ACOT Message Board

My husband is going on TDY for (temporary duty assignment) for 3-4 months this summer. I am headed home to Texas during this time because I have 4 kids 4 and under including 1 year old twins and can't be by myself that long. I sent an email to our cable provider COX and asked them what we needed to do to get our cable suspended then. Including that my husband will have orders to Florida and that no one will be here. Well they still want to charge us a % of the usual cost of the services and all the phone and government taxes and fees we are usually charged. Plus we lose all of our preomotional discounts. I think I am going to tell them to shove it and get sattelite when I come back. How is this even fair? It's not like we're going on vacation.

hmmm, I have heard that in some cases with cell phone service, my dh could have his temporarily suspended while he was overseas unable to use it. I never did pursue that option though, just paid the bill as usual. I wouldn't have thought that the internet, phone or cable company would offer such a deal though. It would be nice, sure, I understand your thoughts, that 4 months of being unused puts a nice chunk of cash back into the pocket. I can also understand why the cable company would have to cancel the promo offer though, because you are basically asking them to freeze your service for a few months while maintaining the promo rate. I don't think they come across enough military families in this situation to warrant offering such a deal. Sorry I would suggest that you either leave the service because you'd be paying for it anyway if he wasn't leaving -or- like you said, just set up new service when you return. Good luck to you and the kids while dh is deployed.

And this is the reason you never except the first (or second) answer! The third person I spoke to said the fees are only set up so you can keep your email address and phone number- and if I don't care about that then I can just disconnect and would be able to get new premotions when we came back. I asked if it was only for phone and email then why is there also a fee to keep your cable? She didn't know. Not one person before here told me that we would just be paying to keep things we don't care about. No one.

weird, that payment is only to guarantee email and phone number. Yes, if you don't mind if your phone number changes, then you could very well shut it all off. I know you'll be able to find another installation deal, maybe not as good as the ones they give to new residents, but as long as they don't charge you any re-installation fees because they have to come back out and hook you up, thats good.

Totally unfair. I think everything possible should be done to support military families.

Even if we paid the full cost of instillation it would cost less than paying them for not using their services for that long. But I doubt we will have to. It's aggrivating. If I didn't have such amazing neighbors I would just give up my house and start over.

Just cancel it while you're gone And if the bill is in his name, throw his orders in their faces as well

I'd cancel

After 9/11, I was displaced from my home for 3 months. My home phone and wireless service was provided by Verizon. The Verizon home service was out and I was displaced anyway, so of course, the only way I could be reached was through my wireless.

Needless top say, I exceeded my allotted minutes on my wireless plan by alot. I got a massive wireless phone bill because after my allotted minutes, I was then charged $1 a minute. I called Verizon to ask what options were available to me given our situation and especially since their service to our home phone service was out. They first told me that Verizon is not the same company as Verizon Wireless, so that the home line being out had nothing to do with me needing to use my mobile more. I realize I was displaced, but people could have left me messages at home if the service was up.

They then offered me $50 off my mobile bill...that was about 25% of my bill...I asked for a supervisor and explained that I was not expected to not pay for the extra minutes, but didn't think I should pay $1/minute. I asked if there was any way I can pay the same rate per minute as my existing plan provided....NO was the answer! I spoke to several people up the line who continued to offer me $50 off a bill that was several hundred dollars! They then try to tell me that I can change my plan that would allow me more minutes at a higher price. That was fine for me as I had no idea when I would be able to get back into my home, but then they tell me I will be locked into the higher plan for the year, and cannot adjust it back to my original plan once I get back home and my home service is back! Can you believe that they tried to rip me off again by getting me to lock into a higher rate for a year!

Well, at that time, I decided I had enough and I call the headquarters of Verizon and asked to speak to the President of the company! I got a receptionist who asked me what the call was about. When I explained my situation, she told me she would have someone get back to me. A representative called me back and was able to adjust my bill so that I paid for the minutes I used at the same rate I was paying for previously and continued to adjust my bill in this manner until I was able to return home.

Sorry to go on, but what this taught me is that there are times you just need to go straight to the top of companies to get situations resolved. The Customer service people often have no power to make these decisions.

Maybe you can try this. Hope everything works out for you.

