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I'm speaking from a Canadian perspective here, and believe me when I tell you folks from across the lake/pond/prairies that:
Our television service providers SUCK.
Our cellphone service providers SUCK.
Our internet service providers SUCK.

Yes, everything sucks, here's a few examples of the horror:

I have had the same basic cable service for the past, I dunno, 9 years or whatever. It had always costed the same think. We've lost a few channels over the years due our provider being retarded, but it wasn't so bad.
Yesterday I got a letter in the mail "your cable package no longer exists, you have to get a new one in one week".

Guess what the difference between the new packages and my package is? The cost, it's 10 freaking dollars more per month. The letter also explains what they're doing to make their service better, these things include:
More HD channels.

That's it. Wow, more HD channels, awesome, that's worth 10 bucks! Oh wait, I don't get any HD cable channels, because it's freaking BASIC CABLE.

You'd think that with the advent of free HD antenna signals that the price of BASIC cable (pretty much network television) would be going down, but no, they're retarded.

So I call those loosers up, and they're like "oh, well you should be paying more anyway because that's what everyone else is paying". Clearly everyone else isn't paying the same thing, because I'm pretty sure there were other people with cable at the time I got my cable package. Idiots. I'm going to cancel my cable because it's overpriced and useless.

Example 2: Internet service:

Ok, well, this is a bad example, because guess who my ISP is? My freaking cable company. So you better believe that price is going up too. Why? No freaking clue. The bandwidth limit is the same as it was 9 years ago, the speed is the same as it was 9 years ago. WTF. Computers have gotten 5x faster and cost around a third what they used to. Oh, and there are 10x the subscribers as back then, so they're raking in waaaay more money for doing the same freaking job they did 9 years ago.

So, shouldn't that crappy-ass service cost less now? No, its going up in price too. Wow, and why? What is improving with my internet service. Here's a list:
"We've added more wireless hotspots around the city"

Wow, good thing. Again, "idiots".

I should be getting 5x the speed out of my internet service and have 10x the bandwidth limit. The average hard drive back then was 40 freaking GB, and now it's 500GB, WTF, why is my limit still 50GB? Why am I paying more for this technology that's SOMEHOW not getting cheaper? WTF!

Example 3: Cell phone providers.

I am Canadian, living in Canada, so it stands to reason that our cell phone coverage is the worst on the planet. A Hymalian monk in the superboonies pays less for calls to the Mozambique underground than I do simply sitting around and NOT making any phone calls. Oh, and get this. My cell phone, randomly starts roaming, all the freaking time. I could be 20 miles from the US border and my phone will suddenly think it's in the States. That's how freaking awful our cell phone coverage is.

We also pay fangoriously for our crappy service. But, a little while ago, the Canadian cell phone companies decided "hey, we're already the worst ever, but we can probably top that... let's charge people for INCOMMING TEXT MESSAGES". W T F.

Are you kidding me? Those infinitesimally small messages phones send? Data quantities ALMOST as large as a 1 second phone conversation!? By all means, that makes total sense! Oh wait, no it doesn't.

So get this, ever get an advertisement text message? We sure do, and know what? Those cost money too, and what's even better, they cost WAAAAY more than a normal text message. My sister got hit by 9 advertisement text messages. 2 bucks a pop. She had 18 bucks in overages WITHOUT EVEN MAKING A PHONE CALL. Oh, and get this. She pays for a text messaging plan, so she is SUPPOSED to get incoming text messages for free. So, she does what she has to do every freaking week. Call up her service provider and spend an hour on the phone with tech support getting bogus charges removed from her bill.

When I first got my phone things were ok... for the first year or two, then they get megatarded and my plan was CONSTANTLY changed without notice all the freaking time. For example, every freaking month the company would decide that people on my free calling list didn't exist, and charged me 100 billion extra minutes. So I had to get my plan readjusted EVERY FREAKING MONTH. What the hell is wrong with a company that they can't simply LEAVE THE PLAN ALONE.

Also, why is the price constantly increasing? There are more users. More people using the saaaaaaame service, it should be costing less.

