Wednesday, March 2, 2011

My great cable revenge

Anyone who may have followed my non-State Dept blog, The III Degree, would know that I have had problems with cable companies.  I find that cable companies abuse you more than any other type of utility and that satellite and FIOS offer competition in theory only.  I have spent countless hours on the phone or in line with cable companies arguing over charges and service, etc.  With one company, I refused to pay a disputed charge for months, always deducting it from my monthly payment and informing them in writing that I disputed the charge of $12.84.  Finally, I moved and closed the account with the disputed amount on there - and they sent me to collections.  Assholes.  After I threatened to sue the collection company for harassing me over a disputed debt, they left me alone.

So, when I was in Crystal City last year, I had Comcast (again) and was mostly satisfied with their service.  They screwed up slightly when I canceled my service and I had to see them about getting $10 taken off the bill.  When I went to the store, the guy removed the charge with no problem and told me to have a nice day.

What he didn't realize is that he credited the account for the whole amount, which left me with a negative balance -$1.75.  Since then, for the past 10 months, they have sent me a statement informing me that I have negative balance.  Each month, I happily get the statement and throw it away.  For all the countless hours I spent arguing with them over money, they now waste money each month sending me the statement.

3 comments:

  1. I quit cable when we came back to the US. I was just too angry to deal with them any more. We ended up buying a digital antenna that looks like a laptop. It picks up about 30 channels. Then we use our laptop/HULU option for the rest and just plug it into our TV. Oh, and Netflix streaming changed my life. I know it sounds complicated but it has saved me over a thousand dollars but more importantly the intense grief and anger I get over cable companies.

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  2. I watch too much live sports to ever make the switch in the US

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  3. I'm lost with cable and DVR...they got me hooked.

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