Share your telecom "bundling" experiences

These days it seems like everyone wants to provide you with Internet, telephone and cable TV service. Double- and triple-play packages that offer some or all of these services are being heavily promoted offered by cable and telephone  companies, as well as by satellite service providers such as DIRECTV and DISH Network. Verizon's high-profile entry into the market with its much-publicized FiOS fiber-based service has created yet one more choice for consumers to ponder.

Adding to the complexity is that individual providers frequently offer a variety of bundles, allowing you to increase your Internet surfing speeds, for example, or the number of channels included with the TV portion of your service, all, of course, at a higher price. Promotional pricing that ends in anywhere from 3 to 12 months can make difficult to find the amount you’ll ultimately pay.

Given all this, we’d like to find out whether you’ve ventured into the jungle of bundled choices. If so, how was the experience?

Among the questions we’re curious about:

• How easy (or difficult) was it to compare bundles within a provider and also to compare among providers?


• Did you try negotiating with the providers to see whether they’d sweeten their offers or extend promotional prices?


• Did you end up opting for a bundle or buying your services a la carte from different companies, and how satisfied are you with your choice?

Have you reviewed the choice you made, perhaps some months after the fact? If so, some additional questions:

• If you went with a bundle, are you saving money compared to the amount you were paying for individual services, even after the end of the promotional pricing?


• Were there any nagging gimmicks or gotchas that you didn’t discover until after you signed up?


• What do you like best about your provider, and what bothers you the most?


• Finally, do you have any horror stories or tips for other consumers?

Your input will help us create upcoming content on so-called telecom bundles.

Thanks.

[Update 3/9/2009: We have updated our article and Ratings on telecom bundles. Find the new story here. —Ed.]

Comments

[R. McAdams]

I had Comcast internet and Qwest DSL and home phone. About 6 months ago I wanted to combine with one provider and wanted to use Comcast. I went with Qwest/DirecTV instead because Comcast didn't have digital voice in my area at the time. Qwest signs you up with DirecTV and bills for them. All pretty seamless. Service was fine. I know there was a $200.00 early cancellation fee for the internet "price for life" (2 year agreement). What I didn't know about was the 2 year contract with DirecTV and the $360.00 early cancellation fee.

Qwest did fine telling me about their product, but not so good at all the fine print about DirecTV. So when I switched back to Comcast specifically for one sports channel, I knew I would pay the $200.00. It would pay for itself in 3 months with price savings. No big deal. The Comcast rep knew about that and warned me, but didn't warn me about the DirecTV contract, but it started when Qwest never drew my attention to that in the first place. I suppose I am at fault for not reading all the fine print, but pretty shady if you ask me.

Finally, when I called Qwest to cancel, they said I did not need to call DirecTV. That point was very clear. So 10 days later I get a DirecTV bill. Qwest does not cancel service for DirecTV. They can sign up customers, bill for DirecTV, but not cancel, even though a rep said they could. I finally called DirecTV to canel and they happily reminded me of the $360.00 penalty. First I had ever heard of it. I guess the moral is to ask those questions about penalties. They are likely to forget to tell you about all of them.

[Dan McEndree]

I currently have Comcast but was thinking about switching to AT&T and bundling my service. Didn't see a whole lot of comments on AT&T here. I realize that they have only recently begun to offer bundling (at least here in TN). Anybody had any experiences good or bad with them? I've mostly been satisfied with my Comcast but the price just keeps going up and up without anything in return.

[K. W. Varner Jr.]

I am not surprised by the fact that I'm not the only one who regrets bundling with Verizon. We switched to their triple freedom plan in March. The first thing that happened was that they cut off our long distance service. Next they couldn't find any record of us signing up. From that time on it's been a long series of calls to Verizon every month because of problems and, invariably wrong billing. It culminated last month with a bill for 250 dollars. Now their phone people are very nice but couldn't ever fix the problems. I found a note on the net giving me a name to send my problems to the Verizon Internet manager. That got an immediate response from her office and a follow up by a very interested person on Monday. They have supposedly fixed my problems - except that my bill has never been even close to the $99 dollars quoted in their web site - the taxes and fees referred to by another of your responders. Anyway we'll see how next month's bill - the sixth one we've gotten since signing up - works out. If I had it to do over, I'd never have signed up and it will take the next six months of perfect service to get me to renew.

