Friday, March 23, 2012
Another One Way Contract
I'm one year into a 2 year contract with my satellite TV service and suddenly my bill just increased $8 a month. How is it that they can raise the price but I can't go somewhere else without paying an early termination fee?! These service contracts are totally unfair and in no way reflect a free market system.
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Sunday: We are one day away from cancelling our direct-tv after a two year contract. For the first six months or so, we got a cheap rate; probably about 60 some dollars a month. Then a friend used us as a reference and we got 10 bucks off for 10 months even though the 60 dollar deal had expired. Then we finished off the 10 bucks off special for the friend and our bill jumped to 109 dollars a month. I called them up and put us on the cheapest 'plan' they had right at the same time the rates increase. That's when we decided ENOUGH. Tomorrow, I will gladly call and cancel this service and be done with them. 100 bucks a months of our money back in our bank.
What did we do to replace it? We ordered a HD antennae online (100 bucks) and set it up on the dish pole. Then we set up an old computer to the computer. We have all of the on-demand videos on-line and about 40 local channels. Plenty of tv watching for us as we mostly watch network shows, Comedy Central and a few others that stream live. I think I'm going to put the 1200 dollars a year to good use. Landscaping projects await!
Cheers,
Lisa
When my so called "contract" is over, I'll likely do the same. Streaming media is about to replace these TV provider thieves and it can't come soon enough. Only problem is that the streaming media thieves are using the same tactics which is prompting illegal services to pop up everywhere. Greed is not a good marketing tool. All of these media service providers would be making a fine profit while charging nothing over $50 per month. But somehow they feel entitled to giant profits rather than fair profits. "They" say we feel entitled to service we can't afford. Whatever. Businesses can't survive without customers so let's just try to be fair - OK?
Right.
(I meant that we hooked up a computer to the tv, ha ha.)
I remember when cable first came out. It was reasonable considering the channel offers. Then I combined the internet and tv and paid about 60 bucks which was still an awesome deal. Now, we can't get anywhere near that kind of deal and that is greed, spot on.
I tallied up how many 'hours' of tv we actually watched vs what we paid a month (even for the cheapest) package and it was approaching 3 bucks an hour! And you couldn't chose the channels you wanted. We were given shopping channels, GOD channels and the rest was mostly crap. If you wanted some other channels, you had to upgrade to another 'package' which included a bunch of sports channels that we NEVER watched either.
I'd love to start a movement that gives the people a chance to say, Enough with your Greed. (Oh wait, isn't that the 99% OWS movement?) We want to pick our channels and pay per hour of usage. Now that the internet offers streaming live stations, most people can buy a 350 buck e-computer and get what they want free. We've just saved ourselves 700 bucks a year doing that.
Cheers. Have a great week!
Lisa
Well I just changed my satellite package to save another $12 a month. The only channel I had to give up that I actually do enjoy on occasion is LOGO. I remember adding that package when LOGO had several series I wanted to watch. People who claim we choose to be gay should realize it does costs us extra. No more Ab-Fab for me!
I wanted to give you an update after one week of no satellite tv. We're over the hump. It took a few days to figure out that Google Chrome won't run Adobe flash correctly, so we had to go to Firefox and load Adobe there. All works great. We found some streaming live tv of channels like Current tv that worked out better using Firefox.
What we didn't expect was that Comedy Central's web site has full episodes of Jon Stewart's Daily Show but you are forced to watch the commercials they post on-line. Rats. We really didn't want to watch commercials but with it nearly free, I supposed you have to give up something.
So for 100 bucks, we have HD tv with an old computer (that hubby fixed) and we're 100 bucks richer every month. Yippee!
Lisa
Awesome! Hopefully all this technology will bring prices down.
Well, we're techies so we're on top of what's possible and can find our way around the internet. We can block viruses and keep the nasty ADs off too. Someone like Mother wouldn't bother and would fail trying so they will always have that market. Once the word gets out that you can watch these shows on-line then we're gonna have to fight the tunnel to get there with all of that traffic. It's always something!
Lovely Sunday! Hopefully you're not working. Cheers!
Lisa
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