are bundles bogus?

...depends what you value i suppose...

i was just looking at (cabletv.com) where it asks if bundles are bogus. they provide a graphic explaining that at regular cost, cable $60, internet $42, phone $30 come to a total value of $132. therefore, if you bundle all three together for $99, then you are “saving” $33 per month.

now, let me put this into kid yoshida terms and extract the crackhead mentality of this portion of the entertainment industry.  $99 is still a scam.  the first problem is that, at least with comcast, that is a introductory price for the first 6 months. the next year and a half of the contract, that price goes up dramatically.

for the american consumer sake, let’s assume i need a landline phone, then the bundle starts to become somewhat worth it. but i don’t need a landline. so, until that “$30 phone” part of the deal accounts for a cell phone with unlimited minutes and data, then this is not an attractive bundle option. so, now we are saying that i could get a $60 cable package and a $42 internet package for a total of $102. that’s a $3 savings per month with the bundle. at that rate, it would take three years to “save” enough for one month’s bill. i know they have two part bundles, but still...

let me go one step further. TV is not worth $60 a month. oh, i know plenty of people that pay even more for that, but to give a company $60 a month to brainwash me and make me desensitized to actual human interaction is an outrageously high price. but just like a job qualifying education used to free, so did TV.  let’s not get started about how the $60 package wouldn’t include half of what i wanted to watch, so suffice it to say i am not going to pay $60 a month to watch reruns of the waltons.

next, $42 internet may be worth it, but then as a one-off deal, they stick you with other charges like a modem fee. and if you’re using charter, you are also paying for those one or two days per month where the service is down.  unless companies are ever willing to reimburse every customer for those times then to that, i say, forget it.

disregarding any of that, the so-called “savings” is an illusion anyway.  if i am spending $99, i am not saving any money. i am merely spending less money than in another nearly-as-bad scenario.  this i call, the safeway club card effect.  i still choose to check out library books for free.  it’s better entertainment and, according to the above formula, saves me $132 per month. and someday when they start charging for library books, i will find something else to do for free.  there are always buskers in the street that deserve my money way more than any of these companies.