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Cable cutting shows no signs of slowing down

Cable cutting frustration

Richard Essex | News 8 at 6

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A stack of cable boxes in the corner of the downtown UPS store were dropped off by mid-morning Wednesday. By the close of business Jared Lex, the manager of the store, says the stack will most likely double or triple in size.

“Probably about a dozen maybe two dozen people everyday I say, it is a decent amount of people,” explained Lex.

That reality means close to 6,000 people a year are cutting cable and returning their equipment through this one store location.

“It was the expense, in the beginning it was the expense and being able to watch what I want when I want and it is just not necessary anymore,” explained Molly Brickel who recently cut her cable.

News 8 has been reporting for over a month now that WISH-TV viewers on Direct TV and AT&T can’t see our programming due to ongoing negotiations with our parent company, which has left a lot of viewers frustrated.

The good news for cable cutters is that most people in central Indiana can pick WISH-TV programming up on an antenna, plus all of our newscasts are streamed live on wishtv.com.

If you decide to cut your cable, make sure you get a receipt.

UPS is going to send your equipment back for you, but your cable provider is going to want proof of the time, date and location of where you surrendered your cable box.

“We always tell everybody to keep the receipt because I have heard from a lot of people that if you don’t return the box like they want you to they will charge you a bunch of extra money for it and some people have told me once they do return it they still get charged from the companies,” explained Lex.

Also remember you are not actually cutting the cable, the cable companies want their equipment returned in good working order.