# OMG - Frontier Billing, Cable Cards, and FIOS Transition



## puinsai (Nov 7, 2009)

Hi gang,

Long time lurker but I need some help and I wanted to relate my experience so far with the transition.

*BACKGROUND*
Santa Monica, CA based customer and a longtime FIOS customer. Was very happy. Just got switched over to Frontier. Bill is ginormous despite calling last month and dropping Triple Play bundle to save money. First Frontier bill comes and it's $70 more than what they quoted me. I have a Tivo Roamio and a Tivo Stream and I love them. I have one multi-stream cable card.

*QUESTIONS*
1) I am currently being billed from Frontier for 4 cable cards which are $4.99 each or $19.99 per month. This is outrageous to me but in order to leverage the multiple tuner capability of the Roamio do I need to pay for 4 separate cable cards even though I only have one physical cable card?

2)Cable Cards - Has anyone actually bought their own multiple tuner cable card and had it work with Frontier? I am getting tired of the monthly fee. Any links to a card would be great. I can't seem to find any for sale that work with Roamio and Frontier but I would really like to just buy my own cable card.

3) Pricing - FIOS wasn't cheap but with the promotions it was a fair price. I would simply choose a promotion and then when it expired I would just call and get a new one. It was actually pretty easy. Frontier has NO Bundles and their prices are insanely high. Not sure who would pay them (besides me obviously) Here's a copy of my bill and if anyone has feedback it would be great:


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

puinsai said:


> Hi gang,
> 
> Long time lurker but I need some help and I wanted to relate my experience so far with the transition.





> *BACKGROUND*
> Santa Monica, CA based customer and a longtime FIOS customer. Was very happy. Just got switched over to Frontier. Bill is ginormous despite calling last month and dropping Triple Play bundle to save money. First Frontier bill comes and it's $70 more than what they quoted me. I have a Tivo Roamio and a Tivo Stream and I love them. I have one multi-stream cable card.





> *QUESTIONS*
> 1) I am currently being billed from Frontier for 4 cable cards which are $4.99 each or $19.99 per month. This is outrageous to me but in order to leverage the multiple tuner capability of the Roamio do I need to pay for 4 separate cable cards even though I only have one physical cable card?


You should only be billed for the physical cable cards you are using, not for the number of tuners you have. I have never heard of that - frankly, how would Frontier even know how many tuners you have?

I haven't looked at my bill that closely yet, but I thought the cable card was more expensive than $4.99 for the first one...



> 2)Cable Cards - Has anyone actually bought their own multiple tuner cable card and had it work with Frontier? I am getting tired of the monthly fee. Any links to a card would be great. I can't seem to find any for sale that work with Roamio and Frontier but I would really like to just buy my own cable card.


You cannot purchase your own cable card and get the encrypted service.



> 3) Pricing - FIOS wasn't cheap but with the promotions it was a fair price. I would simply choose a promotion and then when it expired I would just call and get a new one. It was actually pretty easy. Frontier has NO Bundles and their prices are insanely high. Not sure who would pay them (besides me obviously) Here's a copy of my bill and if anyone has feedback it would be great:


I locked in on a 2 year deal before that transition and they seem to be honoring it. I am not sure what kind of deal will be offered once that has expired.



>


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

puinsai said:


> Hi gang,
> 
> Long time lurker but I need some help and I wanted to relate my experience so far with the transition.
> 
> ...


Were you paying for 4 cable cards on Verizon? If you only have one, it is clearly a mistake, but if Verizon was charging you for 4 cards, you may have trouble convincing Frontier that you only ever had 1. Don't know how you ever came up with the idea that you needed a cable card for each tuner either.


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## puinsai (Nov 7, 2009)

fcfc2 said:


> Were you paying for 4 cable cards on Verizon? If you only have one, it is clearly a mistake, but if Verizon was charging you for 4 cards, you may have trouble convincing Frontier that you only ever had 1. Don't know how you ever came up with the idea that you needed a cable card for each tuner either.


