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I didn't want to have my cable television disconnected; I just wanted to lower my level of service to reduce my budget. When Julie called to make the change, however, and I heard her say "I think you should talk to my husband," I knew it wasn't going to be that easy. And now I'm down to three channels -- the only ones I can get in with a good old fashioned antenna.

In a past column, I wrote of being excited by some new channels that Marcus Cable, my local cable television provider, added to their lineup. Well, now they added some more channels and, of course, raised their rates as well. Julie and I don't watch TV all that much anymore and when we do it seems that, with a few exceptions, we watch the local stations most of the time anyway. So, since I still haven't found employment, we decided to drop our cable package to the lowest rate offered, which is just the first thirteen channels -- a little better than nothing and a lot better reception than what can be attained with an antenna.

But, due to a policy I just couldn't stomach, they won't even get my $7.50 per month for that basic service. I still can't believe it. They actually wanted to charge me nearly $30 to reduce my service. The woman on the phone explained to me that a service technician would have to come to the house and install a device that would restrict us to the first thirteen channels. I asked her if I'd have to pay again when/if I wanted my service restored and, naturally, her response was affirmative. Unbelievable. I explained to her that the service technician would have to come to our house if I wanted the cable disconnected altogether too, and she agreed. She also agreed that they couldn't charge me for that but she still didn't waver. So, feeling that my back was against the wall I said, "Okay then, disconnect it altogether."

Perhaps they could get away with those kind of practices before, when they had a monopoly, but now there is competition that they just can't afford to ignore, to wit: DIRECTV and PRIMESTAR. One of which, I also informed the drone on the phone, I will take my business to when I am again employed, not that she had the authority to override the company policy anyway.

I don't often stand on principle, especially over a rather insignificant sum of money, but in this case I just couldn't roll over and accept what I believe to be a ridiculous charge. That would be like the local newspaper charging me to reduce my subscription from every day to weekend only. Isn't some business better than none? Instead of a temporary reduction in my bill they lost *another* customer -- for good. At this point, not even free hook-up would lure me back.

Marcus Cable was recently purchased by MicroSoft co-founder, Paul Allen. I don't know if he is responsible for the service charge policy or if it was in effect prior to the buy-out, but I'd be willing to bet that I'm not the only one to discontinue service over it. The one thing that may bring me back in the future (after I get a new computer) would be the fast internet access of a cable modem. With Mr. Allen at the helm it's likely that it will be available in our area at some point in the near future, but by the time I get a new computer who knows what other choices I'll have.

I suppose I should thank them for saving me even more money than I expected to, though. It's been four days so far, and I don't miss it at all.