We are considering going without cable TV to save money, but need to figure out the best way to do it. Ours is an analog TV, so we either need various adaptors and a powerful antennae, or perhaps to upgrade to a HDTV, saving (at least) the need to buy a digital converter. Could anyone share their experiences in doing anything similar to our case?? Thanks!
Heck, do away with all of it and use your computer! We have Netflix (thru the Wii and Laptop) and love that....watch some of our favorite old shows, like Cheers, Macgyver, A-Team, Etc. Then we watch our new shows either a day (usually) or up to a week later online. Doesn't cost us anything more than our internet (and the Netflix subscription, but that is a lifesaver with kids) I don't miss TV and I sure don't miss that bill! If I wanna watch sports, gives me a reason to go out, or I can watch online for free. But if you upgrade to a better TV, you can connect your Laptop (or some other devices) to it and watch your favorites on the big screen. Good luck!
I should note, I don't root for the local teams, since I'm a transplant. So my sports tastes are out of the area.
We dumped cable and just watch Hulu and Netflix, to the tune of about $17 monthly. While I was sad that I missed the Olympics and sometimes I swear I spend more time searching Netflix for something to watch than actually watching it, we're really happy. We've had it this way for more than 2 years.
We cancelled cable a couple years ago. We have an antenna that gives us about 16 basic channels..enough for us. AND, we have Apple TV (only $100) and it hooks up to any TV and you can stream netflix, hulu and tons of other stuff right from it and also access their movies to rent. They are more expensive but newer than Netflix and sometimes Redbox. You can also mirror anything from your iphone or ipad right onto the TV. We love it!
If you plan on keeping your phone and internet, you may be better off renegotiating your package than cancelling the cable portion. Call your provider and ask to speak to the retention department, tell them what your budget is and see what they can do to help a loyal customer. I did this a few months ago with TWC and was able to get all three services for $99 a month, $107 with taxes. If I just did cable and phone, I had to pay rack rate which was $45 for the cheapest internet and $30 for phone, plus another $5 in taxes. So once I added Netflix or Hulu to make up for the missing cable, it would have been almost the same amount of money. Not to mention you will need to buy a converter box to pickup local channels plus a way to stream Netflix or Hulu if you don't have a game system that can.
Just spent an hour on the phone with TWC trying to renegotiate a better deal and got absolutely nowhere. Went from retention to sales back to retention. They would only upsell, no renegotiating our current rates. We have one digital box and standard internet and pay 99/mo. It went up last May from 79/mo when our promotional rate for all three services expired (we dropped phone). We have been customers since the 1990's. We have about had it with them. To drop cable would only lower the bill to about 55/mo for internet only. They seem to enjoy transferring customers and putting them on hold when they get to a question they "can't" answer. Bunch of bs. Oh, and have you heard the please come back ads on the radio? Better rates + a $200 gift card. Nice.
Set up a cancellation date and they will call you back offering a MUCH better rate. Apparently their outbound retention department is authorized to offer better deals than their inbound retention department.
I get really tired of playing the "make me a deal TWC" game, it's a hassle to call them up and negotiate every time a promotion expires. Our bill finally went up to 150.00. We are getting century link installed next week, and are not even bothering with HD since we could never watch it on TWC anyway (and we paid for it!!). We'll have faster internet, and be able to record 4 shows at once as opposed to 2. And it will be 60.00 a month cheaper.
So it's 90/month for tv and internet? I have questions! (I tried calling them to ask this stuff, but got some pushy New Yorker on the phone and gave up). Is that a promotional price? Is there an additional cost for extra TV's? Bedrooms, etc. Do you know how much extra for HD?
Haven't had cable or satellite dish in over 3 years and I love it. I got tired of hassling TWC or DirectTV every 12 mos to keep my promotional rate, then they said I had exceeding my promotional rate extensions. NO problem, you're fired. We have Netflix we stream through our Wii, although apparently our new SmartTV would do this as well. I am an Amazon Prime member($80/year) so we have access to movies/tv shows on demand there. Our latest addition was purchasing a Tivo Box($100) and we pay a $15/month service fee to be able to DVR tv shows on our antenna in HD quality. This has been awesome and I highly recommend it! We can now record tv shows when we aren't home or when favorite shows come on at the same time. It also gives us the channel guide now so we can see what it coming on and when. I love it and get to spend my $100+/month on something besides TWC!!!
I am not going through all that stuff just to watch Walking Dead when it comes on, LOL. DH will be call TWC to get them down on the price shortly. Prob going to get the whole house DVR too. But we will be checking with Century Link before we do anything else with TWC. I'm spoiled and I want to see some shows the night they come on, not a week or two later. :cheers:
We just got rid of TWC ... woooooooooohooooooooo However, we did go to direct tv, century link is our internet & we did away with our land line phone since we all have cell (still getting use to that part). Pretty much though, nothing major being saved as far as the $$ ... but the not having to hassle over pricing every bit of time is well worth it. And we feel we broke pretty even in the long run ... DirectTV gave us all 4 rooms with DVR whereas TWC took away our DVR since we refused to go up on the fee for that (to 14.95 per month) So glad to get rid of TWC ... locked in for 2yrs price guarantee on above so hopefully all will continue to go well.
I just heard on the news that TWC is going to have another rate hike!:boxing: Guess their loyal customers have to foot the bill for all of those $100/200 gift cards they are giving out to get new customers. I wouldn't mind leaving them if not for the email address. It is the only one I have ever had and the thought of trying to remember to change with all of my contacts would be a real pain. That, and I can't do anything until The Walking Dead is done!
For TW (or any provider), if you are negotiating for better rates at the end of a contract, don't forget to "go social" on them: 8) www.4042.com/4042forums/showthread.php?t=35714
