really just relax" | |
| | |  Jackson$Need It Wrecked? 1-800-Marine
join:2001-11-17
Buffalo, NY | EMHinkle said :
The LA Market is a disgrace. If you haven't heard yet from other threads, Adelphia acquired Century Cable's assets 5 years ago, and we were promised "new advanced services" such as digital cable and cable modem service.....
I say :
You've been a proven liar on this subject. The sale took place in 1999! If you can trun 3 years into 5, please let me know the long term investment corp. your running! | |
|
| belushiPremium,MVM
join:2000-11-08
Twinsburg, OH | Can't get direct TV because my landlord will not let me run a cable to the roof where the satellite would need to be in order to get it. Believe me, I would have gotten Direct TV a long time ago if possible, errrr....stolen it. | |
| | belushiPremium,MVM
join:2000-11-08
Twinsburg, OH | Ditto JYoung...Same story here for me. | |
| | | | Well, I'm in the tiny Prestige Cable buyout and service SUCKS! There aren't enough IP addresses to go around, so my cablemodem reboots all the time...system resets to throw all the Kazaa users off. Whatever happened to "always connected." What a load of horseshit.
Customer service was better when small-town cable was run by small towns; but Adelphia got too big for her britches. Spread thin? You can't imagine how thin.
Just try calling tech support in Buffalo when it snows.
What a joke.
Hope and pray that Adelphia is fully broken up and that its bits and pieces are shared by the local big boys in your neighborhood. Service levels can only go up when they're non-existent. And, oh by the way, better get in writing what the speeds are on their broadband and have it tested before the installer leaves your house. | |
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| | It might be the owners' fault? So it might be the Rigas family's fault? Well, duh! Call 60 Minutes, the scoop of the century!
This is what I wrote several months ago: "I wonder who runs this company? Gordon Gekko? Supposedly it is a family owned business. If so, they make the Don Vito Corleone family look like family of the year. This is the only company I've ever seen that started at the bottom and has steadily worked its way down. People may be stealing their TV cable but Adelphia is making up for their loss by stealing its Powerlink customers money. I am even amazed by some of their "Smooth Ride" stories. You know the ones, were the customer is overjoyed just to get download speeds that are little more than triple dial up speed! So what if the email servers and news servers don't work and the ping times or latency suck? I always wondered why Adelphia's broadband installers wore masks when they showed up. The official theme song of Adelphia should be "Simply the Worse"! It would be song to the tune of Tina's Turner's "Simply the Best" except you just substitute "worse" for "best". Dum, dum, dum, dum, dum "We're simply the worse, worse than all the rest, worse than everyone, worse than anyone. We're simply the worse." Gosh, Adelphia is just the pits!" | |
| | Host:
Road Runner
PC gaming GAMES
PC gaming Tech
| Re: It might be the owners' fault? That's the New York Time's point.
The story is about the stockholders finally conspiring to get rid of them, and how they should have noticed the $2.3 billion worth of loans that were never put on the books....and should have been aware there was a retarded chimp piloting the ship onto the reef long before now....
It seems that investors operate on a completely separate plane of reality most of the time, making mountains out of mole hills and then ignorning tell tale signs of dysfunction.
--
dead american hero | |
| | | | |  Re: It might be the owners' fault?
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|
djrobsd
join:2002-01-24
San Diego, CA Reviews:
 ·Cox HSI
| I feel sorry for the folks at DANIELS CABLEVISION I hope that Adelphia didn't trade shares for the buyout of baby, Daniels Cablevision. Daniels was founded in Carlsbad, CA and was family owned and operated for decades. Adelphia just bought them last fall, and I feel bad for all the employees here in the Carlsbad area who are working for this new company, as well as for the Daniels family. I hope they did not take stock in Adelphia.. CASH is the only way to go.
Why do these companies foolishly give themselves away for "shares"????
I think since my cable system was formerly Daniels, and they had a brand new network in place already before Adelphia bought them out, it explains why my service is so good.. but I feel bad for others stuck with crappy service on Adelphia..
It should be interesting to see how things unfold.. Maybe Adelphia will sell Carlsbad off to neighboring Time Warner, so then I can be a happy roadrunner customer.. LOL..
