Fed up of being treated as idiot boxes by their cable operator, who cut off channels and allegedly sent them inflated bills without any prior notice after the recent tariff change, residents of a housing society in Andheri East have ditched him for a direct-to-home (DTH) operator. The residents of Railway Men's Apna Ghar society's D Group cut off the 20-year association also because the operator, Arjun Jamkhindikar, was neglecting their needs.

The housing society, which has 196 members, will terminate their business with Jamkhindikar starting from April. Several channels going off the service after the recent change in tariff proved to be the tipping point. Once that happened, residents calculated the rates they should have been charged, but those were going way beyond what was affordable for them.