Cable company wtf
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For those of you that use Cox Communications as your cable provider, their billing methods are somewhat... bizarre.
When I first signed up with them, I tried using their website to add and remove services. As long as I chose basic cable and internet, all is well. You start messing with HD options, DVR (or maybe you need the HD-DVR) and the digital tier service that is used in conjunction with them...well I was a little confused, but nothing that a call to customer service couldn't help.
I just moved three weeks ago, and asked them to simply transfer all services to my new place. I told them I'd bring the cable modem and the DVR with me. Well, the cable guy showed up (on a Sunday, no less) with cable modem and DVR in-hand. Now I'm wondering if my first bill will include charges for two of each.
They enticed me with a hell of an offer when I talked about the move. Add their digital phone service and for the next six months, my bill would actually go down by $30. I had the woman repeat this in a couple different formats to make sure I understood this. Either stick with my current service, or add on another feature I will never use, and actually save money. Mkay, done.
So now here it is, three weeks after getting my stuff moved over, and I got a letter in the mail from them. An advertisement actually. Addressed to me, at my new address, telling me about the awesome phone service they can provide for the low low cost of $5.99 a month for the next 3 months.
First of all, can't they filter out this crap to not send it to people who already have it? And secondly, why is it that ordering by phone gives me a completely different monthly total than if I followed this pamphlet? And finally, the length of this special offer is completely different from the other one given to me by the customer service person.
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They're trying to capture the market surplus. Basically, offer different rates for the same thing. Only a few people will search hard enough to find the best deal (which they still make money on). Everyone else will pay more for the same service and the cable company keeps the extra profits. They're just trying to be a little more subtle than used car salesmen and the major airlines.
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Yeah, I recently switched my regular (10GB/month) ADSL + basic cabletv connection for a super (40GB/month) ADSL + digital cableTV + 9 channels of HDTV, and I'm saving $20/month now.
Plus I got a free PVR :)
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Cable companies can be whack. I was calling to upgrade my internet from 5Mbit down to 15Mbit down, and the customer service rep told me that if I signed up for Cinemax and Showtime for $5 more a month, that the speed upgrade would be free... A no-brainer... I'm thinking that I need to call the cable company every 4 months or so to make sure I'm not missing out on any offers such as "Buy our HDTV package, and get service free for the rest of your life!!!" ;-P
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Comcast keeps running these commercials for comcast.com/move -- it's supposed to be a really easy way to get your cable service moved with you. Note: they're running fucking _commercials_.
So, I'm moving. I try the site. A week goes by. No response. I call. I explain the situation to the CSR. He says "Yeah, the website's not a very good tool". We cancel the ticket, and do the whole setup over the phone in a few minutes.
Here's my question: Why run fucking commercials for a service you're not even going to pretend to support? How about spending at least as much on actually _running_ the service as you do on advertising it? If it's not the *best*, fastest, most efficient path for your users to move their service, why advertise it?
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Because management rarely has any actual idea of the quality of their products, therefore, they advertise the web-site because it's 'cool' and supposed to be cheaper to run then a call centre. The Call centre staff however, know that the web-site is crap and so work around the problem.
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With Rogers in Canada, you add another service (and a 2 year contract), and you can save another 5% off all your other services... So if your cable, internet, and cell phone bill are like $200, it's $10 off .. and their current promo for the "digital phone" (VoIP) is $6 for the first 3 months, so it is actually less to get the service for the 3 first months...
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[quote user="Albatross"]Yeah, I recently switched my regular (10GB/month) ADSL + basic cabletv connection for a super (40GB/month) ADSL + digital cableTV + 9 channels of HDTV, and I'm saving $20/month now.[/quote]40GB/month is a "super" connection?! According to my router, my average daily transfer is 8GB, I'd be lost with such transfer caps...
