Cord cutting for older parents (1 Viewer)

[Van Dyman]

A land line costs like 20 a month now a days

Where at ? For internet and my landline I'm paying $130 bucks. I've thought about getting rid of my landline but really don't want to. I'm going to look into that magic jack thing. Does it just go right into the phone jack and it works?

Yes, basically. It needs internet and you have to set up a MJ account to activate the device. New activation probably includes N months of phone service. It used to anyway. After that pay to add years. IIRC it's around $100 every 5 years. Works fine for voice calls. I've heard it might have issues sending/receiving fax data, but the only time I ever tried faxing it worked.

Depending on your town's 911 setup there might be a separate fee for 911 service. I've never had to pay that but they have info about it.

Faxing, lol. Might be a dealbreaker not being able to Fax. Does it work with pagers?

Haha, sure it's funny but I since we're talking about older parents using it I thought I'd mention it. Just imagine some FBG coming back in here saying their parents threw it away because it wouldn't fax.

 

[rustycolts]

Can a smart TV get a virus?

 

[belljr]

Can a smart TV get a virus?

Yes they can

 

[rustycolts]

Can a smart TV get a virus?

Yes they can

I think that's what happened to my lg TV. No more Bee tv for me. Have to find another way to watch the Aussies play survivor.

 

[Mr.Pack]

What part of the country are they in and do they watch major league baseball on a regular basis?

Midwest. Dad watches a lot of baseball.

If he watches a major league team on Bally Sports he will not be able to do so on YouTube TV.

I don't know what this is. If that's a channel they don't have it. He watches on the ESPNs, TBS, Fox, etc.

Most Twins games are broadcast on Bally's North, Brewers on Baily's Wisconsin, etc... A coworkers cut the cord this past winter and bitches that he can't watch Brewers games.

Is there a good streaming source that has Bally?

I've been looking into this and it looks like only DirecTV streams Ballys. I've also heard Bally's may go bankrupt soon throwing the RSN's into a tizzy

 

[supermike80]

Decided this weekend after an utterly disgusting customer service experience with comcast / xfinity to cut the cord finally. Our 2 year "deal" was set to expire. So we went into the store to ask about any kind of deal. Guy just looked us up, said yep..your rate is going to go up to...
No offer of anything. We told him if we don't get something we really need to look elsewhere. Did he care? Nope.
So walked across the street to Verizon. Got home internet and signed up for Fubo TV. Saved almost $80 a month. Took our boxes and remotes back on Saturday. Did anyone there offer to "see what they could do" nah....they don't care. And I'm not sure if it is the company that doesn't care or if it is the employees in the store. Regardless, the employees sure made us feel like they couldn't care less.
So buh bye Comcast / Xfinity....Time to move on.

 

[Van Dyman]

Decided this weekend after an utterly disgusting customer service experience with comcast / xfinity to cut the cord finally. Our 2 year "deal" was set to expire. So we went into the store to ask about any kind of deal. Guy just looked us up, said yep..your rate is going to go up to...
No offer of anything. We told him if we don't get something we really need to look elsewhere. Did he care? Nope.
So walked across the street to Verizon. Got home internet and signed up for Fubo TV. Saved almost $80 a month. Took our boxes and remotes back on Saturday. Did anyone there offer to "see what they could do" nah....they don't care. And I'm not sure if it is the company that doesn't care or if it is the employees in the store. Regardless, the employees sure made us feel like they couldn't care less.
So buh bye Comcast / Xfinity....Time to move on.

Yeah I had a lot of bad experiences with Comcast. You're going to be so glad you ditched them. Luckily you have options in your area. Some places they are the only game in town.

Still, all that said, I was with them a long time and iirc they were always willing to offer some kind of deal to keep my business. Maybe that's changed.

