... Cause Midcontinent Cable just told me $640!!!! on something I'm leasing, and I still won't own after paying that much.

As I mentioned over on the speaker fourm, my basement got flooded this weekend... bad. Aside from my speakers, my cable box got fully submerged (power on). I call them about a replacement and they tell me that there's no natural disaster coverage on them, I'm completely responsible, and that $640 is going to get added to my bill. I was already P/O'd, now I'm out for blood and I want to see some documented proof that this thing is really worth that much money!!! I've seen the same box for sale on ebay in the $100 or less range.

Man, How I'd love to tell those guys to go take a long walk over a short pier while wearing a lead suit. :mad:

Ask them to provide the lease/rental agreement first.

I've seen the same box for sale on ebay in the $100 or less range.


That's not really reflective of the unit's cost, that's just what the "sellers" on eBay are asking, and they're not supposed to be selling them anyway. Since these boxes aren't (legally) sold to the American public, there is no real resale value on these things, only the cost the manufacturers (Motorola or Scientific Atlanta) sell the boxes to the cable companies.

What the cost is per unit to the cable companies, I have no idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were in the hundreds. And since cable companies buy them in bulk, the true cost of the unit is probably debatable.

I guess you could look up the Canadian retail price and convert to American dollars, but even then, it's probably not an accurate representation of the unit's cost.

I agree with Ratman, look at your service agreement.

Okay, for giggles, I looked up the price of a Canadian unit.

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&MSCSProfile=3C79F0C7EA3162B2F85612BBB7512FD29BC43BEC415F9565 5B364EA5CFA9EDDB52B376155CD5ED48B79F5AB76B1868961FB953328225 4F18D9E410E3704B833AA39B66FBE54CB21B2568D4385F0DFE0E8A6199F5 C294FED04FE353E05567B417C01E51DDD40D9930A2016EE535A6E5DE3578 FA3791B6B4FB46AC53EE2AAEE37C2E87F93DC4D0F1462E54482ADED501A4 0CF044DC37511342D361C959818D97C7AB10BF3C0A7CABC49B270B393C4E FA91ED3FE135A35E6B4AEDCBF16DB24A5CF688970C29291C3C7D&sku_id=0665000FS10055888&catid=

So $600 CAD.

Plugged that into a currency converter that claims to have the current exchange rate:

http://www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=forexconverter&cb=1178561923

So I get around $542 or so in US dollars, for a unit that can't be purchased in the states. But it's a moot point as I doubt your cable company will care what the Canadian resale price is.

Regardless, $542 resale and $640 retail sound pretty consistent. That's how much these boxes cost. I think folks grossly underestimate that quite often.