| Price Does this mean I will get a pay increase two times a year? |
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| Of course not.
Wall Street is allowed to make money. You're not.
Of course, one day, the intellectual inconsistency of all this will be revealed, and the greed's going to sink it all. But they're too short-sighted to chase the cash to realize that. |
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KearnstdElf WizardPremium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ
1 edit | Comparing to Pet food is bad journalism First off one can stock up a month of pet food for less than a cable bill. Second the cable TV never goes on sale and has coupons. So even as the food prices go up, one can shop smartly and still get more for less of a good name brand.
With Cable and Telco services one can only get more services or less services and the price swings accordingly, You cant go to the cable office with coupon and get two premiums for the price of one.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports |
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 Cthen
join:2004-08-01
Detroit, MI
 ·Verizon Wireless..
 ·Comcast
1 edit | Idiot! quote:
Insists It's No Big Deal Because Dog Food is Also Pricey
Hhmm... Well, I have a choice between many stores in my area that do compete with each other on pricing. In any one of those stores I have yet again (GASP!) even more choices where the manufacturers compete on pricing.
I just can't say the same for any television service or ISP for that matter. 
Then again this person is after all a self proclaimed "Stock Jock". Sounds like to me someone made an investment and\or convinced a lot of others to make an investment that now seems to not be panning out. The soloution? Pump it!
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"I like to refer to myself as an Adult Film Efficienato." - Stuart Bondek |
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 IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA
·Comcast
·Verizon Broadban..
| Cat food and cable TV rates One example of how bad inflation has gotten is cat food. The prescription diet cat food that I bought for a cat that unfortunately passed away in 2004 cost about $24 per case at the vet's office in 2003. Now my current cat (who is getting up there in age, about 8 years old) now eats that same cat food (vet just switched him to it when I took him in last night) and I was hit with sticker shock when that cat food was a whopping $37 per case for the exact same cat food nearly 9 years later.
Cable TV rates are not as bad with inflation as the sticker shock that I was hit with last night at the vet's office (and I have been using the same vet since I moved to Springfield (MA) back in 2002). Cable TV rates around here seem to be stable. The real reason they seem higher is now you are throwing home phone and high speed internet into the equation. With the recession and the trend of cord cutting, the cablecos have been offering some real sweet deals. And when your promotion expires, call the retentions department, threaten to switch to DSL/POTS/DirecTV and they will renew that sweet deal.
When I first subscribed to Cable TV back in the year 2000, I would never go back to an antenna. Back when I had an antenna, I always had issues with bad pictures, poor reception, and lack of quality programming. I will tell you firsthand that an overbuilder does keep cable rates in check. Cedar Rapids, IA has an overbuilder (Im'ON communications, formerly McLeodUSA) and they had cheaper cable rates than Comcast (sole provider) in Springfield, MA and my cable bill went up a good $20 just by moving.
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I wish I still lived in Iowa; Everything there from rent and groceries to Cable TV is much cheaper in Iowa (especially with an overbuilder in town). |
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| Imon is just an awesome company. They still don't have a cap and have great customer service. |
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| Stubborn relationship of Americans with their TV The claim that Internet Video won't displace cable TV because of some "stubborn relationship of Americans with their TV" idea is completely false. First of all, TV was new at one time. I'm sure some pundit at the time derisively dismissed the idea that TV could ever take over the relationship Americans had with their radios. In 50 years' time, some other disruptive technology will probably be dismissed for not being able to compete with Internet Video.
Secondly, who's saying that the television set is dead? With a Roku box, I can stream Netflix (and Amazon VOD and a lot of other video sources) right to my TV. I'm watching Internet Video, but the viewing experience is very much like normal TV. Even my not-so-tech savvy father was able to set up his Roku box with minimal guidance. Americans can stubbornly cling to their TVs while watching Internet video.
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-Jason Levine |
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ke4pymPremium
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC Reviews:
 ·VOIPo
·Verizon Broadban..
·RoadRunner Cable
·Northland Cable ..
| reply to Kearnstd
Re: Comparing to Pet food is bad journalism said by Kearnstd:First off one can stock up a month of pet food for less than a cable bill. Second the cable TV never goes on sale and has coupons. So even as the food prices go up, one can shop smartly and still get more for less of a good name brand.
With Cable and Telco services one can only get more services or less services and the price swings accordingly, You cant go to the cable office with coupon and get two premiums for the price of one.
That's not /quite/ entirely true. If you're not calling up your video provider at least 2 times a year to see if there are any special packages that you may be eligible for, you're doing yourself a disservice.
I'm always getting some kind of discount. Even if it is just $5 here or $5 there. Still a discount. |
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IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA Reviews:
·Comcast
·Verizon Broadban..
| reply to silbaco
Re: Cat food and cable TV rates I miss living in Cedar Rapids (IA) as everything there was cheaper. My mom took a job in Springfield (MA) and with my aging grandmother (who lives in Maine), we relocated to Springfield, MA. I heard that Mediacom went downhill since I left CR.
As for Comcast, I have yet another truck roll scheduled today and I'm afraid they'll plug the meter in, say the signal is fine, and refer the issue to their do-nothing line techs.
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I wish I still lived in Iowa; Everything there from rent and groceries to Cable TV is much cheaper in Iowa (especially with an overbuilder in town). |
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| reply to ke4pym
Re: Comparing to Pet food is bad journalism Some video providers have no interest in providing deals. I think this is largely a myth unless you live in a FiOS/u-Verse area.
