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People Still Don't Like Their Cable Companies, ConsumerReports' Telecom Survey Finds (consumerreports.org)
Larger cable providers once again take a beating for perceived value -- even when it comes to bundled plans. ConsumerReports: Unhappy with your pay-TV company? You're not alone. Dissatisfaction with the perceived value of pay-TV service was once again high among the 176,000 members who participated in Consumer Reports' latest telecommunications survey. When we asked for feedback on their experiences with pay TV, home internet, home telephone service, and bundled plans, they shared their displeasure. In fact, most of the larger cable companies -- Optimum (Cablevision), Comcast, and Spectrum (Charter, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks) -- earned low scores in multiple categories, settling into the bottom half of the 25 providers in CR's new telecom service ratings.
Only 38 percent of pay-TV subscribers were highly satisfied with their service, meaning they were "very" or "completely" happy with the offerings. Armstrong, a smaller cable company that operates in Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, earned the second-place slot behind Google Fiber, in part due to favorable scores for technical support, reliability, and customer service. Verizon and the two satellite-TV companies -- AT&T's DirecTV and Dish Network -- also rated better than Cox Communications, Comcast, Spectrum, and Optimum.
Top-rated EPB, a municipal broadband service run as a public utility in Chattanooga, Tenn., was one of the few bright spots for internet service. It was the only company to receive a top mark for value. It also got top marks for speed and reliability. Google Fiber was a close second in the ratings, the only other company to get a favorable mark for value.
Nearly three-quarters of the survey respondents who have a bundled plan -- TV, internet, and phone -- said they got a special promotional price when they signed up. And 45 percent were still enjoying that rate when they answered our survey.
Only 38 percent of pay-TV subscribers were highly satisfied with their service, meaning they were "very" or "completely" happy with the offerings. Armstrong, a smaller cable company that operates in Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, earned the second-place slot behind Google Fiber, in part due to favorable scores for technical support, reliability, and customer service. Verizon and the two satellite-TV companies -- AT&T's DirecTV and Dish Network -- also rated better than Cox Communications, Comcast, Spectrum, and Optimum.
Top-rated EPB, a municipal broadband service run as a public utility in Chattanooga, Tenn., was one of the few bright spots for internet service. It was the only company to receive a top mark for value. It also got top marks for speed and reliability. Google Fiber was a close second in the ratings, the only other company to get a favorable mark for value.
Nearly three-quarters of the survey respondents who have a bundled plan -- TV, internet, and phone -- said they got a special promotional price when they signed up. And 45 percent were still enjoying that rate when they answered our survey.
Never had a problem with Verizon FIOS.
Water Is Wet!
Check your premises.
The cable companies are under this false impression that it was a good idea to provide as many channels as possible. My biggest issue with TV now when I go somewhere that has cable, is it takes me a while to even find one of the channels I might want to watch. Maybe their idea what to increase the odds that a show you like is currently airing on one of the 800 channels, but in an age of on demand programming, this strategy is insufficient. The only saving grace for them now is to offer Netflix-style on demand programming for all their content.
Sure, Chris. Think football player, huh?
hidden fees and some times forced hardware rent.
Comcast may force people to rent there gateway when they move to IPTV.
Too much choice is scary so it's good we only have a couple of cable companies to choose from...
I had mostly good fast internet service through Comcast.
But also
Very high prices
Bundle full of garbage
Terrible customer service
Using my service to semi-secretly sell service to others
Typical million channels of garbage, semi-goodstuff would have still been more on top of too much.
And now threatening to be anti-competitive or throttle my service.
Their internet could be as fast as they could get it, it was overcharged and bundled with garbage, and forced to subsidize their wifi access point division.
When it comes to customer service, you either get "So large it runs Big Data on everything to try to predict your needs but when you call in you get India" or "Small enough to care because every customer is an important revenue source despite the monopoly".
From an ISP perspective, cable companies either work well or they don't. I've lived in Cox areas of San Diego (the other regional monopoly in North County was TWC, now Spectrum) and have had cable modems since the @Home days and have generally always been satisfied with them. The one recurring issue I did have was eventually traceable to bad internal wiring in a house I was renting. Now I dual-uplink between Webpass (now owned by Google Fiber, but still operationally distinct) and Cox both to my residence and I couldn't really be happier.
I certainly understand where some of the rest of the country is coming from, but the angst about Comcast (which seems to be near-universal) doesn't really affect me, and so emotionally-fueled arguments about network restructuring that seem to be based primarily about how horrible they are only go so far.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
I only have internet from Spectrum and the service has been good so far. They upgraded internet speed twice...we are now at 200Mbps down. I ignored all of their bundling offers and now they try to get me to take TV for free. I ignored that as well.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
What has changed that would make anyone assume that customers wouldn't hate their cable providers anymore? Cable subscriptions are dying and being replaced with streaming but most of us still have to go through our cable carrier for the internet so it's just more of a transition from one technology to another; with us all stuck still having to deal with the same old crappy provider.
