Living With Cable?

We are in the throes of cutting down our cable TV bill and prepared to eliminate it entirely. Seven months ago we called AT&T and told them the cost was too high and we were on a fixed income with rising medical costs and premiums. Thus we knew we had to eliminate at least $50 from our monthly living costs, or better yet, eliminate $100 so we had some wiggle room for the coming 12 months.

They claim they understood. Their bill had been $106/mo but it had shot up unexpectedly to $126/mo. We told them $100/mo including internet hi-speed and some TV cables would work for us, but we preferred if the entire bill could be well under $65/mo. We offered to take a basic cable plan that provided local TV stations and maybe some HD signals. We’d stream over ROKU the programs we wanted to see, even if they were reruns.

The customer service person couldn’t come close to fulfilling our request so we asked that she eliminate the cable service entirely and just maintain our internet service. She transferred us to a special customer service representative whose job it is to retain customers. And he did. We got more service, better service, a land line phone for free, and the bill was guaranteed to remain under $130/mo. You did notice that our objective was ignored and we essentially retained the relationship at a slightly higher cost but guaranteed not to rise for a year.

So we crashed and burned. But wait! It gets worse because our bill has risen to $130.41 for two months in a row and now is coming in at $134.61. So, as I write this Rocky is on the phone with AT&T attempting to reduce the bill or eliminate it entirely. I will keep you posted as the transaction unfolds.

1. She is having difficulty understanding what we want! Pretty clear really; the bill went up when it wasn’t supposed to. Why?  Answer: They agreed! They think we were not informed fully of their increase so they are crediting the account back to the old rate, but that will only be for a month when the new rate takes effect.
2. We asked that we be given a package we can afford. Answer: She didn't have the authority to do that for us. She were transferred us to the Loyalty Department to see what they could do. This is exactly what happened seven months ago; but we will try them again. We are on hold.
3. We have explained that we are on Social Security and cannot afford food, meds and their cable bill. Can they reduce the bill to basic, keep the internet plan, and reduce the cost to $50 or 60 dollars per month? Answer: They couldn’t do that without interrupting our service hugely. They countered with: Remove the land line phone we don’t use, remove a cable maintenance agreement we didn’t know we had, and that would reduce our bill to $85 per month plus taxes. The TV features remain the same. We need to call them just before our contract period ends to work out a new deal price which would include reduction of channels provided. We noted this on our calendar for July 16, 2016.
4. We didn’t need to ask about quitting the service entirely for TV but retain the internet connection. I guess we will cross that bridge when we get to it in July.

We watch TV a lot so we can sleep during nap time. We also use cable to gain HD signal and access to only a few channels, HGTV being the most important one. I know we could eliminate nearly everything and go on a computer access system plus a few local electronic antennas plugged into the TV. With ROKU and those features, I feel fairly certain we can work around cable entirely. The secret is to maintain the computer connection at high speed and fiber optic.

I’ll let you know what happens in July. At some point the cable TV providers have to realize that their services are way too costly and not very much needed. Thinking about it reduces the cost. Really thinking about it eliminates the cost entirely. Kind of a simple decision, don’t you think?

If more of us made this decision, I think the providers would redesign their services and billing plans.  That is way overdue but they are slow to adapt I guess! Or not! They seem to have a good thing going for their bottom line; at least for the time being.

February 26, 2016