It’s time for a little normalcy in my world. Not much normalcy, but I’ll take what I can get.
The National Football League has games scheduled. Sunday afternoon contests. And if nothing else, I can sit and watch several games at once by putting my television on the NFL RedZone channel, a channel I’ve subscribed to for years.
Okay. Let’s forget about COVID-19 and all the other crapola in my life.
Sit down. Turn on the TV. Dial Channel 311. And…
YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO WATCH THIS CHANNEL. IF YOU WANT TO WATCH THIS CHANNEL, PLEASE CONTACT SPECTRUM TO SUBSCRIBE TO IT.
What?
Okay, there must be some mistake here. Maybe the cable box needs a refresh. Unplug. Replug. The box resets. I check other sports channels – yep, I can get the NBC Sports channel, the CBS Sports channel, a few specialty channels like the Golf Channel and the Tennis Channel (or as I like to call them, stations I never watch), and the NFL Network channel. So I flip back to NFL RedZone.
YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO WATCH THIS CHANNEL. IF YOU WANT TO WATCH THIS CHANNEL, PLEASE CONTACT SPECTRUM TO SUBSCRIBE TO IT.
Yeah, no. All right, let’s call Spectrum and find out what’s happening here.
THANK YOU FOR CALLING SPECTRUM. YOUR CURRENT HOLD TIME IS LONGER THAN 45 MINUTES.
I stayed on the line for an hour. Then Spectrum disconnected me. Ha ha, Spectrum, that was funny. Nice way to treat your subscribers.
I dialed again.
THANK YOU FOR CALLING SPECTRUM. YOUR CURRENT HOLD TIME IS LONGER THAN 45 MINUTES.
Screw this. While I still had Spectrum on the line, I got in my car and drove to the Spectrum consumer store in Colonie Center. I want answers, Spectrum, and I’m not afraid to demand them.
As I pulled into the Colonie Center parking lot … lo and behold, I finally connected with a Spectrum agent.
The Spectrum agent explained that the NFL Network, along with three other channels, went into a different subscription tier at the end of November 2019. So to get those channels, I needed to pay an additional $5/month.
Yep, that’s right. Spectrum pulled their old Time Warner Cable trick of jacking the rates.
I argued that I had been a Spectrum customer for many years, that I had paid for the NFL Network and the NFL RedZone for as long as it’s been available on my system.
They replied, “Well, you should read your bill every month. We specifically announced the rate change in December of 2019.”
Right. I bet it was tucked into page 17 of their bill, right between some fine print or more fine print.
Their final argument – pay up or don’t watch. Ugh.
Then the rep pulled that little stunt of, “Well, how about we at least give you a $5 credit for the first month, just for your trouble getting through today?”
Well, by this time I had already missed the early games, so …
There is that old saying when dealing with cable companies. They make the rules, just bend over, drop your pants, and take it like a man.
By the time I returned home, the late afternoon football games had started, and my NFL RedZone channel popped up and appeared as if nothing had ever happened.
Ugh. I hate this. I hate that Spectrum does this little jerk-around dance. They cram together channels in tiers and bundles that make you have to pay for 15 channels you DON’T watch, just so you can watch the two channels on the tier. And they cloak it in some nebulous “we’re doing this for you” mantra.
Ah, Spectrum. With stunts like this, they’re more like Speculum.
And if you don’t know what a speculum is, go look it up. You’ll find out that it’s a perfect description of what Spectrum does to its customers. Ugh.
Chuck The Writer 
I wrote a lengthy piece about Spectrum in the past year: https://www.rogerogreen.com/2020/01/17/spectrum-communications-cluster/
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This is why I don’t have TV service. You end up buying every ‘tier’ to get the three channels you watch and find you’re spending $100 a month for the evening news and an occasional movie. Gave it up years ago, and haven’t missed it. For what it cost I can buy and own whole TV series, movies, and snacks to eat while watching.
You probably can get some OTA channels where you are (satellite is the only option here). Pick up a cheap antenna and give it a try.
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Do you mean “rabbit ears,” or an antenna on the roof? We are seriously looking at this.
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It’s cheapest to try the rabbit ears or a ‘boosted’ indoor antenna. There are web sites that will let you know what stations may be available in your area, but until you try it you can’t be certain; lots of things block broadcast signals.
When I was still working in Langley, BC I could get six stations OTA on rabbit ears. One from out of Washington! Up here I can’t even get the ‘repeater’ station that’s a few miles away.
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We have a flat panel antennae from Best Buy for each TV and get over the air channels and Netflix and Hulu on our main tv.
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How timely! Last night, we discussed canceling all but internet. I barely watch cable TV anymore, just the streaming services. We have our phone through Spectrum, and for every legit call we receive, there are 5 telemarketing calls. One day, the phone rang about 8 times. It just rang while I was typing this.
As it is, the internet service is problematic, too.
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Ahhh, there’s my cue.
Scary County:
HDTV (w/ built-in tuner) + rabbit ears –> 37 channels, including Utica.
Brings in all the locals (e.g. 17-1, 17-2, 17-3 and 17-4).
As with cable, some channels are useless. But @ $.00.
Add Internet + Roku / Amazon Fire Stick, and stream to your heart’s desire.
Cable? I cut that cord ages ago, and have absolutely NO regrets.
I might be an old guy with free time on my hands. But someone please shoot me if I ever complain that I can’t “…sit and watch several games at once.” (With all due respect, of course.)
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