Nah, I'll just get DSL. | |
| | | Rigas needs to Pray. Even though I ditched Adelphia in December and got Direct tv I would love to see them go down.
Crappy TV signal that has an outage at least a couple times a month.
Promise of Powerlink. "It will be available in a couple of months" Still not available.
It would be great to have a different MSO. | |
| | IPPlanManHoly Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC
kudos:1 | Re: Rigas needs to Pray. That's right...it's always going to be available in a couple of months...
We've been hearing that schtick for nearly five years....
I'm still trying to make up my mind if it's more hopeless or pathetic....
What other area of what other big city has had a nearly 5 year wait for Cable Modem Service?...and this is Adelphia's crown jewel of operations? I hope they get what's coming, and I hope it hits 'em hard.
--
A proud card carrying member of the Right Wing Conspiracy | |
| | | | | Re: Rigas needs to Pray. The only reason I even kept Adelphia's tv service for so long was because Direct tv didn't have the local channels and that I was thinking Powerlink would come soon and I would get the Digital cable and Powerlink package.
Finally Verizon came thru and I have Direct tv with the Para Todos package and the local channels, something Adelphia can not match. I am now happy. | |
| | |  Polaris5All Hail, The Vulture From Van Nuys
join:2002-03-26
old RIA of A | Rigas is Your friendly neighborhood Monopolist How could you be mad at little Johnny Rigas?
He just wants to leave a non-competitive legacy for his kids, grandkids, and greatgrandkids to enjoy. So what if it's on your backs?
You should just consider yourself lucky to be able to watch, erm, listen, umm rent...oh, wait a minute, I've confused "If you don't let us consolidate, there won't be any more (TV, Sports, Movies, Music, Cars, Airplanes, Clothing, Food, insert commercial field of endeavor here)" tag lines. 
Him and Fritz (see Avatar) are posterboys for the movement towards fostering diversity in government and media. | |
| | | | IPPlanManHoly Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC
kudos:1 | Re: Rigas is Your friendly neighborhood Monopolist
It's truly unreal that he's bible thumping in the Los Angeles Market....I guess there's not much else to be "proud" of...
Go back to Pennsylvania and stay there....
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A proud card carrying member of the Right Wing Conspiracy | |
| | | | | | | Re: Rigas is Your friendly neighborhood Monopolist Yeah we live like 30 min away from the porn capital of the world.
Maybe the shareholders should suggest to bring back the porno channels to raise revenue.
quote:
The adult offerings reportedly generate $150 million in revenue for DirecTV. "It certainly is a powerful contributor to profits for DirecTV," said analyst McAlpine.
»abcnews.go.com/sections/business···325.html | |
| | | | | | IPPlanManHoly Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC
kudos:1
|  Re: Rigas is Your friendly neighborhood Monopolist
This is hysterical.... I love it....
Bring it back....Bring it back....
--
A proud card carrying member of the Right Wing Conspiracy
[text was edited by author 2002-04-04 19:44:23] | |
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| | | |  sadowskiI Am My Own DoppelgangerPremium,MVM
join:2000-04-14
Buffalo, NY | Funny but I was just thinking about that the other day. Years ago (heck, maybe even back in the 80's, it was) he was going on about dumping the Playboy chan. because he didn't want that on his system (I suspect real motivation was it cost too much), but never mentioned the lucrative showtime, movie chan., cinemax, etc. outlets which weren't then or now Disney clean. I guess it's easy to be moralistic when it doesn't cost one anything. | |
|
Kajota
join:2001-02-23
Leesburg, VA | Adelphia Sucks in Northern Virginia as Well Just thought I'd sound off for Loudoun County in Northern Virginia. Adelphia bought Loudoun Cablevision about 4 years ago. We have the worst 1-way cable modem setup. And I think the only reason we have that is because it was put in by the previous owners. At the time we were the only people in the area with any cable modem services. Now we are far far behind just about anyone else around.
