A new report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index shows that the lowest scores ever earned in their tally are earned by the cable companies.
The ACSI is based on a scale of 100, and 70 is considered a passing grade.
Well, Comcast is down from 64 a year ago to 54. Time Warner is down to a 51.
Comcast’s overall score, including Internet, is the lowest of any company ever in history, based on my crunching of the numbers.
Comcast is the worst example of what happens when capitalism is corrupt. They have a monopoly in each community based on a Congressional decision years ago.
But the great news is it’s always darkest before the dawn. This is the last hurrah for Comcast because the market is about to blow wide open.
On the pay TV front, you have all the over-the-top services. Among the newer entrants are Showtime selling direct to the public and HBO doing a limited version of that too. Then you have Sling TV, which offers popular cable channels including ESPN for $20 a month.
So paying $80 or $90 a month for pay TV is about to be over.
On the other side of the ledger, the hammer-lock that Comcast has over high-speed Internet is going to crumble too.
You have Google Fiber rolling out city by city at a speed of 100 times what you’re used to for the same price you pay now. You also have a cloud-based cable company called Layer 3 TV coming before the summer is out.
So here’s the takeaway: Don’t sign a long-term contract for pay TV or for Internet. If you do, you will have to decide if you want to pay that early termination fee because of cheaper options coming!
Clark Howard — Save More, Spend Less, Avoid Rip-offs — for the Atlanta Bargain Hunter blog
Consumer expert Clark Howard's column appears here each Thursday in conjunction with Deal Spotter, a weekly print section in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Find more answers to your consumer questions at Clark's website.
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