Now if SpaceX's satellite internet technology is any good, and multiple other providers like google can also start launching satellites then we might see the current providers change; maybe.
Time for another name change, that always works when a company name becomes permanently associated with something terrible. SBC, Philip Morris, ValuJet, the list goes on. In the case of Comcast, they need to change both the parent company name and rebrand Xfinity.
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
Good thing the article isn't paywalled, because I can't imagine people paying Consumer Reports a subscription fee to be told something so damn obvious.
Think superhero, asshole. -- CaptainDork
I'm sorry but the internet has made this obsolete. Only very old people have this type of service.
Never had a problem with Verizon FIOS.
I felt the same way about Spectrum for the past year when I was paying a $45 flat rate with no added fees. Then I got the letter saying "Your promotional period is now over and you will be paying $65 for this basic ass 80/10 internet package LOL fuck you." Thanks a lot, assholes.
AT&T has been busy converting all the old DirecTv accounts to their RC1 system and causing major pains!
I have a THR22-100 (High Def Tivo with dual directv tuners) and last Thursday (8-2-2018) when they converted the account over to their RC1 system they disabled the DVR portion. So no pause, play, fastforward, or rewind. Worse, all prior recorded shows are not available. I have been on the phone with them numerous times and keep getting pushed to tech support which then want to change for a tech to come out and do what? I know the equipment is good; I found a bug in the tivo software that you can pause and play live tv, but only if the channel menu is up. So this tells me that the drive and tuners are fine, they just disabled the dvr capability (which the settings info page shows as inactive).
Looking at AT&T's forums the problem is that when converting the accounts they miss quite a few things and end up having to re-do the accounts manually. The main cause is they change the account from a residential account to a business account (business accounts can't record any shows). They also never appeared to test this with existing equipment so people have been randomly having their service messed up and nobody can seem to fix it.
I use an antenna for television, Netflix and streams.
If I had any other alternative for Internet services I'd try it, but DSL/ADSL isn't even available at speeds I can use.
But it still feels like a sandpaper condom every month when I get my bill.
That's all the choices I have, and with Rectum being kicked out of NY, I'm scared Comcast will be taking over with their DL caps and even worse customer service.
The only other alternative I have is expensive, heavily capped data over 4G which is a non-starter when I'm using 1TB down a month on existing cable.
Think of all the industries with shitty customer service ratings:
1) Cable
2) Cellphones
3) Utilities
4) Airlines
5) Car dealers
What do they all have in common? They lack any real competition. In every case the customer has little or no choice of their service provider. With airlines the choice is fly or take the train or drive. In most cases the alternatives are impractical. With car dealers, unless you are buying a Tesla, you have to work through a dealer network. In most cases that is actually protected by law. The only viable alternative is to buy a used car or don't drive.
It's not much better with cellphones. Service generally sucks, service sucks, coverage sucks and it's expensive. At one time I remember rumors of Apple entering the cell service market. It turned out not to be true but I wish they had.
It's a little different with cable companies. With traditional cable you have the traditional oligopoly. But there is a viable alternative - cut the cord. Get an antenna, NetFlix and maybe Hulu or Amazon and you don't need the cable companies anymore. The cable companies know this and respond in typical fashion - by trying to punish their customers for leaving. Good luck with that strategy boys. Meanwhile their customer service ratings continue to stink and people are cutting the cord at an ever increasing rate.
oh, wait, you mean you actually pay for the 100+ free over the air 1080p HDTV channels?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Top-rated EPB, a municipal broadband service run as a public utility in Chattanooga, Tenn., was one of the few bright spots for internet service. It was the only company to receive a top mark for value. It also got top marks for speed and reliability.
But we've been told there is no way a government service could give better performance at a lower price than a private company! Fake news!
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
In case you haven't seen it yet: Comcast doesn't give a fuck.
Spectrum is always down in my area too! When you live in an area with precisely 1 fast broadband provider (which is common across the US); and you cut cable TV only to find a few years later you're now paying the same for internet that you once paid for cable- because they use internet consumers to subsidise their cable TV customers... yeah, I hate my cable company ISP. I hate monopolies in general because they can do precisely this... abuse the consumer.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
You got a letter? I just got a price hike. No letter, no explanation, but it was about 2 years after I got it. One month my bill was $160 (still too high), the next it was $210!!!
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
I only have broadband with Comcast and its perfectly fine as long as I never have to talk to their customer service. Otherwise when I do I get no satisfaction and so I do better just not talking to them. I switched to a antenna years ago for local and network stations and the rest of my content through streaming. Would I ever go back to satellite or cable for content? No.
