As I mentioned the other day, we're moving soon and that means canceling or transferring all the utilities, including Internet and cable. We're using Comcast for cable/internet because that's the only real option in our area, much to our chagrin. We lived in a condo on the other side of town before buying our house and had the option of either AT&T or Comcast and used both-we had Comcast for 6 months and they kept having to send people out (at least once a month) because our service kept going out so we decided to go with AT&T which provided not only more reliable service but also was much cheaper.
Fast forward to when we bought our current house and we were somewhat disgusted to find that our only choice for cable and internet was Comcast (I suppose we could have used DirectTV but I had heard their Internet speeds were very slow, so I didn't consider that to be a serious option). So we grudgingly signed up for one of their basic plans that was $120 per month.
So fast forward to last month, when we had officially been in the new house for a year, and our automatic debit from Comcast for our monthly bill went up by $30. So I call them to figure out what the heck is going on (keep in mind that I had called in December to see if they would lower our bill and managed to get them to extend a couple discounts and we canceled the multi-room DVR service because we never had hooked up the T.V. in our bedroom). They said our promotional rate was only good for a year, which explained the jump. In addition, our broadcast franchise fee, whatever that was, had also jumped by a couple bucks. They explained this by saying they hadn't increased that fee for customers for several years even though their competitors continued to raise it every year. So we are paying $155 all in, which seems way too high for me for service that can sometimes be spotty and for Internet service that, when compared to international standards, is both slow and really expensive. (The Economist did a study I read a while back that said out of all the advanced nations we pay way more than anyone else for much slower Internet). I could get that down by using our own modem and not paying the ridiculous $10 per month rental fee but have not gotten around to setting up our own modem, which is clearly on me.
When I called last week to ask why our bill had gone up and if there was anything way to lower my bill, the best they could offer me was $5.00 cheaper for Internet, phone and T.V. (all the base packages) with a 24 month contract. Are you kidding me? A 24 month contract for basically the same thing but with a landline we will never use?
I managed to get our Verizon bill down in December by $40 per month by calling and asking for some discounts, but I suspect I was only able to get those because we were out of contract.
All in all I find it ridiculous that in many areas we only have one cable company, which causes them to really be able to charge whatever they want. I was glad to see the FCC recently blocked the Comcast/TimeWarner deal because I think it would have resulted in higher prices just like Comcast's previous acquisitions, despite their assurances to the Justice Department that the acquisitions wouldn't result in higher prices. Comcast also apparently assured the government as one of those deals that it would promote its Internet only plans more transparently (you apparently could not even find them on their website) but never actually did so according to the report from the DOJ staff recommending the Time Warner deal be blocked.
Our plan when we move is to sign up for Hulu Plus rather than cable and only get the Internet from the cable company there (Comcast is one option but there are others as well, thank God). This will give me the access to the sports I want and will also let my wife access the Bravo shows she is addicted to.
Has your experience been similar to mine? What advice and/or tricks have you tried in the past to some success when signing up for or extending Internet, cell phone or cable bills?
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