ftthzIf love can kill hate can also save join:2005-10-17 |
ftthz
Member
2007-Feb-21 9:05 am
thought that competition would lower prices... guess I was wrong | |
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| ChiyoSave Me Konata-Chan Premium Member join:2003-02-20 Salisbury, NC
1 recommendation |
Chiyo
Premium Member
2007-Feb-21 9:10 am
Re: thought that competition would lower pricesEveryone (cable and telco) knows that people will pay so they continue to raise rates, every year we bitch and moan about prices but did any of us quit using high speed internet or cable TV? | |
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1 recommendation |
Re: thought that competition would lower pricessaid by Chiyo:Everyone (cable and telco) knows that people will pay so they continue to raise rates, every year we bitch and moan about prices but did any of us quit using high speed internet or cable TV? not much you can do when there is no choice; I can only get cable for broadband - no dsl, no fiber, no BPL, no wireless. and it's pretty clear from the rate increases that two wireline cable TV competitors isn't going to discipline prices. all in all, broadband and TV pretty fvked up in the U.S. | |
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| | | en102Canadian, eh? join:2001-01-26 Valencia, CA |
en102
Member
2007-Feb-21 6:09 pm
Re: thought that competition would lower pricesIt's time to go back to rabbit ears. All companies will charge as much as people are willing to pay (market will support), or as much as they can competitively get away with. | |
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| | MaxoYour tax dollars at work. Premium Member join:2002-11-04 Tallahassee, FL 1 edit |
Maxo to Chiyo
Premium Member
2007-Feb-21 9:50 am
to Chiyo
said by Chiyo:did any of us quit using high speed internet or cable TV? I lowered my internet connection speed and had my cable TV disconnected within the last couple months. | |
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dr3yec
Member
2007-Feb-21 11:06 am
Re: thought that competition would lower pricesI havnt paid for tv in 10 years. This the exact reason why. Well and of course terrible analog signal. I will stay with my free to air satellite. There prices are much better. Comcast can jump off a bridge before I will ever pay them for tv. | |
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1 recommendation |
to Maxo
said by Maxo:I lowered my internet connection speed and had my cable TV disconnected within the last couple months. Comcast also raised rates in Oregon so I cancelled my service, then went to Circuit City and bought a tv tuner card and antenna. Even though I miss Comedy Central and the Sci Fi channel I'm already happy with my decision because I never realized that almost all of the shows I watch are network anyway. | |
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1 recommendation |
bobb cobb
Anon
2007-Feb-21 6:54 pm
Re: thought that competition would lower pricesSame here. I would rather watch hdtv over the air with rabbit ears than compressed cable. | |
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| | | | | antdudeMatrix Ant Premium Member join:2001-03-25 US |
antdude
Premium Member
2007-Feb-22 1:42 am
Re: thought that competition would lower pricessaid by bobb cobb :
Same here. I would rather watch hdtv over the air with rabbit ears than compressed cable. Same here, but I had to buy a bowtie antenna (3o miles) since rabbit ear type was too weak. | |
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| | | dvd536as Mr. Pink as they come Premium Member join:2001-04-27 Phoenix, AZ |
dvd536 to Maxo
Premium Member
2007-Feb-21 10:13 pm
to Maxo
So did I but not because my provider[cox] jacked up hsi $5 but because i wasnt getting what i was paying for. | |
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| frankenfeet934 is 10-8 Premium Member join:2001-10-14 Smiths Grove, KY |
to ftthz
Competition only works when the competing companies aren't in cahoots to raise prices. | |
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| ChiyoSave Me Konata-Chan Premium Member join:2003-02-20 Salisbury, NC ·Hotwire Communic..
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to ftthz
"not much you can do when there is no choice" we don't need cable TV or HSI it's a luxary that we choose to pay for but if I had my way I'd still pay because A. I use it for work and B. I like it so I keep it but I mean if it came down to it I would get rid of it or force my work to pay for my monthly cost | |
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| mglunt join:2001-09-10 Fredericksburg, VA |
to ftthz
Verizon for me is saving me about $10 vs what I was paying for DTV. Depends on their franchise fees etc which I was told were around $3. - I have not gotten a first bill yet.
It seems I snuck in before the price jump to $42.95 as my online account still says $39.95. Hopefully it stays that price for the yr contract.
Anyway... VZ should be lower than DTV and Cable for at least the first few years.
