{ "attachments": [], "comments_archived": true, "date": "2011-06-10T22:16:39.572Z", "layout": "post", "published": true, "tags": [ "cuttingthecord", "tivo", "cable", "tv", "entertainment", "video", "internet" ], "title": "Cutting the Cord (or: Bright House, you're fired)", "year": "2011", "month": "06", "day": "10", "isDir": false, "slug": "cutting-the-cord", "type": "entry", "postName": "2011-06-10-cutting-the-cord", "html": "

TL;DR: Our cable company has offered poor\nsupport for our TiVo; cut our channels and allowed our service to\ndegrade; mislead us about possible solutions; and finally wasted our\ntime by sending a contractor to our home instead of a clued-in\nemployee who could handle the issue. And, now that we're going to\npursue other options for putting moving pictures on our television,\nthey plan to charge us for cutting the cord. Since I've been looking\nto write here more, I've just been given a nice excuse to rant.

\n

Bright House has basically a local monopoly on cable TV here. So,\nwe've been a customer of theirs for cable and internet over the past\nfew years.

\n

This is the thing, though: We've spent a lot of money on a cable\nsubscription. In exchange, I expect great and even proactive customer\nservice. I guess I'm unreasonable, because instead we're expected to\npay more for less and to accept hassles and up-selling instead of\nsupport—because they're almost literally the only game in town. But,\nother options are getting good enough and we can learn to do\nwithout.

\n

You see, we have a TiVo. We like our TiVo. We got one when\nthe girl worked at the company, and we've never gone back.\nHaving one is like living in the future. Yes, Bright House offers\ntheir own DVRs, but they're inferior products and we don't want\none. So, as far as I'm concerned, Bright House is just a video\nsupplier for our TiVo.

\n

Unfortunately, over the past year, they've done a crappy job. They're\ntransitioning to Switched Digital Video, and that's something\nour TiVo doesn't support out of the box. As we eventually found\nout, there's a tuning adapter that could fix things. But, rather\nthan tell us about that up front—and maybe offer to\nsend us one as a part of their transition—they've instead sent us a\nseries of letters listing channels we're going to lose\nbecause we rent CableCARDs.

\n

Since I've got better things to do than call the cable company, I put\noff contacting them. In the meantime, we lost channels as promised.\nOther channels not listed in the letters began to degrade and became\nunwatchable.

\n

Finally, I sent an email. A week or so later, they called and left me\na voicemail, which described the installation fee and monthly\nrental rate of a tuning adapter. This, on top of what we already\npay for CableCARDs and the underlying cable service itself. At\nthat point, we were pretty annoyed. The cable bill was already high\nand new fees seemed to appear every month—and they wanted us to pay\neven more just to get what we'd originally signed up for.

\n

Yes, I understand that SDV will let them make more efficient\nuse of resources and offer exciting new services and yadda yadda\nyadda—but, to me, it just looks like they're breaking the video feed\ninto our TiVo and expect us to pay more to fix it. It's pretty\nshady and customer-hostile, this stuff. Oh wait: Didn't some of these\nguys get fined by the FCC for SDV hijinx not too long ago?

\n

So, rather than jump on getting a tuning adapter installed, I bought\nan antenna and went retro. It turns out there are over a\ndozen over-the-air HD channels in range. That might not sound\nlike a lot, but you'd be surprised how much watchable stuff is packed\ninto the major networks versus the other 1000 channels we got on\ndigital cable. The theme here is free and good enough.

\n

True, some of those channels are a pain to tune in using a dinky\nlittle indoor antenna, reminicent of the \"rabbit ears\" days. But,\nfor most of the past month, we got by pretty well. The TiVo works\nnicely with an antenna. It's a decent Netflix\nstreamer, too. (Though, to be honest, the Xbox 360 works better,\ncan get Hulu Plus, and plays videos from our network. TiVo\nreally, really needs to catch up fast here.)

\n

Having given TV a trial without cable, we decided it was time to call\nBright House back to sort out this TiVo thing, one way or\nanother. Since I'm a proven procrastinating wuss about calling the\ncable company, my wife called and scheduled an appointment for a tech\nvisit.

\n

Here's the fun part: They told her we didn't need a tuning\nadapter. Instead, they had \"HD boxes\" which would do the trick.\nThey could install those for free, reclaim our rented CableCARDs,\nand we'd get a break on our bill at the end. I was dubious, but that\nsounded surprisingly good!

