Today I made the switch.
There has been a big movement lately for people to abandon Comcast Cable in favor of Verizon FiOS or basically anything else they can get a television signal through. And today I officially joined their ranks, switching to FiOS.
Comcast has gotten quite the reputation for being pretty smug. I've heard stories of people who have called to cancel their service and were told that "they'd be back." So far no one has switched back.
Similarly, when I called Comcast to cancel service I was told that "Verizon has had some issues with their contracts" and they had a $69.99 TV/Internet special if I change my mind. After a phone call to Verizon, I was assured that I needn't worry about the "contract issues" and went ahead with my switch.
The technician showed up at 9:30 this morning, worked until about 1:30 and we suddenly had well over twice as many TV channels at pretty much half the price of what we paid Comcast. Sweet.
That being said, I'm certainly not one to laud the virtues of Verizon. My former roommate, Scott can tell you that Verizon was at one point one of my two sworn enemies (the other being PennDOT.) I have spent more time on hold with Verizon than pretty much every other company I've dealt with in my entire life put together.
But I'm also cheap. And for $99.99 a month I can get television, internet and unlimited long-distance, saving me roughly $40-50 a month. If I take the time I've spent on hold for Verizon and charged them $25 and hour, I think FiOS will pay for that time in 3-4 months.
Unfortunately, it's going to take more than $40-50 a month to put PennDOT in my good graces again, so they remain my sole arch-nemesis.
There has been a big movement lately for people to abandon Comcast Cable in favor of Verizon FiOS or basically anything else they can get a television signal through. And today I officially joined their ranks, switching to FiOS.
Comcast has gotten quite the reputation for being pretty smug. I've heard stories of people who have called to cancel their service and were told that "they'd be back." So far no one has switched back.
Similarly, when I called Comcast to cancel service I was told that "Verizon has had some issues with their contracts" and they had a $69.99 TV/Internet special if I change my mind. After a phone call to Verizon, I was assured that I needn't worry about the "contract issues" and went ahead with my switch.
The technician showed up at 9:30 this morning, worked until about 1:30 and we suddenly had well over twice as many TV channels at pretty much half the price of what we paid Comcast. Sweet.
That being said, I'm certainly not one to laud the virtues of Verizon. My former roommate, Scott can tell you that Verizon was at one point one of my two sworn enemies (the other being PennDOT.) I have spent more time on hold with Verizon than pretty much every other company I've dealt with in my entire life put together.
But I'm also cheap. And for $99.99 a month I can get television, internet and unlimited long-distance, saving me roughly $40-50 a month. If I take the time I've spent on hold for Verizon and charged them $25 and hour, I think FiOS will pay for that time in 3-4 months.
Unfortunately, it's going to take more than $40-50 a month to put PennDOT in my good graces again, so they remain my sole arch-nemesis.
I'm not sure of the Time-Warner / Comcast connection, other than Time-Warner in Houston is now Comcast. I have Time-Warner service in Mission, TX, and I hate it. When we get back to Austin, I'm going to look for other options too. I hope you feel better casting your vote as a consumer. Here's hoping that Comcast learns who the customer is...
ReplyDeleteVerizon is evil, but Comcast is more evil.
ReplyDeleteDish Network owns them both, but I suppose if I had home phone service, I might be tempted to do a Verizon bundle.