We're caught in a trap!

It has been quite awhile since my last rant but the time has come to ask:  WHAT THE CAT FUR?

It all started five years ago.

When I moved to a rural area, I wasn’t able to get cable TV even though I was told I could. This lie started a round of arguments with COX cable. To make a long story short, and to put it mildly . . . they were rude.  I swore I would never-ever go back to them even if they came to my front door and begged me—which was exactly what happen. However while installing the cable, the contractors cut my phone line.  Not once, but twice. It doesn’t take much imagination to guess where I told them they could stick their precious cable.  

I ordered DISH instead.  My bill started out at $45.  I really thought was too much to pay for the horse-racing channel, food channels (I don’t cook), home shopping channels (my money goes to pay the TV bill, I have none left over to buy needless crap), but that is what came with the package that had the channels I wanted.

OK.  I have a problem with these “packages.”  I think some half-ass executive sits up all night and thinks of ways to give a subscriber the channels they want BUT only with a bunch of crap they will never watch in a million years.  However if we want to see the programs we like, we must agree to this insanity.  Oh . . . the local channels are an additional cost.  Why?

Ok.  I suppress my urge to kill the installer and agree to this package just so I can watch eight hours of NCIS on Saturdays.   Good thing I like Mark Harmon and I guess I can swing $45. a month.  

BUT WAIT!

Because I occasionally like to watch TV in bed, I must pay an extra $7. for the privilege.

AND

Just in case something happens and I have to call a repair tech out, which costs over $100. just add $6. more for protection.

My $45. package has morphed into $58. plus tax resulting in a bill of $61.

Enough is enough.

I go on line and notice DISH has a package with all the channels I want for $29.95.  Even when I add in the cost of the local channels this comes up to half of what I’m currently paying.  Perfect. 

I call DISH.

I get Anna in East Jesus on the phone who speaks some kind of language other than English.  I think this is a plot as well.  Get someone to help the customer that frustrates them so bad and they will hang up.  Problem solved.

I tell Anna I want to downgrade to the $29.95 package advertised online.  “That is only available to new customers” is her reply.

“What are you doing for the old customers,” is mine.

No comment.  (no matter the language, zero is zero)

Anna and I try to communicate for a few more minutes until finally she finds a package for the “veteran customer” that works.  I repeat the package back to her and what channels they include as well as the new price.  Correct.  Everything is cool.  With a touch of a button, the new package goes straight to my receiver.  HOWEVER, even though the changes are made right away, I still have to pay the old amount because it takes a month for billing to catch up. 

Really? 

I come home.  Switch on the TV.  I only get local channels.

I call DISH.

This time I get Tony in Mexico City. 

Tony and I click. He understands my frustration when he tells me I have only the basic package that includes nothing.  (another plot)  

To make a long story short, Tony puts me back to the where I started from.

What the cat fur is wrong with this?????????????

Why do we put up with this insanity????????????

How do “they” get away with so much control???

When I was a kid, we had a TV with an antenna and a rotor.  Got every channel we wanted and didn’t pay squat.

Just like ol’ dad said,

“Livin’ ain’t easy no more.  There’s too many gadgets.”