Latest in My Comcast Saga

After my last Comcast update, I received an email from their social media representative asking if they could take one more shot at making me happy. I said "sure" and provided my account information.

I didn't hear anything for a couple of weeks. Then I received a bill in the mail for $116.59 -- up from the $90 per month that I wasn't happy about. I sent the rep a "what's up with that?" email and was shortly contacted by Comcast via phone. Yep, it was the same guy I had talked to several times already.

He told me that the $116.59 was the non-promotion price for the Digital Preferred/HD/DVR/Sports Entertainment Package set-up we had. The bump to $90 was from the expiration of one promotion and the latest bump was from the expiration of another. As you might imagine, I wasn't happy.

He offered me several options for lowering my bill including a bundled plan of TV, phone, and internet. He even threw in a couple freebies like a few months of the Sports Entertainment Package for free and waiving the installation fee on the phone/web services. So at least I felt like he was trying to work with me (though not enough). I told him I'd talk to my wife and get back to him.

This prompted an in-depth discussion with my wife of what we were spending, what we wanted to spend, future plans, etc. It's too long of a story to get into now, but here are the results:

• We called AT&T (who we have phone and internet with) and asked what they could do to lower our bill. They took a good amount off immediately and we were told they would take more off if we'd commit to a one-year plan. We haven't decided on that yet.


• We ultimately agreed that we can do without the Sports Entertainment Package (the soccer games) because we can get much of the content from Fox Soccer (online) and FoxSoccer.tv if we need to. We also decided we didn't need so many channels as almost all of the ones we wanted were available at a lower level of service. So we moved our Comcast service down to Digital Starter and now are at $81.20 a month. This is a completely non-promoted price and we're able to cancel at any time.


• These moves bought us time at a lower total cost to decide the following: 1) Do we finally want to cancel our home phone and go all cellular? 2) Do we need TV from Comcast at all (or this much)? 3) Can we get what we want from other sources for much cheaper? (It appears we can, but we need more investigation.) 4) Would we ever want to bundle services with one company? A local company is offering a three-service bundle for $90/month for year 1 and $100/month for year 2. They are generally highly rated, so we may go with them.

So that's where we stand as of now. Decisions on these issues are "on our list" but our list is pretty full, so this is likely to be the status quo for some time.

And to round out this issue, here are a few other related items on this topic:

• When I was talking to the Comcast rep he said they are now offering home security services. You can imagine what my response to that was! :)


• The Wall Street Journal says more and more people are cutting the cable TV cord. We may be one of these soon.


• I had a reader send me this funny story (I asked for permission to run it):

I wanted to let you know that I enjoy the FMF website and enjoy reading the articles and comments. I don't usually make comments but having read about your history with Comcast I thought this might give you a good laugh.

We have been Comcast customers for forever and really don't have too much to complain about except for their prices for TV and Internet Service. I'm an electronics engineer and usually have been able to take care of computer matters on my own. Although, last week I had been on the phone with Comcast about the loss of internet service and between the Comcast rep and myself he suggested that I have my cable modem replaced.

So yesterday morning I removed the cable modem and asked my wife if she had time to exchange it at the local Comcast center. When she arrived, there was a long line of customers returning their DVR's, cable modems and what not. When she made it to the head of the line, she complained about having to wait 45 minutes to exchange the modem. The rep at the counter said they were having network/computer problems and they were doing the best they could. My wife then commented that it really didn't look good for Comcast having problems with their network. Then the rep told her (and here's the good part) we don't use the Comcast network. And why is that, my wife asked. We use AT&T because it costs less.

Now whether this is true or not I cannot say. Maybe the rep was just trying to steer away issues with the Comcast network blaming AT&T for the delays, but a Comcast employee suggesting that the service they provide costs too much makes me laugh.

This made me laugh too!!! :)

Ok, I'm done talking about Comcast, cable TV, and the like for a bit. I'm sure you all are tired of hearing about it -- and I'm tired of dealing with it!

