i'll miss you fake tivo
january 09, 2005 @
14:26
link
Sometime around the first of the year Time Warner raised cable rates for their customers in the metro area and it makes no sense to me. I would assume that if you keep growing your customer base, eventually economies of scale would dictate that prices would go down. It's not like they have to hire another dude in a cable van every time they add a new customer or something. They come to your house, they hook up some wires, and then they send you bills until you die. Simple enough, right? Shows what I know.
I had seen the notice in my last bill that the rate increase was coming and I thought it was lame so I called their customer service line and kinda yelled at them for a few minutes. Their response was basically "bite me", which is pretty much what I expected. They must have known I have a giant tree in my backyard that prevents me from putting up a satellite dish, thereby forcing me to sign-on with either Time Warner or one of the other cable providers in my area OH WAIT THEY'RE THE ONLY ONE. Funny how that works.
So last week we get our first bill under the new rate plan. It's over seventy effing dollars. OUCH. Sure, sure, we have the fake tivo thing and 200 channels we don't watch and 500 music channels we don't listen to - all required in order to get the fake tivo box - but seriously, it's JUST TELEVISION. How can any of that be worth $72.83 or whatever it was?
Short answer: it's not. Long answer: it's not.
I'm going to call again tomorrow and 're-discuss' what my options are as far as keeping the fake tivo thing (which I love) and bringing my rates down to a tolerable level. (Reminder: everything is negotiable.) My hunch is that the Bite Me Administration will still be in power, however, and I'll have to stick it to The Man and cancel my service. Well, not totally cancel it, but at least roll it back to the $12/mo 'lifeline' plan that we normally downgrade to in the summer. (Full disclosure: now that the Wolves are on Ch 45 all the time, it's not really that big of a sacrifice.)
Stay tuned for updates.