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to ftthz
said by ftthz:... guess I was wrong Heh, no comment there... I said that competition doesn't mean squat. If it did, satellite TV would have already taken over cable. But they haven't, and can't, and cable still has majority. You know the cableco's have their stock invested where it needs to be, including in the competitions pocket too. Do you really think the cable providers are worried? You think in the short term losses and gains, but in reality, big companies play their stock interests in other companies as a way to "get by" when revenue or competition is a threat. It's like chess too, one company waits, see's how far the other one goes till they think it's safe, then they rebound with something to compete against the newbie. If you look at how long it took for Comcast to get as big as it is, you will see that the number of people FiOS is taking in is very minimal compared to the daily take cable has. | |
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to ftthz
As long as customers 'need' certain channels then they have us over the barrel.
Espn is most expensive of the basic tier.
We need alternatives. The IDIOT cable companies need to band together and form another low cost sports channel. | |
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to ftthz
Comcast raised their rates 4% (WashingtonPost.com)! FIOS raised theirs 7.6%, which is almost TWICE as much as Comcast! RCN raised it by 15%!
How about some TRUTH in repoting BBR?
In fact, which "reporter" at BBR wrote this one-sided article? Apparently, misinformation is clearly their mission and, of course, bashing Comcast NOT FIOS! | |
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Re: The Usual BBR B.S.!said by kyramilan:Comcast raised their rates 4% (WashingtonPost.com)! FIOS raised theirs 7.6%, which is almost TWICE as much as Comcast! RCN raised it by 15%! How about some TRUTH in repoting BBR? In fact, which "reporter" at BBR wrote this one-sided article? Apparently, misinformation is clearly their mission and, of course, bashing Comcast NOT FIOS! Well, regardless of the percentage, they are pointing out that the rates did not turn to the expected, which is lower. I know there is a sports tier I have seen mentioned, which gives you the choice to opt out for the majority of the sports channels, but I think ESPN is part of a contract for the provider (Disney). Oh well, it's the media companies job to allow cable to separate the channels they are allowed to sell (a la carte them). They are the ones who say "we will allow you to transmit us if you transmit these other channels too, and make sure this channel comes before this one, etc...". I've said this before, but the contracts for channels are rediculous. For example, CNN requires the provider to put CNN before HNN in the channel lineup. They don't care where you put it, just so long as CNN appears first in the expanded cable lineup. I imagine not ALL providers are bound to this requirement, but I do know Comcast is. I just use that as an example of some of the "retarded" requirements in the contracts. | |
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to ftthz
Competition will lower prices, it always does. The problem is we haven't seen anything akin to real competition yet. As long as the operators are able to do things like force bundling on their customers and are required in many instance to enter into local franchise agreements that dictate many of there services, true competition is a long way off.
As long as Viacom, TimeWarner and other content providers are able to require that the "cable" operators carry all their stations and some pin head politician can dictate their deployment models, we're still consuming within a highly regulated and non-competetive environment. | |
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Irun Man Premium Member join:2002-10-18 Millsboro, DE
1 recommendation |
Irun Man
Premium Member
2007-Feb-21 9:20 am
yawn...Nice to know hell hasn't frozen over yet. | |
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NightfallMy Goal Is To Deny Yours MVM join:2001-08-03 Grand Rapids, MI |
Rates are going up across the board.Directv just raised their rates. Comcast rates are going up. Seems everywhere you look more and more subscription based services are raising their rates. Competition is good and so is having choices when it comes to DSL and Cable. I just wish the prices were a wee bit lower. | |
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Re: Rates are going up across the board.Maybe if you complained to Viacom, and the other media giants, you'd see lower rates. They rise yearly due to these people, and franchise fees, but mostly these people. | |
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JTRockvilleData Ho Premium Member join:2002-01-28 Rockville, MD |
It takes more than 2 to make a competitive market.Hopefully we'll have a competitive market one day. 'Till then, get use to high prices. | |
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MoracCat god join:2001-08-30 Riverside, NJ |
Morac
Member
2007-Feb-21 9:26 am
Again? | |
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| JTRockvilleData Ho Premium Member join:2002-01-28 Rockville, MD |
Re: Again?Your news item was about NJ prices. This one is about VA/DC/MD. So it looks like you'll only get one increase this quarter. | |
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| | MoracCat god join:2001-08-30 Riverside, NJ |
Morac
Member
2007-Feb-21 9:56 am
Re: Again?I know, but it doesn't seem like Comcast is taking FIOS all that seriously. They should be. | |
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| | | nozzer join:2004-06-25 Winchester, MA |
nozzer
Member
2007-Feb-21 10:17 am
Re: Again?Verizon are a big fat stupid company. On this basis alone, they are unlikely to provide true competition.