Comments

[Kim]

Take the plunge! Cancel phone and cable. We get internet nly service from comcast, and I still call every 6 months for a better rate. By far the worst customer service, but they have the fastest internet locally which is important to us in streaming online content to replace cable

[Lance @ Money Life and More]

Let us know what you decide. I personally like having cable but my cable tv, internet and a home phone line is only $120 a month including taxes. I think I should be able to get it down to less than 100 in a couple months. We can afford it and enjoy so we decided to keep it. I hate watching shows on my laptop and then I can't get anything else done while I'm watching them. Good luck with your decision!

[CW]

Hi FMF,

I can relate. I'm using comcast and we are stuck with them since they are the only broadband provider in our area.

If you are thinking of cancelling your home phone, but looking for a VOIP solution, why don't you check OBI Phone adapter. In amazon, search for OBI110 ($50 older version) or OBI202 ($75 latest device). You need a google voice account. This box basically handles your google voice service (instead of using a PC) and link it to your phone lines in the house.

I've been using it for 6 months, no issues. The great thing about this is no monthly fees (as long as google voice is free) for calls in the US. The only problem with this setup is there is no 911 capability. I've read online that you can subscribe to an E911 service, but this will require a monthly fee.

So far so good, I only have comcast internet service and I have not paid any monthly home phone fee for 6 months now.

Regards,
Alvin

[FMF]

CW --

Thanks. You've given me something to consider.

[Freedom Fighter]

AT&T (if it's Uverse) starts out as a great price, but quickly escalates once the promotions run out. The TV service was okay, the internet was rock-solid, always delivering exactly the advertised speed with zero outages while we had it (more than a year). Unfortunately, the price nearly doubled after all our promos expired and it just wasn't worth it to us. I also hated the $6/month fee for their internet gateway, with no option to purchase your own. An additional $10 fee for HD service was also frustrating. I have my own cable modem, so we switched to Comcast, but we only get internet. We watch very little TV, and prefer to watch the premium shows to most network fare, so we wait for those to show up on Netflix or rent the DVDs. We have an antenna in our attic that picks up a bunch of OTA HD stations, though most of them don't interest us much. Living without a cable bill is awesome.

[JP]

Just cut cable already!

You'll have to save an extra $30k to keep up that $100/mo cable bill in retirement. Definitely not worth it to sit like a vegetable and watch advertising.

There are plenty of replacements out there. Just about the only downside is live sports, which if it's that important you can go to a buddy's house or a bar anyways.

[Matt]

I am glad we have WOW Cable. We have a bundle for cable internet and phone and it is $100 out the door. Never had a customer service issue and never had to call to complain about jacked up rates. I know of people at work who have a similar issue in that every 6 months they have to go through what you are going through.

My parents and sister have Charter cable and they seem to be pleased for the most part so there are cable companies out there that are good.

[tom]

I enjoy ATT U-Verse. We have had it for about 2 months now and love it 1,000x over cable and satellite. I would strongly encourage you to look into that.

We haven't hit the end of the promotion period, so I can't speak to Freedom Fighter's experience, but I can say some friends of ours have ATT and called right after the promotions ended and they just put them on a new promotion no haggling required.

[Old Limey]

I also had an issue with Comcast recently.

All I have from them is cable TV with the digital starter package. I have been with them forever and my bill has been running around $85/month. I elected not to see paper bills and have the bill charged to a credit card.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that the latest charge to my CC had jumped from $85 to $129.

I printed out the bill and was surprised to see that a year ago, without any contact with me, Comcast had switched me to a bundled service that included the cost of the internet (which I never used) plus a cable modem (which I never received) at a promotion price for one year that was the same as I had been paying without the internet. The reason for the jump in my bill was that the promotion had expired.

After a few calls I finally got everything straightened out and my bill has gone back to $87. The reason I have never had internet from Comcast is that it would require me to change my internet address, something that I am unwilling to do for a host of reasons.

Interestingly the first 2 or 3 people that I called didn't know much, could barely speak English, and just passed me on to another number. Finally I reached a person (in Minnesota) that was a cut above all the others, knew everything, and took care of me to my satisfaction.

[BigBoy]

I am cutting ties with Time Warner as was tired of not able to purchase the NFL package and I could not get the Colts game in HD! I will switch to DirecTV on saturday.
Looking forward to having more channels at the same price of the cable bill.

