I think the cable rates must have gone up across the board. About four months ago I had renegotiated my overall plan, tv w/HBO/cable/phone, to about $112, then this month it's $129. I think I did get a rate increase notice, but ignored it.
It's amazing how they nickel and dime you, $5 for phone modem $5 for the cable modem and $5 to keep your number unlisted. I use Charter, who has the best cable speeds and reliability in my area, but the phone absolutely sucks.
As for the do not call list, I'm on it, but I still continue to get calls. Mostly from construction/remodeling companies asking if I need any work done. After repeatedly asking them to not call, they still did. Finally, I told them that I was thinking about doing some remodeling and asked them if they could come out and give me an estimate. They asked about what type of remodeling I was thinking about doing and I told them I really needed to put a new roof on my barn. When they asked me to verify my address, I gave them a Montana address. They said, "you're not at the California address xyz" and I said, no we just kept our CA phone number when we moved.
I'm not sure that was a permanent fix, but I haven't heard from them in over a month, which is unusual.
Here's another price anomaly I ran into just yesterday, which might provide a chuckle. I need surgery and I have no health insurance, so I'm negotiating with my doctor, who ended up giving me a real good deal. I wanted to go over the complete list of costs so I knew exactly what was what and one item was $100 for crutches. I told them I had a set of crutches and they said, "good, then you can deduct $40 from the bill."
I didn't even ask.....