 

[supermike80]

Decided this weekend after an utterly disgusting customer service experience with comcast / xfinity to cut the cord finally. Our 2 year "deal" was set to expire. So we went into the store to ask about any kind of deal. Guy just looked us up, said yep..your rate is going to go up to...
No offer of anything. We told him if we don't get something we really need to look elsewhere. Did he care? Nope.
So walked across the street to Verizon. Got home internet and signed up for Fubo TV. Saved almost $80 a month. Took our boxes and remotes back on Saturday. Did anyone there offer to "see what they could do" nah....they don't care. And I'm not sure if it is the company that doesn't care or if it is the employees in the store. Regardless, the employees sure made us feel like they couldn't care less.
So buh bye Comcast / Xfinity....Time to move on.

Yeah I had a lot of bad experiences with Comcast. You're going to be so glad you ditched them. Luckily you have options in your area. Some places they are the only game in town.

Still, all that said, I was with them a long time and iirc they were always willing to offer some kind of deal to keep my business. Maybe that's changed.

We honestly expected that but I think the employees just don't care. They just don't. Wanna cancel your service? Sure..just don't waste too much of their time, they don't want to be there anyway

 

[pollardsvision]

Decided this weekend after an utterly disgusting customer service experience with comcast / xfinity to cut the cord finally. Our 2 year "deal" was set to expire. So we went into the store to ask about any kind of deal. Guy just looked us up, said yep..your rate is going to go up to...
No offer of anything. We told him if we don't get something we really need to look elsewhere. Did he care? Nope.
So walked across the street to Verizon. Got home internet and signed up for Fubo TV. Saved almost $80 a month. Took our boxes and remotes back on Saturday. Did anyone there offer to "see what they could do" nah....they don't care. And I'm not sure if it is the company that doesn't care or if it is the employees in the store. Regardless, the employees sure made us feel like they couldn't care less.
So buh bye Comcast / Xfinity....Time to move on.

Yeah I had a lot of bad experiences with Comcast. You're going to be so glad you ditched them. Luckily you have options in your area. Some places they are the only game in town.

Still, all that said, I was with them a long time and iirc they were always willing to offer some kind of deal to keep my business. Maybe that's changed.

We honestly expected that but I think the employees just don't care. They just don't. Wanna cancel your service? Sure..just don't waste too much of their time, they don't want to be there anyway

I got rid of just Comcast internet (and landline) at work when they went up to $200/month.
I knew it was high, but what sparked the call was I got a flier in the mail about business internet from Comcast for like $50 a month or something.

Employees were nice, but I got the feeling their hands are tied (they offered a slight decrease, the employees knew it wasn't anywhere close to enough).

By the time a customer calls or shows up in store, the employees know it's over.

It seems the business strategy is to absolutely milk the people without choice or that just don't care enough to switch. Cutting prices to keep customers doesn't seem to be part of the strategy.

 

[KingPrawn]

Not sure ifthis works anymore or if it is still their policy. About 2 years ago my "promotional" rate with Spectrum was set to expire and I was staring at a big increase. I have my internet and cable TV thru them. I called them to see if they were offering any deals or new promotions. The guy on the phone was no help and wouldn't budge. Went directly in to a Spectrum store to see if they could do anything. The guy in the store told me to cancel the TV and subscribe to Youtube TV for a month and then come back after 30 days. After 30 days add the cable TV back. After 30 days you are considered a "new" customer and are upgrading packages so you are eligible for a new promotional rate. So that's what I did. Like YoutubeTV and was tempted to stay with it but lack of Ballysports so no live broadcasts for local sports teams. After the 30 days made the switch back and a new promotional rate.

 

[WDIK2]

There have been some bumps in the road, but we made the switch about 2 weeks ago. The "I can't find/how do I..." phone calls have dropped off significantly. I wrote down instructions on how to navigate the Roku and YoutubeTV menus and emphasized pressing the Home button to start over if he ever gets lost. Being able to move his favorite channels to the top of the Youtube guide helped.

I ported their land line phone number over to a cell phone. It took 3 phone calls totaling about 1.5 hours to get that accomplished. Verizon tech support was very helpful and conference called the land line service provider with me to get it done.

Using the cell phone has been the biggest challenge. My dad is 79 now and never had one previously, but I wanted to be able to use location tracking/sharing. My mom was much more tech savy but she passed away in December. :sad:

Now the challenge is teaching him to use a debit card.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

My mom was much more tech savy but she passed away in December. :sad:

I'm so sorry.