We're facing a similar situation. My DH is getting deployed for a year so we asked our cell phone company if we could suspend it for a year. They said we have 2 options. They can suspend it for 6 months so that no one can use it and we pay for the entire service for 6 months or they can suspend it for 6 months, we don't pay for it at all but at the end of 6 months we have to pay the previous 6 months of bills at one time. All of our phones are out of contract, so guess what. That phone is getting shut off and our plan is dropping to about half of what it is now.




Mary

I have recently changed to Verizon Fios, but preveisoly had Direct TV. They offer you the option of having your cable suspended for as long as you need at no cost. As long as you are current with your bill when you ask for this service.

scrapgram wrote:I have recently changed to Verizon Fios, but preveisoly had Direct TV. They offer you the option of having your cable suspended for as long as you need at no cost. As long as you are current with your bill when you ask for this service.

Yes they have nothing like that, my bill is always current we have auto pay =/ I might consider them when we come back. Cox recently raised their rates. My bill went up about $20 a month.

AmyTeets wrote:Just cancel it while you're gone And if the bill is in his name, throw his orders in their faces as well

Ditto

thats what I did with Alltel

so glad you called again and again. NEVER take no for an answer. If you have to, you ask for the supervisor.

MOM2SNOX wrote:Your husband should fall under the Soldier’s and Sailor’s Civil Relief Act which allows service members to suspend or postpone certain obligations so they may devote their full attention to military duties. He needs to contact his local military legal assistance office. I was able to suspend a cell phone contract for 6 months while I was deployed and also reduce my credit card interest to 5% during that time also.

That was the name of what I couldn't remember thank you. The cable is literaly our only obligation (other than auto insurance). We have no debt of any kind and we piggy back ride on my dads cell phone family plan I send him the $30 bucks a month for us but he just puts it in the kids college fund.

ajkulig wrote:

MOM2SNOX wrote:Your husband should fall under the Soldier’s and Sailor’s Civil Relief Act which allows service members to suspend or postpone certain obligations so they may devote their full attention to military duties. He needs to contact his local military legal assistance office. I was able to suspend a cell phone contract for 6 months while I was deployed and also reduce my credit card interest to 5% during that time also.

That was the name of what I couldn't remember thank you. The cable is literaly our only obligation (other than auto insurance). We have no debt of any kind and we piggy back ride on my dads cell phone family plan I send him the $30 bucks a month for us but he just puts it in the kids college fund.

Glad to be of help :) Good luck!

MOM2SNOX wrote:Your husband should fall under the Soldier’s and Sailor’s Civil Relief Act which allows service members to suspend or postpone certain obligations so they may devote their full attention to military duties. He needs to contact his local military legal assistance office. I was able to suspend a cell phone contract for 6 months while I was deployed and also reduce my credit card interest to 5% during that time also.

Should is the key word here. This generally only applies to reservist.

AmyTeets wrote:

MOM2SNOX wrote:Your husband should fall under the Soldier’s and Sailor’s Civil Relief Act which allows service members to suspend or postpone certain obligations so they may devote their full attention to military duties. He needs to contact his local military legal assistance office. I was able to suspend a cell phone contract for 6 months while I was deployed and also reduce my credit card interest to 5% during that time also.

Should is the key word here. This generally only applies to reservist.

It is sometimes a case by case. Like bills with interest rates higher than 5% that you had prior to becoming active can be dropped. And I know Verizon will suspend for a year if you have orders of them being deployed. We almost suspended my husbands line when he went overseas. Instead we changed his BB to an international data plan, its half what we normally pay and he can use the internet/bb messenger and stuff still.
In your case I would probably have it terminated with orders and restart something new when you get back.

MOM2SNOX wrote:Your husband should fall under the Soldier’s and Sailor’s Civil Relief Act which allows service members to suspend or postpone certain obligations so they may devote their full attention to military duties. He needs to contact his local military legal assistance office. I was able to suspend a cell phone contract for 6 months while I was deployed and also reduce my credit card interest to 5% during that time also.

Yes I was going to post this as well, We had to do this with a phone contracct once, as long as you can show them proof of orders and why you can't keep up your obligations they allow it. I'm not sure with your case but we have done this once, when my dh had orders and we had a contract with a local cell service that wanted a cancellation fee, even though we were leaving because we had to.