Cord -> Cut!

The SandCastle has cut the cord!  We dumped satellite and now cable too.  We still have internet and now our video entertainment comes via that pipe.

Short version:
I'm on a 7 day free trial on both SlingTV($25 Gold/month)  and Sony Playstation Vue (29/month).  The channel lineups are similar but Vue has Discovery but not History.  Sling has the reverse.  Unfortunately History has devolved into a lot of stuff that isn't history:-(  I think Vue will be the keeper.  Discovery is not a Sling TV option.  Both offer FS1 & FS2 so I'll be able to watch F1 racing through the year as well as Daytona 24 hours last weekend and hopefully America's Cup as it comes.  I just wish someone would pick up Reno Air Racing!

I watch via  Roku Express ($29 @ wally world)

tl;dr version:
We switched from Satellite to Cable with the SandCastle move.  We were tired of playing pricing games with Sat TV and mediocre DSL service with ever increasing rates.  Local Cable had just installed Gigabit internet to the neighborhood.  They promised us 1000Mb/sec service along with price savings and a 3 year rate lock with zero installation costs.  Not that we need the bandwidth but it's fun!

I ran a few internet speed tests which rang in around ~960MB/sec.  Not quite the GB promised, but pretty close.  But the savings never materialized.  The monthly bill was within a few $$$ of the satellite bill. The channel selection seemed... deficient.  Turns out the 3 year rate lock was also a lie.  Within just a few months the bill went up.  Checking the "contract" as the old saying goes "what the big print giveth, the small print taketh away!"  This could not be more true when dealing with local cable co.  The SCQueen went to the local outlet to call them on their rate lock promise.  They countered something to the effect of "the rates are locked, the fees are not and we just added new ones".  She ended up telling them to get stuffed.  They cut the line hard - the SCSon's phone call dropped mid syllable.  TV & internet dropped too.  They told her to collect all the boxes and bring them back to the store RSN*.

So we collected all the boxes** & remotes.  The SCQueen was out front of the local outlet before opening Monday AM - along with half-dozen others also revolted by the broken "Rate Locked" promise.  By the time she finished turning in the hardware the line had grown to a couple dozen.  That's a lot of unhappy ex-customers!

Such revolts are surely baked into their rate structures.  I wonder if that includes the money they lost bringing us on as a customer.  Recall above the deal we had they covered installation costs.  It took them 2 or 3 service trips to get the installation right.  They had to trench to bring fiber from the street to the house plus 2-3 service visits get the signal into the house.  I'd guess they spent a couple thou on installation.  I doubt they made it back in the few months we were customers.  Too bad they threw it all away over a rate hike.  Had they kept their promise we'd probably have stuck with them till death do us part!  Local cable take note - your violation of the 3 year rate lock pledge cost you a 30+ year customer!  I suspect by the time a new potential customer moves into the SandCastle, current Gigabit technology will be obsoleted by subspace communications at least mega-gigabit if not giga-gigatbit rates!  Thanks for wasting your money,  I see your business practices and I won't be investing in you anytime soon.  Your short-term-view/long-time-view is a losing model.

* - Real Soon Now
** - but not before logging into the access point and changing the name from "SandCastle HQ" to "Local Cable Co Lies ALot!" (Not the actual names but you get the idea).  Also, I'm sure they will hard reset the modem before passing along to a new customer....  But just in case they don't  mu-hah-hah@!!!!

FTC disclaimer - None of the services mentioned have provided anything for this post.  AFAIK Free trials noted as such as available to anyone. Other services were paid at retail.  freely.  I get no $$ from referals and there aren't any links to refer to anyway..  These are my opinions stop period end.