Cable/Internet in St Catherins
 

Hello friends...moving to the Villages (St Catherine) in late June 2021. I see that xFinity charges $100.00 for one time cable/internet installation. Is that a pretty common charge with all Cable/Internet providers or are the homes down there wired for a different provider? Thanks for any insight you can provide.

Art

I had Spectrum before and they didn't charge to hook-up. Xfinity will send you the box, etc. and you can also do it yourself. I needed to have all the cables checked in the house to make sure they were all working and also needed to install another location on another wall. They charged $100 to do all of the above including burying the new cable that was run around the house. Robert was the name of the Service Tech I had and he was great. Personally, I like Xfinity better than Spectrum basically because of the "apps" it has plus I can connect to Amazon Prime without the Firestix which I needed with Spectrum.

What I didn't like was my service went down the first day and rebooting on-line didn't work. Took me a while to find a phone number and actually get someone on the phone. It took them sometime to get my connections back up and working. That was in April and I haven't had any issues since.

Are you living in FLA full time or part time? Spectrum lets you change your plan month to month. So I downgrade my internet when I’m not there, just to support the connected devices. Comcast wont let you.

I would use spectrum over comcast Customer service is far superior with spectrum

Yes it is for Comcast
 

If it’s a new home, the cables in the low voltage box does not have connectors on the coax. Also you would have to figure out which cable goes to which room. I paid the $100, I wasn’t happy but I paid it. Congratulations on your new home.

Thank you all for your responses and insight. Looks like we will have to pay the $100.00 to get hooked up!

I had Xfinity hooked up this past month in Hawkins. The installer didn’t charge me the full $100. They earn the install fee on new homes due to having to run a ground cable and having to ID that mess of cables in your box inside your garage.

Wow! I moved into Bradford a few months back - The Villages told me Xfinity was the Internet Cable provider - I was sad - bad experiences w/Xfinity in the past. I have had good experiences with Spectrum - and was absolutely thrilled to discover Spectrum *did* offer service at my new home - despite what TV paperwork indicated!! I scheduled an install - and it literally took them 5 minutes - and have had very good service with them - I work from home and no issues w/connectivity. They may have charged installation - but it was probably extremely minimal because I can’t remember what it was - I stream cable to all of my TVs - I love the channel lineup package (that I selected) - and no contract!

Strange - just moved into a new home in Bradford - had Spectrum connect - they **didn’t have to run any wires anywhere - just flipped a switch in the outside utility box and plugged in router and verified connection. No wires - nothing.** Internet and TV (I stream) to the TVs in each room. ***Totally wireless.*** and minutes for installer to activate and verify!

I'd sure take a look at streaming. We stream with Deja Vu/Spectrum internet. Shopping Cart - DEJAVUEPLUS
It's reliable, less expensive and has many more channels.

better off going with their wi-fi. 400 Mbs for $50/mth, and firestick with streaming service for under $20/mth. gives you over 5,000 live channels, 5,000 movies, 5,000 series. Hard to beat. ask me how.
fast Eddie the villages firestick guy.

Spectrum is the only way to go. Stay away from Xfinity! I started at $40/mo. Now pay $118.00. Would switch if I could be we don’t have the Spectrum option where we are yet. The minute we do, I switch!

I would think that all the new homes "down south" would already be wired for cable services no matter who the carrier is. The $100 charge should be peace of mind that it is done correctly. I would just inquire to make sure there an not other hidden fees when they do the installation.

You are correct - they are! At least in my case - totally pre-wired - from the utility box that was down a few homes - to my house - to the coax plug in my house where they merely had to plug in the router - no digging, no wire connections required at all from the utility box down the street or inside my home - nothing - it was a great experience! and I used Spectrum (they weren’t even the ones promoted by TV).

Stay away from xfinity!

Told Spectrum did not come to St. Catherine’s
 

We are moving to St. Catherine’s tomorrow and when I called Spectrum, they stated they did not service my area and told me to call Xfinity. I even talked to a supervisor. We have Spectrum in Ohio and love them. Now I am contracted with Xfinity down here for a year. Ugh

It was 79- but Comcast loves to increase in the villages because they know it’s only spectrum and Comcast here ! Everything here from year 1 to year 2 will increase by almost 20%

Xfinity Deals
 

If you call up xfinity they may have other deals, including possibly waving the installation fee. It's worth a try

New Customer?
 

