Backing out of Cable
At the moment I have what I think is the cheapest plan they have. It's actually less than Basic Cable. As you might guess, it's not something that they advertize. The wont even admit that they have it. As a result it's really hard to get them to give it to you. I logged into the cable website and started up the chat program. It took be about 25 minutes to get there but eventually I found what I wanted.
I started out by explaining what I had (about 70 stations for about $65 per month), and what I actually used as far as stations (10 stations). I told the customer service rep that I wanted something less than what I currently had. They offered me several options. When I turned down one, they made another.
- 3 times as many channels, digital channels and 4 premium stations
- 3 times as many channels, digital channels and 2 premium stations
- 3 times as many channels and digital channels
- All digital channels 2 premium stations
- The same number of channels for $7 more than what I am paying
I said that nothing they had offered was what I wanted and that I was going to cancel my cable now. At this point they offered me a better price on the first package. I repeated that I wanted less and was going to cancel. They then offered me a package with around 25 stations for about 20 bucks a month. That is 45 less than what I paid before and $520 saved in a year. Just what I wanted.
Perhaps some day I'll get off of it completely but I'm not willing to do that for the moment. Sporting events like college games and the Olympics are nice to be able to catch as they are on. Another nice thing about my cable connection is that at this time I am getting several digital stations. All the networks come through. Oddly they don't have the cable channel numbers, they show up from the network (air) station channel numbers. I hadn't noticed it before simply because I didn't have a digital TV.