"Ulysses" wrote in
:


"Wilfred Xavier Pickles" wrote in message
...
(posted to alt.cable-tv, alt.home.repair)

I've been getting cable TV service in eastern Missouri for about 25
years.

Back in the 90's, working full time and earning honest money, I got
expanded basic and SHO and TMC, and just paid whatever they charged
me (on time, every time).

Without any income now, just subsisting on Soc. Security, I've been
getting
the same service from Charter on verious promo discounts for years.
Most
recently
it was expanded basic and SHO, TMC for $37.xx, Jan. - May of '09.

Now they've evidently banished the promo discounts and want lots more
$. Used to be, I could call and call and finally get a non-Phillipino
CSR to find acceptable promo discounts. I've called many, many times
in the last week: nothing shakin'. They simply want too much money.

Has anybody got a good feel for getting affordable discounts from tv
service
vendors? Charter monopolizes cable in my part of MO. Are the dish
vendors really any better? Installation costs, etc?

I've got a pretty decent non-directional TV antenna (from Radio
Shack) installed in the attic (from the Over-The-Air days). If I
decide to chuck the lot of 'em and go OTA with a cheese-box (DTV
converter or whatever they call them), is it likely the old antenna
will be sufficient? I've got a $40 gov't coupon for the cheese-box.

Any/all info/suggestions are most welcome.

TIA,
Will

I had cable a few times and didn't like it much. Then I got DirecTV
and it was not real bad. Then I got Dish Network and liked that a lot
better than anything else. For $5.95/mo I get "Access" and from there
I can subscribe to whatever movie packages I want. I was getting 5
Cinemax and 6 or 7 Encore channels and paying about $23/mo. Of course
you also get the weather and a bunch of shopping channels along with
the $5.95 and you also have access to Pay Per View if you are into
that. The customer service was always excellent. They did not force
me to pay for a bunch of channels that I will never watch. I can't
even believe they get people to PAY to watch commercial TV.




the payment is for clean,strong signals.
Congress at one time was considering requiring cable/satellite suppliers
to provide "ala-carte" service where you selected what channels you wanted
in your package,but it didn't get passed.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net