I’m staring down a couple of projects I’ve put off.
1) Forget all my excitement in the past. We ended up without an air conditioner last summer. Now, that really isn’t a problem for me – I love the heat – but there are other members of the family, including the dog, who think I’m a little nuts.
I am expected to find a replacement. But here’s the catch: do I just replace the air, or do I do the heat, too? Do I zone the house? Do I go for the increasingly popular heat pump or stick with traditional methods?
A little time went into it all last August or so. I was overwhelmed. Everyone felt like a snake-oil salesman with special deals and promises. What I really want is someone to come in and make a recommendation as to what I need, then I’d price that equipment and installation.
I’d say we’re looking at a couple of months effort. Sigh.
But it has to be done.
2) The telephone, television, internet package. Some time ago I thought I had this nailed. Now Time Warner says, “Oh no, that’s a special arrangement that expires in three weeks.” (Grrrr. Time Warner!) So here I go again. I will tell you quite frankly I am no more a fan of AT&T than Time Warner. They both wear horns and carry pitchforks in my book.
Once again, it has to be done.
Here’s the clincher: I had phone, tv, and internet down to $85 a month. Oh, yes. I know it’s a good deal. I simply don’t understand why it’s set to expire when I never bought a package, but rather negotiated my own arrangements. No joke, I’m told to expect it to double!
I really don’t watch much TV. Maybe it’s time to go without? I know two people who only contract for phone and internet, and they seem perfectly rounded. As long as March Madness comes in on HD over the air, I’d be absolved.
What say you? I know we’ve been down this road before, but it’s been a while. Any changes in your electronic world?
We just have internet. I catch up on Hulu and by downloading shows. Helps me limit garbage TV intake. And cell phones. The uses for home phone are slim–especially with no kids in the house anymore.
You know #2 and I only have internet and our cells. Between Hulu and Netflix we do just fine keeping up with things we must watch.
I couldn’t do without my cable. Here the “Trio” packages run about $99/month if you sign on at the right time. If I were to drop TV I would lose the bundle discount and still pay almost as much as the three. Did I say I couldn’t do without cable?
Heat pumps in this climate are not very efficient, value is not to good. I have a 2 zone heating and air conditioning. If you don’t have it already I think the installation cost might make it prohibitive. I call Quality Heating in Brookfield. They have not tried to screw me in the past 15 yrs that I have used them.
Although zoned heating and cooling adds resale value to the house. It’s something I’d look for when buying a home. More energy efficient too. A little.
Only internet here – digital stations on the tv seem to be enough to satisfy everyone when we do watch television.
Do you subscribe to Angie’s List? I’ve found my subscription to be very helpful in finding trustworthy people. We’ve been happy with Gross Heating.
Do them both at the same time and save a few bucks with a package. The furnace will go some day and you won’t know about it until you need it. Heat pump…The Lorax is right to a degree (no pun intended). They are adjustable, so you can set the transfer to gas at a specific temperature. With NG at low prices a higher setting would be a saver. If NG goes up??? It’s a bit of a crap shoot.
DirecTV for satellite, though I am re-evaluating everything in this economy.
Just have Internet (DSL presently, will go to RR Turbo soon as I prepare to launch my business). No home phone, cells are all we need (and blissfully quiet on the solicitation front). Steve Bukosky (father-in-law of Jennifer – RIP) has a WaukeshaNOW blog, and he does heating stuff for a living, so I’d perhaps solicit his advice…
Wow! Zaphod, thanks for the input. Also, in the future, you aren’t required to enter an e-mail address. It’s just a default that came with the program, but I don’t activate it so it’s not necessary here.
Thanks everyone. It’s nice for you to share your experiences.
I worry about you.
But first things first. Air conditioning. OMG … at any and all expense get the air conditioning fixed. I have certain friends that I phone in the summer while I’m on the way over to their house to remind them to turn on the a/c … or make it cooler … because they like sweating too. My house is 73 degrees year round.
Okay … so we’ve been down this road on Time Warner before. Remember? And now here you sit, once again, with inferior service and victimized with misleading pricing plans that change on the fly. Let’s restate and be clear: Time Warner doesn’t get it. They have an inferior product that is serviced by well meaning but ill trained personnel on a antiquated network. Their customer service system is less than responsive. They have multi tier pricing systems that are dependent upon two variables – your ability to negotiate and the person at TW who may be sympathetic. Their billing doesn’t make sense and it’s hard to read and understand. And then the quality of their television signal simply sucks. You don’t know it until you get rid of them. Then you see it. It’s that noticeable. If a person goes to the bother of researching via product reviews, consumer reports, and evaluates and then selects a television of superior quality to produce the best image possible based on the technology presently available and then hooks up TW Cable – you might as well as bought RCA, Sylvania or some other Walmart brand TV. What’s the difference?