They are truly pathetic. I am very thankful that I live in one of the few areas of Loudoun County that can get DSL. | |
| | | | Re: Adelphia Sucks in Northern Virginia as Well I also live in Loudoun County, in one of the areas that 2-way cable is available. Adelphia's corporate customer service just plain stinks. It took them 2.5 months to drop the cable to my house and another 2 to bury it. Worse, the only alternative in my part of the county is dialup - no one's going to provision the CO til I have grandkids.
But the local techs were knowledgeable and helpful, and after the wait I do get 1Mb down and 100-130Kb up, service has been fairly reliable - I say that now, it'll be down for weeks. Can't give any feedback on TV, we don't get it | |
| | | | | Re: Adelphia Sucks in Northern Virginia as Well I live in the Broadlands in Ashburn. We just got 2-way cable. It goes down every now and then. Last night it was down from 7pm until... well I don't know. Was still out at 11pm when I went to bed and up again this morning at 7am.
From Ashburn to Reston the packets go first to Atlanta, GA, then to Texas, then to DC then to Reston. For a, what, 5 mile trip? :P
GOD I can't wait until wireless is here. I'm heading up an effort to bring wireless to our community, and as soon as it's here bye-bye Adelphia. | |
| | | | | | Re: Adelphia Sucks in Northern Virginia as Well Bandwidth on current wireless is Poo Poo. | |
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| | Bad attitude and bad......? Many if not most of the problems attributed to and experienced by subscribers of Adelphia could be applied at various times and degrees to all providers. But you know, subjectively in my opinion Adelphia stands alone in one particular important area. They either are not motivated to improve or for financial reasons or poor management and so on lack the ability to improve. I have followed them closely for over a year and on a wide scale basis they are unique in that area as compared proportionately to their peers. Yet, despite the exception of few a areas, even though their performance and service at every level is so poor and not only is not improving, it as often as not is getting worse and they continue to AGGRESSIVELY market and sell it as if it available everywhere and routinely gives you blazing performance and they have good customer support. The way they do business is aggravating to me. | |
|  lml2000Whazzup
join:2000-08-17
Los Angeles, CA | Wow! Sounds Like A Party Here - Can I Join In?
Some comments:
LA a Jewel? This is the word that WAS used to DESCRIBE Century's LA assets when it put its systems on the block. Adelphia has taken this jewel of a franchise and squandered it with its ineptitude and stupidity. After 3 years of "management" the franchise's best subs have left the system for DBS, most will never return.
Cella Dwella. I feel your pain. I used lived in the Palisade Highlands in 1997-98 when Century was telling everyone "cable modem service after first of the year ['98]." Spielberg used to call Century to see when cable modem service was coming. When it didn't, he had Verizon lay at T-3 to his house, as a special deal for some SKG business. Verizon got their hiney spanked by the PUC for shifting the cost of that T-3 onto the backs of ratepayers such as yourself. I moved to Bel-Air in mid-98 where Century's plant is an utter POS. Outages every couple weeks. Last straw was when the cable went on a Friday, just an hour before the 6th or 7th Laker playoff game against Portland in May 2000. I, too, switched to DTV when local feed were first offered, and have been a happy camper ever since. I pay the same as my next door neighbor per month, only he had digital cable with no premium channels; I have about 150+ channels w/HBO, all digital, as you know. Next week I finally get DSL from PacBell off an RT. In short, I can relate.
Rigas. Clearly the guy lives in a dreamworld. Now he's awoken to his worst nightmare. Maybe the folks around him to put him on suicide watch.
Departure from LA Market. emhinkes has got it right. Its best for Adelphia to unload its LA assets. The fact that Adelphia pulled all adult programming illustrates that the corporation is not maximizing the value of the franchise here. I respect the guy for his morals, but he should leave them at home, or go home. I hope he decides to do the latter. He will make a lot of people in LA happy. | |
|  Lillith6American Girl
join:2001-12-24
New Philadelphia, OH | Quite actually if you live where I live........... You would not have a problem with Adelphia at all. With that said.....I think I will go now.....Bye!
BTW, I have had a few problems but you really ought to look around at what you have to work with and service if it is better go there.
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Do not do what you would undo if caught. | |
| | | here in CS | |
|  MsGeekWe Jam Econo On This Ship, Sailor
join:2001-06-06
Panorama City, CA
 ·Verizon Online DSL
·DSL EXTREME
| Ok, who's next...