Literally no one who pays for cable TV is dissatisfied with cable TV. That's literally what dissatisfied means. Not good enough to warrant what you pay. People just want cheaper crap.
If you don't like cable, don't pay for it. This isn't food and water we're talking about.
There is absolutely no ethical issue relating to TV providers charging too much money either. They can charge as much as they want.
Again, they are not selling water.
So, after being a long-time DirectTV customer, close to 15 years, I canceled my service this week and am switching to Hulu Live due to their nonsense.
Before AT&T bought them, I never had a single issue with my service, or getting repair work done. I paid $133 a month for the service and the rental of three HD receivers. About a month ago I had an issue where it said that there was an issue with the signal on all three of my TVs. Reset all of the boxes, and the internal HD box that comes in from the cable. It's some sort of weird converter thing. That didn't fix the issue. So I called DirectTV for service. They told me that in order for someone to come out and look at it, it was going to cost me $99 dollars; or they could sign me up for a maintenance plan. I asked them why I should have to pay an additional $100 on top of my $133 a month for them to come out and fix their service? That that was just asinine. She replied, "that's our policy. The equipment is out of warranty." I replied, "I am LEASING the equipment from you. I did not purchase it." I canceled the service ticket and went out and whacked the dish with a rubber mallet. Percussive maintenance fixed it.
I decided then and there that they had lost me as a customer, that I was going to give "cord cutting" a shot, so I tried the beta of Hulu Live. I am missing exactly one channel from it that I like to watch. No big loss. In addition, Hulu Live is $93 cheaper than I was paying fir DirectTV for service that won't go to dogshit when it rains. I called yesterday and informed DirectTV that I wanted to cancel my service and wasn't interested in any of the specials that they would try to offer me, that after being a long time customer, I was finally done with them due to their new policies under AT&T.
monopoly broadband look we are the only choice so do you want TV with that that cable internet line?
I keep getting phone calls, shit in the mail, and even some dude walking door to door, all trying to up sell me to more services from Mediacom. Every time they ask I tell them the same thing, I don't want more services for more money, I want to be able to keep what I have for the same price. Every year it seems they offer new plans with more "gigs", more channels, more phone doodads, and at a higher price. All I want is a reliable internet connection, and not have my costs go up. It would be nice if my costs go down once in a while, like my costs for other services have, but just staying the same is okay too.
There was a time I wanted more speed, more data per month, and so on, but I've reached what I needed. I got grandfathered in at my last fee rate but my speed went up with the switch to DOCSIS 3.0. This might be why they bother me so much, I'm not making them money on the old fee schedule. Well, suck it. If I had to pay on the new fee schedule then I'd be getting the "gigs" and speed I need for the price I pay now from a cellular internet provider.
I've stayed with Mediacom this far only because the phone company keeps telling me that fiber will be coming "real soon" and I figured I'd just switch when it got here. Well, it's been taking far too long now. I haven't had a lot of choices until the cellular companies started upgrading their networks around here. Now I'm thinking of telling the wired services to all go to hell and I'll just get one of those cellular hotspots for my house. If I switch now I'd get just as many "gigs" and probably even faster data, for just a few dollars more per month. I'm thinking "real soon" Mediacom will have one less customer.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
Cablevision has always been a pretty horrible company, but it actually did get noticeably worse when Altice took over last year. $20 cable box monthly rental fee is insane when you can get actual channels with Sling for $25. Plus I think the cable modem fee is up to $10, I bought my own for $22 when it went from free to $5. They really seem to be going the opposite of what people want. The streaming competition is going for $45 a month but that's what you'd pay just in fees for a $100 cable contract. I'm sticking with Altice bc I can't imagine living without broadband internet, but I'm not paying them for tv.
I have had experience with cable and two satellite TV services. There are pros and cons to both. A> Cable provided me with the best and most reliable signal, but our friends at Comcast kept increasing the monthly fee. So, I dropped them in favor of-- B> Satellite TV. DishNetwork and DirecTV are very nice, but their ads don't tell you that the signal craps out during snow, rain--even drizzle and fog. The alternative is to 'cut the cable.' Sadly, digital broadcast TV makes that difficult without a rotatable rooftop antenna. Back in the good old days of analog TV, you might get a little snow on some channels, but usually got through. Modern digital TV and 'rabbit ears'? You get tearing, blanking and audio distortion. Oh well, maybe I can scrounge up a used 10-foot dish.
My cable/internet package is basic cable only, and 10 megabits per second, in practice can top out at 1.8MB/s.
Cost: $189/mo.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Always down here too. And the box they hooked up is garbage. We went down for a few hours one day. I called for service and it came back up. I let the tech come out any way to figure out what the problem was. He said it goes down all the time and the service department doesn't get notifications when their people take it down to fix something. He asked me to call and just cancel the service call as he wasn't going to really look at anything. I told him fine. Called in and I couldn't make it past the automated attendant to reach the service department.
