Steven,
Appreciate you honest opinions regarding Brighthouse and questions regarding programming and service quality. All I can share is this: I am new to the central Fl area, previously from South Florida where I was a Comcast subscriber. There are some points I'd like to make:
- By far the customer service and the service by the field techs when I have had them come out to my apartment has been far superior to anything Comcast provided for me. Your reps on the phone are courteous and your techs are on time and professional, something I never experienced with Comcast
- Pricing ( I currently have the internet-cable combo) is better by about $20.00 than the same package I had with Comcast, I also appreciate the ease of paying my bill.
Now with that being said, some honest disappointments I've had with Brighthouse:
- Overall video quality; my last month in South Florida I purchased and HDTV and while I understood that not all channels are digital and not all channels are HDTV quality, I was disappointed how poorly the reception was on certain channels. I've had techs come out and replace my receiver 3 times, since the last changeover, I have basically resigned myself to days of having great reception on certain channels and bad reception on other channels. No consistency, I spoke with the last field tech who sat with me for 2 hours performing test, and apologized for the poor signal quality (Honesty that I appreciated);
- Programming- Unfortunately I give the edge to Comcast here, I was shocked that for example, that being in the center of the state, I could not watch either major league baseball team, because Fox Sports Net is not carried by Brighthouse and Marlin games on Sunshine are not carried by Brighthouse due to a lack of a contract. Now before you accuse me of being another sports nerd, I do not have issues with Time Warner's overall issue with the NFL network, I believe its an issue that eventually will be solved one way or another; but I think its reasonable for me to expect my cable company to carry the largest regional sports provider and (barring blackout restrictions) games played by the state's major league teams. Brighthouse recently signed a deal to sponsor UCF's new stadium, bravo them, I just hope there games are not on Fox Sports Net. I've spoken with friends in other parts of the country with Time Warner, and they don't have the same issue; frankly it makes no sense here, Brighthouse and for that matter Time Warner have had healthy bottom lines; to blame solely the networks seems one sided.
- HD programming and On Demand HD is poor, now while you do carry HD NET and INHD, I have a hard time seeing 3 separate public access channels taking space on the HD tier. Also the on demand movies on are not representative of whats available, better selection should be available.
- I noticed also in the last week, ESPN news, CSTV and 2 other channels showing up on 2 different spots on the lineup, if its due to additional channels being added fine, but frankly leaving it on for over a week, your basically billing for the same channels appearing twice. Hopefully this gets taken care of.
Basically, Brighthouse, service wise does beat Comcast handily, they do have a ways to go with programming and programming decisions. One last thing, something a field tech told me regarding Comcast moving into the market, he applauded it, for one to hopefully drive up his salary and secondly to give Brighthouse some needed competiton; I think competition is good.
and dish is availble EVERYWHERE IN THE NATION for the most part.. Cable isnt. but still dominates the TV market place. Go figure.. Usally the people I encounter with a dish on their house are mad at BHN, and usally the ones who are mad are mad because they didnt pay their bill.... Thats been my experiance in the field at least.
