Thursday, August 03, 2006

Whinning Again

First of all, a Big Thanks to all of you visiting via Dr. John. The back is better today. Now I have something else to whine about, these days but who doesn't? Jimmy has some poker buddies who have cable and/or internet through Comcast. They have complained that the services are not reliable during bad weather. Now I have seen commercials saying that dish services are bad too, but is Comcast really that bad? Jimmy's friends have told him almost everytime the weather is bad their cable or internet goes out. So, the announcement was made the other day that the lone cable provider in Houston, Time Warner, is pulling out. Comcast will be moving in. This all is part of an agreement between the two companies after another bankrupt company was acquired. Time Warner and Comcast have agreed to swap certain markets. Houston is one of them. Of course, this all has to be approved by the feds, and we all know how that will go. So how come Time Warner is still advertizing their "specials"? Why would I want to switch internet providers or phone services to get these "great" rates if Time Warner is leaving? Actually, until I heard this, I was looking into the possibility because SBC(I mean ATT) keeps raising it's rates. Right now SBC(ATT) and Time Warner are battling each other here to gain customers. One has a package deal of phone, internet,tv for one price, one has another package for a different price. So why should I switch everything that I've got to another? I've been complaining lately because my phone bill through which I have internet has gone up over $20/month from approximately $73 to $93. My cable is through TW which has gone up also but is still under $50/mo but just barely. Why is Time Warner wasting ad money if they are not going to be here?

The comments Jimmy's friends made about Comcast's bad service make me worry. I'm apparently not alone. Time Warner customers all over Houston are concerned. Most are concerned about their cable service. Will they have the same program selection and will the costs change? There would certainly be a problem for high speed cable internet since customers would have to change e-mail accounts. Of course neither company is talking. Naturally. I just know that the last thing I want is to have the tv or internet go down everytime a cloud sneezes.

4 comments:

Debra said...

Comcast service really depends. I have friends in another suburb near me who have outages all the time. Me? Never.

They have sattelite connections that do not appear different than cable. Me? It took 5-7 seconds for a channel to change. I quit Dish in 36 hours.

So reactions from people living closest to you are the most accurate. (though I still prefer cable to sattelite).

Thanks for visiting my blog... where did you hear about BlogHer?

Lori's Minute said...

Man, we have the same problem here to the point where I want to cancel cable, internet and phone service so I can save the $200 a month. I t is almost not worth it! I believe each thing should cost like $20 a month which would be a total of $60 a month.....if these companies got that they would keep their customers for a long time.

Cindy said...

geez- we still have nothing but dinosaur dial-up, we are one of only three permanent residences on our road, so the phone lines come across a large field and valley from my brother in law's, to us and from us to across the road to another brotherinlaw. When the wind blows the lines slap together and crack, causing line interference and internet connection loss and frustration and frustration...there's no such thing as cable out here and DSL is priced somewhere out in the stratosphere, if it's available at all. I do know that Sprint has a one pkg deal which you can check out and it includes your phone and dsl for one monthly price of 75 but they don't advertise and you have to ask them specifically- my mom has this deal out near Toledo, Ohio.

Margaret said...

Comcast isn't too awful bad, just expensive and they keep raising rates. The internet is very fast and the channels on cable are better. I have both and haven't had many outages at all. -Margie