Today I'm working from home, waiting for the Insight Cable Crew to arrive to install our new HD cable service.  We're in the middle of switching to Insight after six years with Dish Network. This is a huge change for us!  There is so much more to choosing services like cable, satellite, internet, telephone, etc than just price. Price is important--but value is more important.We used to be very loyal Insight customers. For more than ten years we had Insight in our homes, even beta testing new services and helping them troubleshoot them. Then we moved into our current home seven years ago. The cable was apparently installed incorrectly, so the technician ran a line around the house. He told us someone would be out to bury the line within a week.  Seven years later that orange cable--now faded to a soft brown by the sun--still sits there.  After six months of no-shows from the cable company--or even worse, when the truck would show up, take a look at the box, sit in the driveway then back out and leave as I came out of the house to show them where the line was--we got fed up and left Insight.  Our prices kept rising yet they couldn't bury a simple cable. Dish Network won our business.  And for six years they've kept it, with a mostly solid service record. Two weeks ago Insight came knocking at our door, offering us a deal that was hard to refuse. All told we will save almost $40 a month off our current bill, plus have more services. But we weren't sold on the idea right away; after all, we'd heard this song and dance before to try to win our business back. Over the six years we'd had a half dozen Insight reps appear, all promising to bury that cable. It still sits there today. But Dish has been giving us issues as well. We'd like to upgrade to HD receivers, but they won't do that since we aren't new subscribers. Our old DVR receiver is now six years old, and has frequent remote trouble. So much so that I rarely use it any more--I just can't deal with the frustration. Yet because we refuse to sign a two year contract plus pay a hefty fee, we aren't eligible for an upgrade of any kind.  After six years of being loyal to them, Dish isn't showing us the loyalty in return.So we told Insight: show us you're serious. Show us our business has value to you. Bury this cable. When you bury this cable, we'll switch. Give us good service and you will have loyal customers again. So here I sit, waiting for them to show for our appointment today. They're supposed to bury the cable, and then hook up new service.  The appointment was for between 10-12. It is now 10:50. There is so much more to winning my dollars than just price. If a provider--of any service--can't provide decent service, I'm not going to spend my dollars there. I'd rather spend a few dollars more and get a product I know is going to be there when I need it. Value is totally different from cheap. It costs businesses four times as much to gain a new customer as it does to retain a current customer.  If businesses and service providers would take care of their customers, they'd have a much larger clientele base. But even more, as customers, we need to speak up and let the companies we do business with that value is what we want. I want a low price--absolutely. But I want value more. I want to be valued by the companies I send my hard-earned dollars to.We haven't called Dish to cancel yet. Not until Insight shows up and shows us they truly want our business.  I want to see that value first.  So here I sit, waiting.  Insight, the ball is in your court!Tell me, have you ever decided it was worth the extra cost to have better products or services?