How I Ended Up With Sling TV

I'm a cable-cutter. I think that some people would call me a cord-cutter, but that just seems sort of delivery-room oriented, and that's not what I'm into these days.

I started cable-cutting early on, but didn't really finish the job until quite recently. My local cable company is Comcast, but it's been others in the past. They're all the same. Really. For the past year and a half, I've had only the most basic TV service from the cable company to augment my Internet service. Turns out that the cable company does some things really well, like Internet service and phone service (which I also don't use, but have in the past), and some things not so much. Like TV delivery. Odd that what they started out doing well—TV service—Is where they fall flat now.

Times change.

Television has changed.

This month, I had a nice young man from the cable company pay me a visit. His name was Vinsent and he was both personable and knowledgeable. He came the same day that I called the cable company, and that in and of itself was so impressive that my wife made him breakfast. The net result of his visit was that I am now strictly an Internet subscriber from Comcast.. No phone service, no television service, no triple-play-two-year-contract-free-HBO-for-three-months-unlimited-long-distance-to Puerto-Rico nonsense.

Internet Only. From Comcast. The stuff that they do well.

Vinsent installed a new Internet gateway. A dual band mother humper that works really well. Comcast gateways (that big black box that has both a cable modem and a wireless router) have a rotten reputation, but this one seems to be fine. Solid throughput on all three levels of the house and well into the yard and deck. Yep, Vinsent was a good guy. And good vibes from Comcast too. When I called to disconnect from their television service, I got no grief whatsoever. I was transferred from India to Colorado to complete my business, but nowhere along the line was anyone anything other than polite, businesslike, and ready, willing, and able to do exactly what I asked them to do. No hard up-sell, no BS whatsoever.

Comcast, you did it right with your attitude towards me, the customer, with your service, with your equipment, and with the people you hired. Well done.

I have TV's, computers, pads, Kindles, smart phones, and a variety of other Internet appliances scattered around the house. The TV's all have ROKU boxes attached (and Android boxes too). I subscribe to Amazon Prime, Netflix, and HULU. Lots of TV there.

But I felt the need for some current, commercial-laden TV too. How could I live with myself without a daily dose of hemorrhoid cream commercials, and the occasional dose of “I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up”? Viagra commercials. Tampon commercials. I must confess that I really miss cigarette and whiskey ads. Really. But I catch them on Pub-D-Hub on my ROKU. HAH!! So there.

What to do? What?!?

I simply checked into the streaming alternatives that currently exist, that's what. Best as I could find, there were three big alternatives…..Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, and DirecTV NOW. I took an Internet tour of the possibilities, and discovered a few things--

Like f'rinstance, DirecTV NOW is owned by AT&T. I dumped AT&T cell phone service and, for that matter, all things AT&T a number of years ago, after having been habitually boned by them in every possible way, and there was NO WAY I WOULD MARRY THAT BITCH AGAIN. Period. DirecTV NOW was out of the running. I also learned that I leaned towards Sony PlayStation Vue over Sling TV. Why, you ask? Dunno really. The interface seemed a little friendlier, but that wasn't it—name recognition mebbe.

But, nothing being quite that simple, I ran into a hang-up. When I tried to sign up for their service, I discovered that I already had a Sony Entertainment account under my e-mail address, and in order to sign up for PlayStation Vue, you gotta know your password. Who knew? I didn't recall signing up for a Sony Entertainment account, but I must have done just exactly that at some point in the distant past. Had no idea what my password might be. Went to the Sony Entertainment site and followed the instructions to reset my password. Nope, No Way Jose. The web site was completely uncooperative. Tried it over and over. For TWO days.

And that's how I wound up with a 7 day free trial of Sling TV, streamed instantly and easily to my televisions (via my ROKU), my pads, my smart phone, my computers……….I chose the 25 Dollar American a month version and can stream three (yes 3) devices at the same time.

Lots of channels. Lots of mindless commercials. The interface is really not bad, despite what you read elsewhere.

And I got a really nice welcoming e-mail addressed just to me.

And I still don't know how to change my Sony Entertainment password.

Kudos to Comcast and their employees.
Kudos to Sling TV.
Boo-Hiss to Sony.

Sony and AT&T are probably brothers.



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