Learning to Love the Cable Guy 291
An anonymous reader writes "The New York Times and C|Net are reporting on new good will gestures from big cable companies. As service monopolies increasingly became the norm, quality of service began to decline across the board. Now, though, with a number of alternatives cropping up, cable companies are beginning to realize the need to ensure customers say with the often imposing service companies." From the article: "[As] service has improved slowly as satellite providers, upstart phone carriers and cell phone companies have provided attractive alternatives. And now that cable and phone companies are starting to sell similar bundles of phone, broadband Internet and television products--known in the industry as a triple play--they risk losing subscribers forever if they do not keep them happy."
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:5, Interesting)
And frankly, I'd like that option too.
Since Verizon has been adding cable TV to their FioS service, it is looking like a much better alternative to Cablevision/Optimum Online. Verison's phone and internet is already available on FioS in my area, and as soon as TV is there I'm probably going to switch. Hooray for competition!
=Smidge=
I can save at least $30 a month going to dish (Score:3, Interesting)
A shame cable's fixed costs are so much higher than sucking a signal down from the sky, I don't see how they'll compete on price.
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:5, Interesting)
And this just proves it. (Score:4, Interesting)
I think that the same can be extrapolated for Microsoft, don't you?
Re:Cox cable (Score:3, Interesting)
Should I phone the service desk, or write them a letter? What result should I ask for?
Larry is unique among cable guys (Score:0, Interesting)
BR. Larry, with his can-do-and-do-it-quickly attitude is rather unique among cable guys. I remember 15 calls over much of a year to get the cable company to BURY the cable that snaked over the surface of the front lawn. The calls were always answered with "We'll do it by Friday".
Re:Cox cable (Score:3, Interesting)
Soudns almost exactly like a problem I had with Comcast when I first moved into my house. The previous owners used a dish for TV, and since the house is just out of DSL range I have to assume they used dialup for an internet connection. That's relevant because when I moved in I switched everything over to cable (cable TV, cable internet, screw the phone line). During the day, the cable connection was rock solid. Which was useless to me, since I work during the day. During the night, the cable internet connection (but not TV!) would go out as it cooled down. After 8 tech visits, three cable modems, and four months a tech finally thought to check the line at the street. Turns out there was some water damage (rust!) that caused an intermittent connection. During the warm day it would expand just enough to make a connection, but at night as it cooled down the connection would go away. Apparently it still made enough of a connection for TV to get through, but not for internet. A minute later, he had repaired the connection and left, and I haven't had problems since. This was during the spring, so I can just imagine how bad it would've gotten if they hadn't found the problem by winter.
Temperature-related issues like this can be very hard to diagnose, specifically because the techs will never come out at night. If the issue is caused by cooling temperatures at night and the techs come at 10 in the morning, of course the problem's not going to reproduce. I just had to keep getting them to send out techs until I got one that actually knew a thing or two.
In your case, the damage may have been farther up the line, especially if the entire neighborhood had the same problem. In that case, the only thing you can do is to get your neighbors to call in and complain as well. It's like a power outage. If only one person calls in, they're not going to do anything. If three people call in, they might be able to triangulate the position of the problem and think about fixing it. If hundreds of people call in, they know they have a problem and a tech will be immediately dispatched. So, when you have problems like this, call! And get your neighbors to call! If you don't, the service company isn't going to give a crap because you're not making any noise.
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:3, Interesting)
The cable companies are already simulcasting several channels as both analog and digital to support "legacy" users who are using no set top box (ie, the analog tuner in your TV). The cable companies could drop these analog channels in many systems pretty much over night, but it would force all the users to either get a set top box for every TV, or go buy new TV's with digital tuners and cable card support. So the cost to this decision would go to the user, rather than the cable company.
I believe the plan is to make everything available in digital and gradually phase out the analog broadcasts to free up the spectrum. The last deadline I heard for analog consumer TV's I heard was 2008, but it either has been or will likely be extended.