[Noah]

Every year Time Warner raises our cable internet up from the promotional $29.99/month to the normal $54/month rate. And every year when I get the email showing that the rate has changed I go onto their online chat and use THE SAME EXACT SCRIPT as the previous year to get the rate lowered to the promotional price. It turns out if you ask for the promotional rate they will most likely give it to you no questions asked. However, this might be only a TW policy, but I doubt it. Of course only have internet, we have the bargaining advantage as their are several other options where I live for internet.

[Jason]

When my family moved from Chicago to our new city, we decided to "cut the cord" and not have our DirecTV service hooked up at the new house. We installed an HDTV antenna for local channels and subscribed to Netflix (internet plan only) and Hulu for other content. Now for less than $20/month plus the cost of the antenna (<$100) we have our TV options.

Something else happened along the way...we watch much less TV! Now we are wondering if we even need the Netflix subscription. I admit I did miss not being able to watch my teams this weekend (college and pro), but for the other 8 months of the year there is very little impact.

[Jeffinwesternwa]

Landline phone? Got rid of that in 2001...cable? Had sparingly throughout my life never paying more than $30~, (often $5, $7, $9, $14, $29) - when it passed that threshold in 2007, I went back to an antenna and stayed there for FREE TV! 25 chabnnels in English; all FREE, many in pure HD, all the networks and all minor networks too, plus kids, movie, old show, religious, weather channels, music, (plus spanish/russian channles too) it's enough! I also stream also via my computer free internet tv to my big screeen via a single HDMI cable. Simple! I get my internet from a neighbor, we share a router, a good $80 INTERNET ANTENNA oten works fine to find open connections/wi-fi or neighbors can share a single connection! :) And my cell phone is an andriod I purchased but, with a prepaid unlimited plan (T Mobile) I get unlimited minutes, text and internet also for $54 a month inclusive! (In just about a year plus, I'm ahead of any "contract plan, can't understand those that pay in excess of $100+ for cell phone stuff! UGH!....So total cost now: $54 plus any $1.25 costs for a Redbox movie, and an occasional small gift for the neighbors who provide the router...that's one way to do it!Maybe $60 a month average! :)

[JayB]

I'm not sure what the deal is with Comcast, locally a story aired the other day about an elderly man that accidentally paid more for his service because he missed a decimal point. Anyway, he called them up to fix it because it was several thousand dollars different than his bill, and Comcast told him they would give him company credit, not a refund! So when he contacted the news station, they aired a report and Comcast finally did the right thing and promised to refund his money. I guess so the bad publicity wouldn't get around. Quite hilarious (Office Space moment) and sad that the customer service could be so poor as to not allow a refund from the get go, its sort of unbelievable. This is the type of stuff that makes me weary of many monthly services.

http://www2.wkrg.com/news/2012/sep/04/cable-company-promises-6k-refund-after-news-5-repo-ar-4478663/

[Mike]

I knocked my comcast internet bill from $69 to $49 simply by asking for lower bandwith. The impact? I cannot stream netflix through my blue-ray and use my iPad to play games at the same time.

[Dan]

Have you considered calling AT&T and asking for a safety or emergency phone? We have a local phone company and for ~$30/month we get DSL and a phone number to receive calls. We can't dial out except for 911 & 1-800 numbers but I really like it and we just dial out on the cell phone. Something to think about anyway!

[Kelly@FinancialBailoutNews]

I don't know why cable and internet providers have to be such a nightmare. I have Bright House at my apartment now, and not only is getting in touch with an actual person incredibly difficult, I paid a bill over the phone once, received a confirmation number for the transaction and everything, and they still said I hadn't paid the $80 bill. I don't know if it's just that they are so unorganized, or simply have dumb customer service employees.

[Benny]

should consider OOMA and cut the landline. I got the advise from a buddy and working well. It is a bit steep on the initial investment, think about $179 USD at Costco (may be cheaper now) and then pretty much free from there. I just started using it, some areas make you pay local tax, like $1-3 per month. You can also keep your same number, but that cost like $40 more. Just a thought, to keep the phone but not pay the phone company...

FMF, thank you so much for what you do, it is greatly appreciated!

[ranch111]

Ditch cable.