Reader Courtney was on a promotional plan with Comcast that she didn’t know about, so when it expired she was unhappy to find out that Comcast would rather let her switch to the competition than give her a deal.
Courtney writes to Comcast:
I’ve been a Comcast customer at my current address since June 2008. We were initially on a new-customer promotion that ended in June 2009; once that happened, I called Comcast & spoke with a representative about our options for bringing our monthly bill down a bit. I don’t remember the specifics of the conversation a year later, but I believe we gave up a few premium channels, ultimately ending up with a package that served our needs while remaining within our budget.
I hadn’t even thought about this until several days ago, when I went to pay our monthly Comcast bill & noticed it had gone up by about $20 from the previous month. I assumed it was some kind of easily correctable error, but when I followed up with Comcast I learned that apparently we’d been on some kind of promotional rate for June 2009-10, which has now expired. I discussed this issue first with an online chat representative, & while I was disappointed when he told me nothing could be done about the price increase, I figured I’d have better luck once I spoke with someone in person. However, after following up via phone with a frontline service representative, a retention specialist, & finally with a retention supervisor, the consensus seems to be that Comcast would rather I switch to RCN’s version of the same package than restore my account to the previous pricing.
I completely understand that many of Comcast’s prices have a lifespan; I wouldn’t be so frustrated if I’d had any idea that our package had an expiration date. Even the Comcast representative I spoke with acknowledged that nothing on my bill indicated that I was receiving a special promotional rate, & the person I spoke with back in June 2009 certainly didn’t mention this either. Unfortunately, this means that from my perspective, Comcast has arbitrarily hiked its prices by $240/year for our household, & I need to accept that if I want to remain their customer.
Everyone I spoke with—all of whom were very helpful & sympathetic to my situation—told me that no one had the power to bring my bill back to its original rate. Since we are on a really tight budget, & simply cannot afford to pay an extra $20/month for services we’d already accounted for, this means we can no longer be Comcast customers. I don’t want to switch to RCN; in addition to the hassle, I’m not confident that they’d have the same level of service that we’ve enjoyed from Comcast. We just don’t have a choice.
…Unless you guys can fix this. This whole situation feels like a silly reason to lose a customer, & I’m hoping that perhaps you have some authority that the retention specialists do not.
We’ve never had RCN, is Courtney right to be worried that they will be worse than Comcast? We seem to have found the first truly satisfied Comcast customer and they’re kicking her out the door.
Oh, Comcast!
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They’re not obligated to give you a special price, and you can’t bully them into doing it by threatening to cancel your service. They’re not desperate for cash. It sucks, I know, but either you give them your money in exchange for their service, or you pay someone else. I’m not sure this even a story.
Most promotional offers in respect to cable or satellite, internet, and telephone providers are designed to allow a customer to enjoy a service at a discounted rate for a limited time. I’m sure it is intented to motivate you sign up with service and if you do, why balk when the rates revert back the the standard rate? It sounds like the service that Comcast provides is liked and is better than the alternative, isn’t that worth the extra cost? And finally, if you can’t afford it then maybe you don’t need it.
I liked the AT&T DSL model when I had them what they would do is provide new customers with low price and provide current customers with yearly rates $5 above the new customer rates.
That kept both parties happy and meant more business.
With Comcast they raise the rates by 20-30%, had all three service with them and was paying 129 after taxes now they are down to half the price for just internet.
so you’re on an ‘introductory rate’ for 12 months, then when it’s over it goes up 10-15%…. let’s just keep putting customers back on promotions when they’re over…. INTRODUCTORY = AN INITIAL PERIOD….
I have RCN service in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. There is no way I’d ever go back to Comcast. My RCN contract will be ending late this summer, and I might switch to FIOS, but I’m not even going to bother calling Comcast to see what they can offer. My previous experience with them is that the Worst Company in America award is justified.
Concerning RCN, well, they are a cable company, but their phone help line for internet service is among the best I’ve ever encountered. Once you get through the frustrating phone tree, I’ve found their other phone representatives to be at least acceptable and usually very good, too.
I consistently get the internet speed I’m paying for (and I check periodically), and it and the TV and phone work correctly about 99.9999 percent of the time… almost no problems.
Every communications company does this, then 3 weeks after you have signed a new 2 year contract they offer you a better rate, companies are stupid, it costs you more to get a customer than meeting a price of a competitor.
I have been through the same situation with Comcast. Even went as far as to talk to Frank Eliason (the one Consumerist said is now leaving Comcast). And you know what he did for me? He gave me 6 more months of promotional pricing and said that after that there was nothing they could do for us. Apparently, we have been on some type of promotion since we first became customers (late 2008) and because of this they won’t be able to give us any type of promotion again, or at least not until after we had paid full price for quite a while. I explained to them that this meant we would have to look elsewhere as this will raise our bill almost $40/month and Frank Eliason said they understand and will be sorry to see us go. That’s it. They really could give a crap if they lose customers. I even tried talking to the customer retention department. Their policy is that a customer can only be on a promotion for so long. After that, you’re out of luck. From Frank’s own mouth.
Oh and I forgot one other thing they told me. They said “Comcast has to make money. They can’t just give away the service for free. They’re in it to make money.” This is what the customer retention department told me. This is in response to me asking to remain on our $90/month promotional plan. Yep, they’re just giving it to me for free at that price. What a stupid thing for them to say to me…
I give up. I’ve submitted comments that never appeared on the site – so much for trying to add something to the discussion.
Fooey; I’m not going to waste my time anymore.
I recently dumped Comcast and switched to WOW. I think it would have been best for them to keep me as a customer with another promo rate.
I didn’t need their phone service anymore, but I still wanted the internet. Before I did, I asked the rep how much just internet would be and she said $45. The next month I get a bill for $45. But then the following month I get a letter saying my account has been audited, and the actual bill should be $60 for just internet. Plus I was charged for the extra $15 I “should have” paid.
In order to get the $45 price, I would need one other service. So I asked for basic cable. They said it would be $30/month plus a $50 installation charge. I hung up and switched to WOW, I canceled Comcast once my new service was installed.
Comcast then calls again and offers a promotional deal after I cancelled! If they did this in the first place and didn’t try to stick me with an installation fee, I wouldn’t have switched. But I’m very happy with WOW. MUCH better customer service.
As a comcast customer i am satisfied with my services,and never had an issue with customer service. Hell i just went with the 50 meg extreme tier, now i understand that people are looking to save money but why is everyone surprised they wont give away the house to keep a customer. Bottom line they are a company that answeres to stock holders they will work with someone to a point but at some point any company will have to say enough and be willing to loose a customer.