Cable Card is the technology that will allow it all to happen, you will be able to bring along your own consumer set top or tuner and just plug in a unique card that will allow you to decode the channels you pay for. Even MS has a Cable Card license so even Media Center will be able to pull down all the channels you subscribe through the tuner rather than just analog channels before.
Re:Is the cable service TERRIBLE everywhere? (Score:2, Interesting)
I called them. Politely. They said they were coming.
An hour later I called them again, slightly irritated. They said they were coming.
A half hour later I called them and let loose the damnation of hell. In ten minutes the area supervisor was in my driveway with "presents" under his arm. A digital box for upstairs and a new (faster) cable modem for half price (and the service for the same price I was paying). For about a month I was singing their praises.
Mid last year they had a promotion where current satellite customers could trade in their equipment and get a free PVR. I've been a customer of theirs for ten years or more. I don't have a freaking PVR. I called them up and explained that when I switched "this" house it had been from satellite to cable and because of my long-standing account with them I would appreciate it they would even give me a DISCOUNT on a PVR. I was basically told to sit on it and rotate.
Last month I noticed my speed increased and my bandwidth cap increased. I thought "YAY!" Then a month later I get a letter from them in the mail telling me that if I wanted to KEEP the new speed and the new bandwidth cap I would have to pay them more money otherwise they would happily revert me to what I had before for the same price. But the KICKER is that they billed this price increase as the result of an increase in expenses. So if it costs more to operate my service, why can you still afford to give me the SAME service I had for the SAME price if I choose to go back?
Up here in Ontario it's either Rogers or Bell. And as far as I'm concerned they're both a pack of untrustworthy a*******.
Re:Fu**ing Adelpha and the Lies (Fixed Post) (Score:3, Interesting)
I have a SA 8300HD (running the Passport OS, which is supposed to work better than Scientific Atlanta's SARA OS).
In nearly three months of having the box, it's only crashed 3-4 times total -- and never when I was actually watching something (only when I was wasting my times on the stupid card games or surfing channels).
They recently updated the firmware to support the eSATA port as well.
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't have 11 favorite channels. I have two. (There were three before TechTV bit the dust.)
A la carte would be a nice option for people like me.
Re:Too little, too late. (Score:3, Interesting)
But on the other hand, I recently got my hands on Animaniacs vol. 1 on DVD and watched it all and realized it was even funnier than I remembered. It had a lot of the silly slapstick violence you had from any classic Looney Toons cartoon, but it also had jokes that were actually witty and actually required some knowledge of politics/religion/classic film/literature/etc. When I turn on Saturday morning cartoons now, all I see is overtly politically correct shows that just lack the same degree of intelligence. Not only that, but people STILL complain that cartoons are way too violent for little kids, but apparently forgotten just how violent and risque Looney Toons and Tom and Jerry were (In fact, watching some of these now, I notice they censored out jokes about suicide, blackface, etc.)
Network TV is pretty much the worst offender. All I ever see is the same old sitcoms, repackaged with fresher celebrity jokes. (We've moved on from Michael Jackson jokes to Tom Cruise, people!) News programs that have less news in them than what I can read on the back of a box of Froot Loops. Reality shows... let's not even go there. And let's not forget the commercials which insult your intelligence, treating you like a God damn child, with lies so obvious a 10 year old could see through them. As a side note, if I see a commercial for one more police/court drama show, I'm going to scream. Look, every network doesn't need 10 of their own versions of CSI.
I'm biased, I must admit, but this is essentially the reason I pretty much just leave my TV on Cartoon Network when I'm not using it to watch a DVD or play a console. It's the only station that still does come out with some pretty amazing stuff (it still has its fair share of crap, but that's to be expected). For a "kid's channel," The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is more than a little morbid and adult, and late night action shows like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex actually make me feel like the writers aren't talking down to me to get that lowest common denominator.