The last time I called Atlantic Broadband to see what specials were available, they told me to drop my internet speed. I was paying $150+/month for TV, internet and phone, and I didn't even have a cable box. |
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rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO | Are The Cited Comparisons Logical? If we forget about the subway (I have no idea why it costs more), is it logical to compare cable rates with pet food, coffee and gas products?
Inflation in these industries is closely tied to raw material costs (meat/grain, coffee beans and crude oil) of which cable has none. Of course there are synergies. Energy inflation is shared by everyone but I'd argue cable is probably far more dependent on electricity prices than the other industries where the consumer can see significant spikes when shipping costs rise. Labor inflation is also shared but aside from an increase in the minimum wage (which might explain some of the cup-o-Joe inflation), it seems reasonable that labor costs have probably been flat or declining given productivity improvements and high unemployment.
Cable's lone and certainly not insignificant variable is content. So is it reasonable to compare content inflation with these other industries? It doesn't seem like there are any logical relationship between what it costs to produce content and what it costs to produce products in these other industries.
Perhaps comparisons like this sound good on the surface but I don't think it's rational to justify cable rate inflation by comparing it to these other industries. It's just spin, nothing more.
What I find far more interesting about cable is it seems few pay full price because there's always a deal where for a given time period if you bundle. It's been my experience that by the time the deal ends, the services have changed and although there's a new deal, it's not black and white to determine just how much prices increased.
Look at the dynamic duo of wireless. They've completely changed how they sell services. Can the typical consumer easily determine whether or not unlimited voice and text and shared data is more or less costly than what they had before? (especially when sales speaks of the former need to buy data for each individual phone and now everyone can share a single pool for one low price -- whatever low means...) |
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| reply to IowaCowboy
Re: Cat food and cable TV rates Mediacom's customer service could use some help, but I think they are improving. They were pretty bad for a while, but Imon and Centurylink have been pretty aggressive lately, so they have had to wake up. And Southslope is giving them some pretty good competition outside of Cedar Rapids.
Good old comcast. Glad they are not in this area. Who is the telco in your area? Centurylink? |
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| reply to rradina
Re: Are The Cited Comparisons Logical? Regardless of their costs, you are still paying the bill with Dollars that aren't worth much. Silly you for working the same amount for crappier paper. |
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 pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | Yawn... Paying out the wazoo for TV... that's so 2000s. |
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| reply to IowaCowboy
Re: Cat food and cable TV rates Not sure if any of these cat foods are the one you have to use (they don't seem to require a prescription), but it's worth a look.
»www.entirelypets.com/petfood1.html
I've never bought food from EntirelyPets, but I've bought flea, tick, and deworming meds from them, and they've been great to deal with. One tip is to sign up for their e-mail ads, as just about every one will have some sort of discount code.
Hope this at least helps to lower your cat food costs a bit. |
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elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA | reply to Jason Levine
Re: Stubborn relationship of Americans with their TV It isn't a stubborn relationship.
Its about value.
The typical household has diverse interests, including live feeds, which are only addressed with a pay-tv subscription, not any OTT product.
$70+/month for basic pay-tv service is not unreasonable when you compare it to any other entertainment option. |
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 BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | reply to rradina
Re: Are The Cited Comparisons Logical? Of course it's not logical. Not only do I have several brands of pet food to choose from I have several places I can get that pet food. Even in my small town. You don't have those option for cable TV. |
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| reply to elray
Re: Stubborn relationship of Americans with their TV In my case, sports (which I'm guessing constitute much of your "live feeds") aren't an issue. I actually figured that I could replace most our TV watching with a combination of Amazon VOD, Netflix, and OTA for about $36 a month. So far the only thing keeping us on cable is the DVR (would be expensive in the short term to replace it for OTA programming) and the fact that my cable company gave me a good deal (because we called to complain). If, when the year is up on our deal, they insist on raising our bill back to the original figure, it'll make financial sense for us to cut the cord.
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-Jason Levine |
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| reply to pnh102
Re: Yawn... Isn't that the truth. |
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Reviews:
·Callcentric
·Comcast
| reply to IowaCowboy
Re: Cat food and cable TV rates said by IowaCowboy:One example of how bad inflation has gotten is cat food. The prescription diet cat food that I bought for a cat that unfortunately passed away in 2004 cost about $24 per case at the vet's office in 2003. Now my current cat (who is getting up there in age, about 8 years old) now eats that same cat food (vet just switched him to it when I took him in last night) and I was hit with sticker shock when that cat food was a whopping $37 per case for the exact same cat food nearly 9 years later.
Cable TV rates are not as bad with inflation as the sticker shock that I was hit with last night at the vet's office (and I have been using the same vet since I moved to Springfield (MA) back in 2002). Cable TV rates around here seem to be stable. The real reason they seem higher is now you are throwing home phone and high speed internet into the equation. With the recession and the trend of cord cutting, the cablecos have been offering some real sweet deals. And when your promotion expires, call the retentions department, threaten to switch to DSL/POTS/DirecTV and they will renew that sweet deal.
When I first subscribed to Cable TV back in the year 2000, I would never go back to an antenna. Back when I had an antenna, I always had issues with bad pictures, poor reception, and lack of quality programming. I will tell you firsthand that an overbuilder does keep cable rates in check. Cedar Rapids, IA has an overbuilder (Im'ON communications, formerly McLeodUSA) and they had cheaper cable rates than Comcast (sole provider) in Springfield, MA and my cable bill went up a good $20 just by moving.
The vet and cable rates are a good comparison. You know its gonna come with a shock! |
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