Blogging about the changing world of television a couple of days ago prompted me to take a look about our own situation.
That led to an examination of our Oceanic bill and our television viewing habits. It’s obvious that we’re paying way too much every month, mostly for channels we never, ever watch.
So it sounded like a simple thing. Check out what we’re paying, find the services we really want, and then dump the rest.
But it isn’t so simple.
It was impossible to get a clear understanding of Oceanic’s pricing of various services from their web site. Trying to figure out whether we can save money by dumping some of our current services proved extremely frustrating, at best.
So then I called customer service. A nice computer voice informed me that all customer service agents were busy, and it would be somewhere between 13 and 21 minutes before one would be free. It then cheerfully offered to have someone call me back. Now I’m watching the clock to see how long that process really takes, and wondering whether they will really answer my question.
While I’m waiting, I’ll spell out our simple needs and ask for your suggestions.
We want access to local news, so that means the local broadcast stations. We also want PBS, and probably Olelo’s channels for viewing public meetings.
That’s really all we need or want from Oceanic. We also have Roadrunner internet service, but that’s a different thing.
We have an Apple TV, and get movies via Netflix or from iTunes, and we’re testing out Hulu-Plus on a free trial subscription.
Okay. I got the automated call back just barely within the 21 minute window, and then was able to speak to one of Oceanic’s reps.
It is like pulling teeth to get clear information about the various options and combinations.
When I complained that clear pricing information isn’t available online from Oceanic, I apparently got a stock answer: “We can’t do that because the prices do change every month,” she said, as if customer confusion was a desirable state.
I was offered a new price for all the services we currently get that would cut about $34 dollars per month, but then I heard the “fine print” go by. “That special price is good for one year,” which I understood to mean, “the price will pop back up without any notice in 12 months.” Fair? I don’t know. But I really shouldn’t have to guess.
The best price you can get is for “basic” analog service. No frills. The broadcast channels and Olelo. Do we lose much by going this route? Your thoughts would be appreciated.
And I didn’t explore the prices of a cable package that would include home telephone. There might be a “package” price worth looking at. Perhaps I’ll do that. Again, it’s all quite confusing. I feel like someone’s picking my pocket while I’m distracted by all the choices. Actually, it felt a lot like when you’re sitting in a car dealer’s showroom and the salesman leaves the room to “see what we can do.” And that’s not a good feeling.
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I got the e-notifcation that my Oceanic cable bill for the month was now viewable online, and discovered that for no apparent reason – certainly not any pre-warning – I’m now paying $5 more per month for whatever. A short explanation on the e-bill tells me that some services are now more expensive and some are less – but no word on why. Net = $5 more per month. I tried a few months ago to figure out how to drop channels we never watch, but there are others in the household who DO watch them, and so so they’re still attached right now. I think I’ll take the time to look a little harder, but will watch this comment thread to see if anyone has some realistic options (yes, Jim, I’ll check out DirecTV).
Meanwhile, RR was getting too expensive, too, so we picked up a package deal, lifetime price with Hawaiian Telcom that gives us a landline AND DSL internet for a couple of dollars LESS than we were paying RR for internet only. (We keep the land line for a couple of reasons . . .). Not sure that package is still available.
We also spend time on the mainland – COMCAST territory – and they have these ‘good for one year’ discount deals, too. We have also been able to put our cable service on ‘hold’ when we are on O`ahu and no one is at our mainland place – like about $5 or $6 per month to ‘suspend’ service. When I gave the COMCAST guy my suspend-service dates this year, I told him I thought I was paying too much for their services. He was extremely cordial, not defensive, and said when we’re ready to un-suspend our account, check in with me (yes, he gave me his name and a direct dial number) and we can do an ‘account analysis,’ and come up with a good deal. We’ll see . . .
We don’t do any tv service other than internet, but have been using voip over the computer instead of the phone. However, I finally bought a ‘Freetalk’ on Amazon for $49 (price varies daily) and it uses our longtime Skype number and shots it through a regular landline phone ($30/yr for the phone number and $35.80/yr for the unlimited calling plan on Skype). This is swell, especially with our $109 Panasonic KX-TG7624 5-station landline phone from (where else–costco). The Panasonic phone has a bluetooth ‘link-to-cellular-convergence’ feature which allow us to place two different cellphones in the best possible reception spot and relays cell calls in and out through the landline phone stations. You do have to know that there are downsides like no 911, call loss if you’re internet signal is bad (our RoadRunner goes out every night off and on between 11p and 1a and sporadically during the day), and skype is unable to offer 808 porting. I am told that Hawaiian Tel (or whatever they are now) refuses to allow porting of 808 numbers to out-of-state carriers–so we picked a 530 number. Overall, we LOVE the Skype service on the Freetalk. As for Roadrunner, I’m not sure if hate is the appropriate word, but it will have to do until someone comes up with a better one. Their customer service is so time consuming and belittling that I don’t bother to call them anymore.