[Arika White]

I rue the day I called Qwest to bundle my services. First, I called for a quote. Harmless enough, "how much would my total bill be for internet, cell phone, directtv, and home phone with long distance?" Notice I said "total bill", and yet the quote i received conveniently omitted nearly 25-50 dollars worth of taxes, fees, and surcharges, (during one of my many future phone calls to Qwest I actually had a rep insult my intelligence by asking me if i don't account for sales tax when visiting McDonald's). While I am familiar with (as is any 10 yr. old) the concept of sales tax, i don't have any working knowledge of current FCC rules and regulations regarding taxation. Upon my learning that i would never see the amount i was quoted on any bill ever, adjustments were made to get me at least closer, including switching me to an "international" long distance plan, that qualifies me for bundling credits but should really never be used lest i want to incur per minute charges (i previously had chosen a flat rate plan). Mind you, after learning the real scoop, i am already contracted in on my cell phone and directtv plans for at least two years each w/ penalties to incur if i cancel (even though i was duped into signing). Compounding the frustration i am having, as well as feeling undermined in my ability to make informed choices is the fact that Qwest customer service is not 24hrs, its open like a bank, mon-fri, closed on holidays. So i'm using like every other lunch hour in its entirety, dealing with my phone bill. Qwest owes me lunch! Directtv, don't get me started! You cant call there and ask for a price, you will get an elaborate schedule of promotional discounts all set to expire and different intervals, it makes your head spin, i actually had a rep tell me "i don't have a calculator" when i was demanding an answer to what i thought was a reasonable question - "how much?" Now almost a year later i am still paying the price of my mistake. Qwest switched my cell phone plan without my knowledge or consent, and when they switched it back omitted the very basic features of voice mail and caller id spurring yet another string of calls i had to make (its becoming a full time job at this point). I am still awaiting my bill to be cleared up from that mess for which they have no explanation other than "i don't know what happened". And for a double whammy, directtv billed me for "nfl Sunday Ticket" a channel i never wanted to begin with and cancelled a year earlier. Turns out, its on "auto-renew", seems reasonable, right?

[Ethan]

As someone who works with the business, I would suggest not going directly to qwest to sign up for services. The Qwest sales employees are not trained well enough to give an accurate price quote to customers, as well as the call center employees are purposely not trained well so that they make mistakes on peoples orders. A third-party company has better trained and well informed employees that will actually tell you the "hidden" charges and any installation fees, as well as the price you will be paying during and after promotion. But I would agree that if you don't watch it, any communications company can "accidently" charge you extra without you noticing. Because of hassles I've ran into I use Cricket for cell phone service, although it is lower in qaulity than others, and I use the local library for any internet access. I only watch local channels if I ever watch tv, and I can go to my brother's house if there is any large event not on local channels. For someone with minimal communication needs in the right area, I would say $50 a month is not a bad deal.

[Linda Leslie]

One thing folks don't think about is that when you bundle services, if one thing goes out, everything goes out. We just spent a week waiting for Verizon FIOS to fix our service. The problem was with their equipment outside the house, so we lost everything we had through them - phone and internet. In the midst of all this, we realized how thankful we were not to have bundled our TV service with the other two. Having all three out would have been a nightmare!

It took hours of phone calls to them to get the right repair crew out, and at the end of a week with no service, the supervisor who finally got us the right crew said, "I can't believe it took us this long to fix this." (Technically, it's still not totally fixed - they've got a drop line running to give us temporary service!)

Having spent 800+ cell phone minutes trying to get this fixed (not to mention all the gas spent because we couldn't work from home), the company is now giving us a month's credit on our bill. Gee whiz, thanks! As I've spoken with other people, I realize that I'm not the only one who's lived through the nightmare of Verizon "customer service." At this point, I'm ready to agree with my husband that we need to "vote with our feet" and find a new provider...

[Kim]

I bundled my soul!! With Satan Qwest!! And, then I ordered a modem from them. I sent it back immediately after receiving it in December 2007. They still haven't got it right because as of today they are still charging me for the modem after my 2 hour phone calls a month. Called to cancel everything with them it would be around 600.00. I think it will be well worth the 600.00 just so I don't have to deal with them anymore. I have not had a bill under what I was quoted when I was talked into the great qwest world of "bundling" for all my services and saving on one bill. It has been a complete nightmare and each month I get to enjoy at least 2 hours on the phone trying to find my "bundling discounts" and "price for life". Sure would like to know where they are haven't found them yet. Has anyone found their's, if so where did you find them??