1989: the franchise is owned by United Cable Television, the company that put the cable in after literally decades of waiting in this part of the Valley. Cable had come to the East San Fernando Valley only a couple of years prior to that. The West Valley had cable since the 1970s, and the folks living south of Ventura Boulevard in the pricey parts of the Santa Monica Mountains had cable since the mid-1960s. It took a court order to get cable out here.
c.1991 or so: United Cable TV becomes United Artists Cable, owned not by the MGM/UA motion picture studio but the United Artists movie theatre chain.
c.1995?: After a few years of operating as a defacto franchise of TCI, the UA Cable signs finally go down and the TCI signs go up.
March, 1999: Century buys TCI, then Adelphia buys Century. The Adelphia signs go up.
April 5th, 2002: Adelphia announces intentions to sell 50% of its cable franchises, including this little backwater system in the East San Fernando Valley, CA, USA. Fixer-upper, charming, rustic mickey-moused "digital" cable system, priced to sell.
?, 2002: Best case scenario: Adelphia of the East San Fernando Valley sold to Time Warner. Entire Valley under Time Warner, we get Road Runner service, an orderly upgrade plan is drawn up. I saw the Time Warner West Valley upgrade in action...it was like a well-oiled machine. Damn smooth, with updates printed in the Daily News TV book every week.
Worst case scenario: AT&T buys Adelphia of the East San Fernando Valley. Hass family cancels cable service, goes back to rooftop aerials and dialup modem service.
Sucks to be me, doesn't it? 
--
Damn right I'm a web hog! | |
| | JYoungG L 2814
join:2000-06-13
Sherman Oaks, CA | Re: Ok, who's next... Hey, I'm in the same boat. At least I can get DSL though...... | |
| | | | | Re: Ok, who's next... i really dont mind which company buys out adelphia as logn as its one of the following:
cox
time warner/aol
optimum
anyone of these companies are mnore reliable then pos adelphia, and MAYBE they will be able to lay out fiber optic lines withint the next two years, cause we all know that Adelphia sure as hell couldnt do it in southern california. Bottom line: screw adelphia...hope they go down....hope any company gets a good deal on adelphias cable system...and they finsih off the work adelphia started. Ive been waiting for cable in my area for over 3 years and i am just pissed...not dsl/cable available. Only satellite and wireless, both expensive as hell and not worth the price (installtion is liek 300 bux +). Cable is basically my only solution...I would alsop be happy if adelphia stayed in the business as long as they finsihed setting up cable internet in my area cause they are ogign to have to lay out brand new wiring troughout the city so faster connection for me.. | |
| | | |
| Re: Ok, who's next... oh sure just start flamin on adelphia why not flame on your phone company always adelphias fault.
[text was edited by moderator] | |
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| | | | | | JYoungG L 2814
join:2000-06-13
Sherman Oaks, CA | Re: Ok, who's next... said by MsGeek:
I can get DSL...it's just limited because my inside wiring is crappy and old. ('50s vintage) I had GTE (now Verizon) Bronze Plus service which is 768 down/128 up max. Best speed I could manage was 384. It didn't help that my ISP was Flashcom (Rest In Pieces...in Hell!) Flashcom would say it was GTE's prob, GTE would blame Flashcom, and thus would begin an orgy of finger-pointing. I get depressed thinking about that.
At least with cable I can get decent (1.5Mbps and up) speeds, particularly in the morning.
It might be worth it to see about getting a home run wiring to the MPOE installed to a POTS splitter if you try DSL again (I'd suggest DSLExtreme). That way, you can bypass your internal wiring.....
--
If you're wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts, then repeat to yourself "it's just a show, I should really just relax" | |
|
 ztmikeMark for moderationPremium
join:2001-08-02
Michigan City, IN |  @home all over again?
| |
| | | DirecTV Just a note for those who have landlords that will not allow them to install dishes.
You might point the landlord to the FCC site, which has an interesting ruling concernign this. It prohibits landlords from not allowing dish installations, provided when the tenant moves out any damage is repaired. | |
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