[TomW67]

Just got off the phone with SPECTRUM. I had negotiated a lower package price but, while waiting for the order to be processed, the rep came back on to inform me that a price or service change is processed as a new order and that orders for cable cards are no longer accepted on new orders. They will continue to support existing cards per this rep.

 

[dlfl]

Which raises the everlasting question: How do you discern the facts based on what such reps tell you? The track record is pretty poor. Test #1: call back a while later and see if a different rep tells the same story.

 

[TomW67]

Call #1: see my post above.
Call #2: Agent - what’s a cable card. Me - goodbye.
Call #3 same as #1
Call #4 same as #1
Agents on calls 1, 3 & 4 each prepared and submitted an order that reduced the price that I pay but did not change my service. Each order was rejected because it renewed my existing cable cards and tuning adapters.

 

[Worf]

Looks like you need to try 10 more times

List of cable providers that still give out CableCARDs...

Getting a CableCARD is getting harder and harder as cable providers aren't legally required to give them out anymore, but some still give out CableCARDs. AT&T/DIRECTV: Difficulty: Impossible As far as I know, AT&T/DIRECTV doesn't give out CableCARDs. They used to make TiVos that only worked...

www.tivocommunity.com

There are rumors that sometimes going to a store you might be able to find a manager or someone who might have been around long enough to actually know the tricks to getting it done.

Now that cablecards are no longer required items, cable providers are very eager to get everyone transitioned away from them, so it takes a lot of work until you hit an agent who has been around long enough to know how things were done back in the day or physically go into a store with someone who issued them in the day as well.

 

[CinciDVR]

There are rumors that sometimes going to a store you might be able to find a manager or someone who might have been around long enough to actually know the tricks to getting it done.

This is what happened to me about a year ago when I went to the Spectrum store to change from my legacy Time Warner package to a current Spectrum package. The agent didn't think the cable card could be transferred. I showed him the Spectrum Rate Card that I printed off the internet that clearly showed that a cable card was available for the new Spectrum package. He went and found the manager who came out and showed him how to do it. As the agent got everything setup in the system, the manager was on his way out the door. When the agent submitted the changes, he got an authorization error. Luckily the manager hadn't gotten out the door, and came back to help. It turns out that only the manager was able to submit the change.

So you both have to find an agent that know how to do it, and also has authorization. Probably going to take a manager to get it done.

 

[TomW67]

I finally got high enough in the customer retention chain to solve my problem. Apparently, the reps that I talked to previously were submitting the order as one for streaming because it did not include 1 or more Spectrum boxes. A streaming order that contained 2 cable cards was properly rejected. I don’t know about elsewhere but cable cards are still viable in central Texas. Thank you everyone for your inputs.

 

[dianebrat]

I finally got high enough in the customer retention chain to solve my problem. Apparently, the reps that I talked to previously were submitting the order as one for streaming because it did not include 1 or more Spectrum boxes. A streaming order that contained 2 cable cards was properly rejected. I don’t know about elsewhere but cable cards are still viable in central Texas. Thank you everyone for your inputs.

This just goes to show that the stories of CableCARD's demise are premature.
I'm not saying they won't eventually phase out, but almost every report of " x or y no longer gives out CableCARDs" is just CableCo incompetence.

 

[dlfl]

This just goes to show that the stories of CableCARD's demise are premature.
I'm not saying they won't eventually phase out, but almost every report of " x or y no longer gives out CableCARDs" is just CableCo incompetence.

True but they are practically unavailable for most peope when you have to work as hard to get one as the OP did.

 

[dianebrat]

True but they are practically unavailable for most peope when you have to work as hard to get one as the OP did.

They're at niche product availability level, but considering how niche a product Tivo's currently are that's not a surprise.

 

[CommunityMember]

This just goes to show that the stories of CableCARD's demise are premature.
I'm not saying they won't eventually phase out, but almost every report of " x or y no longer gives out CableCARDs" is just CableCo incompetence.

Charter has been reported to have one very small (less than 5000 subs) pilot location which is high split (which means no CableCARDs). The pilot location allows Charter to claim (in the next earnings call) they have started deployment of high split (you can fool some of the analysts some of the time), and to learn about the issues of deploying and operating such a plant (and issues there are). More recently Charter has decided to pivot some of their deployment strategy (to be more closely aligned with a larger operator which historically is a technology leader cough Comcast cough) to vCMTS and R-PHY nodes (from the legacy/classic CMTS and HFC nodes), which likely means another round (or two, or three) of testing, and learning, along with almost certainly extending the date when CableCARDs are ended across their footprint.

 

[dlfl]

Charter has been reported to have one very small (less than 5000 subs) pilot location which is high split (which means no CableCARDs). The pilot location allows Charter to claim (in the next earnings call) they have started deployment of high split (you can fool some of the analysts some of the time), and to learn about the issues of deploying and operating such a plant (and issues there are). More recently Charter has decided to pivot some of their deployment strategy (to be more closely aligned with a larger operator which historically is a technology leader cough Comcast cough) to vCMTS and R-PHY nodes (from the legacy/classic CMTS and HFC nodes), which likely means another round (or two, or three) of testing, and learning, along with almost certainly extending the date when CableCARDs are ended across their footprint.

You sound very knowledgable. I don’t know enough acronyms to be sure.

 

[farbs321]

Just got off the phone with SPECTRUM. I had negotiated a lower package price but, while waiting for the order to be processed, the rep came back on to inform me that a price or service change is processed as a new order and that orders for cable cards are no longer accepted on new orders. They will continue to support existing cards per this rep.

Where are you?

 

[TomW67]

Where are you?

As stated above, central Texas.