[Mike Murray]

Verizon's FiOS service is coming to our neighborhood, and we could save about $50 a month, but after reading some of the comments here, I think we'll stick with Comcast Internet and TV for a while more (we have Verizon local phone service and AT&T long distance). Besides, I really really like my Comcast e-mail address.

[C. A. Block]

I have to warn everybody about Verizon FIOS purgatory that you may fall into if you currently using Verizon DSL. We signed up for FIOS about a month ago with a promise of installation of Mar 28. An hour before they were to install, the technical group called and said they would have to move our installation until April 21. A week later, on April 4, Verizon disconnected our DSL service because, according to their records, we had FIOS. When we called to get the DSL turned back on (we called the day it was disconnected) the technical staff said that once DSL is turned off and scheduled for FIOS, it cannot be reconnected. Then, in their attempt to fix the problem, they cancelled our FIOS order. Now according to their records, we have DSL (which we do not) and they cannot place a new FIOS order. So, the result is that I cannot get any internet service from Verizon and they have not recommendation as to how to solve the problem. Additionally, I have no internet service and, unless I go to cable, cannot get it for any time in the near future.

[Rob Vanderheyden]

We live in Canada and switched telephone, long distance and DSL internet service from Bell Telephone to Primus to take advantange of their Triple Value Bundle (TVP). The TVP bundle offers home phone with 9 free features including Telemarketing Guard, DSL High Speed Internet at 7 Mbps speed, and unlimited long distance within Canada and the US with no caps or time restrictions for a $59.95 C./Month introductory offer for a one year commitment a saving of $10.00 over the regular price.
That is all fine and good but our first week has been phone switch over misery. We asked for two lines to replace the two we had with DSL on the second line. We got one line with a distinct ring for the second phone number. When placing the order on the phone, we got no paper work by mail or by email confirming what was ordered for us. The switch over was on a Wednesday and on the following Tuesday, less than a week after switch over, the phone service vanished - no dial tone, calls to the number were answered with "you can not reach this number as dialed and this number is not in service. After a 46 minute phone call via cell phone with valuable minutes being used up, I received instructions to disconnect the phones, wait 20 minutes, reconnect the phones and check if the service was back. No service after that call and following the instructions. I sent a message via a web page they have asking for repairs to be made asap and myself to be notified at my cell phone number when to expect service to be restored. The webpage stated that replies would be no later than 24 hours after posting the message. That reply was 5 days in coming not 24 hours. I called them again on Wednesday and a nice woman got things going to have the service restored. It was restored at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. I was offered a credit of $5.00 but the person upped that to $14.00 but today I am informed in the reply email that I refused to accept the goodwill offer. This past weekend, we had the misfortune of having a son need to call collect only to find out that Primus phone service does not allow collect calls. We thought that if you replace home phone service with one established company with a new company that home phone service is the same. No way! So I cancel the separate distinct phone line that they were going to activate on April 10 so we can go back to Bell Canada who allows collect calls. Hopefully there is not screw up on the part of Primus with the activation of the Bell phone because I will be furious.
What I also find very maddening is that there is no paper work via mail or email of the transactions completed. If there was paperwork, a customer could review what the rep ordered for services. I also will have to be zealous in watching what the charges for the services provided. Hopefully the rest of the year of service is better.

[Anna Leuenberger]

We travel so we have comcast cable for TV and internet at home, direct TV in our RV, verizon wireless for cell phones and qwest for home phones. I regularly negotiate fees and we switch comcast off when traveling and switch direct TV off when we are at home. The companies are good about making these adjustments which saves us a bundle of money(when I remember to do it). I'm looking at Verizon for wireless internet and may do it for the convenience. If I could bundle that with my home and cell phone service for a savings it would make it worth it. Some bundling is not available in this area-Las Cruces, NM- but all of our service people are great. That's the advantage of a small town, I guess.

[Robin Carter]

In 2007 I was bundled with phone services and Direct TV, I had been bundled for quite some time. Last May I received a bill for someone else on the sattelite part that was a considerable amount. When I contacted Qwest they assured me it would be taken care and to keep paying for both services which I did. Direct TV cancelled my service stating I did not pay. I called Qwest and Direct TV numerous times and never got anywhere. I was on the phone for hours at a time talking to different people everytime explaining the whole situation every time. I got nowhere and finally Direct TV sent me to collection. I asked Direct TV for a detailed bill for the year of 2007 and then told me I had to send this is writing in which I did. THey now refuse to send me the bill saying it was turned over to collection. Is this the way you pay people who have always paid their bills and were good customers? Is there any help for us?