So, in summary, everything is retarded.
I basically need to get an American cell phone plan with a Canadian phone number somehow... and a free to air satellite receiver (because we only get crap channels here anyway) ...and I'm still trying to figure out how to not get screwed on the internet service... I'm working on it....

Being an engineer working for a cell phone provider I could give you insight into why certain things are the way they are but really most people are frustrated with the sales department and marketing's decisions...in terms of network functionality there aren't too many problems.

I was a client for a different cell phone provider before working where I work now and I had the same problems rojerton has with his company. It's a common problem...I'd like to see the programs they use to keep track of customer plans etc as they always seem to NOT save the changes.

"Being an engineer working for a cell phone provider I could give you insight into why certain things are the way they are but really most people are frustrated with the sales department and marketing's decisions..."

Exactly why I HATE my cell phone service provider. The charges do NOT reflect actual network strain BUT they constantly assert the contrary.

"There's more users, more strain. Text messaging makes lots of network strain."

Next time I hear that talking to some retard who just arbitrarily increased my bill with bogus charges I'm literally going to punch through the magnetosphere to disembowel them. No bowels for retards who pretend that it ISN'T just some horrible marketing decision that is making me pay more.

Actually, I think the constant mistakes on my bill are due to a randomizing program that just randomly puts extra charges everywhere hoping at least a few people won't notice. What a great way to make free bonus money without having to do anything. Except instead of great it's gay.

my cellphone service always seems to suck too.. hate dropping calls all the time.. they put up all these stupid looking towers.. they are supposed to look like palm trees so they don't look like ugly towers which they are ugly anyways because anybody can tell that they aren't really palm trees
i finally went with the shittiest service but got the best plan i could find for the least money... $50/mos.. unlimited texting and calls.. my phone bill is never more then $50 no matter what.. i just don't get the internet and shit like that which others around me have.. i don't need to pay 100's of dollars just to get internet on my phone.. i hate people calling me anyways.. i hate to have the stupid phone but.. the family would hunt me down and never leave me alone if i went without a phone again
and now they rant at me for having the sprint card for my internet service.. i take my laptop with me everywhere i go.. i tell them they prefer the phone i prefer the internet.. my sisters and i communicate over the internet more then in person or on the phone.. that's really sad but at least we still communicate.. anyways.. i'm done with this one now lol.. off to facebook to 'talk' to my sisters again

Luxury.

In Canada there is no such thing as unlimited anything. Unlimited text messaging = 2500 text messages a month = 2500 text messages shorter than 10 words = crap and terrible.

Not that I send more than 4 messages a month (because I despise it), but it's the principle.

Know what's funny, in Canada we get these cell phone commercials that advertise "no system access fee", but there's a star next to it with the note "tower access fees apply".
Why do I tell you this? Because if I get a 50 dollar plan, it actually costs 75 instead.
Hence, luxury.

yeah that would suck if we had to pay tower fees.. what with all the stupid ugly towers they are setting up.. i would rather not have a phone.. i hate talking to people.. my bf hates when i text.. i text him and he calls.. i hate my phone cuz the service sucks and i can hardly understand anything he says half the time.. now my dad is learning to text.. great.. another way for him to bitch and moan about how shitty i'm running my life.. oh well.. i don't have to listen to him at least and i can ignore the texts or say i never got them lol

wow, I'm glad I'm in the UK. We get good all 3, but if something goes wrong, I have to ring up India (usually on a premium line) and spend 10 hours talking to a monkey reading a screen, going higher and higher up in management until I find someone who reads their legal document to me, instead of the screen message I've heard TWENTY FUCKING TIMES. Companies overcharge us so much, you think they'd atleast put on a decent customer service..

yeah i hear my dad with the same rant.. wondering why their customer service is not local and we have to call india..

Here's an article that talks about why cable prices haven't dropped in the past 10 years. I was hoping for more but still interesting read.

http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/..._decreased

Not really that interesting I guess...

The reason is that there are only 1 or 2 cable providers per region, so why bother ever lowering prices?