Don't even ask me how many months I continued to pay over $200 a month for TV service that I barely used at all. If I want to watch TV, I go to Netflix or Amazon Prime or YouTube, not the AT&T U-Verse that was costing so much. I knew I was throwing money away delaying calling, and it wasn't at all that I was clinging to it, thinking maybe I'd miss it. It was purely my resistance to the administrative work of making the phone call.
July 13, 2021
After 37 years as a cable TV customer, I finally did it. I cancelled!
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10 comments:
JamesL writes:
"Did they do anything to hold on to you? Price cut? Free features? A few years ago when I cancelled some cable channels the agent offered a surprisingly large price cut plus some additional features at no additional cost."
The first question asked was why I wanted to drop the TV service, and I was very clear that I didn't watch it, so I didn't want to pay anything. The person — "V" — was about to make an offer, but I said I didn't care what the price was, because I didn't use it.
Earlier he had said that cutting the TV would lead to an increase in cost for the internet service, which I was keeping, but that caused me to say the service was bad and I was considering switching to another company for that, and then V offered higher quality internet service at a reduced price. Later, he reduced the internet price again (for the next 12 months), so I ended up with a price for the internet that is about half what I've been paying.
Ken writes:
"Funny how that works. My firm subsidized a monthly gym membership, but I never used it once. Never even looked up the locations. Finally just figured out how to cancel when the gym emailed me they were changing t+c. I think I was punishing myself for not working out."
I think part of the business model for a lot of things is getting people signed up to make regular payments and collecting until they overcome inertia and unsubscribe.
madAsHell writes:
"I've had this conversation with the wife. I lost. She just can't give up the DIY rebuild-the-house programming."
Well, that was a different conversation than we had. Neither of us wanted the service. If one did, the other wouldn't push to get rid of it!
Washington Blogger writes:
"I don’t know how much money I wasted by delaying the cancellation of a service I was no longer using. Sometimes because, like you I was avoiding the work, sometimes because I thought I might still want it and didn’t want to give up on it yet, and sometimes because I didn’t want to admit it was a bad purchase in the first place so I kept it to try and justify the use.
"As for cable, I cut the cord I. 2004, mostly due to how I perceived the commercials would impact my children. I have dabbled with some streaming services that have commercials, but found I can no longer tolerate having complete control over my viewing experience-when to watch, when to pause, etc. I don’t even watch sports live anymore."
Ernest writes:
"I can identify with your hesitation to making that phone call. Yesterday I called the only available number to complain about our newspaper delivery. I was on hold for 30 minutes listening to horrible piano music that kept cutting out like a bad connection. Finally when a real person answered, I mentioned the bad connection, which had continued into the live portion, and the woman immediately hung up! I called again and after 20 minutes – with the same bad music – I got a human who I hope fixed the problem. Call me cynical, but I think the cutting in and out during the hold time is by design to get me to give up."
I answer:
My call was picked up immediately, first by a robot who asked me to say why I was calling and then by the live person who helped me. I spent 0 time on hold and had no music imposed on me. Actually, the guy that helped me apologized about 5 times for taking so long to do various steps, though he wasn't taking that long.
I had to take the DVR boxes over to Fed Ex to send them back. The people there were great too. They took the boxes unwrapped and did all the paper work and gave me a receipt. (That's the standard AT&T procedure, to send you to Fed Ex)
Leo writes:
"You can continue to get local channels and the major networks by use of an antenna, possibly indoors. Not the rabbit ears, but an antenna that looks like a dinner place mat and can be set behind the TV out of sight. With digital TV, the quality is actually better than cable, and completely free."
I say:
I couldn't bear to watch commercials. I've used a DVR to skip commercials for so long. I can't imagine just watching live TV.
Leora writes:
"I recently changed internet providers which I had been meaning to do for about 3 years. The package with 1 Gig speed that included HBO was $20 cheaper than getting internet and phone by themselves. I have not turned on my television to do anything except to play old dvd’s since Thanksgiving 2019 but I didn’t want to pay more to be without it."
Christopher writes:
"Congrats. I cut cable close to 15 years ago, a decision that was eased because I live near Washington DC and there are tons of broadcast channels here, and with much better image quality over the air. I still watch TV, though much more selectively. Amazon Prime on occasion.
"But the reason I'm writing is to echo comments about hesitation and the administrative costs of canceling any service. You're right that it's part of the business model. That really kicks in with self-storage units like CubeSmart. That has administrative friction and the actual friction of having to relocate all your stuff. I've lived in a two-bedroom apartment for 30 years and finally gave in a few years ago to get some elbow room back. They started me at $54 a month and I was finally incensed enough when it hit $72 after three years that I cancelled and moved all my PA equipment and old boxes back in here."
Ted writes:
"Congratulations on cutting the cord! I did so myself nearly a decade ago -- not just due to the expense, but because none of the companies in my local telecommunications monopoly were willing to provide decent service for any price. (Big surprise, some of them are now advertising newly consumer-friendly options, mainly because they lost half their customer base the moment other choices became available.)
"I now get network shows and local news through a cheap over-the-airwaves antenna, and time-skip the programming with a TiVo DVR. Nearly all the best programs are available on commercial-free streaming services, if you don't mind waiting a while for some of them. And not having 100 channels of dreck to flip through mindlessly -- or the 24-hour news channels that take all day to tell 10 minutes worth of actual news -- saves a lot of time.
"So now the only crappy company I have to deal with is my internet provider (basically the only one available to me). But their service has actually gotten better lately -- maybe they've learned the lesson that monopolies don't last forever."
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