Spectrum Cable can eat a bag of...

[bigjohn]

Ok so I do online, automated bill pay. Each month my credit card takes care of this. It's the same amount each month unless we do an on demand movie (rarely).

I was in the habit of never checking the bill because I'd get a monthly text message saying the amount had been paid (from TWC, which is now Spectrum).

Well I was checking my credit card statement and my bill was $100 more than normal. So after some digging, I realized I've been charged $100 more each month the last six months!  

Seems like my promotion ran out so they charged me the full retail rate. But I received no notification.  In fact strangely enough, my text notifications stopped at the same time my bill increased. That's the part that grinds my gears.

[Ja Rhule]

20 minutes ago, bigjohn said:

Ok so I do online, automated bill pay. Each month my credit card takes care of this. It's the same amount each month unless we do an on demand movie (rarely).

I was in the habit of never checking the bill because I'd get a monthly text message saying the amount had been paid (from TWC, which is now Spectrum).

Well I was checking my credit card statement and my bill was $100 more than normal. So after some digging, I realized I've been charged $100 more each month the last six months!  

Seems like my promotion ran out so they charged me the full retail rate. But I received no notification.  In fact strangely enough, my text notifications stopped at the same time my bill increased. That's the part that grinds my gears.

Yea, I dumped them and switched to ATT uverse/fiber.  Gotta be careful.  I tried to return my equipment and they said they did not want it because it's obsolete... 5 months later I got a call from collector telling me I owe Specrum $500 for equipment....  I went and return all of the equipment.  3 months later Spectrum sent me a check for $300...  Honestly, no clue wtf is going on. 

[dave-o]

Isnt it nice of them to reward loyal paying customers with such a huge increase in monthly payments...  I cant wait to see them go out of business one day !!

[Jase]

That's how they get ya.

[cookinbrak]

Don't you open your bills when you get them?

[Davidson Deac II]

I never use autopay on a credit card, and if a company requires auto draft or auto pay, I won't do business with them.  Directv bugs me a lot about giving them a credit card number.  I refuse. 

[Bronn]

If you stay on top of them, you can still get a pretty good deal. You need to start with having e-billing AND a paper bill though...

Our promotion just ran out last month. We were paying $64 for 200/20 Extreme internet with Starter TV (basically the antenna channels and the Spectrum news channel alongside a bunch of crap shopping channels). It saved me from having to buy an antenna and digital adapter for an older TV in our bedroom. We also used the Spectrum app on Roku on our living room TV to watch local channels in there. In the living room, we basically always watch shows on individual channel apps that I use a family member's login for, or Netflix. We also had Sling TV which gave us some live cable TV channels to watch. All said, with Spectrum, Netflix, and Sling TV we were out the door at around $95 a month for super fast internet and TV stuff.

When our promotion ran out, our Spectrum price was going to jump $25 to $89 a month. So I called them to get a new promotion.

It turns out, and I've known this for a long time, we were getting more internet than we could even use. Our laptops, which are the only real things we're concerned about being "fast" when we want to use them, are only capable of 100 Mbps speed.

The new promotion Spectrum offered me was basically TV Select, which is pretty much all the cable channels we get with Sling TV, plus some, and the antenna channels, and a decrease to 100 Mbps speeds. Apparently, they only offer 100 or 300 Mbps packages now anyway, unless you're grandfathered in as a TWC customer (although I suspect they decreased me a while back and just kept charging me more for it.)

My new rate was supposed to be around $76 a month, an increase of $12 bucks, but it turns out it is actually just under $71 a month for some reason. This is the price I will pay for a year, when the price will jump $46 (lol) unless I call again and re-up on another promotion.

This switch allowed me to cancel Sling TV (which, apparently they just let run out for what you've paid for and don't give you any partial prorated refund.) This saved me $21 a month.

I'm actually paying less per month for TV and internet now, $81 for everything plus Netflix, so saving $14 a month. And I am technically somewhat more legal in using the channel apps I use since I am now a "subscriber" to said channels.

My most recent experience was surprisingly decent with Spectrum from start to finish. I can tell they are still adapting to the changes, though, but I hope that it is a sign that they will be going in the right direction. My frustrations with TWC are probably well documented in Huddle history.

Not trying to be a dick, but it sounds like you should have paid more attention to the charges before they got so far along in billing you. Our paper (and e-Bills) always have a warning that promotions are about to expire. I never auto-pay anything. Good luck, though! I know how frustrating it can be to deal with cable/internet promotions, etc. I've been having to call them at certain intervals (sometimes as often as 6 months) for the past probably 15 years now.

[Bronn]

1 hour ago, Davidson Deac II said:

I never use autopay on a credit card, and if a company requires auto draft or auto pay, I won't do business with them.  Directv bugs me a lot about giving them a credit card number.  I refuse. 

I've never even given Netflix a CC number. We buy the $30 gift cards and use them when our sub runs out. $30 gives us three months plus a few days. Sometimes, when our sub ends, we just let it stay off for a month or two until we re-up.

[d-dave]

I'm not thrilled with them, but where I live, there are zero other options.  My bill jumped $20 over the summer.  I called them up, and they said that their packages hadn't rolled over.  Whatever.  I'm used to the TWC that worked to keep you.  Instead, spectrum doesn't really care about the customer as much as the money.

They won't go out of business because there are about the only choice in many areas.  And the service is usually very reliable.  I've had TWC since....1999??  Aside from things like power outages, my service has been pretty rock solid.  Now I've had some terrible equipment, the older model DVRs were absolute garbage, and we quit cable for a time.  The past year, we've paid for it, but our internet and TV has been great.  The Motorola DVR box has worked like a charm as well.  

[rayzor]

i've got roku with netflix($8/mo), amazon prime($99/year), and playstation vue ($45/mo which also allows me to watch a bunch of other things on roku) and watch anything my family and i want.

playstation vue just went up $10, but considering all i get compared to what i had to pay when i was bouncing back and forth from direct to dish....i've got no complaints.

[bigjohn]

7 hours ago, cookinbrak said:

Don't you open your bills when you get them?

I do everything online--paperless billing. Got used to not checking it monthly because I was getting texts each month. Yes, fell out of the habit of checking the bill which ultimately cost me big time. But my biggest issue was how conveniently the automated texts stopped when my bill increased.

[bigjohn]

Yeah for decent internet they are the only game in town. And it's easier to deal with one company (usually) for phone, internet and tv.

I really need to look into cutting the cord though.  Just haven't checked into enough to find out if I could get all the TV that me and the wife like that way.  I don't watch but a few channels and pretty much same with her.  

Anyone got a resource where I can check to see what's available through Roku etc.?

[bigjohn]

At least I got a few hundred extra flier miles out of the deal. Gah.

[Davidson Deac II]

40 minutes ago, bigjohn said:

I do everything online--paperless billing. Got used to not checking it monthly because I was getting texts each month. Yes, fell out of the habit of checking the bill which ultimately cost me big time. But my biggest issue was how conveniently the automated texts stopped when my bill increased.

Depending on which bank you deal with, you can also get emails with your daily transactions listed.