What are the best deals for phone, cable and internet?

[I'm Howard]

Show me the money.

I am paying $190 for Satellite, Internet, Land Line with Long Distance in North America.

We do not have Cell Phones nor do we have access to FIDO or similar.

North Central Ontario, two hours from TO.

[Kim]

Do you have cable to your home I'm Howard? We don't have cables this far out. So I think my only option is Bell or StarChoice??

[Guigz]

Kim, the only reason Bell is being "reasonable" is that they know they are screwing you left, front and center. I would tell them to go screw themselves if I were you.

I have had really bad experiences before with Bell which may be tainting my view of things. I would be very very very wary of signing a contract with their "promises" of reimbursing in the future.

Did you record the conversation? After you sign the contract, can you prove that they agreed to refund you?

Maybe they will conveniently "lose" your file and you wont be able to prove that they agreed to refund you. I kid you not, this is what happened to me with my Internet connection!

In my opinion, once you sign the contract, they got you by the balls and they will smack you with all they got if you try to leave them.

----- edit------

As you can see, even after years (I cancelled every Bell service that I had a few years ago) this is still a touchy subject for me.

[Kim]

Yeah Guigz I feel the same way about this company - I am not going to sign any contracts - in this day and age there is enough competition it shouldn't be an issue!

Still I live very far out. I just phoned Techsavvy to to see if I qualified for any of their services and they only have DSL out here in AB and when I gave them my phone # they explained I was too far out for them to reach!

So I Think Telus has me cornered on the phone and internet and although I will check with local tech store I think my only choices on TV are Bell or Starchoice ( are they still going?)

I always get suspicious when they start offering free this and that BUT still want your signature on a contract....the recording of phone conversations drives me nuts too. I always feel like starting off every converstaion with big business with the statement "This conversation is being recorded for quality control".

[kcowan]

I think my only choices on TV are Bell or Starchoice ( are they still going?)

They are now called Shaw Direct. You can often negotiate good deals by letting them know you are considering Bell and Telus Optix. You will not sign a contract. We have one account and we get the service in West Vancouver and PV Mexico.