Does anyone have a horrible experience to share concerning bundling their internet, cable, and phone? I have heard that it can be a good thing but often can cause issues. I was hoping to get an even balance on this forum. Are there positives to 'bundling'? What are the best and worst features? If cable is not necessary are there instances where it evens out to being almost free or should one go without cable?
I have a bundle with AT&T and my phone, internet and DirectTV total $82 a month. If I didn't have the DirectTV, I would still be paying around $80 a month for my phone and internet, so I think it's worth it for the convenience of paying three low bills in one shot. The only issue I had is that at first, it took a couple of calls to combine my billing. But since AT&T bought DirectTV, the bundling will be an easier process for new customers.
I bundle for the simple reason, it's easier to do. It takes less effort paying one bill off and I have never had any issues, so I don't plan on changing the game plan now. It's funny, I always hear people having issues with technology. I guess I'm lucky? I never have had many issues at all with technology of any kind. All i can think of is when I had a cell phone with telus and one day all my text messages froze, then sent out the following morning. Was wondering why no had texted me that day. Was not happy. Besides that nothing but positive stories from my end.
When I first moved into the home I'm currently in, one of the past roommates had locked the house into a horrible internet/DirectTv bill and contract. She had locked the house into a 2 year contract and a monthly bill that was probably $70-$80 too high. She neglected to look at the fine print of the contract and wound up getting a deal where the price skyrocketed after the initial sign up bonus. After that fiasco, I made sure I was always included when signing up for new contracts with the house.
I Hate Comcast's bundle. I love love love their internet connection, and I do not mind the price. However, I do not like the telephone connection, and I do not exactly like the cable because it cost too much. Most young people use their smartphone. When I move I will make that change as well.
The one thing that's scary about bundling is that you can lose all your services if you miss a payment. Once I noticed that I was having internet problems. I called and said "Is it billing related?" They said if it was billing related, you would have no phone, internet or TV. That's pretty scary ,so I stay on top of that bill.
For many years, Time Warner would basically force you into buying the TV/telephone/internet bundle. They knew most people wanted just the Cable and Internet and were ditching their land lines, so they would basically tell you that if you didn't buy the bundle, then you couldn't get their "discounted" rates on their other two services, so your final monthly bill would be almost the same as if you had just bought the bundle for like $7 or so dollars more. That was totally sleazy on their part since they were blatantly just overcharging me for Cable and Internet now - neither of which were ever that expensive in years prior. I used to pay like $30 per month for cable back in the 2000's, now it's shot up to well over $70 not including the DVR fees and other crap they tack on. I was paying well over $170 per month for Cable and Internet, and that was just their basic Cable package, with hundreds of stupid "channels" I would never watch, and their internet connections were never as fast as they advertised. They would advertise 6mb/s and I rarely got above 1mb/s ever. The only time it would show 6 was if I went to a speed test site, which they were probably purposefully giving me my advertised speed for those, so they can pass the blame off on to someone else.