Okay … so let’s talk about Roadrunner service. The analogy that Roadrunner is fast like the cartoon Warner Bros Roadrunner is … well.. appropriate … it’s a cartoon service.
The way cable internet works is based upon capacity as it relates to speed. When a lot of people are on the internet in your area your speed reduces.
I have Directv at a home in Door County. It’s fine for what it is. I am happy with it there. And it’s the only choice. I know of people who have Directv in the metro area too and like it. Swell.
Here in the metro area I use AT&T. It’s superior. Period. The signal is delivered via fiber optic. The picture quality is perfect. If you have a decent tv – you’ll instantly see the difference. There is never an outage. With 2 full years of television service it’s been perfect and I’m fully satisfied. Pricing has never changed in two years. You and read and understand the billing. Installation technicians are good and do a good job. Internet is simply perfect and the speed range that you select and purchase is consistent – all the time. I use Gmail and my mail works flawlessly – I am not tethered to TW because of my email address.
But I will confess to you that AT&T has their problems. Their cell phone division sucks. iPhones don’t work in San Fran or NYC – overload issues. They can’t figure it out. That’s an example of AT&T’s negative technical services.
From a customer service standpoint AT&T sucks. You call them on the phone and it’s like calling TW or an airline. They don’t get it. They don’t really care. My neighbor just phoned them to add HD signal to his package and it took 3 phone calls – that’s just an example.
But here’s the logic – you get a superior product with consistent service delivery – and the customer service component is no different than anyone else’s – it sucks. So, you’re still ahead.
This is a no brainer. Really. Honestly.
I don’t know what I can say to convince you. It’s like a steak at Applebee’s or a steak at Mr B’s. There’s a difference in quality.
Like anything else in life you get what you pay for.
Seriously.
Come with me into the light… come away from the dark side of technology …. come closer… can you hear the happy music playing as you get closer? ….. comon …
(oh the phone part…. here’s the deal … during a general emergency like a tornado or storm cell phones don’t work .. because the network can’t handle the capacity issue that is created because everyone (and their children) are on the cell phone network. Need an ambulance? Good luck during a general area emergency. VOIP (voice over internet protocol) like Vonage is a solid delivery service at a low cost with no discerning differences in phone quality or reliability. Oh wait, if the internet goes out or power goes out the Vonage won’t work! Right. But to the rescue again AT&T with their VOIP that has a BATTERY BACKUP so you always have phone service during a power outage or emergency. Low price. Vonage is 25 bucks a month. AT&T with battery backup is 30 bucks a month.
Comon … come into the light …. walk this way … sorta like going from PC to Apple products…. you like your iPhone and iPod right?…. come with me … this way…..
Holy cow.
You are so funny. If it makes you feel any better I did open an account at Ridgestone last week. Chris says hi.
I was thinking seriously about your suggestion until you mentioned changing the e-mail address. Do you know how many things I’d have to change? That’s why the new bank account is just for travel and not for everything. Our lives are automated. I like it that way! The idea of resetting everything sure does keep me glued to one place.
Listen to Wilson828 – it’s great in the light!
sigh…. Gmail works on RR or Uverse. It works on Cox, Charter and Verizon. Gmail works.
Your email address is Gmail.
I gave RR email address issues as an example.
You’ll like Ridgestone.
I’ll send you an email with the name of a heating contractor who will do the update on your a/c at a deep discount. You’ll like him too.
I replaced my A/C last year and I am a shopper and a half. I found people who are $1000 higher than others for the same unit. It’s an awful experience…worse than buying a car…but I ended up with a small shop in Mukwonago who did a really great job at a great price. He is Bill Yeager at unifiedheating.com
After all my research I wanted to go with a Goodman unit and he wasn’t a dealer, but he went to the distributor and became a dealer so he could do my job. He was so cooperative and his price was really great. He sold the unit for less than I could find it anywhere, and his labor was way below anyone else. Give him a call for a nice experience. He’s not trying to get rich on every job.
If you want to get really cheap – theres some cool plans for build your own HD antennas out there for under $10. As soon as exams are over, construction begins!
Okay, let’s put it this way– if you want your parents to come to see you, shop for airconditioning! We lucked out last year. Wait! That may be a reason to put it off.
you have some good advice there. You could even do Geo-thermal. You don’t have have to have a pond. We enjoy the low bills but electric heat comes on kind of cool at first. Talk to your dad.
Oops. I hadn’t thought about that. Better plan for an April installation.
I have internet and DirecTV. I need my internet for my business. TV I could go without, but my parents can’t. I also have cell phone service, with unlimited data.