[Bill]

On 3/25/08 I spoke to a customer service person about setting up an appointment for 3/26/08. They set my appointment up from 10:30 to 12:30 for a tech to come to my house. I gave specific instructions for them to call my cell phone by arrival and to not arrive before 11:00 AM, because I had a meeting until 10:30. Upon arriving at home at 11:00 AM I found a note on my door from the tech that he waited from 10:30 to 10:55 and left. I immediately called customer service to request the tech come back considering he was still in the neighborhood. I was told the job was already closed and I had to reschedule, even though the tech did not follow the instructions of calling me or waiting until 11:00 AM. I then asked for a supervisor and explained the situation to her and received even less satisfaction from her.

I now have to take more time out of work because of the incompetence of the cox employees to follow instruction in doing their job or giving customer satisfaction. Is this a way to run a business when you have competition coming into the area in the way of Verizon, who are rated higher by Consumer Reports for cable service?

[Kimberly]

Do not work with Qwest. A billing agent told me today that she could not make out certain charges on my bill and even admitted that the sales people are good at not disclosing all the facts. My father was taken advantage of by the company and I have yet to speak to a rep that can answer my questions after 2 hours of convo. Have never worked with such a shady company before this rip off.

[Ed Martin]

Absolutely dead on the mark with comments about Verizon. In Dover, DE Verizon customer service and quality of service is terrible. Six months + to simply have Fios installed in existing neighborhood and home. Sub-contractors are worthless, customer service non-existent. My recommendation in that area: Go with some other service ... it can not possibly be any worse.

[James]

DO NOT GO TO VERIZON FIOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been waiting two months for installation. Verizon has cancelled once never letting me know - losing a day of work, and just cancelled again by sending people over without my intallation info.

THe service department of Verizon is Horrible. The reps are rude, incompetant and the telephony system is inadequate. The last time I called and asked why I should switch to them from COMCAST and cancel my FIOS and other Verizon services they smugly offered to give me the number ...

I will look into my cable companies bundle pack for a better deal. And if is not, I don't mind paying a bit extra for good customer service

[John]

I made the switch to the Comcast bundle package August 2007 and love it. I did not have a competitor to compare to since Verizon FIOS was not yet offered in my town. The $99 per month package from Comcast really cost me $130 per month due to one HD receiver ($6), one additional digital receiver ($7), an upgrade to get some additional channels ($11) and a bunch of made up fees that all telecomms like to charge. In total I am saving about $50 per month ($600 year) vs. the separate plans I used to have with Verizon for home phone and internet and with DirecTV.

I have had no service issues at all with Comcast. Set up was easy and pain free. A few initial questions were resolved easily thru their phone reps. Guy who installed gave me his personal # to call if I had any issues but I never needed it. I also never had to pay an installation charge which showed up in the estimate when I went on-line to price it out. When I called a rep and told them the installation charge would eliminate some of the value of switching she told me they would not charge it.

I have read the CR conclusions that DirecTV is better than cable but I don't agree. The Comcast picture quality is always great and it never goes out. With DirecTV I had constant issues with the picture going out.

I contacted both Verizon and DirecTV before making the switch but neither would offer me anything ................ until after I made the switch. I now receive an offer once a week from DirecTV to switch back for only $29.99 per month vs. the $79 they were charging me previously. Kind of stupid to wait until after you have lost a good long term customer to try to make an offer.

My only horror story was Verizon. They really gave the impression they could not care that I was leaving and then they owed me a refund for an overpayment on my account. They took until Feb. 2008 to refund my overpayment and only after I complained to Sr. Execs. I have never had a good customer service experience with Verizon or Verizon wireless. Extremely long wait times in the stores and on the phone; arduous, painful internal systems to set up cell phones and a feeling like the employees really don't care.

[April]

We have been with DTV and ATT for cell, and landline and long distance for several years. We have had almost no problems with these companies. When we do have problems, they are taken care of quickly, without hassle. We pay about $150- $170/mon.I have tried to compare what I have with the other companies, but after reading about some of the problems all these people have had, it is worth paying a little more to have less stress.

