Comcast - drop cable TV but keep Internet?
timeOday
determine how much it would end up costing me per month if I drop my
(analog) cable TV and just get Internet. It's very frustrating they
won't just give straight answers.
Anybody know? Or does it totally depend on how much competition they
have in each city?
catalpa
"timeOday" <timeOda...@theknack.net> wrote in message
news:kICdncmkVYI1zaja...@comcast.com...
You will never get a straight answer out of Comcast. Your best bet is to
totally drop Comcast and sign up with a DSL provider or Verizon FIOS (if
available).
John Weiss
It will be about $10/month more than the current Internet portion of your
bill.
Shawn Hirn
timeOday <timeOda...@theknack.net> wrote:
Just call Comcast's customer service during the week and ask. The last
time I asked, it was cheaper to keep basic TV service and Internet
service than to go with only Internet service.
Don K
news:srhi-4C8642.0...@newsgroups.comcast.net...
I noticed that also, that websites like Comcast and ATT Wireless are
organized to guide you to whatever services they're promoting, and
not to comprehensive pricing information about all the choices available.
Given that it's so difficult to find the things you want on their websites,
I agree that it's best to call them on the phone and ask.
Don
Logan Shaw
> "timeOday" <timeOda...@theknack.net> wrote in message
> news:kICdncmkVYI1zaja...@comcast.com...
>> I spent about 20 minutes searching the web this evening and could NOT
>> determine how much it would end up costing me per month if I drop my
>> (analog) cable TV and just get Internet. It's very frustrating they
>> won't just give straight answers.
> You will never get a straight answer out of Comcast. Your best bet is to
> totally drop Comcast and sign up with a DSL provider or Verizon FIOS (if
> available).
When I hear that you can't ever get a straight answer about price from
someone, I tend to think that means the price is negotiate. Sure, it
might just be that you can't get an answer because their customer service
is a pain in all areas, but it might also be that they are playing a
pricing game with you. Or to put it another way, they won't tell you
the price because are participating in setting the price.
The good news is, maybe you can look at this as more of an opportunity
than an annoyance. If they are playing pricing games, it means you
can possibly turn the tables, take control of the process, and get them
to lower your price.
I managed to get this to happen with my cable company (Time-Warner).
I had been paying $140 for a package with digital cable TV, internet,
and phone with unlimited long distance. I was planning to go 100%
cell phone, so I called them up and simply said I wanted to drop the
phone part of my service. They decided to try for a "save", and they
offered me the exact same services for $122. I took it.
In your case, I'd be tempted to research the competition for internet
service. DSL is probably about $20/month, so I'd find out how much
it really is, then call the cable company and tell them you want to
shut off your entire service (since you don't care that much about the
analog cable TV part). I bet they will give a straight answer at
that point. ;-)
- Logan
timeOday
I tried to look into that, but found the phone companies at least
equally deceptive. I could neither get an actual price, nor how much
bandwidth I would get. They'll happily quote you "a" price, but it
doesn't include a million different taxes and fees, or even the ISP
service you might have to buy over the DSL line itself, and it requires
you have home phone service from them (which I don't - Vonage). Even
finding the regular monthly rate after the teaser expires can be almost
impossible. The phone company's own website wanted my SSN before
quoting a price! Yes, they demanded my SSN.
Jeff
Several months ago this was about $60.
Jeff
Anthony Matonak
> ... The phone company's own website wanted my SSN before
> quoting a price! Yes, they demanded my SSN.
Just because they demand something doesn't mean you have to give it.
You could probably just fill in any sequence of numbers.
It's like when the supermarket wants your birthday, 12/07/1941 seems
like a nice easy to remember date.
Anthony
Gordon
> You will never get a straight answer out of Comcast. Your best bet is to
> totally drop Comcast and sign up with a DSL provider or Verizon FIOS (if
> available).
>
>
I'll second that fios suggestion. Verizon deployed fios around here
a few summers ago and Comcast is running scared. They have lowered
their prices and upgraded their speeds to try and match Verizon's.
One tip; Before signing up with Verizon, get a free Yahoo e-mail.
Then when you sign up, get the yahoo/verizon package. Your free
e-mail will be upgraded to priemium service and you will also get
other Yahoo services (like flickr) at priemium levels at no extra cost.
Oh, but skip the Verizon phone service. It costs too much. fios
is the same price with or without phone service.
Anthony Matonak
...
