So Charter has been dicking around with us for 6 months or so. Rates change each month. Each month I'm on the phone with customer support (fluffers). We had never received anything in writing for rate increases either via email or snail mail. We had given them permission to us a automatic debit card-but no longer. Just don't trust them. Come March bill, I call them and pay via credit card in full. The charge is 68 bucks for cable and internet. I get a confirmation number as well. Cancel the auto debit and tell them our very unpleasant history with Charter. April bill comes in. And again-its for a different amount. Contest the bill and pay the new, cheaper amount. No one can figure out why there is such disparity. Get April's confirmation of payment. Now May's bill comes in. It's for $145.00. This includes a $25.00 service charge. My wife flips and I'm on the phone with "Pedro the supervisor" out of Mexico City. Got to love NAFTA. I'm on the phone for over 80 minutes. He has no idea where the charges are coming from. No idea for the service charge. No changes in service. He confirms that the last 3 bills were all paid in full. All confirmation numbers match. After a long period on hold, he comes back and tells me that I have been given 4 months back credit to bring things up to present status. Including a month free. Yippy. The next day, I take 4 months of receipts plus my notes to the local Charter office. I ask for the manager (who happened to be very attractive) and over the next hour, she tries to figure things out. The service charge was a simple mistake. "Program error." All the other unusual charges were because of "incentive package rate changes." But I showed her my notes from a February telephone bitch session (with customer service staff and supervisor names and ID's) that I was promised 1 year fixed price for both packages. Even on her end-it showed my conversation and the supposed price fix. Still no explanation. In the end, she tells me that I have several months credited and writes everything out and signs the notes with her first name and ID. After all the trouble, it would make sense to switch carriers. My wife suggests that this is done on purpose because most people will not confront them on rate changes with out notice. They are no longer the only game in town. Thinking about Direct TV. But I really don't want to change the house infrastructure (wiring, etc). Bitch session over.

Joe.... Are you saying your bill for both cable and internet is $68.00 a month and that is too much?

If that is the case, I wish I had that problem. It's almost double that here for the same thing.

NY Madman - 3 mb speeds from 6 mb (they made that change even though ever one else in the area is getting 6 mb free for a year) and the cable is simple, no frills cable. I guess I'm cheap. LOL. Last time I posted my problems with Charter. Some one from the mid West (East bumb f*&k) had 12mb internet and HD programing (over 3oo channels in all) plus DVR for under 50 bucks. So it would seem the prices are determined by location and competition. By the way, what part of NY are you located in. I used to hit the Saw Mill Parkway on my way to and from school way back when I had hair and abs.

Joe,

I have comcast digital cable in Pa, costs me about $60.00 a month. No HD, no DVR (I have a windows media center pc for that).

I have Verizon FIOS for Internet (15mb down/2mb up) and that costs me about $50.00 a month.

So I'm paying about $110.00 for cable/internet here in western pa.

NismoXse02 - I fished high quality coax cable for net and TV through out the house. It was a pain. I know nothing about Direct TV or other satellite TV options. So can satellite us my existing coax cable? ATT for Internet can use existing phone lines. But I do not have a phone lines where I have my work station set up. I did not think in advance when I ran the cable to the work station to run phone lines.

FIOS?

Yeah, but if you're going HD Dish has considerably better quality than Direct. Of course, cable is better than either quality wise.

For cable TV and internet, you are going to pay about $130 or more here from the cable company (Time Warner). That's also just for a basic package of premium channels. With some packages it is more.

The Saw Mill River Parkway is North of the city. Are you thinking about Westchester County? In NYC it turns into the Henry Hudson Parkway in the Bronx. One of my sisters lives in a town up there right off the Saw Mill.

I live in the Southern outpost of the city on Staten Island. It's still somewhat suburban, but rapidly changing.

Fiber from Verizon.

They've been telling us for about 1.5 years that it's "coming soon." No luck.

FIOS is available where I live.

A neighbor got it a few months back. He says it is a lot faster than cable internet. They also give you a wireless router.

