Something better to do » Verizon http://blog.kamens.us Musings of an indignant mind Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:35:18 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 How to lower your phone + internet cost from $80 per month to $50 per month: buy your own cable modem and kick Comcast to the curb http://blog.kamens.us/2009/11/16/how-to-lower-your-phone-internet-cost-from-80-per-month-to-50-per-month-buy-your-own-cable-modem-and-kick-comcast-to-the-curb/ http://blog.kamens.us/2009/11/16/how-to-lower-your-phone-internet-cost-from-80-per-month-to-50-per-month-buy-your-own-cable-modem-and-kick-comcast-to-the-curb/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:58:17 +0000 jik http://blog.kamens.brookline.ma.us/~jik/wordpress/?p=1096 Comcast was charging me $95 per month for internet and phone service.  That was too much.

I got them to lower it to $75 per month, but I had to pay extra for all non-local and long-distance calls.  That was still too much.

They raised the equipment charge for my cable modem from $3 to $5 per month.  That pissed me off, so I bought my own cable modem.

Not only that, but I decided it was time to send Comcast a message for being so slimy, so I switched to Vonage for phone service for $25 per month.  You would think that would have lowered my total cost, except that when I canceled my Comcast phone service, I was no longer eligible for the special “bundle” rate on internet service, so they jacked up my internet service to $60 per month.

That pissed me off even more, so when I called today to swap out Comcast’s cable modem for my own, I also told them to downgrade me to their $40 per month internet service.

Believe it or not, what you get for that ridiculously high price is a 1mbps internet connection.  Yes, you read that right, one megabit.

Fortunately, Comcast isn’t the only game in town.  RCN will sell me a 1.5mbps connection, 50% faster than Comcast’s, for $25 per month, i.e., 37% less.  That’s not even a promotional rate.  Or, if I feel like spending $5 more per month, I can get a 10mbps connection, i.e., ten times as fast as Comcast for 25% less.  And although that is a promotional rate, unlike Comcast, RCN will let me sign up for any new promotion that becomes available after my 12-month contract is up.  Heck, even Verizon charges only $20 per month, half of what Comcast charges, for a 1mbps DSL line!

I haven’t switched to RCN yet, but I’ll probably be doing it some day soon when I’m in just the right mood.

Below is the letter I just sent the CEO of Comcast explaining how they managed to lose an $80 per month revenue stream over a lousy $2 per month.

P.S. If you decide Vonage is right for you too, email me and I’ll send you a referral, and we’ll both get a free month of service!

November 16, 2009

Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO
Comcast Corporation
brian_roberts@comcast.com

Dear Mr. Roberts,

I’m writing to tell you how, through its shady business practices and “Gotcha Capitalism”, Comcast has halved its income stream from my family, from $80 to $40 per month, and why there’s a good chance you’ll also be losing that $40.

It all started when my promotional rate of around $75 for internet and phone service expired and my bill went up $20.  I was not about to pay Comcast $45 for phone service I could get from Vonage for $25, so I called up and asked what Comcast would do to keep me as a customer.  The only option, I was told, was to downgrade to your “local with more” phone service for $24.95 per month, but I’d have to pay $3.95 extra for voice mail, and I’d also be charged for all non-local calls.  This was clearly a rip-off, but it was just barely reasonable enough for me to decide that it wasn’t worth the hassle of switching to Vonage, so I took the deal.  However, it put me right at the brink of jumping ship.

Fast forward several months, when a notice appeared on my bill informing me that the monthly fee for my cable modem was being raised from $3 to $5.  Mind you, I’d already been paying the $3 fee for several years, thus paying for the actual cost of my cable modem several times over.  There was simply no justification for raising this fee, short of Comcast looking for a way to increase its annual revenue by $358 million, tax free, without incurring any extra expenses or providing any additional services.  I called and complained about the increase, to no avail.  I also exposed Comcast’s machinations on my popular consumer-advocacy blog.

This bogus increase pushed me over the edge, and I resolved to pay Comcast as little money as possible from that day forward.  I immediately signed up for Vonage so I could stop paying Comcast for phone service, and I bought a used cable modem for $10 from eBay so I could stop paying Comcast the absurd $5 per month equipment charge.

Alas, Comcast’s efforts to jerk me around were not over.  When I received my next bill, I discovered that I was no longer paying $45 per month for internet service.  Rather, since I was no longer purchasing multiple Comcast services, I was no longer eligible for your special “bundle” deal, and my rate had gone up to $60.