By the way, the best tv deal I ever had was when I had a C-Band dish in the yard. The hardware investment was high ($1,500 for the dish, installed, and about $1,200 for the tuner–MUCH less, now) but you not only get to pick from a variety of packages including simply purchasing individual stations, but you could pick from a variety of carriers–different companies in different states that offered competitive packages. I was paying $68/yr for five CNNs, MSNBC, Comedy Central, two Discoveries & IFC, There was also a host of free programming, mostly all carp except PBS. Downside? No local programming! Also, acts of nature (below).
Another downside to the ‘big dish’ is that it is addictive, and you enter into a sort of obscure worldwide cult with other users (think: libertarians), perhaps similar to the shortwave folks. And I mean this in the nicest possible way.
I also got my high speed internet from another medium sized dish with a service called Starband (evolved into another, since) for about $75/month, though I think it is cheaper, now). Downside? Sunspots (which we knew about in advance a couple of times a year) and ultra-heavy rains–the two-mile high thunderclouds–would mess up the internet and tv off and on during those events.
Where we were, there was no alternative, but I now dream about getting another big dish and dumping Oceanic.
Search ‘c-band providers’. It’s a bit of a challenge to sift through the junk. Skyvision is the only one I could find right off. It seems the big guys are shutting the c-band market down. Figgurs.
With just “basic” cable service and a newer TV equipped with a QAM tuner, you can receive these digital channels:
http://www.oceanic.com/products/television/digital_cable/lineups-for-direct-digital-tv-or-tivo-hookups
The main broadcast stations are available in HD.
You might not get all the channels if you have a crappy cable signal.
Thank you for that information. Oceanic still does not give us the CW, ME TV, THIS TV or the second channel of KHET.
I tried the listed stations on the list that Oceanic has, but only the ones that came through were 46-1, 46-3, and 46-4 (ION TV, KHON-HD, CW). The other were not available.
BTW the link on Oceanic’s web site for “Basic Cable” pricing leads to a page about their more expensive “Standard” service for $54.80. Only in passing does it mention that just “Basic” is available for $13.31.
i think in ten years we’ll all be watching internet t.v. with ala carte pricing for things you actually want to watch when you want to watch it. cable t.v. made the buffet too big for all you can eat pricing imo.
if disney wanted to launch their own internet t.v. effort, or buy/partner with apple t.v. or roku, and make their espn programming streaming, we could probably get their in five years. a lot of people get cable for espn. the iphone hasn’t even been around for 5 years. things can and do change rapidly provided the right confluence of events.
amazon is charging hard into this too. but unfortunately their main services resolve around be a prime member. booo!!!!!!
for oceanic, you can get the basic package (broadcast stations, oc16, olelo, and a few random other stations) for about $15 a month. much of that is in hd if you have an hd ready t.v. no set top box required.
http://archives.starbulletin.com/2003/01/20/features/index2.html
There’s the problem, reported a decade ago in the Star-Bulletin and apparently never addressed by Oceanic.
Why did the above response result in blacklisting?
What blacklisting???
Commenting on any other post here is not allowed due to my presence on Ian Linds blacklist, says the message.
I don’t know…Did you perhaps try to comment using a shared computer? It’s possible there was something sent previously from that computer which triggered a blacklist. I’ll try to figure out what went wrong.
My parents downgraded from digital cable to standard cable to save money. Basic (analog) cable didn’t have a lot of the channels we usually watch. We also dropped our HawTel land line and switched to Oceanic’s digital phone service. It has been highly reliable thus far.
We cut our telephone and cable bill from 228.00 to about 130.00 a month as a result.
I just got rid of Direct TV. After 2 years, the remote not as simple as Oceanic. It did however have some better features as far as their DVR functionality but having to cut down tree limbs that were blocking the dish was a real nuisance. Then once you cut down the tree limbs you would have to b go back inside and check your tv recption and basically reboot the system and patiently wait and see if your cut down enough tree limbs. If you did then you have to wait and reprogram the box. I cancelled and they said that I was responsible to take down the 2 antennas( 1 Intl) and dispose of it myself. They tols me when I signed up and fter I cancelled that they would take it down and dispose of it. I have Oceanic now and it is so much simpler and works great!! Also I dont have to pay for a tuner for each room like Direct.
I just cancelled cable and am going with an indoor antenna, using Apple TV to supplement with Netflix, etc.
Our antenna is one of the best indoor antennas they make, and we get all of the major networks in glorious HD (Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC). However, we CAN’T GET PBS and it’s sooo frustrating. I wish we could get PBS. Apparently their signal is much weaker and they’re still on the VHF band, while most (all?) other stations are on UHF.