NY Madman - in the mid 80's, I went to school in Hartford CT. The drive on 84, 684, 287 and the GSPW were all boring and fatiguing. But the high lite was always the Saw Mill. I had grey market VW's at the time-so the Saw Mill was way too much fun to travel on. Not that I exceeded the speed limit. LOL. It seems that the Westchester County PD always sat in the same radar traps and were very predictable. I was even tagged once and was not given a ticket. The officer was cool and had mentioned that he had seen my car (a gray market Passat VR6 with full euro goodies) in the past and wanted to check it out. I certainly exceeded the speed limit but never went nuts or overboard. Usually drove very late at night to avoid the GW Bridge or Tapanzee Bridge traffic as well as general traffic on the Mill. I especially enjoyed the Mill when it rained or snowed.

As far as your rates-that seems about right for being in the quasi metro area near NYC.

"Better" is relative. I've been unimpressed with DishHD, as the quality is very inconsistent between channels. DiscoveryHD is great, though.

Dish is a horrible company to deal with as well. My service stopped working recently, dropped down to only about 3 channels available (none I was interested in). Obviously, something is broken in the equipment I am forced to lease from them and can't touch. My options are "pay for a minimum $50 service call to have an installer fix the problem", "keep paying $50 a month for service that I don't get", or "pay $200 for an early cancellation fee". I'm choosing the latter and telling their collections department to fuck themselves. If I don't have a dialtone, the phone company a) doesn't charge me for the time the phone line was dead, and b) comes out and fixes it for free. Same goes for my electric, internet, gas, water, or sewer. For some reason Dish decided that YOU are responsible for any repairs to THEIR equipment, and that they will keep charging you according to your contract even if their equipment craps out.

My only other option is the Charter monopoly (they are based here in St Louis, and their lobbyists own the state legislature). I have a number of friends that work for Charter, and they wouldn't let me subscribe to their service. It is complete crap.

I just invested in a high-quality outdoor HD antenna, and a dual-HD tuner for my media center PC. Over-the-air HD is WAY better quality than what any cable or satellite provider gives you, and Vista Media Center makes a way better DVR than any of the standalone boxes out there. Between OTA HD and new internet TV delivery methods, I will never go back to subscription-based TV.

I like the Saw Mill too.

You know you are leaving NYC when the road becomes clean, smooth, well maintained, and fairly fresh pavement.

It's one of the reasons why I like driving on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey. Smooth roads are a big deal when you aren't really used to it.

I don't get up to those parts as often as I should. It is about an hour's ride in normal traffic just to get to the Saw Mill.... and that is going through New Jersey on the Turnpike and the GW Bridge.

Those were the days. Driving is quite different out West (Northern NV).

I won't comment on Dish's CS because my bill goes to AT&T who has one of the best CS departments for a company of it's size. If anything comes up, I give them a call. However, I'm surprised you are under a contract and they won't fix it for you. I had the option to pay $50 for no contract but I have to pay for repairs or no fee for an 18 month contract, but all repairs are free. If that's what you have, they need to fix it for you. You may have to ask to talk to their supervisor to get somewhere though if it's that bad.

That's true, because the OTA stuff isn't compressed. You didn't need to waste money on a high quality "HD antenna", however. You get the HD signal or you don't, and if you get it with bunny ears you'll see no improvement by going to an expensive antenna. Of course, in some areas you may not be able to get a signal with a normal antenna when you can with a better unit.

I went with Dish HD because I had about a year left on my commitment to them and figured I'd give it a shot. Most of the main HD channels are pretty good (such as the ESPNs, TNT, and Discovery) and I get a full compliment of locals in HD where I'm at. I would go with cable but it'd cost a lot more per month with my local provider, plus I'd be stuck with the termination fee with Dish.

Did anyone see that commercial from Direct TV about having 150 HD channels, 3x cable? I don't know if they meant now or later this year or something, but that sounds liek a plan to me. Time Warner here in Houston is a joke, which is probably why Comcast will be taking over next month. I'll see how that goes. For now, I'm happy with Dish.