by Claire
It has been nearly 7 months since my ex- husband moved out and 3 months since the divorce was final. It feels like so much longer in a very good way. I have been able to completely disentangle myself from him in all areas EXCEPT for my internet service provider (which is through the cable company). Holy Toledo! Have I mentioned how much I hate cable companies?!
Upon his move out I called all of the utility companies to remove him entirely from the bills. You’ll recall that the water company wanted to charge me a $75 “admin fee” for making that change. I only thought that was the most absurd moment of all of this. The cable bill was in his name alone. I don’t even recall how that came to be but it is only in his name (the electric bill was only in mine). When I called right after his move out to have it put in my name they said they required both signatures on a name change form. I then tried to open a new account in my name only but the mothly fees were going to double! We had some special deal on the original account. What a racket! So I left it in his name and carried on.
Fast forward to today. I call to have the service transferred to the apartment. I hit the same snag because of the name issue. I tell them I can provide a certified divorce decree. That establishes that he is no longer at this address. “You aren’t authorized to make any changes to the account ma’am.” We need his signature. Okay that is not going to happen so I am forced to get a new account for the apartment. The irony with the cable company being so stubborn about the name issue is that I could now stop paying the bill and let them pursue the accountholder–which isn’t me! Oh and I can’t disconnect it either…so…the outcome is the same!
I understand the protection of the account from arbitrary changes but at some point I wish human logic could come into play!
Born and raised in Texas. I’ve at least driven through every state in the US courtesy of a roadtrip loving Dad.
I’m single with two children and a good parenting relationship with their father.
I am a “life is just half full of funny” kinda gal. Humor is my saving grace and I am thankful for it every single day. I have a strong Catholic faith and am thankful for that foundation.
I read a lot for a living but still enjoy a good book. I love biographies but in recent years have found the need for fun fictional books–sadly, for a long time I just didn’t enjoy fiction!
I love live theatre of any kind–from local productions to Broadway.
I love to scrapbook and pride myself in my kids’ albums.
I love being a mom but also love my career. I’m blessed to have found a balance allowing me to be at everything my kids need and want me to be at–while also having a career.
Favorite Quotes: Well behaved women rarely make history.
Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. -James Bryant Conant
Cable companies are the worst. Transfering accounts NEVER happens. You have to open a new account and trush me you prob want it that way anyway. It usually works out too…because you get special deals for “1st 6 months” or something. Odd that yours was going to go up?
Also- don’t be scared to threaten to cancel. That usually works! You could call every month and tell them you are not happy. They deal with it all the time and I think they have a speical “$20 off” button they push on their system for the complainers! 🙂
I’m not sure what the school schedule is there, but won’t your kids be out for summer vacation in about 2 months? Perhaps you could hold off getting cable until the fall, and you may even find you don’t need it at all. Have you determined what you can pick up off the airwaves with rabbit ears? We haven’t had cable in over 20 years. Sure we only get 3-4 channels, but even that’s enough to keep us entertained for far too many hours each week. Perhaps if you delay even a few weeks on having it installed the you all may find you are getting enough entertainment and can skip that bill entirely.
Maybe telling them to cancel the service where you are and that you are not having it installed at the new place (because they won’t honor the deal you currently have) will make them reconsider losing a customer. At this point they are just going to get more money from you – they’re coming out ahead. If you just cancel they may be able to get “special approval” to give you the deal again.
Clarification: We do not have cable and will not be getting cable. This is just my Internet connection. We do need that for Netflix and flexibility with work. :-). I haven’t had cable television for over a year.
Reading “I am forced to get a new account for the apartment” made me chuckle. If they are actually twisting your arm you should sue!
What about ditching the cable company altogether and using your phone company? A few years ago we did this and I am happy to have a bundle from my phone provider.
If you have AT&T DSL in your area, I would get that in a heartbeat vs. cable internet. We had Comcast for 5 years and then built a new house where the cable lines hadn’t been laid yet. Our only choice was AT&T or nothing for the first 3 months we lived in the house, and there was no way we were living without internet. So, we got the DSL 6.0 and OMG it is AMAZING! Way faster than cable internet and much more reliable. In fact, the only outage we’ve had was when the builders accidentally cut our phone line when they were building on the lot next to ours.
I’m not a big fan of AT&T, but their internet service is top notch. Ditch the cable companies!!!
And, as a side note, I hate the cable companies so much we decided to go with DirecTV for the first time ever and I will never go back to cable. I know we could save a lot of money if we just streamed through our AppleTV, but we added HuluPlus and Netflix anyway as an addition to our DirecTV lineup and it’s a price I’m willing to pay for our only real source of entertainment during our debt paydown.Kind of like refusing to cut our cell phone service. For us it’s just necessary evils that we budget in and actually stop us from spending money on expensive nights out.
I know, Dave Ramsey would gasp in horror! But that’s ok. We still managed to pay off $35,000 in car loans over the past year. I can live with my “poor decisions”.heehee.
You and everyone else. I don’t think anyone has had good relations with cable companies. THey only seem to know how to cheat, lie, and be difficult. It’s always a hassle and they never show up on time. Sucks!
They stick to the book too much. They’re like robots.
Don’t know if this will help you but… we went through a whole round of issues with our internet provider too and eventually left them and went with Clear Wireless internet. It was way cheaper than the “major” providers in our area, it’s a wireless modem that runs off the cell tower 4G networks, it’s super fast and it wirelessly powers all our home devices… plus it’s portable should we need to take the modem with us (like to a hotel that doesn’t have free internet).
Hey Claire, You might consider ditching the cable altogether! With a high speed internet connection, it’s all available for free online.
I’ve written more on the issue on my site.
Glad I found your site. Keep up the great work!
-Jacob
Have you tried working your way up the cable food chain to a supervisor or manager? The regular employees just have to read off a script… I know it’s frustrating and time consuming, but getting a manager who’s empowered to use common sense(!) might be the solution.
I feel your pain… I called the cable company once when the cable went out… OMG, it was painful! Sadly, the DSL in my area isn’t as reliable as Comcast internet, so I’m stuck with the cable company for internet.