Let me get this out right at the onset. I despise TV. If it wasn’t for my wife, I would get rid of TV altogether.
But since I have no desire to get rid of my wife along with TV, we have cable.
I watch it with her in the evenings. She also watches it a lot after I fall asleep. The only way I can watch TV is by using a DVR to record shows so I can skip the commercials. We also have Netflix for commercial free viewing of programs.
For the most part, TV seems banal, formulaic and pandering to me. More often than not, watching TV leaves me frustrated. My wife has far more patience and tolerance for mediocre content than I do. (Actually she has more patience and tolerance for everything than I do.)
When it gets to be too much for me, I’ll read, browse the Internet or fall asleep.
You’re A Valued Customer (which is why we’re jacking up your rates)
When I realized that my AT&T Uverse “discount” was expiring at the end of the month it was time to take action. I was already paying $175 a month for Internet and TV, which I felt was ridiculously overpriced.
I called AT&T several times to see if they’d give me a better offer, but they failed to do so.
So I investigated my options.
My requirements were:
- As cheap as possible.
- Simple for my wife to use while she is going through chemo.
- Able to fast forward past commercials.
Here’s what I found:
- SlingTV – Good price but can’t skip commercials (a deal breaker).
- Google TV – Good price but its cloud DVR forces you to watch commercials for many network programs (a deal breaker).
- AT&T – Because I’m an existing “valued customer” they could only offer a crappier package at a higher price!
- Tablo – This is a networked DVR for a Digital Antenna. I have this, but we only get a few over-the-air channels with mostly bad programming. Using it is a bit buggy and techie for my wife to deal with.
- Netflix only – My wife would leave me.
- Dish and DirectTV – I live in Florida where it rains in sheets. I had DirectTV before. It frequently went out during storms, despite their claims of this rarely happening.
- Comcast Xfinity – Better price for a 2 year contract with higher speed Internet. Reputation for the worst customer service in the industry.
Reluctantly, I bit the bullet, and went with Comcast Xfinity knowing their customer service would be horrendous but hoping I’d rarely need it.
Their new customer package will cost me $130/month which will save me $45/month from AT&T’s current rate and $85/month from the increased rate they planned to charge me next month.
$130 is still atrocious, but if my wife ever stops watching TV, I’ll keep the Internet and cancel the TV service.
When Comcast raises my rates after the 2 year term expires, I hope I have different options.
A few days ago the Comcast guy showed up to install the service and I was pleasantly surprised.
- He arrived on time, completed the install in an hour and everything worked well.
- My internet is blazingly fast. Although Comcast claims to offer up to 150MBps, my actual speed is ~45Mbps. There is a noticeable improvement over AT&T, which was 5Mbps.
- The HD service looks fine.
But the biggest surprise was the remote control.
Unbelievably, somebody at Comcast actually considered user experience when designing the remote.
- When you pick it up, the back lighting comes on so you can see it.
- It responds to intuitive voice commands – yes, this actually works!
I am shocked beyond belief that Comcast made a great remote control.
I expected it to be 1980’s era technology like every other remote I’ve ever seen – with too many tiny buttons and no thought to user experience.
This control is almost cool. Not quite, but I’ll settle for user friendly.
It’s going to make TV viewing very simple for my wife as she goes through chemo.
Unfortunately, within hours, one of our Comcast boxes failed.
I’m a techie and know how to troubleshoot this stuff like a pro. I tried all the official and unofficial support options before finally giving up and calling customer service.
I had to schedule a 2nd tech visit to replace the box. That process reconfirmed my expectation that Comcast’s customer service would suck.
There were long hold times, offshore agents reading from a script, multiple attempts to to tell me everything was fine, looped recordings telling me to visit my account on their website, and finally, after a few hours of runaround, a 2nd tech visit scheduled.
Since it’s just a box swap, I anticipate it will go fine. (Note – it did.)
With any luck, I won’t talk to Comcast again until my contract is up or I cancel service.
If any of my readers have questions about my comparison of the various TV services I investigated, feel free to comment or contact me.