🚀 go-pugleaf

> >Just got notification that Comcast is "improving" their service on
> >6/2/04.  The net effect of this "improvement" is, if we want to get
> >the same basic channels we do now, our monthly bill will increase
> >from $15/month to $42/month.
>
> Heh heh - good old Comcast! The one thing they are good at is raising
rates.
> They can't fix the snow and interference in the picture, but they excel at
> lining their pockets...

I'm not complaining about Comcast, specifically, here but I was a little
annoyed back when I used to have cable (I now have DirecTV) and my basic
problems were:

* Whenever it would rain the cable would go out. I never called them on this
one but I assume their boxes got flooded out and it shorted out their
signal. It's interesting that they tout 'rain fade' was one of the things
you don't have to worry about with cable. With cable, though, it'd take a
good number of hours (up to a day or so) for the signal to clear up after a
storm. With DirecTV (and a properly aligned dish) the only rain fade I've
experienced was when the storm was so nasty that you'd want to unplug
everything anyway.

* Some local channels were so bad that they were unwatchable. I called them
on this a few times. Each time their answer was the same, "You're getting
interference from the local channels and it's wiping out the cable
channels." Well, that's fine but I'm paying the cable company for cable and
I couldn't get some local channels. It seemed like the proper answer would
have been for them to find the signal leak or, if it were impossible to fix
for that particular channel, move the channel to a new location (obviously
not just for me but it would seem like it'd be a system wide problem if they
couldn't fix it for me and that was their answer).

The end result it that I went with DirecTV. The cable company could have
done something to address the signal problems I was having but they showed
no interest. I'm not anti-cable or anything. I've had some good experiences
with cable companies (CableVision comes to mind). I've had really good
experiences with DirecTV so, until they screw up, they've got my business.

Brad