Any way around...

[Sarath]

My cable operator is creating problems with his attitude and service. The connection goes off too often and on repeated calls to the office, someone attends to set it right.
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But even that doesn\'t last long. Again the same problem creeps up. Out of frustation, I told him that I am not going to pay the subscriber fee for this month. Then after two days, he came and removed the connection itself and is not letting any other operator provide me the service.
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Can something be done on this, other than shifting to a new house?

[Kulcha Hyderabadi]

I\'m afraid there isn\'t anything you can do about it, except pay the guy and hope he provides you reliable and uninterrupted service. If you have the money, set up your own dish, buy a decoder and pay for all the channels, then sit back and enjoy. Don\'t ask me the cost of the whole works!!!

[neeraja]

Hi Sarath,
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We thought we were the only poor souls to be badly affected by the frequently interrupted cable service in Secunderabad. Glad we have company. Pal, there is nothing we can do. You atleast have some choice of operators, while ours is a monopoly. Take it or leave it. Attitude, dude. Alas, Doordarshan with the 3 element antennae was good in those old days...

Ya know what, we had the same problem some time back (two years back I guess). The cable operators jacked up the price from the existing 75 bucks to 250 bucks. The whole city went on a boycott spree starting with the Padmarao Nagar Colony Residents Association, and it caught up to other colonies. Our colony took a hint from Prao colony and arranged a meeting between users and the cable service provider, and threatened him with a boycott. Afraid, he decreased the price to 180 bucks. We were still not satisfied and propsed to start a co-operative cable service where people pool in the money to buy equipment and, to get some un-emp youth to provide service at the price the colony decides. The cable operator (who was a local goon) was afraid of a new competitor and immediately accepted a reasonable price of 100 bucks! Lol.
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It was an empty threat, no one in our colony will spend lakhs of rupees to buy equipment for cable connection, yet it worked. You may try something similar if others in your neighbourhood are facing the same problem and if you are on good terms with your neighbours. But if you are alone, then bend over before the cable operator.

[Mayavi Morpheus]

Damn, I typed another big story and before I pressed submit, got an error and lost all that I had typed. Anyway, I\'ll give the summary. When we faced similar problem in our colony two years ago, we asked the operator to decide the price and provide reliable service else we threatened him that we\'ll start a co-operative cable service funded by colony residents and operated by unemployed youth (no dearth of \'em). The cable operator immediately reduced the prices.
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May not work in your case if you are the lone victim.

[J.chakravarthy]

Hi everybody! I do not have a cable connection. Yes, in this age. My children want me to go for a connection. I think DD\'s two channels are enough. Anyway, I got one more reason not to take a cable connection - poor service.
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The good news is that there will be (in fact it is ready) DTH (direct to home) service. Then, we can pick the channels we want and pay for them and get quality service.
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One more thing. I think we can approach consumer forum for better service.

[pavan]

Hi, I think I may be of some use to you. Just try mailing me at: pavanhyd2003@yahoo.co.in or pavanh... at this site\'s address(trust me).