\n

So, the tech arrived today, near the end of the 2-hour window. He came\narmed with two Motorola DCX3200 set-top boxes. I thought they must\nhave some kind of control connection to be slaved to the TiVo. My\ncable-tech-fu is pretty weak, but I assumed they knew what they were\ndoing.

\n

But, no: The tech—who was a contractor and not a Bright House\nemployee—took one look at our TiVo and shrugged. He had no idea\nhow to make these boxes work with that thing. So, he set one up\nalongside the TiVo and called back to headquarters to schedule\nanother appointment—this time with an elusive real Bright\nHouse employee who apparently knew about these things. You know,\nthe guy whom they should have sent in the first place.

\n

I've no real complaints about the contractor: His installation of the\nset-top box was fine—it was just the wrong solution altogether. Yeah,\nI could probably finagle something with an IR blaster, but it\ndoesn't seem worth it and probably doesn't work in HD. We could also\nkeep the appointment next week and hope that the bona fide Bright\nHouse employee knows what he's doing and leaves us with a working\ntuning adapter. But, trying to be happy about that starts to feel\nlike Stockholm Syndrome.

\n

After the contractor left, we thought a bit and my wife (again,\nbecause the phone is my kryptonite, and I'd be useless without her)\ncalled Bright House to cancel our cable.

\n

We wanted to keep the internet access—but even here, they did their\nbest to make us think twice about staying their customer at all. It\nturns out that to break up our cable/internet bundle, they need to\n\"rebuild our whole system\" and that incurs a fee as large as what we\npaid to install cable in the first place.

\n

The funny thing is that it wouldn't have been hard to keep us\nhappy. Do a little work up front to help keep our TiVo running,\nand we might have spent even more money on cable. Now, we're looking\nvery hard at alternatives we'd been too complacent to consider\nbefore.

\n

But, I guess that's the problem: This is all very old news.\nThey don't really want our TiVo on their network. So, instead,\nthey sent letters promising degraded service and followed through on\nit. And, when contacted to address the issue, they botched it\naltogether. Clearly, if third-party set-top boxes and the customers\nwho use them were a priority beyond just avoiding FCC fines, they'd\nhave the right people and processes in place to keep us happy. I think\nwe've gotten the message, now.

\n

Where's that leave us? Well, our bill will be cut in half, at least\nafter we pay for the new setup fee. We'll need to be more mindful and\nintentional toward what we watch on TV and how we get it, but somehow\nI think we'll manage. Past that, I think it'll feel good to pay less\nfor a service provided by a company that doesn't really want our\nbusiness and has a strange notion of customer service.

\n

In the meantime, I think I'll be on the lookout\nfor a better internet provider so we can ditch Bright House\noutright. The problem is, I don't think the market around here is\nexactly rife with competition.

