Cox Cable "Free" HD Service (and the future of pay tv)

[Legend City]

So, Cox is crowing in its ads about how HD is free when you sign up, what they don't tell you is:

To get HD channels, you have to pay for expanded service at $26 a month, to get expanded service, you have to pay for limited basic at $21.95 a month.

And, to get HD, you have to pay $12 a month for a receiver, and $5 a month for Digital Gateway Service.

Free HD channels, all you gotta pay is $64.95 a month.

But, get Direct and you really get screwed over, they advertise great prices, but that is only for 12 months, and you agree to 24 months (last 12 months is about double), and, if you add anything, like a DVR using their service, they reset the clock back to month #1. Add in all the promised rebates they have which take a PHd to figure out and they are staggered and require a herculean task to have them satisfied, and DirectTV and Dish are not an option.

I am really getting close to dumping it all, living off of Hulu and Pirate Bay and other sites to get my channels.

Why can't there be more competition in this market? I would happily pay a pro-rated amount and pick and choose those channels that I watch.

With high speed internet, streaming, netflix going into your Blu-ray and all that, this industry has to change or die.

What say you?

 

[landtuna]

I think most people are either too lazy to investigate the options and cost and/or not technically qualified to separate the chaff from the information. Most will undoubtedly keep on subscribing to cable/sat even though the PQ is not as good as OTA and the price is obviously much higher. After being a cable/DISH/DirecTV customer for several years I determined earlier this year I didn't actually watch much so canceled their service. I haven't missed it aside from a couple of college football games.

I personally don't own any HD TV's and, aside from some live sports, don't watch much broadcast TV either. I will upgrade to HD when/if my current stable of TV's expire but not until. Seeing as how my big screen is now 22 years old and still working perfectly it may be a long wait.

Over the years I built up a pretty good inventory of 'regular' DVD's and will not upgrade them to Blu-Ray. When my current player dies I will replace it with an upconverting DVD player but that's it.

I'm done chasing technology.

 

[formeraa]

I agree with you, Legend! I was a Qwest Choice customer and was forced to convert earlier this year. Since I wasn't excited about having a dish in my yard, I decided to go with Cox. The sales rep at Cox promised me a certain price, said it included EVERYTHING except normal taxes. I even made him repeat it three times, while I asked him clarifying questions.

Of course, I got the bill and it was $10 higher than I was quoted. While I called to complain, a supervisor was very rude to me and wouldn't acknowledge that the sales person made an error. I ended up filing a complaint with the BBB and got a $60 credit on my bill. Of course, Cox still tried to blame me for the error.

Never mind that I have a Ph.D. in Engineering and use complex statistics everyday in my job. I guess I just don't uniderstand the math of cable/satellite TV! ;D

 

[Legend City]

Each week, I find perfect HD copies of Dexter, Californication, and Curb Your Enthusiasm online, I download them to my USB stick, put it in my DVD player and I have it, so I have zero need for Showtime/HBO. I love the series, but then who wants to watch crappy Larry the Cable Guy shows the rest of the month?

I had Qwest TV, I liked it, you got a lot of channels for less than Cox. Cox has its pernicious little "tiers", meaning, if you want BBC America, you also gotta buy crap like Lifetime, Logo and whatever the hell else. And they have multiple tiers. I explored Qwest's Direct TV, and after 45 minutes on the phone with 3 reps, I never got a straight answer as to how much what my monthly bill would be. No way in hell was I going to sign up for 24 months with those snakes.

The times are changing, I have an HDMI out from my computer that goes into my TV, I can watch what I want when I want, its just a matter of when I am fully fed up with cable/dish. Here is hoping for enough people to say no to the cable companies until they cut the cost and honestly explain the charge.

 

[MusicFan2009]

I signed up for Cox Cable when I first moved out of the dorms for my first apartment. They gave me a great deal, high speed internet and basic cable for about 45 bucks a month. They were basically throwing in the cable for free. This went on for a few years. Then I moved and had to pay a damn transfer fee, which bugged me, because I was told by the apartment manager of my new place she gave the card for a guy who waves the fees, didn't do it.

I tried calling customer retention cause that is what I was hearing on the radio, everyone's in a depression so they have to give you deal, blah blah blah, such b.s. I finally said f-it cause they were gonna charge me 90.00 bucks a month for high speed internet and basic cable, the only channel I really wanted that I was paying for was TBS, but I can do without it. I said goodbye to Cox Cable, just kept the internet.

I recently upgraded to an HDTV and love it, love it even more that I have a rooftop antenna line at my apt. The picture quality is amazing and I get the basic network channels, that I really wanted, and thanks to our government, one of the few things they've done right, I get free channels.

I'm watching less tv and I'm able to watch more DVDs today, so I guess I'm happy, still miss some cable channels but don't feel like paying more or being run-around by Cox.

 

[Ford]

So, Cox is crowing in its ads about how HD is free when you sign up, what they don't tell you is:

To get HD channels, you have to pay for expanded service at $26 a month, to get expanded service, you have to pay for limited basic at $21.95 a month.

And, to get HD, you have to pay $12 a month for a receiver, and $5 a month for Digital Gateway Service.

Free HD channels, all you gotta pay is $64.95 a month.

Well I don't have HD service yet, but I do have the digital cable and DVR through Cox. Looking at my bill, I'm paying:

The $21.95 for limited basic.
The $26 for expanded service.
The $12 for the (non-HD) DVR receiver, and $5 for Digital Gateway Service.
And $5 for the DVR service.

So if they charged the same price for an HD DVR/receiver, technically the HD channels would be free.

 

[Robnoxious]

Get a Dish Network DTVPal DVR (don't let the Dish Network part fool you, it's an OTA digital DVR that is made by Dish) for a flat $300 to take care of your OTA recordings of network shows. Hulu the cable shows or if unavailable at Hulu, trust me the show you want to see is out there including all live sports and news. You just have to know where to look. It's all out there.

I've given the finger to cable and satellite years ago and if more and more people did the same they would have no choice but to straighten their act. However, far too many people are stuck in complacency and that allows the cable/sat co. shenanigans to continue along unchecked.

You can live without cable. I'm living proof.

$70 bucks a month for Law & Order and CSI reruns along side the weekly movie broadcast of the Back To The Future trilogy, Shawshank Redemption and Lord Of The Rings? Nah, I'll pass.