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March 19, 2005

by the short wires

Whose fracking idea was it to deregulate cable TV? I want to seriously beat them.

My cable bill is ridiculous. I'm in a "Digital MVP" package (I certainly feel special with a name like that!) for $79.95 per month. Since I don't watch very many movies on the many movie channels in my package (hehe... I said, "my package"), I decided to eliminate some of them to save some $$$. I want to get rid of The Movie Channel ($3.00), Showtime ($6.00), and Cinemax ($4.00), but keep HBO ($9.00, mostly for Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Sopranos, and the occassional Real Time with Bill Maher).

Well... I called the cable company, and it turns out I can drop down to a lower package without any movie channels for $55.95 and still keep all of the other stuff, but I can't just add HBO, since HBO and Cinemax are now bundled together for $13.00, so there goes $4.00 of the $13.00 I was hoping to save per month.

Nice. Less consumer choice = more money for the cable company.

Then I realized that I was relying on the young lady on the other end of the phone to tell me what my best choices were, and that I didn't even have anything written down in front of me so I could make an honest evaluation of their services and pricing on my own. Wait, you say, what about their web site?

No dice. Why would a company that is intent on ripping off its customers let them have easy access to their prices? Less readily available information for consumers = more ambiguity about services and pricing, which = more money for the cable company.

So instead of making changes to my service, I simply asked if I could have a printed brochure of their services and pricing. The young lady said she'll send one out, and that I'll have it in 5-7 days. I thanked the young lady and hung up.

And if all of that weren't bad enough, I started to take a good look at my bill, and I found that on top of the sales tax ($5.05), it turns out I'm forced to pay an additional $4.20 fee called "Gross Earnings", as well as an "FCC User Fee" of $0.06.

Gross Earnings? What the fuck is that all about? At first, I thought it was just another shameless way for the the cable company to rip me off more-- nothing like making up a fee to increase their executive's gross earnings, is there-- but then I figured even they wouldn't have the balls to do that, so I called back and asked for an explanation of the gross earnings fee.

The state of Connecticut imposes a tax on the gross earnings of cable companies in the state (it's either an infrastructure tax or a franchise tax... I'm not entirely sure), and apparently, since the cable companies don't want to be burdened with paying too much tax, pass on the fee to the customer. Let me repeat that... cable customers not only pay the cable company an outrageous amount of money for their service, but we are also forced to pay part of their taxes for them.

Nice. I'd love it if someone else paid part of my income taxes for me.

I'm just so sick of it all right now-- I feel emotionally drained for having written this entry. I'm going to veg out in front of the TV... yes, the cable company wins... DAMN IT!

-ttfn.

p.s. This post officially begins my new "Rant" category.

Posted by Savage Steve at March 19, 2005 7:18 PM

Comments

I sense a step towards a cabin in Montana...

Posted by: AMD^2 at March 30, 2005 12:37 PM

Not like I'm pro-big business, but you say "Less consumer choice = more money for the cable company." Cable companies will say that in order for them to get the best deals for their customers, they have to guarantee certain viewership (total houses with that cable station in their home - not necessarily numbers of heads actually watching it at any given time) to the networks (HBO, Skinemax, Showtime included)... it's probable that HBO would actually cost you $15 or $20 instead of the $9 it costs when purchased with Skinemax, etc. So, they will consider it a "value added."

I guess it's like a value meal except you can't just purchase the fries and the soda. You have to get the Double with Cheese, too.

You know - I went to McDonald's with my buddy Tim several years ago, and we had $2 combined (we were students). They had a deal for 2 Big Macs for $2. We asked them for two Big Macs. It came to $4.87. We said, "Hey - it says 2 for $2 on the poster over there!" He replied with "You have to ask for the special."

Damn corporations.

Posted by: Jason at April 3, 2005 8:44 PM