I just got some retarded sales call from Charter.
They "thanked" me for being a good customer.
First, I'm not a customer of theirs by choice. Charter is the ONLY provider of high speed Internet service where I'm at. I'm a customer of Charter because I have to be, not because I want to be. Second, I know I'm not a special customer, it's just some generic line they say to all their customers. If he had started the conversation with a line like "I'm sorry you have to use Charter, but perhaps I can offer some services to you to make us seem like we don't SUCK so much."
He said I could get Charter Phone service with like a million features and unlimited minutes for $29.99 for 6 months, and then $39.99 after that (plus like $10 in taxes and fees). I explained that I pay less than $20 (*including* taxes and fees) with Vonage. And that isn't some promotional price, it's their all-the-time regular price. Plus I get WAY more features than I use, with way more minutes than I ever could use, so it's already virtually unlimited for me. I even mentioned how copies of my voice mail go to my Email, and asked if Charter even provided that feature.
He then went on to tell me how VoIP services like Vonage were very INSECURE and anyone could just just listen in. He didn't explain how the encryption used with Vonage was different than with Charter's VoIP service, just that Charter's was "better" and "more secure". Vonage has worked perfectly for me for over half a year. I've had ZERO issues with it.
Even with some stupid scare-tactic, he realized he wasn't going to sell me on Phone service ...
So then he said he had a GREAT deal for me for TV service. I said I don't want Charter TV, especially when they don't even offer all the local channels. Channels that we actually watch. My sister has Charter TV, and she has to tune in some channels over-the-air since Charter has never offered them. She asked me how to find the channels on her TV that was hooked up to Charter cable. Channel 5.2, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, the all-new "Green Channel" 24.2? Charter doesn't have them as far as I know.
The guy on the phone checked some list, and couldn't find any information on the local channels, but said I could get lots of new channels.
I said I didn't want new channels. I already have plenty of channels I get for free, and I don't want to PAY MONEY TO LOSE THEM.
The guy told me that if I didn't subscribe to Charter's TV service, I would LOSE access to those over-the-air channels when the Digital Transition occurs. I explained to him that those are Digital-only channels, they aren't going anywhere, that I have been watching digital TV for years, I only watch digital TV, and that the digital TV standard came out back in the 1990s. I'm not worried about any transition. We have like 11 Digital tuners now. 4 of them support HD even.
He then asked me if I have an HDTV. I said yes, 4 of them. He mentioned their great (insanely-overpriced) HD service. I said I get all my HDTV over the air for free. That I watch my favorite shows in 1080i like CSI, Heroes, and all those "Late Night" shows. I asked him why would I pay for HDTV service when I get HDTV service over the air for free?
I don't know if he was unahppy that he didn't make his sales quota for today, but he thanked me for educating him on the types of service out there. Who knows, maybe I convinced HIM to drop Charter Phone service and tune into some over-the-air free HDTV.
He tried to offer two services to me, phone and TV, and then tried to *scare* me into switching to Character when I didn't express interest in them. How ... what's the word? Unprofessional? Desperate? Retarded?
Minor update:
It looks like Charter does provide access to channels 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, and 5.2. They are channels 107, 108, 109, and 127 on their Digital St. Louis package. If the Charter person I spoke with on the phone knew what the hell he was talking about, he would have come a little closer to making a sale. Putting people on the phone that have no idea what they are talking about is pretty dumb. No equivalent to channel 24.2 though.