I only get 90 channels OTA, but I live in metro Atlanta.
I used to pay $150+/month for bundled services; phone, internet, CATV.
The last 6-ish years, I've only had internet, which still costs 2x more than in Chattanooga 2 hrs away for 12x slower connections.
Phone service is $5/month from a VoIP provider.
TV is a few HDhomerun network turners, a few raspberry PIs for playback and a $20 homebuilt DB4 antenna that works better than $50 store-bought antennas. Any computer in my house can watch live TV thanks to DLNA from the HDHR devices.
Some of my family lives in places where paid CATV is the only solution. They live in towns of less than 100K people. There are trade-offs for where we all live. Smaller towns have lots of pluses, but OTA TV isn't one if you don't live within 60-ish miles of the transmitters for a huge town.
tvfool.com is the place to see what you can expect for your specific location.
There is a brand new cable company that is changing everything. It's called Spectrum, and they are out to revolutionize cable service. They're doing everything different and I think they probably even really care about people. So cool, so refreshing.
Just wait until they start jacking up your broadband rates because no one is buying tv service anymore. Then youâ(TM)ll see the real hate.
Yea, good luck getting that opinion to change. I have to go onto customer support almost monthly just to tell them to fuck off because they do something shitty to my internet (start intercepting my requests, etc).
Honestly, this company is absolutely disgusting. Shame I cant switch (literally only provider). When I move, the first requirement is going to be "What ISPs am I limited to?" If I have to get Comcast, then not signing a fucking lease.
Because then they'll be able to serve us better with more choices, better quality, and lower prices!!
So get your rubber stamps out, feds. This is for the good of the people.
If the telecoms, ISPs and cable companies would build infrastructure for landline Internet and TV that was half as rugged as even something as mundane as city water or electricity service -- which, by the way, are far from infalliable and have plenty of issues -- people would be a lot more satisfied with their Internet. In reality, I'd say the majority of the people I know have line quality issues with their landline home Internet, and intermittently or constantly experience some level of packet loss varying between "makes gaming difficult/annoying" to "pretty much nothing is usable most of the time". Customer support only matters if there's a problem.
What the telcos and ISPs are doing, though, is they use the absolute cheapest shit they can find. They install indoor-grade Cat5 on the outside of the house. They use antiquated coax cables that are notorious for having signal issues unless you get them connected just right, and even then, they waste so much energy that the connector is warm when in use. Imagine if your USB or HDMI cables were warm, what that would say about those cables!
They also do a lot of installation on shoddy telephone poles. This needs to stop. They should bury the cable, and when they do, it should be jacketed in a VERY robust sleeve that will resist pinhole penetration and just about anything else for at least 50 years. The cables should have state of the art EMI interference and should not interfere with one another or any other installation in the same right-of-way.
When they install customer premise equipment, it needs to be enterprise-grade. Don't cheap out and buy a router with the absolute minimum SoC that will kind of do the job for the average user. Build something that's just going to goddamn work, even if the user decides to throw 20 devices at it with several thousand TCP connections. Don't give me this cheap shit that only has enough RAM to track 50 or 100 TCP connections.
This should all be self-explanatory, obvious, and universal. Even if you don't give a crap about your customer and just want to do the absolute minimum, you are saving $500 now to spend $10,000 later on support and service visits. Gas, time and labor, materials, etc. while your field techs and call center employees have to deal with the crappy setup you gave your customers. If you'd have done it right and done it robustly the first time, you would be able to vastly reduce your support staff, and your field techs would only have to come out to visit peoples' homes when the customer does something stupid, or the box gets struck by lightning and has to be replaced or something.
It seems that most residential-focused ISPs -- and honestly, even "business" focused ISPs except for those that are actually building out a proper, dedicated, datacenter -- have the mindset that their customers are just going to casually use the service lightly once in a while, and if it's down, they just go "oh well, the Internet is down" and go on with their lives. But we're no longer living in a world where occasionally reading the news is the limit of what people do with the Internet, just like we're no longer living in a world where all people do with electricity is turn on a reading lamp at night.
At least where I live, the power grid is pretty resilient against physical damage, even in the face of severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, lightning, and that kind of thing. If something in the "middle" of the grid goes down, like a substation, there are usually alternative routes to get the power there and people only see a brief disruption in power. If something local goes down, it's because there's been a local catastrophe, or perhaps -- once in a blue moon, but certainly not with any regularity -- there's a genuine problem with the equipment, like a bad transformer coil.
By comparison, Internet service of any description delivered via landline is a joke. Datacenters like to measure the number of "9s" they get after the 99 in their 99.9999...% uptime; consumer and residential ISPs seem to think
Noooooo! Don't say all that.. they'll just punish us more!