Three TV providers in three days!

Well, we had a fun week.  During this week, ending January 29th, we had three TV providers and two internet providers.

Woke up Tuesday with Diretv providing TV and Suddenlink, Internet and VOIP home phone.                                                                                                    Directv had sent notice a day or so before they were raising our rate by about $40 a month.  I had decided I wasn't going to accept that and found that Suddenlink could just add TV to my internet and phone and with the bundle I could save about $80 a month, for a total of $187 a month.I called and arranged for installation the next da

I called Directv and after about 45 minutes finally got them to accept, not graciously, my quitting their system.

So the next day the Suddenlink showed up and the installation went well and all was fine until about one hour after he left.  I got an email from Suddenlink confirming the installation and the 'New' monthly amount, $269.34 a month.  I called their main office and spent another 45 minutes talking to a couple of people and they would not honor the quote given, in- person locally.  They finally offered to Reduce the figure by $10.00.  Said 'No'.  Told them I would go to the local office and deal with them.

Once at the office, they said their hands were tied and if their people in the home office had the final say.  Ask them to cancel the TV and I would go back to just internet and phone.  Said I would have to call this dedicated department to arrange a disconnect.  Got home and called.  Told him right off I want the TV canceled and I would keep the internet and phone which I had for the past 11+ years.  He put me on hold and 4 or 5 minutes later. came back and said the home office people made a mistake and it really was the original $187 a month and actually it was $186.

I was so steamed by then a ask him had he heard anything I said.  I want ti to cancel the TV and keep the internet and phone.  Go back to what it was the day before.  Or, I wanted to cancel the whole deal and drop Suddenlink altogether.  He finally acknowledged that and had to go check with his supervisor.

At that point, I think they decided to run a bluff.  He came back and said unless I took the package, TV, internet and phone.  That was that...so I called their bluff and canceled the entire thing.

When I got home I contacted Dish TV and had them install their TV satellite system the next day, Thursday.  It's working great and my T-Mobile Home Internet devise is serving 3 TV's, 2 PC's, at least 2Tablets and 2 phones.  Also a Nest thermostat and a couple of Google mini's. We did lose our VOIP home phone but like my son said, "...you are the only people he knew of that had a 'Home Phone".

End results:  If I had left things as they were, the new cost with Directv was $168+, plus $101 with Suddenlink and $50 with T-Mobile, a total $319, compared to $169 total with Dish TV and T-Mobile, a savings of a neat $150!

There is a company starting to install fiber through the city.  Once it's installed, they will lease out use to whoever.  Once that is done, the cable will be done and maybe satellite.