\n\n\n

Archived Comments

\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n", "body": "**TL;DR**: Our [cable company][bright house] has offered poor\r\nsupport for our TiVo; cut our channels and allowed our service to\r\ndegrade; mislead us about possible solutions; and finally wasted our\r\ntime by sending a contractor to our home instead of a clued-in\r\nemployee who could handle the issue. And, now that we're going to\r\npursue other options for putting moving pictures on our television,\r\nthey plan to charge us for cutting the cord. Since I've been looking\r\nto write here more, I've just been given a nice excuse to rant.\r\n\r\n[Bright House][] has basically a local monopoly on cable TV here. So,\r\nwe've been a customer of theirs for cable and internet over the past\r\nfew years. \r\n\r\nThis is the thing, though: We've spent a lot of money on a cable\r\nsubscription. In exchange, I expect great and even proactive customer\r\nservice. I guess I'm unreasonable, because instead we're expected to\r\npay more for less and to accept hassles and up-selling instead of\r\nsupport—because they're almost literally the only game in town. But,\r\nother options are getting *good enough* and we can learn to do\r\nwithout.\r\n\r\nYou see, we have a [TiVo][]. We like our [TiVo][]. We got one when\r\n[the girl][girl] worked at the company, and we've never gone back.\r\nHaving one is like living in the future. Yes, [Bright House][] offers\r\n[their own DVRs][dvrs], but they're inferior products and we don't want\r\none. So, as far as I'm concerned, [Bright House][] is just a video\r\nsupplier for our [TiVo][]. \r\n\r\n[dvrs]: http://brighthouse.com/michigan/shop/tv/dvr\r\n[girl]: http://twitter.com/sparklebunny/\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, over the past year, they've done a crappy job. They're\r\ntransitioning to [Switched Digital Video][sdv], and that's something\r\nour [TiVo][] doesn't support out of the box. As we eventually found\r\nout, there's a [tuning adapter][] that could fix things. But, rather\r\nthan tell us about that up front—and maybe offer to\r\nsend us one as a part of their transition—they've instead sent us a\r\nseries of letters listing channels we're going to lose\r\nbecause we rent [CableCARDs][].\r\n\r\nSince I've got better things to do than call the cable company, I put\r\noff contacting them. In the meantime, we lost channels as promised.\r\nOther channels not listed in the letters began to degrade and became\r\nunwatchable.\r\n\r\nFinally, I sent an email. A week or so later, they called and left me\r\na voicemail, which described **the installation fee and monthly\r\nrental rate** of a [tuning adapter][]. This, on top of what we already\r\npay for [CableCARDs][] and the underlying cable service itself. At\r\nthat point, we were pretty annoyed. The cable bill was already high\r\nand new fees seemed to appear every month—**and they wanted us to pay\r\neven more just to get what we'd originally signed up for**.\r\n\r\nYes, I understand that [SDV][sdv] will let them make more efficient\r\nuse of resources and offer exciting new services and *yadda yadda\r\nyadda*—but, to me, it just looks like they're breaking the video feed\r\ninto our [TiVo][] and expect us to pay more to fix it. It's pretty\r\nshady and customer-hostile, this stuff. Oh wait: [Didn't some of these\r\nguys get fined by the FCC for SDV hijinx not too long ago?][fined] \r\n\r\n[fined]: http://hd.engadget.com/2008/10/16/fcc-fines-twc-and-cox-for-deploying-switched-digital-video/\r\n\r\nSo, rather than jump on getting a [tuning adapter][] installed, I bought\r\n[an antenna][antenna] and went retro. It turns out there are [over a\r\ndozen over-the-air HD channels in range][range]. That might not sound\r\nlike a lot, but you'd be surprised how much watchable stuff is packed\r\ninto the major networks versus the other 1000 channels we got on\r\ndigital cable. The theme here is *free* and *good enough*.\r\n\r\nTrue, some of those channels are a pain to tune in using a dinky\r\nlittle indoor antenna, reminicent of the \"[rabbit ears][]\" days. But,\r\nfor most of the past month, we got by pretty well. The [TiVo][] works\r\nnicely [with an antenna][tivo-ota]. It's a decent [Netflix][]\r\nstreamer, too. (Though, to be honest, the Xbox 360 works better,\r\ncan get [Hulu Plus][], and plays videos from our network. [TiVo][]\r\nreally, really needs to catch up fast here.)\r\n\r\n[rabbit ears]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipole_antenna\r\n\r\nHaving given TV a trial without cable, we decided it was time to call\r\n[Bright House][] back to sort out this [TiVo][] thing, one way or\r\nanother. Since I'm a proven procrastinating wuss about calling the\r\ncable company, my wife called and scheduled an appointment for a tech\r\nvisit. \r\n\r\nHere's the fun part: They told her we didn't need a [tuning\r\nadapter][]. Instead, they had \"HD boxes\" which would do the trick.