Well, as I’m sure you can imagine, as irritated as I’d been before, now I was more so.  Therefore, when I called today to swap out my Comcast modem, at the same time I downgraded my internet service from $60 to $40 per month.

Amazingly, that princely sum gets me the absurdly low speed of 1mbps.

That additional annoyance prompted me to browse over to rcn.com, where I discovered that I can get 1.5mbps service from them for only $25 per month, which is $180 per year less than what Comcast charges for slower service.  For just $5 more, still $120 per year less than Comcast, I can get 10mbps service, i.e., ten times Comcast’s speed, at a special promotional rate.  Best of all, when I called RCN’s sales department and asked what happens to the rate at the end of the 12-month contract, I was informed that as long as my account was in good standing, I would be offered whatever promotional rate was in effect at the end of my contract.  Apparently, RCN doesn’t believe in punishing its loyal customers by jacking up their rates by 25% overnight.  I was also pleased to see that RCN still charges only $3 per month for modem rental.

Although I’m just not in the mood to switch to RCN today, at some point in the near future I’ll probably be looking for a little something to cheer me up at the end of the day, and converting Comcast’s $40 per month revenue stream from my family to $0 will be just the thing.

I will, of course, be posting this letter to my blog and encouraging others to hit Comcast in the wallet if they’re as dissatisfied as I am with Comcast’s habit of charging more for less.

All this because of Comcast’s sticky-fingered attempt to extract $2 extra per month from my wallet for no good reason.  How’s that working out for ya?

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

]]> http://blog.kamens.us/2009/11/16/how-to-lower-your-phone-internet-cost-from-80-per-month-to-50-per-month-buy-your-own-cable-modem-and-kick-comcast-to-the-curb/feed/ 7 Verizon: “Orange didn’t work, let’s try blue!” http://blog.kamens.us/2008/06/12/verizon-orange-didnt-work-lets-try-blue/ http://blog.kamens.us/2008/06/12/verizon-orange-didnt-work-lets-try-blue/#comments Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:55:01 +0000 jik http://blog.kamens.brookline.ma.us/~jik/wordpress/?p=225 As a followup to my previous blog entry about stupid, deceptive advertising from Verizon, I got this envelope in the mail from Verizon the other day:

Apparently the brilliant marketing folks at Verizon figured, “Well, gee, orange didn’t work, so let’s try blue!”

What a bunch of idiots.

]]> http://blog.kamens.us/2008/06/12/verizon-orange-didnt-work-lets-try-blue/feed/ 2 When you need to do THIS to get people to read your circulars, you know you’re in trouble http://blog.kamens.us/2008/05/09/when-you-need-to-do-this-to-get-people-to-read-your-circulars/ http://blog.kamens.us/2008/05/09/when-you-need-to-do-this-to-get-people-to-read-your-circulars/#comments Fri, 09 May 2008 23:14:54 +0000 jik http://blog.kamens.brookline.ma.us/~jik/wordpress/?p=210 I got a big envelope in the mail recently which had this on the back:

and this on the front:

Now, anybody who’s been around the block a few times knows that any brightly colored envelope emblazoned with words like “PRIORITY DELIVERY” and “Important information inside” which doesn’t clearly identify who sent it was actually sent with the cheapest, slowest possible bulk mail rate and isn’t in the least bit important in any way at all.

Deceptive envelopes like this are the last-ditch, hail-mary efforts of companies or organizations which just can’t seem to get people to read what they send in any other way. Companies that do this either are desperate for your business or have really, really bad marketing people.

So, are you curious about what company is so desperate for my business that they feel the need to use this incredibly slimy tactic to get me to read their literature? The secret is hidden in the postmark on the front of the envelope. Here it is again, enlarged:

Yes, that’s right, Verizon apparently thinks that “standard U.S. postage” (i.e., bulk mail) is “priority delivery” and that it’s “important information” that they want me to sign up with them for service.

Do you think maybe they’re losing market share? Nah, that couldn’t be it.

Hey, Verizon, here’s a clue: when you provide services I want, at a price I’m willing to pay, with decent customer service, then you won’t need to use deceptive advertising to get me to give you money.

Last time I checked, the FIOS Experience guy was still waiting for an apology. That’d be a good place to start.

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