Our 6 month promotional period I got with Comcast here, was set to expire on the 24th of this month. When I logged in to our account the other day, I saw our new bill (they always bill ahead) and decided to try a little experiment. I wanted to be able to gauge the different results I would get from talking to a person in the billing department and a person in the termination department.
Starting Point (after last promo):
Cable Internet at 12 Mbps
Basic Cable *having this is actually cheaper than not having it, we don’t actually need it.
Total monthly before taxes= $67.02
Billing Department:
First, I called the customer service person in the billing department. The lady told me I could save like $10 per month by keeping the basic cable and dropping the Internet down to 1.5 Mbps. Seriously, that’s a huge drop, our Internet isn’t too fast to begin with (maybe it’s supposed to be, but that’s not what we get) and we wouldn’t be able to watch movies online. Lame.
Next, she said that the best she could do is to keep our stuff the same and take off $10 per month for 6 months. That’s weird, a minute ago she wanted us to massively reduce our Internet speed but now she’s saying we can keep it the same and still get the same price. That’s interesting. Here’s my favorite part, our new bill which bills us for all of October (stuff we haven’t used yet) will stay the same and the new package won’t be reflected until the November bill. Wtf? Spending over the next 7 months with her offerings would be:
$67.02 month 1 regular price
$57.02 x 6 months = $342.12
Total for next 7 months = $409.14
Termination Department:
I told the guy (who was super-nice) what the lady from the billing department offered me. I also might have mentioned how calling in every 6 months to change my plan really sucks. He ended up offering me the same package we have now at the same price I had before—for a whole year. I couldn’t believe it, not having to deal with this $hit for another year is awesome. He also told me that it will reflect our bill for October and should be adjusted in the next few days. This was way better than the billing department offered and I didn’t get screwed for an extra month. Here’s what the spending over the next 7 months (I know it’s for 12 months, but I wanted to compare it with the evil lady’s offerings) looks like:
$49.00 x 7 months = $343.00
(savings of $66.14 over billing department)
($126.14 savings over doing nothing)
Overall, I’m happy with the results. I’m paying what we’ve been paying for the last 6 months and don’t have to worry about it for a year. My personal recommendation would be to first call the billing department and see what they offer, then call the termination department and let them know. So far every time I’ve talked with the termination people, they’ve been nicer and more helpful.
How do you handle reducing your bills?
Am I the only one who thinks $49 a month is a lot for the Internet?
$49 is a little much, I’m paying the same thing but you get what you pay for. My service has been great, no down time. I think the termination people are suppose to be nice right? their job is not to get you to terminate 😀
Yeah, they are supposed to be nice but it’s always such a pleasure to talk to them. Too bad it’s not everybody’s job to be nice.
I like nice people.
Ya at the studio I pay $80 a month for internet and 1 phone line (used just for fax machine and credit card machine)
At home we pay $160 for internet and advanced cable. Been toying with the idea of pulling the cable. I think its $60 to keep the internet. I have cut back on watching tv but when I do its the History or comedy channel, or Sci fi. Never the stuff you get with basic or can get over air (except charger football)
I guess the internet is close to the same price for us. I don’t even remember how much we used to pay when we had cable. We canceled out cable a few years ago, we were terrified at first but then it ended up not being so bad.
I just had to deal with last week! I had a heck of a time with Cablevision. The guy didn’t understand that if he didn’t offer me something REALLY good I was just going to leave, so that took a few mins. He actually had the nerve to try and guilt me! Saying it was a promotional period and that it was over lol I simply explained that if Cablevision and the rest of the providers were too stupid to offer a contract that isn’t my problem.
After we got past that he offered me exactly what I had now (I pay $133/month). I said I wanted more not to leave…he offered me the super fast internet 50mps download for only $5 more a month instead of $15…not sure it is worth “more” than lets say showtime since I already have HBO but I took it.
lol. Sometimes they just don’t get how much competition there is out there and the fact that customer retention is cheaper than acquiring new ones. I’m glad that you were able to get a price you were happy about. I really hate calling these people; they should do it on their own to keep their customers happy. I know, that wouldn’t be good for their bottom-line but it sure would save some people the hassle.