There is no way for me to save money on these services. I am bundled with Charter for my tv, landline, and internet. Everyone says it's a good deal but it's getting hard for me to pay it. I've called all over. I can get At&T for more money or I can split my bundle and pay about the same for less. Those seem to be my only choices. We have a child that needs the internet for Virtual School and I have internet projects so we need the stuff with the exception of the landline. I need more options!
Unfortunately you're in a tricky situation. Service providers can only offer you what they have in your particular area, and if you have a low coverage area, there is not a lot you can do. I use to suffer from the same situation at my parents house. Sky was the only provider that was in the area, so we had to settle and put up with it. The internet was really bad quality and we were not happy with the overall service at all. Fortunately in our case, Virgin moved into the area and we were able to get a competitive upgrade straight away. The only thing I can really suggest at this point is you try to haggle as best as possible. Internet and Telephone companies are quite competitive and although they might be the only ones in your area, it does not necessarily mean that they know this. You can try to tell them that you are going to take your business elsewhere and go to one of their competitors. This may help you to get some additional discounts - Always worth a try! Good luck!
Thanks R, I have been trying to haggle, trying to get Charter to bend, just a little but they won't deal. They keep telling me I already have the best deal they offer. Yikes! Imagine having the higher priced package. What is the going rate for the bundle (landline, cable, and internet) in your area? I pay about $120=$125. Maybe not a huge chunk except for us, it is.
Have you looked in to creating a wireless hotspot for yourself through your cell phone? Might be a cheaper option if all you need is internet. Essentially, you'd be paying AT&T or Verizon for a higher data package, and using the 3 or 4G network to access the Internet. You might want to crunch some numbers and see if it is cheaper in the long run. I typically avoid (and never advise people to get) "unlimited" packages on cell phones, because rarely does anyone need that much talk and internet time, but if your entire house was utilizing your cell phone data to access the Internet, this might actually be the best option for you.
This might not be the best advice but have you visited this link yet? -->Log In Try and see if you can pull this one on them. Good luck.
I'm in that awful situation. I had to bribe the guys just to install mine! I'm at their mercy atleast once a month. I work from home too, its the closest thing I can think of that can resemble hell.
We had a problem like this with Century Link. I had our home phone and internet set up through them, and decided we didn't really need the landline phone. I called to have it turned off, and had to continue calling for five months! They never cut off our phone and continued to bill me for those months. I refused to pay it, so finally after running up a $500.00 bill, they cut off everything (internet and phone)! I told them it was their fault because I asked for the service to be disconnected, but that didn't stop them from turning it over to a debt collecting agency. WOW! They were the only provider in our area, until DISH made it available where we live.
I am in a similar situation. We literally only have one option available here. I had no choice but to go with a local internet provider since I use the internet every day for work or school. Luckily it isn't the worst price but I still like to have other options.
If you only have one provider I am sorry but you are in big trouble, as it is known where there is no competition, prices tend to be high and you do not really get the best service. This is applicable to anything in life, for things or people to perform their best, there has to be a competing factor without it, there is always a drag and people slagging behind. Is there no way that you can change it to another plan or try a new payment option that you can afford.
I've been in this situation before and there really is not much of a choice. Gladly now I have multiple choices for my service but back then I just had to tough it out for years. The only option I had then was to get a portable internet router which I guessed would be even slower so I never tested it, but il might have been wrong or it might be different in other areas so I guess it might be worth a try if you are really that much out of options.
Is it possible to just get Internet only with AT&T? If so, you might consider doing NetTalk or Magic Jack for your home phone and Netflix for watching TV shows and movies. That is what we did. I couldn't justify paying all that money when I barely used the landline or watched TV. We stripped it down to Internet only, got NetTalk (which averages out to about $3 per month after initial purchase) and signed up for Netflix (which is $8.75 per month). Internet is just under $50 after taxes and fees are added. In total, that's about half what we were paying and about half what you're paying now. Good luck.
@cinderr Whatever you do, do NOT switch to AT&T. I pay a lot more than you do, just for internet and limited TV. I'm in pretty much the same boat, with only two providers here, and neither is ideal. I had to take the phone off the AT&T because it was way too expensive, and I save some money in that way, but as I said, I'm still paying almost $170/month for just the two services, and I don't have a high end television package. I have a friend who has Charter and he pays about what you pay, and it's the best deal in his area, too. I would suggest looking to see if there's some sort of government, church, or social service assistance to pay for at least the internet portion of the bill, since that's required for your child's schooling. If your child has any type of learning or other disability, that would probably increase the chances of funds being available. If you have close neighbors, perhaps you could work out some deal to where y'all could share some services. I'm about to cut the television off, because I just can't afford what I'm paying.
Unfortunately, there's a lot you can do about it. If you're in a small or rural area, your options are usually pretty limited when it comes to both internet and cable providers. Just the way it is. The bigger city you are in, typically the more options you will have. As is the case with most things. Internet providers are the same way.
You should investigate tethering, which is another option that can be used at a discount. In some cases, acquiring an unlimited data plan for a phone and then using that to tether can be cheaper than purchasing a data plan and a home internet plan together. Alternatively, you can dedicate yourself to using coffee shops, or try to split the internet service with a neighbor if you live in an apartment building.
Nothing good would happen, actually. Monopoly was never the best thing about the economy. Sometimes my provider fails terribly. It makes me want to test others. I've changed my provider numerous times.
This would be a nightmare for me. We just went through 2 internet providers in a very short space of time, but we're now lucky to be with the current provider, whose customer service is fantastic, price not bad and the speed adequate. So you could say it's third time lucky for us I'm just glad that in this country where a lot of areas are monopolised, internet provision is the exception, we really are spoilt for choice. I hope you can find ways around your situations, that will work in your favour
Well over here we have 3 different internet providers, so we aren't really limited to just one ISP. I guess it would really suck if you are stuck with just 1 internet provider, but I guess you really don't have much of a choice if you are.
Our similar case is the cable tv provider. When we moved here in the suburbs, there were 2 cable providers - Sky and Sun - but unfortunately, they are of one company so what can we do but just choose 1 of them. It's unimaginable that until now Sky Cable is the only cable tv provider here so even if the service is not that good and the rate is high (compared to other cities and suburban towns) we are at our cable provider's mercy.
We moved out in the country back in the fall, the only internet service that will work here is a satellite internet that partners along with or satellite TV service. We pay almost $100 a month for sad, pathetic slow internet service. But, what can you do when no one else offers it in your area?
