Cord Cutting For Dummies. Paul McFedries
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but you'll get there.
You're getting nickeled-and-dimed
If you've ever been brave (or foolhardy) enough to examine the details of your cable bill, chances are you came away even angrier than you were going in. It's not just the sheer size of the final total that stresses everyone out, but the long list of incidental and hidden fees and surcharges that are standard-issue line items in every cable bill. These fees go by various names:
Network access fee
Broadcast TV fee
HD technology fee
Regional sports surcharge
Terminal fee
Franchise fee
The list goes on and on and includes lots of regulatory fees mandated by the government, which the cable company is happy to pass on to you as so-called pass-through fees. These fees and surcharges easily cost you hundreds of dollars a year. Boo!
You're dealing with a near-monopoly
Mom-and-pop shops in the cable business don't exist because cable requires huge infrastructure investments. That's fine, but with recent consolidations in the industry, the gargantuan just keep getting gargantuan-er. The result is that even large markets have few options for cable TV providers, and small markets might have just a single company “vying” for their business.
This lack of competition is bad news for you. It keeps cable prices high, encourages cable companies to charge — and increase — hidden fees (as I describe in the preceding section), and gives cable behemoths zero incentive to provide decent customer service and technical support (travesties that I talk about in the next two sections).
Customer service is pretty much non-existent
Earlier I mention that cable companies always show up in lists of the worst or most hated companies. As this section shows, there are lots of reason why that's so. However, one of main complaints you see in surveys of customer (dis)satisfaction is terrible customer service.
You know what I'm talking about, right? Does anyone ever look forward to calling the cable company? Having such a call on your to-do list is likely to elicit feelings of dread and anxiety because the poor souls who work in a cable company's customer service department aren't allowed to be human beings. Instead, they're browbeaten into giving rote answers that never deviate from a management-approved script.
And if you get even a little frustrated or upset at the runaround you're getting, there's an excellent chance the rep will put you on hold forever and then simply disconnect the call!
www.theacsi.org/index.php?option=com:content&view=article&id=147&catid=&Itemid=212&i=Subscription+Television+Service.
Technical support is a pain in the you-know-what
Calling the cable company's technical support department is no better an experience than the customer service nightmare I moaned about in the preceding section. First, you have to wait on hold for a very long time. Second, the “technician” (note the sarcastic quotes there) will ask about your problem, and then spend a very long time going through an infuriatingly banal and wrong-headed flowchart-slash-script in an attempt to find a “solution” (more sarcastic quotes).
That approach never works, so now the rep will book you an appointment with an actual technician. Alas, the next available appointment is in two weeks (if you're lucky) and, yes, you'll have to take half a day off work. Oh, and it will set you back $50, $75, or even $100 just for the technician to show up.
Those darned contracts!
As I mention, you can often negotiate a lower cable bill by putting together a bundle of services, packages of content, or both. But there's usually a catch, actually two catches: You have to sign a contract (usually for two years) and the discount applies only for the first year! So you're stuck paying a higher price for the rest of the contract, unless you agree to pay an exorbitant termination fee to opt out. Grrr.
Some Reasons Why Cutting the Cord Might Not Be for You
This book is about cutting the cord, but I might as well admit early on that there's no perfect solution to going cable-free. My thesis here is that, for most people, saying goodbye to the cable company is a net win. However, a few aspects of cutting the cord fall on the “cons” side of any “pros versus cons” analysis, and one or more of those could be a deal-breaker for you. Let's see.
Your savings might be less than you hoped
Everyone goes into the cord-cutting adventure with big dreams of saving a ton of money every month. And those savings are possible, especially if you embrace free and almost-free services. However, most of the good content sits on the other side of a paid subscription.
You can still save lots of cash if you're prudent with your subscriptions. Unfortunately, many families find that they keep adding new services (particularly for popular content such as Disney, HBO, news, and live sports) and their monthly TV-watching costs rise accordingly.
You might still have to deal with channel bundles
Most of us hate channel bundles because to subscribe to the one channel you want, you also have to get a fistful of channels that you wouldn't force your worst enemy to watch. So now it feels like you're paying the bundle fee for just a single channel. Cue the steam coming out of your ears.
Bundles aren't an issue with subscriptions such as Netflix, where one price gets you access to everything on the service. Unfortunately, far too many streaming services embrace the bundle model and surround premium content (such as HBO) with dreck.
You might still see commercials
For lots of would-be cord cutters, the real incentive is not cost savings but a commercial-free viewing experience. The good news is that most streaming services are on board with the commonsense notion that you shouldn't see commercials if you pay a subscription for the service. Sweet bliss!
However, some free streaming services do show commercials, because they have to pay their bills somehow. And, after all, seeing the odd commercial is a small price to pay for a free service.