Putting the finis in Xfinity
It took one last pain-filled half-hour on the phone with some poor soul in a third-world country (who kept calling me "Sir John," and thanking me repeatedly), but today I cancelled the last of our services with Comcast, a.k.a. Xfinity. We had been on their treadmill for 30 years – a "diamond" customer, they kept telling me – but they treated us so badly year after year that eventually the annoyance overcame the inertia.
Our bill recently increased from $250 to nearly $320 over just three months. There was a stealth increase every year, but you could soften it if you were willing to undergo an hour or so negotiating with "So, Mr. John, what channels do you watch?"
The suits at NBC Universal, which owns Comcast, obviously couldn't care less. They're sucking in new customers with deals, but we old folks in the "diamond" lane are just a gravy train.
I'm looking at one last trip to return the last of their equipment, and then it's farewell to those birds. It feels so good to be done dealing with them. Our new providers will eventually get on my nerves, I'm sure, but they will have to put on quite a show to get me as fed-up as Comcast did.
Fortunately, some readers here have steered me to some cheaper, and so far better, options. Thanks to those readers for the good advice. Switching everything took some time, but there was no "Sir John" absurdity. And not counting the time, I'm well over $100 a month to the good.
We're about there with Astound, similar price increases and diminished interest in the 500 channels of junk. Extraction will be complicated with overlap online, but the bloat and related expense needs to go.
ReplyDeleteWe will surely miss you Sir John. We are always here for you to help facilitate any future viewing needs.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Comcast
Is anyone really happy with their cable service. WiFi is the only reason I have it at home.
ReplyDeleteCable what is that? You probably still have a land line and live in Multnomah County.
ReplyDeleteTouché
DeleteI'm using xfinity for internet now. But I have no bundle and no loyalty. I switch back and forth between Xfinity and Ziply every couple years (when the teaser deal run out). I stream everything through a Roku (I hear the Apple TV device works fine too).
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Portland, we had high-speed fiber service to our condo. When we moved to our house, the only game in town was Xfinity so I had to sign up with them (for internet only). After my 2 year contract with them ran out, they doubled my subscription. By then Ziply was coming on in my neighborhood so I signed up with them at about 1/3 what I was paying for Comcast internet. I now have 2Gbs fiber service at about what I was paying Comcast for 800Mbs service.
ReplyDeleteHint for all you Comcast internet-only customers: DO NOT USE COMCAST EQUIPMENT. They charge you exorbitant monthly fees for the privilege. A good Comcast-compatible cable modem is about $200. A decent wifi router is about the same. You'll recover your costs in about 8 months in saved equipment rental fees. When you (inevitably) change providers, the disruption will be minimal.
Protip: If you have to deal with Xfinity for anything other than tech support, get in your car and go to one of their stores. You'll almost always walk out with a lower bill and a better package.
ReplyDeleteWatch out with that. They threw me a similar "bone" and then when I later tried to cancel my service, they claimed that the change had reset my 2-year commitment and so I would have to pay an early cancellation fee. I called BS on that and when they said they had a recording of them explaining that the new package/price would reset the contract period, demanded that they provide the recording. Eventually a manager called me to say that the recording had been "accidentally deleted" and hence they would cancel the penalty fee. Took a half-dozen calls over a total of a couple of hours to avoid a $125 penalty fee which seemed worth (at least from a "sticking it to the bastards" perspective) but I bet a lot of people just give up and pay...
DeleteOh, and I loved how their "our spirit of service in action" tag line had, in print, an oddly small spacing between the words "in" and "action"...
DeleteWe've NEVER been cable tv subscribers. I invested in Roku boxes for all our TVs to provide streaming to all of them. Now that FOX owns Roku (or will, anyway, when dumbf gives his inevitable approval), I'm preparing to switch if I start getting bombarded with FOX ads on my Roku boxes. We don't subscribe to any Roku services and use the boxes as streaming platforms only. A Roku Express is $40. A Roku streaming stick is even cheaper.
ReplyDeleteYou can thank good old boy Bubba Clinton for allowing the concentration of media dynasties. I guess the bastard son of Winthrop Rockefeller did a few good things for his pop (and friends).
ReplyDeleteWhen I cancelled my Xfinity internet-only service, I did it over the phone. The phone agent started on the "retention script". I just told him, "I want to cancel my service. Can you take care of that? If not, switch me to someone who can..." That terminated the retention script and the transaction was taken care of forthwith. I requested email confirmation of everything (which I printed and saved for a year...I saved all the emails for a year too). After it was done, I put a "block payment" order in at my bank against Xfinity auto-debits (which is still in place). I called back at 2, 4, 6, 8 weeks after to verify that my service was indeed cancelled (and asked for written confirmation every time). Comcast are sleaze bags. They are not to be trusted.
ReplyDeletePS, Since I owned all the equipment, I didn't have to make a trek to a store and return a bunch of stuff. I still have the cable modem (just in case Ziply starts getting uppity)...it's the only piece of cable-specific stuff in my mesh wifi network. Everything else is provider agnostic.
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