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mara williams
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
Summer break has this mom on a house upkeep war path.
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Lindsay Metcalf
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
When that tornado siren sounds, I'm in the basement
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- kim nakahodo - Profile | Pictures | Blog
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After a furious 45 minute phone call with Time Warner Cable (TWC) last week, I am open to changing my current cable provider. (Let’s just say that what they told me two months ago and what they said last week was $75 a month different. They said they had no record of my previous call…yea right.)
If all goes right, we will be moving in a week and a half so I will need to go through the installation process anyway – even if we stick with TWC.
I have been with TWC for over 10 years. I have been satisfied with their product, but they are not very good at updating their current customer base. I went for years without knowing I could upgrade to a new DVR box without having to get a new contract.
I am a big DVR fan – I don’t know how I lived this long without it. Our DVR is filled with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Imagination Movers, but it’s nice to have something for Niko-chan to watch at night.
Several friends of ours are Direct TV fans. I’m not trilled about sticking a dish on my new house, but if the price is right – I will consider it. What I do like about them is that you purchase your DVR box instead of leasing it. I swear I have “bought” the DVR box I am leasing from TWC twice now.
I don’t know anyone who has AT&T U-verse, but I like the idea of having one provider for everything. (I know TWC does this too… but I’m still a bit mad with them.)
Speaking of AT&T – I was also thinking of dropping my house phone and going with an internet-base phone company (VoIP). I hate to say it, but paying $45 a month for a house phone I hardly use is just crazy. I would nix the home phone all together, but I do worry about emergencies with a small one.
Does anyone out there have a VoIP system? I have done a bit of research and it looks like the front runners are Vontage, ooma and Magic Jack. I am trying to get away from a monthly fee so the ooma or Magic Jack systems look the best.
My mom has ooma and she loves it… I *think* this is the way we will wind up going. (I'll let you know which way I go in a few weeks.)
So I am looking for some real-life customers of TWC, Direct TV, AT&T U-verse, Vontage, ooma or Magic Jack to tell me what they think.
Do you think your system is the best? I need to make my decision by next week… so I appreciate any help I can get!
We have TMC, good thing about that is, there's no satellite to put on your house and the wires are underground. Phone? We dropped the land line all together and just have cell phones. It's worked for us for over 3 years now. We never used the house phone anyways, people were always calling us on our cell so we said screw that extra monthly payment...I've considered dropping the land line and going to cells, but DH won't do it. And the only problem with internet-based phone is that if you lose power, you lose phone as well.We have TWC, and are overall satisfied. Stuff comes up, but it will with any company. We have our land-line, but I use it all the time. My cell is for emergencies only, seriously, I"m not a brain surgeon, there is no reason I have to be available 24/7. But, as moose said, if you lose your power, your phone is out, but that is when I use my backup cell.We use to have Direct TV and we loved it. (We only got rid of it because we got a better deal from SureWest.) There were only a few times that we had issues and since we didn't have a current contract it was a little harder to deal with them (basically because they charge you more for service calls then). But it was always pretty great and we loved the DVR with it. Now TWC, my mom has that in Liberty and has since they bought the house almost 10 years ago, and well it has always sucked. I don't really have much good to say about it because from Christmas to New Years every year she for some reason loses her internet connection . . . it is weird!I have AT&T's UVerse and will never look back. The biggest advantage to them now is that you have one DVR, but you can watch anything recorded on that DVR on any box in the house. Just like you we record shows for my Daughter and we watch them as a late night treat before bed. Previously we had Comcast and you would have to be in the same room as the DVR to watch those shows. My biggest complaint with UVerse is that you have to have a box to watch the shows, unlike TW where you can just plug a cable into the TV and at least watch the basic channels. Honestly I would probably switch to TW if they had the Total Home DVR setup just because you can have additional TV's on just the basic cable without a box. UVerse also only allows you to watch/record up to 4 shows at once, but you can have 8 boxes in your house (at $7/month). I got in on the ground floor and have 3 for the price of one. Satellite for me has always been out as I don't like the unsightly dish on the house and when in college constantly had connectivity issues during storms (might have gotten better). Ultimately I think in your situation I would pit one against the other - see who comes down the lowest.We looked in to & wanted to get TWC but it was not offered in our area yet. We kept our DISH because we had brought everything w/us from IL. I am currently not very happy with them but for the most part it has been ok. Of course Spring sucks when it is one thunderstorm after another & it constantly goes out. Another reason why I am not happy with them. but dh took care of the cable when we moved & got us into a contract, Grrrr!!!! After we got ds15 a cel phone, 2 months ago, we dropped our landline. We hardly recv'd any calls on it & it seemed like a silly extra bill to pay.We got Uverse last May and my husband and I both say we will never go back to TWC or Everest the quality of the HD clarity and capacity of DVR are beyond worth it. We also got rid of our home phone and just did internet and tv through and Uverse and then added a cell line for the house. That phone always stays in the house in the same place so everyone knows where it is in a emergency.I have TWC--and they drive me bonkers. We've got the triple-play package, which includes cable phone. Love it. Aside from some general TWC-driven problems (ahh. Screams of rage. SCREAMS), it works really well. We've got a friend who uses Skype (VoIP) and likes it. I've got a VoIP for work (with an 816 # here in 913 land--cracks me up). I've found that the quality of the phone is really dependent upon the quality of your internet service--and, unlike a regular home phone, it goes out when the power goes out. I'd definitely recommend a cell phone for backup if you go this route.Go to advanced search on this site. Type in Uverse, etc. You might find the discussions there informative.All I have to say is do not do Comcast. I know that is mainly for the eastern Jackson County but they are horrible!!!!The only advice I have for you is to ask the VOIP providers how their 911 works. Most of them don't provide enhanced 911, so, when you call, they don't get your information and can't see where you're calling from. That could be an issue, depending on what kind of emergency arises. FYI.Not a fan of AT&T so they can keep all their product away from me. DirecTv uses line of sight techonology and I was so happy to get rid of them. I pay $175 for everything-phone cable DVR internet and have no issues. If I do have trouble, I can go to an office and get service face to face verses a contractor who shows at some point to tell me its not covered. Cabel service is better because they have invested in teh spectrum used to provide service. Anything landline based is crap. periodWe have TWC in Lee's Summit. We tried UVerse last spring and canceled after 3 weeks. 1)Phone took too long to connect each call and didn't have working call notes feature. 2) HD tv (reason we got this in the first place) connection had problems. We got some cord that was supposed to help, but didn't. I don't get all of that, but my husband was not pleased. The price was great, but we had reliability problems. It might be good in your area, though, as I've had friends in Liberty who really liked UVerse. We're sticking with landline (ATT) and TWC for our shows for now.
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