Is displeasures a word? I don’t think so…Oh well! I had my annual run-in with Comcast this week. As you know, cable companies are evil 🙂 and because they own the market and have many laws work in their favor to not allow market competition they raise their prices significantly every year. The only way to not let that happen is to call every year and threaten to leave. They will then give you a semi-reasonable price. It’s beyond ridiculous, but since my partner and I both work from home and love our WiFi it’s necessary.
So I called Comcast to discuss keeping our bill and like last year discovered they have changed their pricing structure, made it more confusing and completely nonsensical. The person I talked to claimed that the only way to keep my current price and internet speed was to add cable to it…we don’t want cable. We’ve never had cable. It turns out this would actually raise our cost because of antiquated broadcasting fees that sneak on top of your monthly cost. But I went with it because the alternative was paying an extra $300 a year for the same service. I was annoyed all day at this inefficiency even though I had ‘won’…only to discover I had not.
Instead of keeping my current internet speed of 100 Mbps at the same price they lied and decreased my speed to 25 Mbps and were charging us the same amount. I was FURIOUS! I immediately called them back and talked to a much more helpful person. After sensing my frustration and knowing I was already planning to cancel I barely had to sound stern for them to cave. So now I have the same speed for ACTUALLY the same price and no stupid cable or broadcasting fees. This saga made me realize a few things: 1. Everything is negotiable and most importantly 2. The clock is ticking for how long I needed to deal with this ridiculousness.
Yes I will have to call Comcast in a year (or if we move another company – hopefully a better one like the one we had in NYC, RCN). Yes I will have to calculate early terminator fees for our internet contract and everything else, but my days dealing with this shit are numbered. In 4 years I will be retired. Instead of arguing with Comcast and worrying about rental increases ($50/month this year compared to last year’s $3/month = not bad) I am planning to rent places 3 months at a time through companies like AirBnB and VRBO where everything is already set up: Internet, rent, electricity etc. I pay a set fee and everything else is taken care of. In 4 years I’ll be free from these simple displeasures.