I've had similar issues with my landline provider's website. I truly believe they've purposely made it inconvenient or even impossible to downgrade services or remove features using the website. Probably because they have metrics showing people procrastinate on actually running through the customer service gauntlet over the phone and it earns them a couple more billing cycles for stuff the customer doesn't want.
I'm pretty sure you're right. Basically any utility with recurring billing seems to have figured this out. No easy way to do anything on the internet, multiple layers of phone tree hell, and long wait times to speak to anyone on the phone.
What they said. RCN doesn't even pretend to let you make any changes online.
Not only that, but in 2006 they stopped accepting credit cards. Really. If you had a card on file you were grandfathered in rather than having to switch to ACH, but every time your card expires (or has the number stolen, which seems more frequent for me), you have to argue with phone staff about it.
I don't know why you even bother. Right now, today, the only sane and civilized way to watch tv is bittorrent (miro) -> local share -> HD player box (WDTV, popcorn hour, etc.) -> screen.
Good players have a real, in-one-hand remote control and civilized if not TiVo UIs and are trivially set up. The only other option that's less of a bitch to set up is "watch no tv." Anything that touches a cableco or telco directly is going to be a shitty experience.
Well, let's be honest and say torrents aren't as hard as they used to be, but there's no way grandma is going to get it working. You really need to be a nerd to get it to work, whereas DirecTV, TiVo etc. are mostly grandma-level tech.
Although, I gave my mother a TiVo for her birthday a few years ago and explained time shifting and season passes to her, but I found she was just using the better guide to watch live TV. She just couldn't understand the concept of letting it record things while you watch something else.
Comments 26
Reply
Reply
Not only that, but in 2006 they stopped accepting credit cards. Really. If you had a card on file you were grandfathered in rather than having to switch to ACH, but every time your card expires (or has the number stolen, which seems more frequent for me), you have to argue with phone staff about it.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Good players have a real, in-one-hand remote control and civilized if not TiVo UIs and are trivially set up. The only other option that's less of a bitch to set up is "watch no tv." Anything that touches a cableco or telco directly is going to be a shitty experience.
Reply
Although, I gave my mother a TiVo for her birthday a few years ago and explained time shifting and season passes to her, but I found she was just using the better guide to watch live TV. She just couldn't understand the concept of letting it record things while you watch something else.
But at least she could use the guide!
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment