Goodbye to Comcast Hello to Dish.
Posted: Thursday, March 19, 2009
by Mike Fak
http://mikefak.com
When I moved to Lincoln 27 years ago, I noticed almost every house had a huge antenna built alongside it. In the center of the state, we were still about 40 miles from all the big cities so to get reception in our town, a mega tower worked best.
By the time I came to town in 1982, there was cable and that changed everything.
Cable gave the town good reception and extra channels but it was either $9.95 for basic or $19.95 a month if you wanted the whole nine yards of crap channels available for melting your mind into a puddle of slop.
As the years went by, our local cable provider kept getting bought out by bigger and bigger cable companies until last January when the mega-cable company Comcast bought out the Lincoln, Decatur, Springfield, Illinois market from Insight Communications..
That's when everything started going downhill. Like with all the big companies, the prices started inching up always under the guise of more stations: stations that if we had a choice to not include, we wouldn't.
Finally, the last straw came this winter when we lost five channels which were placed in a HD package. One was National Geographic which I enjoyed; the other was the Soap Net which caused my wife to start making torches to storm the Bastille.
When I went into the office to find out how to get them back I was told I needed a HD box that would be an additional $14.95 a month. When I said that was outlandish I was shown how the package would give me an additional pile of channels as well as our two favorites. None of the new channels were worth a hoot and I said I refused to pay $14.95 to get back two channels. I then asked when I would see a rate reduction since I now had five channels less than before. The girl, who is only an employee who I knew, told me there would be no decrease. Not taking my frustration out on her I told her soon I would have my revenge.
Now although revenge is a dish best served cold, I couldn't ask the Dish guys to come out in the dead of winter to install a system for me.
I know the local businessman who owns the Dish franchise as well as his employees so I vowed to wait for March.
On Wednesday, March 18, 2009, a day that will go down in Fak family history I said goodbye to cable forever. The little dish is on the porch roof, I have four TV's hooked up rather than 3 with cable. I have 200 channels rather than 40, granted half of them are crap, but I pay no more.
Plus, and this is worth serious money to me. In the event I have a question, problem or need help, I can call the local store and either Dave or Scotty or Bob or PeeWee, the dog, will pick up the phone and walk me through my problem. They use no automated phone system and the owner vows to never do so and that is worth a serious chunk of change to this old curmudgeon.
On my radio show, I hear the complaints about Comcast but I tell people they are misguided. If we don't like our water or electricity or sewer bills we have no choice. But we do when it comes to who delivers our television programming. We can switch to Dish or Direct TV.
I still have two weeks left of service with Comcast and I'm not sure what day I will stop in the office and tell them to take their wires down. I won't call as I won't wait up to a half hour to tell someone to jump in the lake. Like a great steak, or an ice cold beer on a warm afternoon, I will wait for the moment when I can really savor telling them I'm long gone and won't be coming back.
They jacked with the wrong old-timer this time.
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Top-level comments on this article: (6 total)Good article, Mike. BUT...I surely hope you continue to be happy with your changeover. Two or three years ago I could have written your article exactly other than I had/have Charter instead of Comcast. They got so expensive for a few sorry cannels on basic, that I became fed up. I switched to Dish and withing 2 months, I was very sorry I did. You may fare beter, having the dealer handy, mine was in another town, long distance.ButI missed the local portion of the Weather Channel and several other channels which I had wanted. Not only that, every strok of lightening within a 20 mile radius put a lost satelite reception up on my screen for a good while and when it came back on, another stroke would carry it back off. I had signed an 18 month agreement so I toughed it out and then returend to Charter and got their "extended basic" for around $50.00 [X`:**#%66+}Best of luck to you.Thanks Joel. Satellite problems kept me from switching for years.Everyone I have talked to recently says that hasn't happened to them so I have my fingers crossed.Mike
Hi Mike.Almost 19 years ago when we moved to Dewey, AZ we had a local cable company which has been bought and sold so many times, I've lost count. It, too, is no longer local. Luckily for us, there was a "grandfather" agreement that carried over each time. As long as we never upgrade or change the type of our service in any way, we can continue to receive what they call "limited basic," which doesn't even include as much as their basic package. We are content with that and it's cheap! $20 a month.We've looked at Dish and DirectTV and decided that for the couple extra channels we might like to have, it isn't worth paying more for all the other crap. Plus there is the add-on fee just to get our local broadcast channels which are included in our limited basic cable package.I understand your frustration, though, and hope it all works out for you.As always, my best to you,DianneThanks Dianne. It is obvious you have better theings to do than watch the tube. Good for you.Mike
Way to go Mike!!Thanks Ken. I hope it is the way to go...The next option is to throw the things out the window. They can land on the computers that are in the pile already.Mike
A pretty good article on a topic that resonates with many. Continue to be outraged. Thanks for writing.- G
A little over a year ago I moved to a new state and had to get Comcast because that's all that is available around here. I have NEVER had so many problems in such a short span of time as I have experienced with Comcast. I truly loathe the company. However, my parents have DirectTV and they don't have a very good record with my parents either, which makes me hesitate to switch thinking I'd just be exchanging one set of problems for another. So, what do I do? Seems like the mantra of American business lately is "get big or get gone" and the consumer is left no choice but to continue to do business with companies that haven't earned our business.
Good article. My hubby and I have had the same types of problems only I am with Dish.We are thinking about switching but our house is on the market and I'm afraid if we changed we'd be stuck with a commitment we might not be able to meet if we moved.
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