Like everyone else, I’m fed up with Comcast again. In the latest insult, my bill has gone up 35% without notice, and the CSR tells me I’m stupid for not anticipating it.
Here’s a letter I received last fall:
A reasonable person would read that letter to say that my rate is changing to $42.95. And it did, for the next six months. But today, my bill said I owed $57.95. I think I’m not alone in recognizing that $42.95 and $57.95 are not the same number.
So I called Comcast. Amy, one of the most unhelpful CSRs I’ve ever spoken with, insisted over and over that I had signed up with a promotional rate in November, that the promotion was now ending, and that Comcast had been clear and upfront about the price all along.
Well, Amy, you’re wrong. That letter clearly states “we will be reducing your price to $42.95 per month”. Amy tells me that I’m an idiot. The letter didn’t explicitly state that this was a permanent rate, so I should have known that it was a temporary, 6-month promotion (Amy, apparently, has incredible psychic powers not available to mere mortals like me). And I should be happy, anyway, because $57.95 is a great, competitive rate for the service I’m getting.
Thanks for lying to me Comcast. Thanks for insulting me. And thanks for buying out a company with better CSRs and replacing them with Amy.
Anyone at Comcast want to fix this?
Comcast has been doing that for years, it’s how all of their sign-ups work as far as I can tell, promotional initial rate and then it gets jacked up. Happened to me like five years ago in Seattle. Yes, I was confused about what’s going on too. I would guess intentionally misleading, but I doubt you’re going to get your rates permanently lowered to that rate, it’s what they do with everyone.
The thing is, we didn’t sign up with Comcast. We signed up with Insight, who got bought-out by Comcast. Then several months later, Comcast sent us the letter above. Which basically says, “Hey, look! Not only did we let you keep your current rates, but we’re even being kind enough to lower them!”
It’s often tossed around Metafilter & elsewhere that if you call them and threaten to cancel your service unless they knock your price back down, they’ll often do it.
Are DSL or FiOS an option?
Lastly, you could do what my wife and I did the last time we moved: we cancelled our service entirely, and haven’t had internet at home for over 3 years. A bit of a pain sometimes, especially when i worked for a state agency that massively filtered our desk internet access, but it certainly is cheaper than paying $58/mo to Comcast.