I want to be able to choose what channels i want. Theres an awful lot of garbage channels, and they need to stand on their own 2 feet, rather than be subsidized by the more successful ones. | |
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| | | JTRockvilleData Ho Premium Member join:2002-01-28 Rockville, MD |
to Morac
said by Morac:I know, but it doesn't seem like Comcast is taking FIOS all that seriously. They should be. I dunno Morac . Comcast is making money hand-over-fist, and that's what they're in business to do. Why on earth would they change a formula that's proven to work? | |
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| | | | MoracCat god join:2001-08-30 Riverside, NJ |
Morac
Member
2007-Feb-21 12:15 pm
Re: Again?said by JTRockville:I dunno Morac . Comcast is making money hand-over-fist, and that's what they're in business to do. Why on earth would they change a formula that's proven to work? True, but they've never really had to deal with competition before. I'm not sure they know how to handle that, especially since they were trying to lobby to keep Verizon's TV service out of NJ. | |
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| | | | | JTRockvilleData Ho Premium Member join:2002-01-28 Rockville, MD |
Re: Again?I think they're handling impending competition by gouging customers now. The few who leave for FiOS are barely a drop in the bucket for now - and now is all that matters.
Besides, think how devastating it would have been for FiOS if Comcast had joined the battle armed with satisfied customers. | |
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pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty Premium Member join:2002-05-02 Mount Airy, MD
1 recommendation |
pnh102
Premium Member
2007-Feb-21 9:32 am
Yawn...If its too much money to spend then cancel it. Duh! | |
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1 recommendation |
Don't forget the content providersOf course, broadband pricing is different, but for TV pricing a good part of your monthly fees go to content providers. It's not like HBO, Disney, GE, Viacom, etc. are lowering prices. | |
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Robert Premium Member join:2001-08-25 Miami, FL
1 recommendation |
Robert
Premium Member
2007-Feb-21 9:54 am
Stay in Business..Well how does anyone expect Comcast to stay in business if they don't raise prices? They can't continue to post losses every quarter like they have been doing, they need to raise the prices to stay in business. | |
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b10010011Whats a Posting tag? join:2004-09-07 united state |
customer service cost?What Hajeime wants to get paid 2 cents a day now? | |
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| Robert Premium Member join:2001-08-25 Miami, FL |
Robert
Premium Member
2007-Feb-21 10:30 am
Re: customer service cost?said by b10010011:What Hajeime wants to get paid 2 cents a day now? The few times I've spoken to their CS, they were baed in the U.S. | |
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Time to bring back regulationsIt's VERY clear that the duopoly situation we are in is going to result in massive price increases, because they CAN. A duopoly is NOT free market, it's control of a service. It's high time we force these companies to provide What we want, how we want it. I'm not saying comcast or verizon is to blame though. I blame ABC for forcing them to carry 20 crap channels for every good channel. It's time to re-regulate the MPAA corps, and FORCE them to provide a-la-carte options. I know I would only pay for about 10 channels if I was given a choice, and that would certainly cut my bill by about 75% | |
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| c0de8 join:2004-10-14 Richmond, VA |
c0de8
Member
2007-Feb-21 10:50 am
Re: Time to bring back regulationsI will agree with you on the 10 channels.
But what I would like to see, and I am sure it can be done, if it has not been done already.
I would like to pay for 30 channels, but have to option to swap and interchange those channels on a daily basis, the cable compaines could charge me for haveing my block of 10/20/30+ chanels on a monthly basis, then charge a dollar or whatever each time i wanted to swap a channell. then also maybe have the ability to trial or preview chanells not in your line up.
they would make a killing! and i would be much happier paying for 20 chans of selected content at 19.99 a month than paying for 200 chans of wich i only wathc about 10-20 of, for close to a hundred bucks a month. | |
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to karlmarx
said by karlmarx: I blame ABC for forcing them to carry 20 crap channels for every good channel. It's time to re-regulate the MPAA corps, and FORCE them to provide a-la-carte options. I know I would only pay for about 10 channels if I was given a choice, and that would certainly cut my bill by about 75% LMAO!! Yeah right! You are assuming that if you only ask for 10 channels that they will cut your bill down to 20% (based on a 50 channel basic lineup) ?? You're kidding, right? If ala carte is ever offered, it is going to jack the price per channel up big time. Right now, my area offers 74 standard channels for $49, which comes to about $0.67/ channel per month. The reason it is as low as it is, is because these channels are negotiating based on the number of households in which they are available. If you lower the number of households, you raise the price per channel. If you expect to pay $6.70/ month AND you get to choose WHICH channels you get at that price, you are absolutely out of your mind. Here's how it would play out. Let's say you want ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, ESPN, Comedy Central, A&E, MTV, & VH1. Here's something similar to what you would see on your bill: ABC: $2 NBC: $2 CBS: $2 FOX: $2 PBS: $2 Comedy Central: $4 A & E: $4 MTV: $4 VH1: $4 ESPN: $15 TOTAL: $46 Where's the savings? | |
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cableties
Premium Member
2007-Feb-21 10:49 am
Not just TV..Have you ever used Fedex or UPS? 5+% increases! Fuel Surcharges!
