Mine went up 50 (combo
rate increase plus promotion expired). So, the end of last week I called Comcast up, as I have done for years, to renegotiate my bill which before had been successful. This time it didn't work.
I first connected to "questions about your bill" and (kindly) asked about my billing. They said my promotion had expired (which was true, I was on a promotion from last years' negotiation). It also upped me to the new price increase since my contract had ended. So, I asked if I could be put back to the last promotion, and the agent said flatly, "No". It was no longer available and then she also claimed I already was on a promotion and it was the cheapest. So, I asked to speak with "Retention", which I know is how this gamed is played.
Well, instead of transferring me to "Retention", the agent said, "I AM RETENTION", which I knew was BS (I called the main "billing questions" line and was never transferred). Although I had been respectful, she was pretty snappy. At this point I just said, "Oh, ok then I guess I'll have to cancel". Then she just flatly said, "What date do you want?". So I cancelled.
I've jumped through hoops for years with Comcast, and had actually finally gotten my bill fixed the previous year after a long term error that took rounds and rounds to finally correct (and ended up with a $400 credit it was so bad). I didn't have the heart to go through all that again and again since this agent was clearly BS'ing me that she was retention.
After pricing all around, I decided to get DishNetwork. I had it installed yesterday. I have never had satellite before (I didn't think I could get it too for years being under tall trees), so I have no idea if I am going to like this or not, or if choosing Dish was the right choice. (I really hope they get AMC back because I do like their shows), but the price was right. It was very close between that and DirectTV, but side by side there were some minor channel differences on packages that I personally wanted (without being pushed into the next package).
If you do price out other satellite services, put your package choice in the shopping cart so you can assess all the extra fees and costs.
Example: I've now got "the hopper" (whole house HD DVR), which says is free up to 5? TVs. The units are free, but the use (once you put it in the cart) is $7 a month for each TV.
That's $28 for my house. BUT, on comcast, I paid $17 for the DVR, $10 HD access fee, and $10 HD additional outlet so that's $37 - and the DVR only worked in one room, and the other 2 non HD TVs had those stupid DTAs which didn't get all the channels I paid for nor has a menu, nor DVR (which I don't care about but it's nice that I can watch and record in the other rooms and ALL the channels). BTW, even though the hopper is HD, and my other 2 tvs are old non digital tubes but it still works on them (they don't make that clear on the site).
Yes, I am in a promotion rate, but after it expires in a year, the price will still be $20 cheaper than Comcast. Downside, I am locked into a 2 year contract to get the hoppers and free HD for life thing (which also requires auto-bill).
Again, I have no idea if choosing DishNetwork was the right choice (and I've only played with it a little last night too) but I have been on cable service for 20 years in this house, and with Comcast since they bought out my cable company, and never been in love with the idea of satellite or having a dish on my roof (luckily for me it is on the backside on a lower roof you can't really see from the front), but I finally had it with Comcast.
If you want to know more about my experience so far, feel free to ask.
-Jim
Sorry for the long post, but glad to get that off my chest. I almost was going to post in Rants about Comcast after last week, lol.
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