Comcast

As I’ve lived at my new house for 12 months, you can guess that my Comcast XFinity bill increased. It increased by $20, and yet, the bill specifically states that I’ve been given a ‘loyalty’ discount which should keep my bill at only $10 more than before….. I hop on a chat with Xfinity support and express my frustration:

Antony: If you can’t move me back to the price I want to pay, transfer me to the cancellation dept. I’m really fed up of the games Comcast plays constantly changing the bill. I want a consistent bill, and I don’t want it to change every 12 months. It’s a waste of everyone’s time for me to have to contact you to complain.

Comcast CSR: I completely understand Just to set proper expectations, disconnection or removal of services (phone, cable, internet or home security) can only be processed via our Customer Solutions team. Would you like me to transfer you to the Customer Solutions team?

Antony: You tell me. Either fix my bill, and make the price permanent, or send me to cancellations.

Comcast CSR: We can have this revert back to your desired pricing at $59.99 per month including your speed increase

Antony: Thanks. Can this be made permanent?

Comcast CSR: This will be permanent as our Customer and Sales Solutions Team had the permanent discounts for loyal customer like you.

Antony: Excellent.

Comcast CSR: You just need to contact the Customer and Sales Solutions Team to enable this and sign a new contract.

Antony: Great. I’ll call now.

I then call, and shocker am told that such a permanent discount is not possible. I tell them I have a chat transcript, and oh how convenient, I’m told them don’t have access to those for ‘security purposes’.
What on earth is the purpose of a chat transcript if Comcast can’t see them, and they can’t be used as proof. Then, the phone rep accuses me of making this up. After I tell her I want a permanent price, she says “Of course we can give you a permanent price that doesn’t change. That’s the full price with no discounts. So you’d go from $60 to $90. But at least it wouldn’t change.”
I then ask to speak to a supervisor. What an absurd thing to recommend a customer! The supervisor gives me the regular price of $60 for 250Mbit, but reiterates that a permanent price is impossible, and recommends that I just set a calendar reminder to call every 12 months to complain “That’s what everybody does”. Seriously, that’s Comcast’s recommendation? For everyone to waste their time complaining. Unfortunately, there’s a monopoly here in the U.S. on ISPs, so there isn’t much in the way of choice (in any other country this would be illegal).