\r\nThey could install those for free, reclaim our rented [CableCARDs][],\r\nand we'd get a break on our bill at the end. I was dubious, but that\r\nsounded surprisingly good!\r\n\r\nSo, the tech arrived today, near the end of the 2-hour window. He came\r\narmed with two [Motorola DCX3200][] set-top boxes. I thought they must\r\nhave some kind of control connection to be slaved to the [TiVo][]. My\r\ncable-tech-fu is pretty weak, but I assumed they knew what they were\r\ndoing.\r\n\r\nBut, no: The tech—who was a contractor and not a [Bright House][]\r\nemployee—took one look at our [TiVo][] and shrugged. He had no idea\r\nhow to make these boxes work with that thing. So, he set one up\r\nalongside the [TiVo][] and called back to headquarters to schedule\r\n*another* appointment—this time with an elusive **real** [Bright\r\nHouse][] employee who apparently knew about these things. You know,\r\nthe guy whom they should have sent in the first place. \r\n\r\nI've no real complaints about the contractor: His installation of the\r\nset-top box was fine—it was just the wrong solution altogether. Yeah,\r\nI could probably finagle something with an [IR blaster][], but it\r\ndoesn't seem worth it and probably doesn't work in HD. We could also\r\nkeep the appointment next week and hope that the **bona fide [Bright\r\nHouse][] employee** knows what he's doing and leaves us with a working\r\n[tuning adapter][]. But, trying to be happy about that starts to feel\r\nlike [Stockholm Syndrome][].\r\n\r\nAfter the contractor left, we thought a bit and my wife (again,\r\nbecause the phone is my kryptonite, and I'd be useless without her)\r\ncalled [Bright House][] to cancel our cable.\r\n\r\nWe wanted to keep the internet access—but even here, they did their\r\nbest to make us think twice about staying their customer at all. It\r\nturns out that to break up our cable/internet bundle, they need to\r\n\"rebuild our whole system\" and that incurs a fee as large as what we\r\npaid to install cable in the first place.\r\n\r\nThe funny thing is that it wouldn't have been hard to keep us\r\nhappy. Do a little work up front to help keep our [TiVo][] running,\r\nand we might have spent even more money on cable. Now, we're looking\r\nvery hard at alternatives we'd been too complacent to consider\r\nbefore.\r\n\r\nBut, I guess that's the problem: [This is all very old news.][oldnews]\r\nThey don't really want our [TiVo][] on their network. So, instead,\r\nthey sent letters promising degraded service and followed through on\r\nit. And, when contacted to address the issue, they botched it\r\naltogether. Clearly, if third-party set-top boxes and the customers\r\nwho use them were a priority beyond just avoiding FCC fines, they'd\r\nhave the right people and processes in place to keep us happy. I think\r\nwe've gotten the message, now.\r\n\r\nWhere's that leave us? Well, our bill will be cut in half, at least\r\nafter we pay for the new setup fee. We'll need to be more mindful and\r\nintentional toward what we watch on TV and how we get it, but somehow\r\nI think we'll manage. Past that, I think it'll feel good to pay less\r\nfor a service provided by a company that doesn't really want our\r\nbusiness and has a strange notion of customer service. \r\n\r\nIn the meantime, I think I'll be on the lookout\r\nfor a better internet provider so we can ditch [Bright House][]\r\noutright. The problem is, I don't think the market around here is\r\nexactly rife with competition.\r\n\r\n[oldnews]: http://hd.engadget.com/2010/02/19/tivo-wonders-why-cable-wants-tv-everywhere-except-on-a-tivo/\r\n[stockholm syndrome]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome\r\n[ir blaster]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_blaster\r\n[hulu plus]: http://www.hulu.com/plus\r\n[range]: http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/\r\n[tivo-ota]: http://www.tivo.com/products/source/antenna/index.html\r\n[antenna]: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/RCA+-+Indoor+HDTV+Antenna+-+White/8939839.p;jsessionid=2D2BA012979FDCFA317D3D5E287FE00D.bbolsp-app03-25?id=1215217075905&skuId=8939839&st=hd%20antenna&cp=1&lp=2\r\n[motorola dcx3200]: http://www.motorola.com/Video-Solutions/US-EN/Products-and-Services/Video-Consumer-Premise-Equipment/All-Digital-Set-Tops/DCX3200_US-EN?localeId=33\r\n[cablecards]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CableCARD\r\n[netflix]: http://netflix.com/\r\n[tivo]: http://tivo.com/\r\n[tuning adapter]: http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/307/kw/sdv/r_id/100041\r\n[sdv]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_video\r\n[bright house]: http://brighthouse.com/michigan/default\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n

Archived Comments

\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
\r\n ", "parentPath": "./content/posts/archives/2011", "path": "2011/06/10/cutting-the-cord", "needsBuild": true, "prevPostPath": "2011/06/08/further-jekyll-notes", "prevPostTitle": "Further Jekyll notes", "nextPostPath": "2011/06/11/five-years", "nextPostTitle": "Five years" }