Reader aishel says that he saved $323.40 yearly on his Comcast bill just by asking! Yes, it can be just that easy.

aishel says:

I’ve been getting the Comcast internet promotion for $33/month (I only have cable internet service with them). This month, I noticed that my bill said $35/month instead of $33. I used their online chat support to complain, and even though my promotion was about to expire, he extended it for an entire year! I’ll be saving $300/year!

I have the whole transcript, but here are the main parts:

First he told me that they had to raise costs

Comcast Rep > It has gone up to $59.95 [from $57.95] per month minus the promotion rate of $24.95 every month. We are highly focused on controlling our costs, but price adjustments are a necessity in view of the increased cost of doing business in this challenging economic environment, including gas prices, healthcare costs, increases in the cost we pay for programming, and technology and service improvements.

Me > So if its supposed to be $33/month for an entire year, that means that the rate doesn’t just randomly go up
Me > So how can you help me solve this problem?

Comcast Rep> I was able to correct the rate.
Comcast Rep> You will still have your current rate of $33.00 for your Internet service for 12 months.

Me> do you know when the 12 months is up?

Comcast Rep> what I did was I reset the date your promotion will run. It will expire on November 2009.

So just like that, instead of my rate going up to $59.95/month in a few months, I got the promotional rate extended for an entire year. That’s a savings of $323.40

Good work! Oh, and don’t think this can’t work with other cable and internet companies, too. If your promotional rate is expiring, call them up and ask them to extend it. What’s the worst that can happen? They might say no?

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