(Updating The Blogg on Williamsport Internet Access)
I really wanted to like Chilitech, but they were unable to provide me with the results of their site survey other than that it passed, and would or could not divulge their upstream provider or other information. The answers to those sorts of question were not all that relevant, but the inability or unwillingness to share technical information with customers led me to realize they were not the kind of company I was hoping for. Since my wife was already firmly set on Comcast, the decision was fairly easy.
I intended to log in to comcast.com, fill up my shopping cart, and then call a representative on the phone. That way I could make sure I got the proper pricing while hopefully arguing my way out of a pointless $99 installation fee for someone to plug in my cable modem. Unlike when I checked last week, however, the comcast website was stating that neither digital cable nor Internet access were available in my area. Not wanting to wait around, I decided to make the call anyway.
The woman that I spoke to was quite adamant that the installation fee could not be waived under any circumstance, so I relented. She also tried very hard to sell me on a “triple-play” package with telephone service (which actually would have cut my bill by about $2/month, but I refused to order a service I would never use) and HD channels (which could not be effectively viewed on any television we own or are likely to own in the next several years). I was not offered a choice between multiple services, and simply got the default cable and Internet packages that she assumed I wanted. The total was $116/month, significantly higher than I remembered. I mentioned that I had seen better prices on the website and she told me that there was no way she could see or match those prices.
Once I got off the phone I tried the website again, and it was working. Through the web interface I could buy Digital Starter cable television at a 6-month promotional rate of $29.99 and Performance cable Internet access at a 6-month promotional rate of $19.99, a total of less than half what I had been quoted. I called back and talked to another representative who was extremely helpful. When I explained what had happened he told me it would not be a problem to match those prices, although I would be downgrading from the Digital Classic television service I had been sold (which includes an extra 100 channels that we would have doubtless ignored). Given the price reduction and his helpfulness, I also ordered a DVR (yeah, I should just be using MythTV, but the wife does not want a computer sitting in the living room) and the Sports Entertainment Pack (mostly for the NFL Network).
Thank goodness I reached a good representative on the second try. If call center jockeys are supposed to never deviate from a script, how can they have such different information? We shall see how well the service works out.
Too bad Chilitech was secretive about (or ignorant of) the technical details. They should know answering the questions you asked is harmless and knowing these things makes nerds happy. Oh well, their loss. I hate haggling over prices in general, and particularly over the phone (I don’t much like talking on the phone in the first place), so I probably wouldn’t have bothered to call back to bug them about the better rate. Good thing you did. Your wife does know that the DVR you ordered IS a computer that will go in the living room, right? It just happens to be in a VCR-like case and you can’t do anything else with it. Do you own the thing, or are you renting it from Comcast? Sarah wants me to build us a MythTV box, but I’ve been too lazy/cheap to get together the necessary parts. Maybe some of our tax refund will go towards that, now. I suppose I should consider myself lucky that my wife loves video games and electronics, and thus won’t mind the computer in the living room.
Comment by Chris — April 16, 2009 @ 2:42 pm
Two notes on your post:
1) We have the cable package with the extra channels because we watch them almost exclusively and probably could do without the channels that only come in the base package. Especially with the advent of Hulu.
2) I find your wife’s unhappiness with a TV in the living room silly and unreasonable. But I do understand the desire to have DVR with minimal effort even if it only has half the useful features of MythTV
Comment by Mykroft — April 16, 2009 @ 2:48 pm
It’s the computer, not the TV, that is the issue. She is surely aware that the rented DVR is essentially that, but it will not be in the clunky white tower that I would scrounge parts for otherwise. Also, in addition to the aesthetics there is the issue of usability. Sadly, she has very little patience for things that are not intuitive, simple, and come with professional technical support. Some day I’ll make her into a hacker-friendly wife, but these things take time.
Our television watching is probably 30% NBC, 20% USA, 20% TNT, 10% ESPN, 5% CSN, 5% Comedy Central, 5% other broadcast networks, and only 5% everything else. If we had 100 more channels available we might find some worth watching, but probably not much. Hulu is nice, but I really only use it for missed episodes or catching up on entire series of which I was not previously aware. I could actually go without cable entirely if I could still pull in NBC from a broadcast tower, but she enjoys it.
Comment by chadhogg — April 16, 2009 @ 4:26 pm
I believe he meant to say “computer in the living room” in number 2 above. “No TV in the living room” would be fightin’-words.
Comment by Chris — April 16, 2009 @ 4:30 pm
If you are so-motivated, you could scrounge together a small form factor machine to use as a MythTV frontend to put in the living room. It could look just like a slick little DVR box, and if it has builtin bluetooth (or you get a USB bluetooth dongle) you could control it with a Wii remote using something like this: http://www.resplect.com/xwii/ I intend to try that out sometime.
I found MythTV’s frontend UI to be quite intuitive, but my interaction with it was minimal when I lived at 1420 Lorain.
Anyway, the MythTV backend is the one that needs to be big and clunky, since you’ll want it to have a big hard drive or 2, a capture card, and a somewhat beefy processor. The frontend machine that’s in plain sight and hooked up to the TV can be small and slick looking. All the frontend really needs is a graphics cards that can output in a form the TV will take in, and a fast NIC.
This is all coming from the guy who has yet to get around to doing these things himself despite intending to since moving out of 1420 Lorain almost 2 years ago.
Comment by Chris — April 16, 2009 @ 4:45 pm
Wow oops yeah totally meant computer not TV my bad. That being said the small form factor PC Chris is referencing has been previously solved by Keith et.al. and I agree that when MythTV works properly it is super easy to use. You should get Sabrina to talk to Rachel maybe she could succeed where you have failed in the “hacker friendliness” department.
Beyond that well …. DEATH TO LUDDITES AND NEO-LUDDITES!!!
Comment by Mykroft — April 17, 2009 @ 9:20 am
Did you just threaten my wife’s life?
Comment by chadhogg — April 17, 2009 @ 10:20 am