I've posted about cord cutting here and elsewhere. I cut the cable cord in the past, and back then it was extremely difficult to receive signals, so I ended up switching companies when a new one came to my area. Now I have a choice of two providers, and neither is ideal. The plans are expensive, and since that's the only portion of my monthly budget that has a little Wiggle room, I'm planning to discontinue my cable television services. It seems that many of the providers these days have a sense of entitlement, as if we owe them our money, regardless of whether our needs are being met. I think they've got some chart showing steadily increasing profits based on constantly increasing prices, and they seem unable or unwilling to realize that customers are not happy with the situation. These companies forget that they exist to serve us, not the other way around. Rather than appreciating our business and wanting to reward us for being loyal, and accepting that perhaps smaller profits are better than no profits, they instead seem to want to punish those who cut back their plans. Based on what I've read in this article, it appears that AT&T is now targeting cord cutters with tiered plans and data caps for home internet, unless high-use customers pay additional fees.Log In
Yes, and the other thing with the cable or satellite based services is that they are always having problems resolving their fees with local community stations. Every year they threaten we will lose local based coverage unless the TV stations agree with their outragesou demands. I am going to complain about this! Believe, me if I could, I would let these satellite services go!
I can recall seeing advertisements in the past about CBS and the Weather Channel. I watch both of those, which is probably why they stuck out in my mind. The company I'm associating with the channels being cut was Dish Network, but I think there may have been something similar with DirecTV, although if that was the case, merging with AT&T may have solved that particular issue. What irritates me is that almost everyone, at least here in the United States, uses the internet and watches television. It seems there should be more than enough profits to go around and make everyone involved happy, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It seems the providers are never happy with their profits, and customers are seldom happy with what they're paying. Most people I know would be happy with paying a reasonable price for the services they need, but the providers seem unwilling to lower their expectations in order to satisfy customers.
I agree they are charging enough for their services, everyone should be happy. I was going to complain to my local station but they are owned by another company apparently. I want to complain to anyone who is in charge of negotiating this deal with Dish TV. However, I am certain there is going to be alot more "passing the buckism." Maybe I can get in on that At&T thing with Direct TV. People dependent on these services need to unite!
They should have more than enough money with the amount they charge for cable to be able to deal with someone cutting the cord. It is definitely a case where the cable companies rule the television world. I would love to be able to cut the cord but I do not pay the bill right now so it is not my decision. I am sure if we did then the internet bill would probably cost just as much as having the bundle. It is a shame that they are allowed to charge such high prices for this.
One thing that irritates me is that they hold us hostage with a few channels. There aren't too many channels that I simply must have, but I really enjoy watching HGTV. I enter a lot of their sweepstakes, and I noticed something interesting yesterday when I was entering one. There's a question they ask , and it's which cable/satellite company do you have, but yesterday, it seemed that the list had been really expanded, and now includes not only Hulu and other similar providers, but also had an option for something like 'I don't have cable television.' I skimmed the list though, and for some reason, I didn't see Sling TV on the list. I'd be happy to have bare bones cable with a few extras such as HGTV and Lifetime, but I have to have my current level of programming, which I can't afford, in order to have those few favorites. I don't watch the majority of the channels I have, but in order to get a few, I can't cut my plan. Even moving down one level would only save me $3/month, and I'd lose those channels. The companies don't seem to care that many these days are cutting the cord out of necessity, and would be happy to stay, if the providers would provide reasonable alternatives.
I also like to watch HGTV on cable. I don't pay the cable bill which is includes the internet.Some of the shows I look at on cable are also on Youtube or I can get the series from the library, I ved for years without cable but I do have to have the internet for work, I have thought of getting a broadband 2 go for use in the house because the internet gets very slow at times.
They have been trying this forever. If they do it, new providers will pop up and blow them out of the water. They know they have to keep a monopoly to keep the cash flow going, and once people catch on to how fully rooted their model is in greed, they will get kicked to the curb, mark my words.
The easiest way to avoid the additional charges is to combine billing for DirecTV and AT&T, if you have them both and are not a *new* customer to DirecTV. The rate changes will begin in May 2016 and could be up to $100 in overages for uploading and downloading data on the internet with AT&T. If you don't have DirecTV but just AT&T internet service the best way to avoid any overage costs is through your MyATT.com account - data usage management by setting a cut off limit. This will need to be reset each month after the next billing cycle begins. You should become familiar with MyATT.com because it may save you up to $100 which is the set maximum charge each month for overages. I've spoken with AT&T to get a better understanding of this and was told that each customer will be given a set amount of data usage each month that will be increased beginning in May capped at 250 gigabytes monthly. I hope this helps someone.
