Keeping hearing they will offer deal if you threaten to quit or add services. Will not budge and nice lady on phone hinted that I have one more month on introductory rates about half what they will be that may be reason? Don't care for phone service.

Any hints? Cannot get Direct TV or any TV alternative here but can get DSL internet from At&t for as little as $14.95 for slow. Going to be paying $103 for internet and extended basic. Sorry it just strikes as dmn expensive. Not even Sci Fi channel.

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Da Good Life

I have never heard of anyone calling for an extension on introductory rates while the initial introductory rate is still in effect.
Unpaved ground, minty. Thanks for blazing the trail . . .

You didn't quit, did you. They know an idle threat when they see it...

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hal
You didn't quit, did you. They know an idle threat when they see it...

Around here, Comcast doesn't care if you quit. They flat out will not negotiate a rate for any of their service - pay their price or go elsewhere. Of course, where I live there is no "elsewhere" unless you start the same game playing with one of the satellite companies for TV service. They know a bunch of suckers when they see them.

I will wait till expiration of special offer. Going to give thought to living without cable tv. Got a lot of books to read and I can get few channels over air. DSL for internet. That I have to have.

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Da Good Life

I have been with ATT DSL for over eight years, no trouble, works well with the 1.5MB down and 348 up. They have always given me the lowest rate available during annual renewals (no longer necessary). I would say my average price over the eight years has been $25/month, current price for this year is $19.95. As a consultant I work on many client systems employing both Comcast & ATT and the tech support is dismal on both, the supposed speed advantage means little to the average user unless they do a lot of large file transfers ie. BitTorrent (and Comcast is currently throttling those users to slower speeds). Bottom line ATT is the better deal in my book, based on the dismal performance of Comcast with my Cable TV service I just never felt comfortable with trusting my internet connectivity with Comcast even if it were not overpriced.

I got Comcast to knock $30 off my triple-play package last month, after the intro period expired.

Of course, in my area I have AT&T Uverse as competition giving $100+ sign-up rebates. Competition is a good thing.

Can you threaten to switch to Satellite / DSL?

i got comcast triple -- phone, TV, net -- with extended TV (i do get scifi) plus DVR for $113

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

$103 isn't that bad, especially given your area. Charter went from $80 to $160 in 18 months, I ended up getting shot of everything except the Internet, Expanded Basic and the rather lame HD package for $130. I would jump to DirectTV in a heartbeat but unfortunately the Qwest package has a lousy 1.5 speed compared to the 5 meg I am getting now.

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Can you threaten, without being specific, that you'll hang yourself with an anti-comcast
sign around your neck, for the media to discover??

Then... if you are really oblique about it, and they send someone over, you can say "what? I said -- I'm tired of barely hanging on to a good deal - and when they take it away, they take the fun out of life! WHAT IS THIS SHIIIIT!!!"

Then sue them for aggravation, and get cable for life -- for free.

Depends on which line you talk to.

I called the other week and spoke to a normal representative, expressing concern that their rates were high and I was thinking about switching to Verizon DSL and DirecTV.

Woman on the other end of the phone practically argued with me that the other companies couldn't offer better rates, even when I quoted their online prices to Comcast and said switching was imminent.

Called back again and pressed a different number to cancel service -- different department who forwarded me on to Earthlink (I have EL service through Comcast). While I was on the line I asked if anything could be done about my cable rates, since I was thinking about switching to satellite. Without hesitation, he offered a $25 monthly reduction on my cable bill for 12 months.

Comcast is like a used car salesman. There's always a better deal they can offer if you're going to walk off the lot.

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jdc
i got comcast triple -- phone, TV, net -- with extended TV (i do get scifi) plus DVR for $113

I got offered that but don't need phone. Have to have cell and use it for long distance and stay well within minutes available. Fixed cost I cannot get rid of.

AT&T TV is going along with the high rates. Competition based on features or slight price cuts. Makes sense for both as an oligopily. Additional competition required probably has to be new technology.

Going to be very hard because Comcast, and AT&T have infrastructure in place. Satellite has ugly expensive hardware and not suitable for apartments and many places.

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Da Good Life

> I have one more month on introductory rates

I'd call again, closer to the expiration.

Their policy is that you aren't eligible for a promo rate until 3 months after your last promo expired, but sometimes you'll hit that customer service drone who just doesn't give a damn about policy or that ultra-rare rep who cares about pleasing customers.

I'm going to be in a similar position soon. My latest promo is about to expire, but this time, I think I may swing them onto the $50 dollar combo Internet and phone deal and the difference over my current promo rate will be made up for by ditching Verizon.

I was a Comcast customer for years. TV and internet. In the past, it seemed fairly routine to call and be able to get a discounted promo rate on one or both of my two services for six months out of the year (usually had to go six months at full price but the discount was big enough that it made the total for the year reasonable).

It became more and more difficult to get a discount even with the threat of cancellation. In fact when I actually did cancel they still didn't offer a discount without adding extra services which I didn't want. I just wanted them to compete on price and they were unwilling. And having to constantly call and beg (unsuccessfully) for a rate that didn't suck got old. So bye-bye Comcast, hello AT&T.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2008 11:15AM by AllGold.

I had an $80 a month cable bill with Comcrap (Association fees include Basic and HBO, so this was on top of that) I got POed at them and marched into their office with an armload of their crap and dropped it all on the desk and said I quit. I signed up for AT&T DSL, got $200 in rebates and a month later I went back in the office, even talked to the same rep that took back all the crap, and ordered just digital service at $20 a month. Then I bought a TiVo and went to a different office and ordered cable cards. That came to another $8 a month (down from $20 that I was payinmg before). So now my monthly bill is around $30 and the past 6 months they've been giving me a $10 a month "loyal customer" discount. Never asked for it and no idea why they started doing it, but I'll take it.

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