If you have Comcast, be sure to read this. Because we weren’t happy with our old AT&T phone service, I listened to the Customer Service guy’s explanation of Triple Play. It would be $24 a month less than what we’re currently paying for TV and Internet, but we’d get phone service for free. It would be only a year at this price but then go up to a little more than we’re paying now–still cheaper than them plus AT&T.
Today I got the first bill–for MORE than we used to pay, not less. I called Comcast, waited on hold (they’ve had “an unusually high volume of calls” all the years we’ve been with them), and waded through a hard-to-understand man named Mark. After being put on hold several times while he researched things, I asked for a supervisor–meaning another 15 minute hold.
Anna came on and informed me that the person who signed me up didn’t see the other equipment we had (modum, DVR, adapter), even though he had read to me right from our account. That brought the price up. But that wasn’t the biggest dirty trick.
When digital TV became the only game in town, Comcast gave a free adapter to their customers who needed it, I believe in response to pressure from the government. We have one digital TV and one analog. Anna told me that 6 months ago Comcast decided to charge $1.99 a month for that adapter. I asked when and how customers were informed that this charge would be kicking in; she said that Comcast had NOT informed its customers, just began charging. I expressed my opinion that they can’t just add a charge their customers didn’t agree on. No response. She finally agreed to waive the $1.99 a month for a year, so long as we didn’t change our plan. (The trick here is that, in 5 more months, when they start charging for HBO, which we don’t particularly like, we’ll cancel HBO and, I bet, that will trigger the charge. So we have 5 months to price out and buy an adapter and, while we’re at it, a DVR to replace Comcast’s expensive one.
Have you checked your Comcast bill lately? Do it now. If you see that charge, cozy in with a good book (for your long on-hold time) and call 1-800-comcast.
Yeah, they like to do that, ours just went up about $20 bucks. We’ll wait and see what this year brings.
It just frosts me that they can get away with raising prices without letting customers know they plan to do so, which would give them a chance to (in this case) get rid of the extra equipment or change plans or drop Comcast totally.