# How to lower your cable and wifi.



## kteas1 (Jan 20, 2018)

After seeing a lot of people talk about the rise in cost for internet and TV, it is usually the people that got a new customer special price that lasted a year and that price now went up.

So call your company and ask, what do I have to do to discontinue your service. They will always ask why you are stopping service. You tell them xyz has a special for new customers that will save me a lot. They will almost always say, oh let me help you. We have some specials that will save you money. They will usually offer you a program that is "a special for new customers", but I can get it for you also. This way you get a new special deal for another year or more. Then when that is ready to expire, call again. 

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## CindyLouWho (Jan 20, 2018)

That used to work with Bright House cable but no way no how with Spectrum, who bought them out. They won't budge.


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## Pappy (Jan 21, 2018)

The day is getting closer that we are going to march into Spectrum, with an arm full of equipment, and say bye, bye. Land line is going this week and cable nearing the end in our house. You just can’t deal with these people and they could care less.


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## Smiling Jane (Jan 21, 2018)

My ISP recently came out with a guaranteed rate for life, which turns out to mean as long as you don't move from where you're living. Anyway, it cost about $2 more per month, but the way they have been raising the rates it's probably less than it would cost next year. Every year I had to go through a ritual where I called their customer service department and listen to them trying to sell me stuff I don't want. "No, I don't want Direct TV. I refuse to give Rupert Murdoch any of my money." I hope I never have to do that again.


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## CindyLouWho (Jan 21, 2018)

Heck, I'll pay $2 more a month for a lifetime rate... sounds like a winner!


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## AZ Jim (Jan 21, 2018)

Most companies have a "retention" dept that will cut your bill to keep the account.


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## CindyLouWho (Jan 28, 2018)

Yes "most" companies do have a Retention Dept, but "not" Spectrum. I just had to call them yesterday, in fact, because my bill went up again, even more now than the initial $30 increase a few months ago. She said it was yet another tax Spectrum had no control over...yeah yeah. She also said Spectrum is a public company with a board of directors etc..whereas Bright House was a privately owned company. 
So no Retention Dept, no promotional deals...nothing but increases every time I go to pay my bill. I understand it's a business but they have zero customer satisfaction skills..pure greed. 
Now the ball is in my court to find another service or go with Amazon fire stick..etc.


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## Pappy (Jan 28, 2018)

Cindy, you are so right. We got a bill for $27.00 standby fee. This is to keep our system up north and will be ready when we go back up to NY. This has always been $15.00 until now. Our cable, bundle, is now $202.00 a month and add the standby fee and it’s right out of sight. We’ve called, begged and pleaded with them to lower our rates. Their answer, so to speak, tough sh—.


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## CindyLouWho (Jan 28, 2018)

Exactly! Sh-- out of luck. The girl I spoke with has worked there forever for BH and now Spectrum and she agrees it's totally different now. No matter how many CS reps you talk to, spiel is the same.... they've trained them well...like talking to robots, clones of each other. Sigh.


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## Ruthanne (Jan 28, 2018)

kteas1 said:


> After seeing a lot of people talk about the rise in cost for internet and TV, it is usually the people that got a new customer special price that lasted a year and that price now went up.
> 
> So call your company and ask, what do I have to do to discontinue your service. They will always ask why you are stopping service. You tell them xyz has a special for new customers that will save me a lot. They will almost always say, oh let me help you. We have some specials that will save you money. They will usually offer you a program that is "a special for new customers", but I can get it for you also. This way you get a new special deal for another year or more. Then when that is ready to expire, call again.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


I did that 5 times and got the same answer--"you already have our lowest price for what you get."  They have gotten to the point where they only want the customers that will spend a lot with my cable co.


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## Ken N Tx (Jan 28, 2018)

I use a local broadband service for internet $60 a month and Amazon Firestick (no monthly fee) for TV.Amazon Prime for movies.


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## Ruthanne (Jan 28, 2018)

Ken N Tx said:


> I use a local broadband service for internet $60 a month and Amazon Firestick (no monthly fee) for TV.Amazon Prime for movies.


What all do you get with the firestick for TV Ken?


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## Ken N Tx (Jan 28, 2018)

Ruthanne said:


> What all do you get with the firestick for TV Ken?


Many many channels of free movies, search YouTube to see some..


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## C'est Moi (Jan 28, 2018)

It's a streaming device like the Roku, Ruthanne.


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## Ruthanne (Jan 28, 2018)

C'est Moi said:


> It's a streaming device like the Roku, Ruthanne.


Yes, I know.  I can get a roku service with my tv but not sure if I HAVE to pay for it. One company asks for money for it.  I know I have to pay for the firestick but the service is another thing.


