Think about it this way, you pay the city to take sewage away from your house and then you pay Comcast et al to bring it back.

Did you ever think how lucky we are that Comcast doesn't operate grocery stores. What would we be forced to buy when we go for a gallon of milk and box of cereal?

Comcast would tell you:

"Without the bundling, we would sell the milk for $1.99 to 2.99 per gallon and the cereal for $2.50 to $3.50 per box."

"With bundling, we can sell you milk, cereal, raisons, bananas, and English muffins for $4.75".

And it can be deliverd some time between 8am and 5pm, and there is a feee if your not there when we get there.

I have been lucky here. When I make the appointment, I give my cell phone number and ask them to call me prior to coming. I work about 20 minutes away. Most of the time, this has worked. Once or twice, they have called our home phone and left a message, "No one was home." D'uh!

More like;
Package a: Cereal, banannas, lysol, yarn, a two day carpet shampooer rental and a pack of cigarettes for $10.
Package b: all the above plus a box of pencils, a case of macaroni and cheese and some nice chorizo sausage for $20.
Package c: all of the above plus kleenexes and laundry detergent for $30
Package d: all of the above and a gallon of milk for $40. Think of all the money you save!

The fact that all you wanted was a bowl of cereal doesn't make any difference.

It is true that we have a bazillion channels and often nothing to watch. I am thankful for the DVR, however. Haven't seen "Doubt", yet. But, I have it saved for a special evening. We watched "Taken" this weekend. Outstanding. I scan the midnight showings for those obscure movies I've always wanted to see or think Lil Stash should see (Hepburn/Tracy movies! or anything Paul Newman).

Lil Stash records every cooking show there is. I've become addicted to "Good Eats!"

I haven't gotten into the whole HDTV thing yet, I was tempted because I thought it would be cool to have the caller ID on the set..and you have to have that service apparently to get this feature. I have not been able to pick up my voice mails on line for a while and when I contact (by email) I get some hints, but nothing that really seems to resolve it. Will have to call one of these days, but not caring too much right now. (I am so old! If it's important, they will call back)

I don't have any issues with Comcast, I think they are kind of expensive, but everything seems to be imo. I went to their phone service and have save big bucks.

I finally did something about my Comcast bill. I've switched to Clearwire for internet and phone. I thought it might be a big drop in speed, but really, it's only sometimes noticible. The phone quality is good, and I'm getting both internet and phone for $55 a month. I was paying nearly that just for internet.

I don't end up buffering videos any more than I was before, and what I've seen from Qwest, it's a LOT faster than that. Not available everywhere, but a lot of Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Cosi, and Westport.

Oh, that's interesting! I'm going to look into this.

I wish we could get FIOS here.