Need Help to Cut the Cord

One of the big frustrations for a new widow is straightening out various utility services and service contracts. And it seems like these companies today make things extra difficult or choose to treat customers with dishonesty. Two that have given me the most grief are Verizon and Comcast. I believe there is a special place in hell for the executives that run cellular and cable television companies, not just from these two examples. So please don’t advise me to change to XYZ company. They are all terrible in their own unique way.

It took me months of effort to get Verizon straightened out, but they are now behaving nicely. My problems with them started when I cancelled my husband’s cell phone back in late January (basic phone, no contract). By mistake, they disconnected my cell phone.  Three times! To add insult to injury, they kept charging me cancellation and reactivation fees for each erroneous event. I expended a lot of tears and countless hours to get them to fix the messes of their own creation. But I eventually got them to stop all of the nonsense and erase all of the fees.

Unfortunately, I have yet to get to a state of happy equilibrium with Comcast. I had to cancel my husband’s account and start my own account with them. Comcast happens to be one of those antiquated-thinking companies that doesn’t recognize married people usually live in the same household and should be jointly recognized as account holders, if they so desire. I guess I must have a flag on my new account that identifies me as a widow, so there is a free reign to mess with the monthly bills whenever it strikes their fancy.

Each month, they invent new charges, and I spend hours on the phone (and more tears) to get their errors fixed. This latest month’s bill was a humdinger. In addition to charges that were applied out of thin air, Comcast arbitrarily decided not to honor their package commitment made during my personal visit to their offices last month. After yet another marathon phone call, I got the latest make-believe charges taken off. Even the service people were baffled as to their origin. But the people on the phone insist that they cannot take care of the package commitment made at the brick-and-mortar office. They don’t have access to the special discount codes. I have to go down to the local office again (standing in line for about an hour) to see if I can get it fixed. I can only see one guy to get it done. And, they can’t tell me what days of the week he is assigned work at that office.

Really? Seriously? How screwed up is that? Hello! Customer service, anyone? Is there not one lick of common sense or decency anymore in these huge corporate wastelands?

For the long-term, I need to save myself the constant frustration of dealing with people who are proven to be evil and dishonest. Cost savings would be icing on the cake. I want to cut the cable cord and figure out how to make that goal happen.

So here are my questions. Have any of you out there in blogland cut the cable cord? If you have and it has been successful, would you mind corresponding with me about what specific steps you took to make that happen? I’ve got a Roku and I signed up for Amazon Prime last month. I now know that I can purchase a Mohu Leaf antenna to get local channels in high definition. But I don’t know beans about whether I need a master controller, such as one make by Mohu. And, I haven’t a clue about what DVR box/service to get so that I can record over-the-air programs at my leisure.

Can anybody please help me?