I don’t trust Comcast. Since moving up to the DC area 2 years ago, I’ve dealt with Comcast half a dozen times, and ultimately they caused me to go unplugged. Installs that never happen, sneaking in bill charges, and shoddy tech support helped to ruin that trust.
So why the hell am I going back to them? Because they’re the only game in town. In fact, they’re called a natural monopoly, only that’s a myth. So that and that they seduced me with their pricing.
Right now I’m paying 67.95 a month for Internet. Just internet. Plain ol’ 6Mb/sec internet (notice the little ‘b’, that’s for ‘bit’). I called up their customer support line (at 10:13am) and spoke with Harriett. Here’s what she told me:
If I upgrade to their “Digital Preferred Double Play”, I get HD Digital Cable for $49.99 a month, and my internet goes down to $19.99 per month (leading to the inevitable conclusion that the original ‘cost’ of internet is bumpkus) for 12 months. After that, the price rises to $69.99 for the “Digital Preferred Cable” and the internet cost rises to $34.95. This does not require a two-year agreement. There is a one time installation fee of $29.95, and a $7.00 per month for renting the cable modem (which is already included in the cost of what I pay for my internet now).
So now: $67.95 – Internet.
By Tuesday: $49.99 for cable & $19.99 for internet.
I’m recording this here so that in a year, when the price inevitably goes higher than Harriett told me today that I have some sort of record of what Comcast said. I don’t trust Comcast, but maybe this time it’ll be different?
Edit:
I tried really hard to find the deal I was quoted on Comcast’s website. The closest I could come to is the Digital Starter + Internet double play package for $69.99 a month (screenshot below):
Notice the differences: The package I was quoted was a Digital Premiere package, with no 2-year agreement required. This package is the Digital Starter package that requires a 2 year agreement.
I’m going to contact Comcast again and get verification on the deal.