I hate our Cable provider.

We are one of those families who thanks to the wisdom of our Township Supervisors back in the late 1980s and early 1990s don't get a choice of cable provider. You see, back then RCN and Service Electric paid for exclusivity rights in new developments. (Our house was built in 1991)
The Supervisors eagerly gobbled up the rights fees into the public treasury, trading away the rights of future residents to have a choice. It wasn't just Upper Macungie, all of them in the Lehigh Valley and beyond did it when they could.
The worst part is that when new developments were built, all the utilities (Phone,Cable, Electric) that usually were supplied by above ground pole were put under ground.

That is aesthetically pleasing for the neighborhood, but it also cost prohibitive to future competition. It is a lot cheaper to tun wires from pole to pole than it is to dig up stretches of a neighborhood and snake a cable in on already existing conduits.

WE asked about getting a different provider, but that will only happen if more than 50% of the residents sign up for it. That is the only way "competition" can afford to come in.

Which brings me to my disgust with RCN. We have lived in Trexlertown for more than 5 years.
During that time our digital cable box that enabled us to watch premium channels had "issues" more than a dozen times. We went extended periods of time (Weeks) where we couldn't watch TV in our family room. If you called RCN customer service, you ended up talking to someone with a decidedly South east Asian accent named "Bob" or "Mary" . Gotta love outsourcing.

They would send signals resetting the box through the lines, and it would start working again...... for a while. Three times I have had to make the twenty mile drive to their office and trade in the box. I did this as recently again as last month.

And that brings me to my latest rage against them.

We received Phone calls telling us to get ready for the big Hi-def upgrade coming Sept 8th.
They sent us a new channel layout to view. The Channels now go from two to over 1000, but there are only actually about a hundred that work. We got rid of all the premium HBO /Cinemax stuff because we rarely, if ever watched it.

Here is the rub. We have 4 TVs in our house. One in the kitchen, one in the Family Room, one in the office, and one in the Master bedroom.

The only one we can watch is in the Family room.

I was at their office, and asked specific questions, and the dimwit at the counter told me all would be well.

Well the dimwit was wrong.

We now need a box for each TV, at a charge of $3.99 a month per box. They also refuse to sell it to you, you HAVE to rent it from them. I checked around, No one is allowed to sell them retail.

THANKS GOVERNMENT CABLE REGULATION!

RCN also claims that they have to come into your house and install each box on each TV.

This is where I really go nuts. WHY?

You see those boxes they have been trading me? The one I have works no matter what room I move it to. Why can't they just give me three more and let me hook them up?
My wife and I both work full time, and that means one of us has to stay home from work.
We have been through this, the RCN guy makes his own schedule, he shows up when it is convenient for him.

Instead, they want me to let their technician in my home. Did the Township government sign away my right to privacy as well?

Under the guise of improving service, RCN is only stealing from its customers. My wife and I cut back our options and thought we were substantially lowering our cable bill by getting rid of services we did not use or need. RCN found another way to gouge us.

Anybody else as mad as I am?

Thank God I have Bill Curtis approved Internet access, I would hate to see how much RCN would rob me for that.