> I'll second that fios suggestion. Verizon deployed fios around here
> a few summers ago and Comcast is running scared. They have lowered
> their prices and upgraded their speeds to try and match Verizon's.
Does fios actually work? I've heard rumors that they've had
all kinds of problems with the technology and aren't even
selling it anymore.
Anthony
George Grapman
I remember when Radio Shack used to ask for a phone number. If they
insisted I gave the 415-555-1212.
My two grocery cards both have 415-123-4567.
The only card that has my real name and address is the race track
because they mail out freebies and promos.
Gene S. Berkowitz
@nothing.like.socal.rr.com says...
Yes, it works. I had it installed last Monday.
Video quality is superb, internet connection is fast & stable,
and my phone works.
--Gene
Logan Shaw
Could be capacity issues rather than a flaw in the technology
itself. When Time-Warner first installed cable modems in the
area, the popularity grew so quickly that they had to keep
upgrading it every couple months as the segments got overcrowded
and speeds dropped. They'd upgrade it and it'd be fast again,
then get slow again as more and more people signed on. Finally,
after a year or two either growth dropped to a slower rate, or
they learned how to scale up capacity fast enough, and all the
growing pains went away.
Then fast forward to when they first offered telephone service
over the cable lines. Similar problems happened, except that
instead of internet slowness, it was "all circuits busy" messages
or never-ending ringing when someone tried to call you. Then
after about a year, those capacity problems went away too.
- Logan
timeOday
> "catalpa" <cat...@entertab.org> wrote in news:jzdZi.80$jH2.8@trnddc01:
>
>> You will never get a straight answer out of Comcast. Your best bet is to
>> totally drop Comcast and sign up with a DSL provider or Verizon FIOS (if
>> available).
>>
>>
>
> I'll second that fios suggestion. Verizon deployed fios around here
> a few summers ago and Comcast is running scared. They have lowered
> their prices and upgraded their speeds to try and match Verizon's.
Heh. How I would love to have some competition around here.
Jon v Leipzig
What seems to be common in this industry is that they're required to
offer certain services, but not required to advertise them. I had to
dig to find the cost for non-subscribers to get access to cable
internet. My cost would be $57.00.
I decided to wait till ATT is required to offer naked DSL (DSL without
phone service) in December. Your phone co may have this, but you'd have
to call them.
In the meantime, I'm quite satisfied with my free wireless service from
the flower shop on the corner.
Shawn Hirn
Anthony Matonak <antho...@nothing.like.socal.rr.com> wrote:
I know at least 8 people who subscribe to FIOS and all of them are not
only happy with it, they are absolutely thrilled!
Gordon
news:47367d54$0$32546$4c36...@roadrunner.com:
I've never heard of any problems. Everyone I know that has fios
is thrilled.
Jim Prescott
>determine how much it would end up costing me per month if I drop my
>(analog) cable TV and just get Internet. It's very frustrating they
>won't just give straight answers.
Cable companies have pretty much the worst websites around. You need
to call to find out anything.
You want to ask about both bare internet, and internet plus the
cheapest cable TV service. The FCC requires them to have a basic tier
of cable service that runs about $12/mo but you usually have to
explicitly ask about it.
--
Jim Prescott - Computing and Networking Group j...@seas.rochester.edu
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of Rochester, NY
George Grapman
> In article <kICdncmkVYI1zaja...@comcast.com>,
> timeOday <timeOda...@theknack.net> wrote:
>> I spent about 20 minutes searching the web this evening and could NOT
>> determine how much it would end up costing me per month if I drop my
>> (analog) cable TV and just get Internet. It's very frustrating they
>> won't just give straight answers.
>
> Cable companies have pretty much the worst websites around. You need
> to call to find out anything.
>
> You want to ask about both bare internet, and internet plus the
> cheapest cable TV service. The FCC requires them to have a basic tier
> of cable service that runs about $12/mo but you usually have to
> explicitly ask about it.
The phone companies are not much better. When I switched to DSL I got
a real runaround about getting stand alone DSL. I finally decided that
it was worth the extra few dollars a month to have an additional phone
line since I have a home office. Whenever that phone rings it is either
a telemarketer or a wrong number as it is unlisted and I never give it
to anyone.
George Grapman
I have only done it a few times but the extra phone allows a 4 way
conversation. A three way on the main phone, a single call on the modem
phone and put both next to each other on speaker phones.
By the way, the modem phone has no added features, no long distance,
caller ID, three way, etc.