"Triple Play" packages from the cable company… is it a scam?

Scam, no.

Overpriced, probably. Ask yourself if their pricing for cable telephone service makes any sense at all. Usually, the answer is “no”. The real issue is that the charge you whatever they can, regardless of what THEIR cost is. But then, all businesses do that.

In the end, you need to do your own math. Is there a benefit for you based on your needs and usage patterns. In my case, the answer was a clear “no”.

@elbanditoroso – I’m not asking about the ‘value’ of the service they provide. I am wondering why they spend the marketing money to push the plan that supposedly provides the customer more services for less money? I’m trying to figure out what the business model is for that – the company MUST be gaining something out of it.

The scary part about them selling this (and I have the “triple play” in my home) is that after about 6 months the honeymoon is over and your rates go back up to “normal”, AKA expensive.

People have said to call the cable company and ask them to get the competitive rates but that means calling again every few months.

The biggest benefit is the cable phone is a lot cheaper than the regular phone companies. And I don’t have to deal with ATT.

My mom has the triple play thing from Comcast. It started off at around 100 bucks for the first six months. Now it is up to around 180. She has to call every few months and threaten to cancel for them to lower it.

I agree with @johnpowell when the honeymoon is over, ask for the “current campaign pricing”. It has worked for me, latest triple pay is coming up for an across the board increase, I got a letter telling me that the price would go up, however I’m on a list ( probably my asking for current pricing ) that I’ll have an increase of two dollars instead of twelve dollars increase.

Oh and the city I live in has city run cable, phone and internet system in competition with cable company, that keeps the price down also.

The want to make as much money as possible off of one cable going to your house. Yes, the triple services feed off of one cable. For you, look at your current cost of the 3 services. Also think about how happy you are with your current 3 service providers.

I chose not to use triple play because I didn’t want to mess with my Dish Network setup. It was a bitch to set up, and I don’t want to have the cable guy mess with it (in case I had to undo it later). I got a small deal on U-verse internet + phone instead.

We don’t have a phone. We opted not to get one when we moved here three years ago, and the only time it was an issue was after Hurricane Sandy, because electricity, cable and cell were down – but then again, so were many telephone lines – and a VOIP system wouldn’t have worked then, either.

We currently get cable and Internet from the same provider. I’m just trying to figure out why they want me to switch to Triple Play, when I’m currently paying more for less from them—you’d think they’d be happy with that!

Could it be the way the contract is with triple play? Like by signing up for it you’re stuck with them for a longer time than if you were just paying for the other services separately?

When Sandy hit and the Verizon circuits were all toast I moved our landline to our cable company.
We already had internet and cable TV from them and that cost about 90$/month. When we switched to the triple-play it was about 60$/month. No-brainer. Pay less to the cable company and nothing at all to Verizon for landline.

But I can’t explain why it’s in their interests to make the triple-play package so much less than their ala-carte offerings.
I suspect the marketing is intended to bring in new customers who are switching all of those services from other providers, not really intended to convert their existing
ala-carte customers.

My theory has to do with establishing a land line to be able to identify an address with a 911 call. And to bundle it because so many people are choosing to forego land lines.

I only guess that it had to do with emergency planning (also able to use reverse dial in emergencies to communicate with a community quickly) because I was asked to listen to a quick recording about 911 services in my area and give a verbal, recorded affirmation that I knew my phone number and understood 911 services.
What’s in it for them to do this? Not sure. Cutting phone out of the bundle raised the baseline for the other 2, cable and Internet. They were the same price, essentially, whether you got two or three bundled together.