Introduction
I don’t think I’ve ever paid for cable since I left my parents house many moons ago. Once I got into college, we just played video games all day instead of paying for cable. After college, I mostly used an HDTV antenna to get my local channels for free, but now that I live around mountains and hills here in Seattle, the HDTV antenna doesn’t work for me. Thus, I sign up for the basic 10 channel package. Now I have paid for internet this whole time, and so I usually go with their internet + 10 basic channel package.
I also bought my own cable modem and I use a 3 tuner HD Home Run (free Cable card from Comcast) connected to a media center PC that then can record 3 simultaneous network streams. Of course I also have Netflix for when I want to “Netflix and chill,” a term I only recently learned because I’m old and married. Go Google it now and come back.
$59.99 for 12 months, $79.99 after
For where I live, my deal is $59.99 for 12 months and $79.99 after 12 months. This includes 75mpbs, 10 channels, and HBO. It’ll be different where you are. I signed up for this plan 2 years ago, so I’ve been paying $79.99 for the past year and change just because I dreaded making the retention call to Comcast. This is even after my buddy who lives near me told me he did his retention call around month 13 of his deal. I even tried to call then to get a retention offer, but the rep called my bluff and got me nothing. That’s why I had been putting off the call until today.
Retention call
The phone number is different for everyone, but you’ll want to call customer service and when the automated line asks you what you want to do, you want to say, “CANCEL MY DAMN SERVICE!” Keep saying that until you get a live agent, who should tell you that he is from the “loyalty” team – that’s when you know you’ve reached retention. My rep sounded like an American and not from the Philippines or India fwiw. I told him I was “looking to cancel because I wanted to save some money.”
He told me about my package and how awesome HBO was, to which I told him I didn’t even realize I had HBO. After 5 minutes of explaining the great features, he was ‘pulling up some offers for me.’ In the meantime, I offered up that CenturyLink was like $30 per month and then asked him how much just basic TV cost ($15.) I think his computer was slow since he could have gone straight to the offers, but he sorta stalled. Eventually he came back on and said he could give me my same package now at a price of $59.99 for 12 months. I agreed to it and we were good. Total call time – 12 minutes.
Conclusion
I should have done this a year ago. You should do it too. Follow the same script I did. You SHOULD be getting the same retention offer as new customers are getting. Of course this is regional YMMV. Remind me to call again in 12 months.
And then there is the problem that they promise deals and don’t deliver. You find out on your next bill. Or, as happened today, I called because they raised my basic package by FORTY DOLLARS for no reason, and when they said they would bring it back down, they tried to slip in a 2 year contract without telling me. Buyer beware!
I’m in the same boat. My internet-only at $40/month for 12 months ended about 5 months ago and I got nothing when I called at month 13. I’m now paying $70/month for 50mb internet-only in Denver which is incredibly expensive when CenturyLink offers its 40mb for $30/month for 12 months.
Try it again Ken. Maybe Comcast retention offers come in waves. If not, I would switch to CL.
I need to. I bought a modem over 10 years ago back in college, and I just replaced it less than a year ago for a $45 refurb. I’d have to buy a DSL modem if I went with CL, but that’s $40/month. My parents have DSL in FL and it is incredibly unreliable, so much so that every time I’m down there my brother and I gang up on dad because he’s too stubborn to switch to cable because he doesn’t want to give them his money, even though they pay $100/month for cable TV only. They could probably bundle and get a cheaper rate too. But anyways…