Watching TV and getting Screwed

Here in Florida, Comcast owns the Cable business.  All you see on TV are numerous ads showing the Triple play and all these other wonderful packages designed to save you money.  I am sure the same holds true for Dish, or any other satellite or cable companies that might be in your area.  They are all wonderful and will post ads almost everywhere about them having the best HD, the most HD stations, the best combined deals for cable, phone and computer package's, the most advanced DVR's with the ability to do everything except make you dinner, and other more imaginative deals, slogans, claims, etc.  They will tell you about the newest of movies available so you won't use netflix or whatever mail order or computer order movie program.  Everyone of them is better than their competition and will tell you so, give you these special offers to get started, promise you the world, and then some.   My answer to all of this is Bull Shit......

    

First of all let me start by explaining the Comcast crap service that I have.  Actually, the service sucks as the picture freezes up lots. But not to worry because when the tech finally comes to check this I am told to call him when it happens so he can see it first hand. I have showed it to them from programs that I have saved to the DVR, but the answer is always the same. A slight glitch that has been corrected.  Yeah ????  The modem for my desktop goes out on occasion, but only during those times that I really need to use my computer.  The phone service is great, but I seldom use it because I am always on my cell.  ( If I cancel my phone service with them, I lose my triple play status and wind up paying more each month and that is without the phone. )  Before triple play there was a gold package, a bronze package, and a really great  going to fuck you package.  Only brilliant people can come up with such bullshit.  I can't get a dish because my apartment faces every direction but what is needed for the satellite.  Oh, what's a guy to do????
       So, I am stuck with shitty Comcast, and stuck with the shitty service, and stuck with the triple play.  I have all the premium stations, plus HBO and Showtime. ( I got rid of some of those other crap stations like TMC, Starz, and Cinemax, because I didn't need them, and wanted to save money last year.  OK, so the price is pretty good for the triple play.  That is until you realize the price quoted and the price you wind up paying don't even resemble each other. For example, and I am quoting exactly from my recent bill.  Showtime $15.99...............which I just called about because it used to be $5.00. Well on the phone with some trained monkey, after waiting forever, told me that was a special for 6 months only, but she would change mine to only $10.00 per month.  The key word here is only.  I felt like I was now on a roll. But, here is the rest..$9.95 for HD/DVR service. Now for the telephone section.  $5.00 rental fee for modem, $1.17 for Universal Connectivity Charge, $0.11 for Regulatory Recovery Fee.  Now we go to Taxes, Surcharges & Fees.  $3.91 State Communications Services Tax, $2.35 Local Communications Service Tax, $0.20 Sales Tax, $1.97 Local Communications Services Tax for Digital Voice, $0.85 Communications Service Tax for Digital Voice, $0.85 Communication Tax, $0.50 911 Fee, $0.33 Sales tax for digital voice.  I can't believe there is not an additional charge for actually taking the time to look at this ridiculous bill. Fortunately I haven't gotten any on demand movies or porn lately because I would assume there are additional fees associated with that as well other than the cost of the event.  I guess the thing that pisses me off the most is this is never, ever discussed or mentioned in an ad.  Why can't they just be honest and say Plus additional taxes and misc. charges.  But NO.............That is not the American Way.
     Now that your running to look at your cable bill, you will know that I am telling the truth and this is really not CRaP............