I was only charged for one cable card from Verizon. I didn't think you needed a cable card for each tuner but I just thought I would ask in case I was missing something. I had Frontier take the rental down to one card.

Thanks for the help!

-Christian


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## puinsai (Nov 7, 2009)

You cannot purchase your own cable card and get the encrypted service.[/QUOTE said:


> This is a bummer. I thought with the legislation from 2011 allowing bring-your-own cablecard there would be more options. Oh well. Thanks for the feedback.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

puinsai said:


> This is a bummer. I thought with the legislation from 2011 allowing bring-your-own cablecard there would be more options. Oh well. Thanks for the feedback.


There is no legislation that allows you to bring your own cablecard to a cable company. That would defeat the purpose of cablecard security. But there have been a few tiny providers that let customers purchase a cablecard. In this case it is usually because they have no system in place for cablecards since they have so few customers.


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

I own a few share of Frontier by accident, not on purpose. I can't recall exactly what happened, but some merger, split or some such and I ended up with an odd lot of Frontier share. It's very embarrassing to be an owner of such a lame company. It is going to lose a ton of customers over this debacle, not just billing, but loss of all service for days. Heads need to roll.


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## puinsai (Nov 7, 2009)

rainwater said:


> There is no legislation that allows you to bring your own cablecard to a cable company. That would defeat the purpose of cablecard security. But there have been a few tiny providers that let customers purchase a cablecard. In this case it is usually because they have no system in place for cablecards since they have so few customers.


Thanks for clearing that up. I thought the "Self Install" clause on the FCC site meant you could bring your own card but all it means is that you can install their card on your own without a service call. Cheers!


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## tai4de2 (Aug 30, 2015)

Frontier FIOS customer in Seattle. I pay 3.99/month for one cablecard. There shouldn't be any additional fees associated with it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## rjrsouthwest (Feb 19, 2016)

That is rediculous, I have a M card in my Tivo that is supplied by comcast and they bill me $1.50 a month for the card and then give me a -$2.50 credit for using my own equipment for a net cost of minus one dollar a month on my cable bill for the cable card.


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## puinsai (Nov 7, 2009)

I think it's crazy that the same company (Both Verizon and Frontier) charge different amounts for cable cards in different parts of the country. That seems fundamentally wrong.


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## 2WOOFS (Dec 8, 2015)

Frontier FIOS in Oregon is charging me $2.99 per month for the cablecard.

Seems like some of the charges depend on how good the customer service rep is when you set things up.


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## NYHeel (Oct 7, 2003)

Well at least with Verizon Fios it's consistent. Consistently overpriced at $4.99 a cable card but at least consistent across the country.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

puinsai said:


> I think it's crazy that the same company (Both Verizon and Frontier) charge different amounts for cable cards in different parts of the country. That seems fundamentally wrong.


Note I actually *agree* with you... but...

McDonalds doesn't charge the same for a Big Mac everywhere.. (Even if you count only company owned stores.. AFAIK, those exist, I don't think they're all licensees.)


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## tampa8 (Jan 26, 2016)

puinsai said:


> I think it's crazy that the same company (Both Verizon and Frontier) charge different amounts for cable cards in different parts of the country. That seems fundamentally wrong.


Not only is it not fundamentally wrong, it is necessary. The cost to business as an example in Ct far, far, far exceeds the cost do business in some other States. Unless you want the highest price to become the normal it would not be possible to make the cost the same everywhere, or perhaps if you want to pay more somewhere else in your bill. I don't want to pay what NYC people do for Mcdonald's food, or like in Florida it's two breakfast sandwiches for $2.99 in Ct it's $3.99.


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## BigD383lt1 (Jul 13, 2016)

After reading this I checked my bill to find it say $54.00 for the cable card and $30.00 for the router. I've complained so much to them that for the triple play my last bill was $59 after all the credits. They suck!


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