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## C'est Moi (Jan 28, 2018)

Ruthanne said:


> Yes, I know.  I can get a roku service with my tv but not sure if I HAVE to pay for it. One company asks for money for it.  I know I have to pay for the firestick but the service is another thing.



Some of the streaming channels are free, like PBS and the Roku channel.   (Of course you have to have internet connectivity with streaming speed.)   The Firestick is just a plug-in device like a Roku, so if you want "premium" streaming you do have to pay, such as Netflix, Hulu, etc.   

If you have Amazon Prime you can stream stuff from there with the Firestick, but you can also stream Prime media with other devices.


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## Happyflowerlady (Jan 28, 2018)

We cancelled our DirecTV, and just kept internet, and when the television quit, we replaced it with a smart TV, which gets Netflix, Youtube, and more other channels that we have not even checked out yet. 
We actually watch almost everything on our ipads, and seldom even use the television anymore, anyway; so dropping the payment for direcTV makes a lot of sense for us. 
After I cancelled , DirecTV kept calling me every day (sometimes more than once) trying to talk us into continuing the service. One sales person even offered to send out a technician to fix our television that had died !  We get advertisements from Comcast almost every week; so I think that the cable and satellite companies are having a hard time competing with things like Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.


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## kteas1 (Jan 31, 2018)

Give it a year. 5g coming out wireless. I know it's for your phone not Tv, but the speed increase and bandwidth is going to be a game changer. Difference between 4g and 5g on paper is 100x. That in theory means the time it takes you now to download a song on your phone, you will be able to download 100 songs. If you get unlimited data on your phone, you can use chromcast and cast movies from your phone to your TV. Also called mirroring. Most newer TV 's have mirroring built in.

So what's the extra bandwidth mean? Remember our old phone bills? Local, out of area, and long distance. Today instead spending 20.00 because you talked to an out of state relative for an hour, you can talk for hours free. 5g is a wifi technology that's going to really put pressure on cable companies. They will have to get competitive, and better quality. Verizon used have Verizon fios. Verizon must see the future, they have been selling off all of their wired service. Frontier fios has been buying a lot of it. I think Verizon sees what 5g is going to do to them. 

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## Seeker (Feb 4, 2018)

We had dish for years and just recently ditched them and went with Hulu streaming, so far it's working out. The only thing is if you watch the current stuff you got to watch commercials. Not so bad on the older shows. We also hooked our computer up to the TV, and can watch You Tube and you can get lots of live streaming on You Tube. We are pretty much hooked into our local phone company for internet,living as rural as we do.


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## Camper6 (Feb 4, 2018)

So. Lots of suggestions. But how much do you pay? I asked for the skinny package and I pay $30 a month. Internet is another $45 cell phone another $50.

Plenty of channels and 2 tablets.

Roku and all that streaming stuff just confuses me.


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## HipGnosis (Feb 5, 2018)

I don't pay for any TV cable (et all).   I have a DVR that records broadcast (aka Over the Air) channels.   The DVR was a couple hundred dollars, but it has more than paid for itself.  I can watch 'live TV', but almost never do, so I can skip thru the ads. Hour long shows are only 30 mins of 'show'.  An exception was the super bowl, which I FFwd'd thru the game and watched the ads!!. 
My internet is $10/mo (AT&T senior / low-income plan) and my cell phone is $10/mo on RedPocket.

HipG


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## Seeker (Feb 5, 2018)

Camper6 said:


> So. Lots of suggestions. But how much do you pay? I asked for the skinny package and I pay $30 a month. Internet is another $45 cell phone another $50.
> 
> Plenty of channels and 2 tablets.
> 
> Roku and all that streaming stuff just confuses me.



I pay 39.99 for hulu 49.99 for internet and 28.00 for land line (have to have for internet). I don't carry a phone other than an emergency bo-bo  pay by minutes 30.00. Still better than what I was paying with dish.


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## Camper6 (Feb 5, 2018)

HipGnosis said:


> I don't pay for any TV cable (et all).   I have a DVR that records broadcast (aka Over the Air) channels.   The DVR was a couple hundred dollars, but it has more than paid for itself.  I can watch 'live TV', but almost never do, so I can skip thru the ads. Hour long shows are only 30 mins of 'show'.  An exception was the super bowl, which I FFwd'd thru the game and watched the ads!!.
> My internet is $10/mo (AT&T senior / low-income plan) and my cell phone is $10/mo on RedPocket.
> 
> HipG



If you have stations you can receive over the air, that's the only way to go. That was the original intent of television broadcasting.

Cable only came to areas that could not receive any over the air stations.

But if you live close to stations you can receive that's the most affordable way to go.  Except for the T.V. set and a reliable antenna it's basically free television.


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