Man...I only saw 3.5% salary increase... | |
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cptmiles2 Premium Member join:2004-04-22 Swayzee, IN |
cptmiles2
Premium Member
2007-Feb-21 10:59 am
Who is the Real Culprit?I am not a fan of big service providers as a whole, but they are just one of the players. The real culprit is the programmers like Viacom, MTV, and especially Disney/ESPN. The programmers are doing everything in their power to keep a la carte out of the market and doing it quite effectively. If a carrier even hints they are going to try a la carte ESPN threatens to pull all their programming. As a cable company you become pretty unattractive without ESPN...so we keep playing the game. I agree that we need regulation, but maybe the regulation needs to be on the programmers.
Everyone is worried that Comcast makes money. Hey, they are in the business to make money. Think of them just like a BP or Marathon (major oil company). They have their internally controlled margins and when their cost of goods sold go up their prices go up. In Comcast's case they are even worse off. They have to deal with 30 or more product (content) providers.
Every time ESPN decides they need another crappy channel on the basic tier or they will pull their contract, somebody has to pay and it's not going to be Comcast.
I disagree with the idea that Comcast is in cahoots with Verizon or any other carrier. If the margins were so wonderful there would be 10 video carriers in every major market. | |
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RideRedVista needs a popup blocker for Vista Premium Member join:2005-06-18 USA
1 recommendation |
RideRed
Premium Member
2007-Feb-21 11:15 am
This is why we need a la carteLet people opt out of ESPN and prices will drop.
A la carte works great for the big dish and prices are WAY lower than DBS and cable because you pay for only the channels you want. | |
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netdogg3 join:2003-02-27 Staten Island, NY |
ComcastI Verizon Fios...I don't understand why TV has not come to NY yet.I'm not happy with the recent Directv price increase. | |
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tmc8080
Member
2007-Feb-21 12:34 pm
fleas with the dogtechnically, just about anything you can pay for on cable will be on the internet for free in the coming days, weeks, months and years.. so big price increases are not in the interest of these companies.. but you getting nicked and dimed.. also yesterday's nickels and dimes are todays $5 and $10s so, slip a few more in the checks that go in the mail.. or download, and tell them to f'off. keep in mind.. until they "HEAR YOU NOW" by canceling the service in droves will they get the message. let's remember, unless your addicted to tv.. you can tell them to stick it at that price. | |
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jgkolt Premium Member join:2004-02-21 Avon, OH |
jgkolt
Premium Member
2007-Feb-21 12:42 pm
%so what percent increase did comcast raise? And what the increase over last years number? | |
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| Trinijoy Premium Member join:2005-09-12 Brick, NJ 1 edit |
Trinijoy
Premium Member
2007-Feb-21 1:49 pm
Re: %10 dollars, here a dollar there. What does it matter anymore? Everyone mostly care about is "Customer service" how well can a customer service agent kiss my ass? That's what most people care about, WOOPS sorry was that TOO straight forward? | |
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mdtvz12
Anon
2007-Feb-21 3:08 pm
comcrap suckshah. Can't believe people still pay comcrap for the shitty service they gettin. About 60 bucks a month for crap analog service. lol. I'm glad I've got Verizon. | |
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ebubman join:2002-01-17 Mechanicsburg, PA 2 edits |
gotcha!ummm, please pardon my french, but they have us by the proverbial b@lls since, by our own fault, we are so addicted to their offerings. we could say "we're mad as hell & we're not going to take it any more"----but i'd probably go into withdrawal without my 6 mbps download surfing speed & 2 hd/dvr boxes. they bill. i pay.
btw, fios NOT available here yet. it's in the next town over. | |
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Rob AAdjusting Premium Member join:2005-01-17 Pompton Plains, NJ |
Rob A
Premium Member
2007-Feb-21 10:10 pm
LOLThey're pretty much begging their customers to switch to fiostv. | |
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thender2Glamour Profession Premium Member join:2004-05-16 Staten Island, NY |
thender2
Premium Member
2007-Feb-22 12:57 am
Is FIOS available where comcast is?No.
Why is this a question?
In 90% of the areas(if not more) where comcast is available, FIOS is not. | |
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