ADELPHIA ripoff false promises Van Nuys Caliifornia

Nadia,

I first want to state that I am in no way, shape, or form connected with Adelphia, although I am a strong supporter of the company for civic reasons (we're already losing 200 of the 1700 jobs the company created in Buffalo because of the bankruptcy & I don't want more people here to lose their jobs).

I want to suggest a possible reason for Adelphia's failure to get TV5. I know the company is halting upgrades to services and infrastructure because of its financial difficulties & the reorganisation of the company. That's not an excuse to not give you something you were promised, but I'm wondering if they didn't plan to offer the channel at the time you signed up, and since then have been unable to negotiate a reasonable price for it. My point is, they may not have lied; they may have had every intention of getting the channel, but when the s**t hit the fan they were unable to follow through.

There aren't enough details in your letter for me to figure out if this might really be the case. I don't know when you signed up for the cable package ($93 a month sounds like digital cable?) or what exactly you were told (did they say they were definitely getting the channel, or just that they were working on it?), but given the company's circumstances it sounds like it might have worked that way.

When a cable company adds a channel, it has to pay a certain amount of money per subscriber to carry the channel. For example, Yankees fans here in Buffalo agitated about getting the YES network, and Adelphia negotiated the best deal it could to acquire the channel. Sometimes the company can't get the channel without having to raise cable rates; that might influence their decision whether to carry a channel. In the case of the YES network, it cost Adelphia about $2.00 per subscriber to add the channel; the company passed along a $.90 monthly increase in our market to cover part of the difference. If a channel costs too much per subscriber, or the company finds that there isn't sufficient interest in a particular market to carry the channel, it won't.

My suggestion is, if you're paying $93 a month for digital cable SOLELY so you can get TV5, you might consider downgrading to regular cable. I don't know what the fees are in your market, but here in Buffalo it is about $40 a month. When you call customer service to switch, let the customer service rep know EXACTLY why you're switching: you were promised a channel that you're now told you won't be getting, and you don't want to pay for digital cable without it. That way, they'll know they're losing business (or at least a portion of it) because you want that channel & it might make a difference.

If you're really disgruntled with Adelphia over this, cancel your cable altogether & get a satellite package. I know there are a lot of complaints on this site about both DirecTV and Dish Network, but I've also talked to a lot of people who are perfectly happy with them. It seems like either you have a nightmare dealing with them, or it's just wonderful. Do your homework before you do anything & make sure you know what you're getting into.

(On a personal preference note: I'd steer clear of Dish Network - not for service reasons (I'm a happy Adelphia subscriber), but because someone representing/selling Dish Network packages has been calling people in your market & scaring them into cancelling their cable. They're claiming that Adelphia's going to shut down & there will be service interruptions unless they switch to satellite NOW. Not only is it untrue, but I think it's also a lousy business practice to lie & scare people just to drum up business.)

Hope this helps, & good luck!