The previous owners of our home, which we moved into five years ago, had Dish Network satellite television. We didn't sign up right away, rather we waited until I found a way to simultaneously use multiple incentives offered by Dish. I purchased the requisite equipment dirt cheap on one offer which did not require signing up for any service...they just assumed I'd sign up. Then I waited a few months until I found another offer of free installation and free service for so many months...with the assumption that I'd be renting or buying their equipment at full price...but no requirement that I do so. That's when I called and scheduled an installation.

When the guy came out to set everything up he called into Dish Network and they were in total disbelief that I already had my own equipment and insisted on charging me for it again! I told the installation guy to forget it, that I wasn't about to pay for my equipment twice. He fully understood and wound up spending twenty minutes talking to Dish Network trying to convince them that I already had my own equipment. The conversation was hilarious and contained such statements by the installer as, "Yes, I'm certain, I'm looking right at it." After the installer convinced some supervisor that I did in fact already have my own equipment, I signed off on the purchase order.

When we got our first bill it, of course, had charges for purchase of the equipment which I already owned. And, thus began our near monthly fee dispute with Dish Network. Invariably Dish would overcharge, make up a charge or make some other mistake which amazingly always resulted in a higher bill and never a lower bill. I'd always convince them of their error and then, most annoyingly, they'd lie and say they couldn't credit my account but could offer me a certain number of months of some added programming that I didn't want and which cost them nothing to give me. No thanks, I want my money back...let me talk to your supervisor. At some point I just got so sick and tired of their attempts to screw me that I cancelled everything and...they tried to charge me a cancellation fee which only resulted in me telling them what they could do with their cancellation fee.

A few months of broadcast only television (no great loss) and a good deal on Cox Communications cable television came along...no equipment needed and no problems getting hit with hidden fees. Sometime around that same time we also signed up for Cox high speed internet. Customer service was great, they even admitted that there installation disc wasn't needed...just plug and play without having to install a bunch of software that I didn't need or want. Uptime was remarkable and the speed was addictive. No one goes back to dialup after having broadband.

Cox has been pushing their bundled services--television, internet and phone--for a while, but I was hesitant to switch our phone to the relatively new VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology from the good old standard landline we all grew up with. But, after evaluating what we were spending on everything offered by Cox in their bundled services (including ridiculous overcharging by AT&T long distance) we made the switch. We are now happy Cox Bundled Services customers and are very pleased with the quality and cost of their products: digital cable television, high speed internet, local and long distance telephone (using our existing telephones unlike some other VoIP providers which require use of their phones or adapters). We've stress tested the system by simultaneously uploading and downloading over the internet, watching television and talking on the phone and the system never so much as hiccuped. All that on one convenient bill which is significantly lower than what we were paying for everything separate...and not one attempt yet to stick us with a hidden fee.