Still, it makes me wonder if the young kids today are going to be having this same conversation in 20 years. "Boy, back when I was a kid, we had GOOD shows. I remember waking up 8am everyday to catch *Whatever the Hell FOX plays in the morning*, not like the trash you little brats watch on your smell-o-visions."
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:2, Interesting)
Here is one, how do they filter the analog channels you don't subscribe to at each home? The analog package "basic cable" tends to be all or nothing for a reason. When you get into digital channels they _can_ do a la carte (HBO, Showtime, playboy etc.) but they chose to offer non-premium digital channels in packages. They bundle digital channels in packages mostly for marketing and billing reasons, once the analog channels go away they may offer an all-out a la carte system but until then the cons outweigh the pro's.
The DBS carriers could probably do la cart as well, but also choose not to. If they ever did offer it, it would probably be by request-only, where they mail you a card with boxes to check off. Billing for the service would also be confusing because the per channel cost would probably be cheaper for 100 channels than it would be for 4 because they couldn't realistically make money charging you $2.50/month, combined with the fact that licensing fees are more expensive for certain channels than others. Would they start with a base price of like $20/mo? Do they waive it if you have more than a certain amount of channels selected? Figuring out the pricing structure would be outside the skill level of most consumers, and impractical to go over on the phone with a sales or billing agent. One thing to consider as well is that the channels you are least interested in tend to cost less, so not much money is saved by you getting rid of them.
The upshot of this is that ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Too bad that the FCC doesn't understand something so basic to any economy. Somebody in law enforcement really should take a look at the Commissioners' bank records for the past few years.
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:5, Interesting)
You're still paying for them, though.
I very highly doubt that. I have C-Band satellite (the huge dish type) without a paid subscription except for Comedy Central, SciFi and Cartoon Network.
Despite not having a subscription to the religious or shopping networks, I can get them, even if all my subscriptions lapes, they still come through. That type of channels are unencrypted, meaning that I don't have to buy a subscription to watch them. I doubt that the cable systems are giving those networks any money.
Re:Cox cable (Score:3, Interesting)
I had a similar experience here a few years ago when I moved in and [my] local cable company came to hook things up. Turns out that one of their local competitors had done some really shoddy wiring - using sub-spec connectors and hard bends (the coax was visibly crimped at two points where it didn't need to be) and after they pulled new cable thru it actually exceeded the promised specs [ "oh, we need to have the office slow this down some" - they never did]
If the cable installer doesn't do a bandwidth test from inside the house or apartment, at the connection on the wall, ask them to do so, in front of you. There are quite a few people I do tech support for in this area who have been screwed that way. It should be "from the pole to your wall outlet" and not "from the pole to your house/building".
I chewed on the local Qwest telephone installer for a similar problem - "we aren't responsible for the telephone lines inside your building" - despite the south wall of my apartment being where the main box is located, eight feet from the wall outlet. I ended up pulling that wire myself, took me about ten minutes. Bullshit. Service is service. Provide it, or don't. If it's a large apartment building and you have a long and problematical run, call the landlord and arrange something with him or her and their maintenance personnel (if they don't have any, move the hell out! *g*). But it's service to the wall outlet or not-gonna-pay-you.
I'm the (only) maintenance person for a mid sized apartment complex (56 apartments, 7 buildings) and while I'm willing to accomodate installers who have special problems - ie, they have to get into another apartment in order to run cabling thru or they need a hand pulling cable, or access to locked closets or even tearing up some sheetrock - fine - but I have no patience with the lazy ones who won't run new cable because it means they won't get their job orders filled today and they think the customer won't notice. Bah. Sorry, but I've heard it enough from one company out here (fortunately not from the other, and guess which one I recommend to tenants?)
They are contracted to deliver service to the wall jack. That's what they should deliver. *
Sorry for getting a bit feisty, just had to bitch a bit. I have lots of that stored up. Years worth, to be honest
But I'll say that Midcontinent Communication's installers are fantastic for the most part, and PrairieWave's ain't, for those of you living in this part of the "western midwest". Kudos to those who are doing their jobs. Speaking as a maintenance grunt, it's damned nice to deal with you when you want to get the job done right, and not waste your time nor mine.