[crissy]

I've had the worst experience with this verizon/direct tv. my first bill was high as the sky, when I couldn't pay it right away,they teamed up and cancelled my service now they want me to pay a 400.00 cancelation fee along with the 270.00 initial bill that I received. I never seen the bill for the price that was quoted to me of 136.00 a month for the triple play thing.now, both companies are pointing fingers, I'm being transferred for on department to the next, and going back and forth with verizon and direct tv. this really sucks. Now, I know not to deal with 2 diffrent companies for one service.

[DOCBERNZ]

I AM DISABLED, I'M ON A FIXED INCOME, I TRIED TO BUNDLE WITH QUEST. HDTV, INTERNET,AND HOME PHONE. I WAS TOLD MY MONTHLY WOULD BE APPROX $100.00 SO FAR I HAVE PAID : THIS IS A BUNDLE

10/10 = $111.27
11/8 = $252.53
12/11 = $172.00
01/12 = $147.11
02/15 = $147.11
-------
$831.02 THIS IS IN 5 MONTHS OF SERVICE WHERE IS THE

$100.00 / MONTH ???????? RIPPED OFF AGAIN !!

[RENE']

HAS ANYONE TRIED TO JUST BUNDLE CELL, LANDLINE AND DSL SEPARATE FROM THEIR TV? WE WANT TO CHANGE FROM COMCAST CABLE TV TO SATELLITE TV AND WE NEED A NEW CELL SERVICE. ANY INFO IS WELCOMED AS WE ARE HAVING DIFFICULTY COMPARING SERVICES.

[Jerome Denk]

I Had all my services together in Ocean City Maryland with Verizon. I have had the most trouble in my life with this attempt at service.I was told that someone would get in touch with me and given their name. It has been weeks with no one calling me.I had a representative from verizon ground service on the line when a person from Verizon wireless hung up on me.She could not beleive it but referred me to someone else.I have their names and locations but I GIVE UP! Beware fellow americans.
I have logged 7hours and 15 minutes on the phone.

[Jessica]

Qwest is the DEVIL!!!! I was quoted 99.00 a month for bundled long distance, internet and Direct TV. My first bill was a whopping $250 and I spent 1 hour on the phone only to hear that it was just the initial charge for the services and it was more like 2 bills in one and our next bill would be the price I was quoted.....not so. Our next bill was 175, and the following after that was 144. I canceled all Qwest services and switched to other companies.I will never use Qwest again.

[Anthony]

I wrote a post about a month ago after only having it a few weeks but I'd had it for almost 2 months now and am completely satisfied. There were a few quirks with the channel guide and dvr controls but they were resolved with the new interface they rolled out. The picture is much better than cable and the internet is significantly faster. I now have several friends/co-workers that have either switched, will switch soon or are waiting for service to come to their neighborhood. Having two young children I can state that they have tons of kids shows on-demand (no dvr needed) for no additional cost.

What's funny is that I keep receiving letters/flyers in the mail begging me to go back to cable. When I called them a few months ago informing them I was thinking of switching they offered me nothing to stay. Now that they're losing customers regularly they're making all kinds of offers. They also claim they're fiber but that's only for a portion of their network. Cablevision states they have more HD channels but most of them stink (who cares about Kung Fu in HD). They do offer more phone features but I never used them anyway. After speaking to a Verizon rep I was told they only offer call waiting, caller ID and voicemail because those are the features their customers always seemed to care about. I would agree. In the 3 years I had Cablevision I may have used call forwarding 2 or three times and never used 3 way calling.

Bottom line, I highly recommend Fios. In addition, I've been told they're going to add many more HD channels and additional features such as picture in picture in 2008.

[PM Bronxville NY]

I've had Cablevision's triple-play bundle for a few years now and I'd say, at best, it's a 6 out of 10. The cable tv portion is fine but the high speed internet became suspiciously slower after they introduced "Boost" for an additional $9.95 a month into the market. I declined the "Boost" and have found my service has gotten slower since. And, no, it's not my computer.
As for their phone service: It stinks. It never worked right from day one and they've been out to fix it many times. 100% of my calls are interrupted. The latest is now they say "Well maybe your phone is too close to your computer." It's in the other room.
FIOS just started wiring my building this week and I plan on looking at their packages. At least they know how to do phone service at Verizon.