It was my annual Comcast retention call a few weeks ago and things didn’t go as planned this time. Since they knew I was stuck due to having Xfinity Mobile, my threats to leave were laughed at. I asked for the new customer special and they wouldn’t give it to me. The phone rep basically told me my current plan was better than any other plans out there, which is partly true because they change the plans every year (tweak your download speed) and so it’s hard to do a true apples to apples comparison.
Here’s a picture of last month’s bill. I think this is the 200Mbps speed with 10 basic channels using a cablecard (I still wanted live TV.) Thus it was $70 for internet and TV. Notice the $19.45 broadcast fee though. That’s when I asked myself – is live TV worth the $20+ a month? I don’t watch THAT much live TV and so I decided to get rid of it.
Here’s my new $55 monthly bill for 100 Mbps internet only.
So what am I doing for live TV? Well it turns out that Locast works in Seattle. All I have to do is pay $5.50 a month and I get my main 4 channels in HD. The great thing is I also use Plex at home and there’s a way to DVR the Locast broadcast TV into Plex. So there you have it. Now I’ll save $25 a month for the foreseeable future. Plus, I’m fine with the $55 internet so I won’t have to deal with the annual retention calls either. So happy to get rid of a piece of Comcast out of my life.
Get an antenna
I did and it only got 1 channel due to all the hills in Seattle
that 100 Mbps plans is $40 with 12 year contract
Great timing! I noticed my bill had just gone up after a year, and I chatted with them on Twitter and got them to knock off $25 per month. Thanks for the reminder!
This is the same issue I go through every year for my dads TWC Internet, for years I threatened to cancel if they wouldn’t keep it at the $30 rate. They would go on to tell me that the plan has such high Speed, no one else pays that low, blah blah blah. I’d tell them “my dad only uses the net for emails and youtube which he can do on his phones hotspot why do i need you?” and at that point they usually offer me the same rate every time or the same rate at a slower speed.
One year I got a rude CS rep and I told him to just cancel the service I got a call a week later from another rep who was like “I see your scheduled to cancel your service, what can we do to make it right?”. Well you can start by giving me the $30 rate!. Every year its the same, if they absolutely refuse then I just cancel and sign up again under my wifes name.
This year I pulled the plug on cable TV, I didnt watch much TV anyways, saves $60 a month.