In the last year or two we’ve been deluged with advertisements that promise to give us wonderful deals on telephone, Internet and television coverage. But when we decided which offers to pick, we found that what was supposed to help us save money did just the opposite. Prices on all three services got higher and higher without anyone giving us notice of the hikes until the payment bills arrived. What was offered as under $100 a month quickly turned into over $200 a month.

When we tried to reach anyone in the company to tell them we didn’t ask for the extras we were being charged for, we couldn’t get anyone to talk to us. The only option we had was to talk to an automated machine that didn’t accept any of the answers we gave it because the machine had its own programmed words that we were supposed to use. Supposedly there were representatives available someplace, but they were usually “busy with other customers.”

To sooth our frustration, a voice let us know that we could communicate online, which all the companies seem to prefer these days, but as “senior” seniors who aren’t as technologically advanced as the younger generation, we would prefer to do business with a human being.

Almost every day we get complicated e-mails from the phone and TV companies that leave us at the mercy of poor communication because we don’t fully understand what they want us to do. Sometimes we’d like to write a note when we’re paying a bill, but they don’t want any correspondence with bills being paid.

A few months ago, my husband and I decided to change our television provider because the one we had for a few years got too expensive and it seemed the phone company had a bundle offer that could save us money.

There were commercials on TV and fliers in the mail for deals ranging ranging as low as $9.99 per month to $34.99 a month for TV coverage, so we switched to a new TV provider. In spite of the fact that the ads showed low fixed rates for 12 months, within a three month period our bill went from $20.35 to $58.82 per month, and the company we signed up for was no longer in the phone company’s bundle. (Evidently they offer great bargains to new customers but don’t appreciate loyal paying customers.)

In addition to the fact that the price more than doubled in the first three months, we weren’t satisfied with the new TV coverage we had changed to — our favorite channels were not included in their package and messages that we couldn’t understand kept popping up on the screen — which made us decide to cancel that TV service. We were quickly told we’d have to pay a $200 penalty for breach of a contract that required staying with the company for two years and that they would charge it to the credit card we used to sign up with them originally. I didn’t think a company was allowed to do that and I find it a little scary to know our credit card can be at someone’s disposal long after a transaction on it took place.

Evidently one isn’t allowed to cancel a service she isn’t satisfied with anymore. So much for trying to save money from bargains advertised. It’s very discouraging to do business with people who advertise one price but find all kinds of reasons to charge you more.

Worse yet, why do we have to pay so much for TV coverage when we’re actually paying for all those commercials we hate to watch? If commercials are the lifeline of TV producers, why can’t they just show them at the beginning or end of a program instead of every few minutes all throughout the programs we’re watching? If that makes their income suffer, another way they can get more money in their pockets is to pay the celebrities less. A million dollars an episode for each player in a sitcom is ludicrous.