SB
*Only answer I have for if they don't involves large clubs and midnight visits
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Too little, too late. (Score:2, Interesting)
Good. The faster "content" goes away, the faster something really good can take its place. The industry definition of content is "noise that keeps the intervals between commercials from being test patterns." Creative talent is not and will never be a commodity.
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:1, Interesting)
That is perfectly legal under Hungarian law, as I'm not uploading anything, so _technically_ it is not me who copies things, so the one who commits copyright infringment. Moreso, I'm ethically perfectly comfortable with the situation, as generally my view about copyrights is the total abolishment or opt-in limited term of 3 years and on patents the total abolishment or 2 years in the worst case, to put most things into public domain in my lifetime.
Since the law here distinguishes between computer programs and videos/music, I'm legally not allowed to download and use any computer program of my choice. That is not a problem however, since I use free software exclusively.
The nice high quality dvdrips of House were a fun addition to my last two weeks.
Oh you say I don't support the creation of content I enjoy? That's true, but neither do you. You pay the fee for the distribution of the content - the copyright fee. There is a huge difference. I don't support the creation of the content I enjoy only because I _can't_, because the studios didn't set up a way to do that.
Since
a.) I'm perfectly legal in doing what I'm doing
b.) Ethically I consider the right thing to do is not to pay a dime for the right to share information
Inevitably someone will think, "you're so anal about it! Your ideas are just not workable!". I have this to say to them:
Guess what, corporations are anal about it too! They have non-workable (as-in collidying with natural laws) ideas, and they are trying to push their agenda to do that. They are taking advantage of every loophole and they are buying legislation. What my ideas constitute of, worked for hundreds of years before, and with the advent of the information sharing technologies (Internet, etc) I only advocate returning to what makes sense from an engineering/physical standpoint.
The favorite technique of radicals is to move the ideas damn far from the center, then use a proxy to bash the target for not willing to compromise, then graciously accept a "compromise", which is in reality the radical idea what they wanted to achieve in the first place. Then they repeat the process. Corporations use this technique skillfully, so the only defense is to stick what you believe in and don't listen to the silly people who want to reach a compromise, because only you lose. Anything more than very short term opt-in copyright is not good enough. I can't compromise without compromising my beliefs and stand on the issue. [badanalogyguy] It would be like the opponents of death penalty reaching a compromise if the state changes the type of execution method used [/badanalogyguy].
Re:Be careful what you wish for... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd rather pay more for things that I want and enjoy than continue to support mediocrity. Hell, that might be the only way to get rid of Fox News.
I'd also like for the cable channels to see what would happen to their demographics if they moved to a more free-market system. Would they improve their programming to appeal to a broader audience? Or would they go pandering ("Hey everybody! More T&A on CNN!")?
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:3, Interesting)
Exactly. Moreover, this might or might not be legal.
A year or two ago, when Dish Network and Viacom talks broke down, Dish Network pulled all the Viacom channels. [slashdot.org] They eventually settled, but one of Echostar / Dish Network's biggest bargaining chips was a pending lawsuit claiming that Viacom was engaged in monopolistic trade practices. Namely, as the sole provider of products such as Comedy Central, Viacom has a "copyright" enforced monopoly. In order to carry Comedy Central, Echostar also must purchase less popular stations and include them in their packages. Per the Monopolistic and Restrictive Trade Practices act, a company cannot withhold access to one product that has a monopoly to force sales of other products.
This lawsuit was dropped when Echostar and Viacom settled, so this has never been tested in court. (Maybe the court would find that copyright cannot produce a monopoly covered by the MRTP act. Maybe not.)
Anyways, Congress has looked at forcing cable ala carte [slashdot.org] before. That was probably just a PR stunt, or the entertainment industry hadn't fully paid off McCain that year.