Thursday, May 15, 2008

Cable bill-hating

I love television. No, really love it. DVR has changed my life (and increased the amount of TV I watch) but because I love television so much, it's always the one thing I splurge the most on and pay the most for (minus my purse addiction). Some people love cooking or sports, I love television and anything television-related. I dream about installing a surround-sound system. That I will outsource for sure.

But it's because of my love of television that my monthly cable bill and the overall cost for cable services really gets a bee in my bonnet. Personally, I think it's highway robbery and the real "fleecing" of America. I live in Chicago, we have winter, I can't go out in -20 degree weather, television is my only salvation!

I bring this up because today I called RCN (local Chicago cable supplier) about trying to rebundle my services to lower my bill. I like my service (overall), but I can't handle paying $110+ a month for cable and Internet. Mentally, it's the number sticker-shock that kills me. So I was hoping RCN would see what a great customer I am and help me out here to lower my bill by $20-30.

Nope. After 20 minutes on the phone (multi-tasking and editing some work documents), the best Bucko (who I will refer to my customer service rep as) says is, "sorry, we can't do anything for you." As an customer-service-savvy person, I refuse to accept that. So I ask Bucko what deals they do have going right now to see if I can take advantage of something at least to ease the pain on my wallet.

Here is a snippet of our conversation:

Bucko: "Well I could give you a month of free HBO"

Me: "That's great, but I'm really interested in deals that will reduce my bill, I really have enough television to watch already"

Bucko: "Oh well, I could give you HBO so that you feel better about your bill."

Trust me Bucko, if only that would actually help.

In the end, my bill went down by $15 for six months. I guess it could be worse, but come June 15, I'm calling again about cable deals. I refuse to back down!

Now it's time to geek out and watch the Office finale in HD. HD is another great thing about television I can't get enough of.

8 comments:

Stephanie said...

You need to put Bucko "On Notice".

The finale was crazy!!!

Pretty Unfamous said...

I don't think I'll EVER understand HD. I mean, isn't regular TV good enough? Sure sure, HD is clearer, but do I REALLY need to see the stray hairs on someone's eyebrows? Or the acne scars on someone else's cheeks? I don't know. I might be the only person who thinks this...

Anonymous said...

well I don't know, you tell me, but with all that television it seems you might want to negoiate a life time gym package.
HD is it real?

Tipp said...

It really is unreal how much they charge!!

So, what did you think of The Office?

Unknown said...

I am completely addict to DVRs and On Demand. When we first moved the cable company got our package wrong and hooked us up with an HD box instead of a DVR. It took them 48 hours to come out and fix it, by that time I had the shakes and cold sweats.

Anonymous said...

Because of class I only caught the last five minutes of The Office finale and OH MY GOD!!

Luckily the Boyfriend taped the rest so I can watch the rest of the craziness this weekend.

Bayjb said...

Stephanie - Bucko should be put on notice, but he did at least reduce the bill $15 so I can't "complain"

Angela - I do love HD, it is clearer and really heightens the entire experience. I want everything in HD

Couch Potatoe - I actually work out 4x a week so the DVR keeps me from avoiding the gym

Rachel - Yes I'm sickly addicted to DVR too. The cable company didn't bring it on install day and I nearly passed out. I had to WAIT 24 hours!

All - My office feedback is coming up tonight, hope you'll check it out. It was insane.

Anonymous said...

Oh how I love television. Seriously. It's an addiction. It drives me nuts when people say they don't watch TV. I'm fairly certain they are liars.

The cable bill, however, is ridiculous. TV should be free.