i am partial to comcast due tome working there... but what i have is insane for the cost.
HD/DVR Digital Cable w/ HBO,SHO,CINE,STARZ and TMC
me = free ~~~ customer in baltimore = 119.50
Plus a free second HD/DVR box
me = free ~~~ customer - 14.95
16 meg wireless internet
me = free ~~~ customer - 55.95
Comcast Digital Voice ( cdv) our VoIP
w/ free long distance and 12 calling features and a second line
me = 14.95 ~~~ customer 59.95
so total i pay 14.95
and they pay 100% of the rest of my college education
and a customer in batimore pays 250.35 per month. But also paying 50% for all ppv is cool too. So i see all the ufc fights for 19.95.
But in all honesty i can give you the pros and cons.
Direct Tv/ Dish - contracts, credit checks, constant outages due to weather, a big fee per month to lease a converter. You pay for service calls to you house. You also can join for cheap but stuck into a long term deal. 1 add i see alot is this...
You can sign up tosay for our Dish services today for a low monthly rate of 39.95 and get up to 4 tvs connected for free.
Look at the fine print. Those offers generally have you paying this rate for 3 - 6 months then it goes up to the normal rates for the duration of the contract. Meaning your service plan raises and also your box rental does also. I know myself i hate contracts in general, no mater if it is a cell phone, electric company, or gym membership, anything really that i have to stick with for a long period of time. Your best bet is to call in and complain to your cable provider. Threaten a disconnection. We have a team called retention... whoever wants to cancel service we send to them. Tell them whats going wrong and they will hook you on a price break to stay. I have seen people walk away with the package i have for under 100 bucks for a years time. Dont ask for a certain price because if you are demanding enough, they are going to just cancel you and not think twice. Same with the associate on the phone. They can cancel you if you are being a dick but just reason with them and see what you can get.
One of the only benefits to Direct TV is the NFL Sunday Ticket. They have contracted it and is only allowed to be viewed through their system. But i just go to the local bar and watch it and eat great food when there is a real game to see. If you dont like paying so much and only use half of the channels on your TV try asking about the limited service also. You lose MTV and useless channels but you keep, government and local channels and for a small fee of like 11 dollars (in maryland) you get 25 more channels like Discovery, HGTV, TLC, and alot of the chanels i basically watch incluing ESPN. Your options are out there just dont do anything rash yet, without talking to the retention team first. There probably refer to them as the consumer advisory team, or customer relations but all the same thing.
Dont know if that helped much but let me know... i can always try and hook you on a good price if my login works in your state.
*edit - to respond to the post above. Anyone can give you free installation. We just get a fat commission check at the end of the month for all the revenue we bring in. This month... i brought home 1400 alone in commission, them my wages on top of it. The guide for comcast goes 4 days in advance for government and local channels and 2 days for premium channels. But we have a digital cable TV Guide for 2.10 a month and that givesyou a paper guide for the whole month. ALso with digital cable, you can get no imiton rooms with basic cable to view at no extra charge a month. So you can have the bigscreen with digital and 13 extra outlets of basic cable for the same price per month. But depending on install costs for whom is making the sale.