If you are a NEW customer, get them to waive the $100 installation and give you a discount on the package that suites your needs. Beware that'll it'll go up in a year.

Skip

You should have a smart house and all lines are in. I used Spectrum and they charged me $45 plus i pay $44 per month each for internet and basic tv, then i have Roku

Internet service is always 55-80.00 a month, so if the cable and internet are combined for 100.00, that’s really cheap as mine cost way more at 219.00 but I do have 2 extra WiFi cable boxes and a DVR and the high end channel lineup. All the service’s will give you a new customer deal for first year but eventually get all of that deal back from you in time by constantly raising the rates! We can’t win with this business tactic. Streaming can get costly if you have lots of those services. Not easy to navigate TV & internet anywhere! They have the advantage on us all. Good luck!

Cable- St. Catherine
 

Just moved into St. Catherine and paid the 100, had him put connectors on all the cables and terminate them and test each connection, I figured for 100 dollars I was going to have him connect every room. Go with the 2 year lock deal for internet, 55 dollars with paperless billing and 600 Mpbs, which they just increased to 800 Mpbs for no additional cost. Just completed some speed tests and I was averaging 780-830 Mpbs. I have a lot of smart home devices ( garage doors, entrance doors, thermostat, camera, etc.), so the extra speed is great. I had spectrum when we had a home in Pine Ridge in the Villages, a lot dropouts and a lot of buffering on cameras, went back to comcast, problem solved. Comcast is more reliable, I agree that their customer service stinks. There is a comcast store by Home depot in the Spanish Springs area, which is very helpful, and sometimes better than dealing with someone on the phone.

I love Comcast Xfinity

All you have to do is call them and tell them you aren't happy as they keep raising your prices. I've had Direct TV & Internet for years, get the special, at the end of the special when they raise the rates. I call them up, ask for the loyalty department, tell them how I find it funny how they raise the prices for loyal customers, but will offer all the bells & whistles for new customers. Then tell them I just saw a commercial for XYZ cable internet company offering ABC package, and tell them if they can't give me the same package, or better, that they are offering, I'll switch. They always give me the special, lower, package.

xFinity
 

Thanks for bringing up this topic! We have Comcast for Internet and TV. Wondering if there is a TV tech in The Villages who could be hired to come look at our house to advise on the best and most economical service?

Can you save shows for later viewing? Happy about apps?

I’ll stay away from xfinity because they just don’t know how to spell heir name. Spectrum in other parts of the us means horrible service though.

Three days ago we had the single worst example of customer service possibly in my lifetime thanks to Spectrum. We have their basic 200Mb internet and 'basic' cable TV for roughly $100 taxes & fees included. We decided to drop the cable part and only keep the internet. They would not let us!! We were transferred to a 'retention specialist' who from the time he joined the call reminded of the worst kind of car salesman. He started asking what we liked about the service, what we wanted in addition to our current service, talked about anything and everything but reducing our service like we were asking. After about 15 minutes of this we politely asked them to just drop the TV and he really got belligerent with us telling us we must want the service since that's what we ordered, telling us he was going to charge us the same $80+ price for just the internet because he could. He wouldn't let it go! I finally had to more politely than I should have hang up. Unreal, the guy acted like we made a pact with the devil and were trying to break an unbreakable agreement. I've experienced some high pressure salesman in my life but this guy was unhinged. The Villages HAS to allow more competition in our neighborhoods because I'd give anything not to ever have to deal with Spectrum again in my life. DO NOT CHOOSE SPECTRUM over AT&T or Xfinity/Comcast if you actually get a choice, trust me we've had them all.

Happy with Xfinity internet service only. Only get 100 mb for speed (Xfi with a extender pod), and pay for unlimited data (using over 2 TB last 2 months). Speed is plenty for all apps I use on firesticks. Very nice to at least have the choice, so after a year or two based upon contract (and prices rise), can always switch, or make a better deal with the latest.