Jeff Reifman

Jeff Reifman: Too many Comcast Xfinity customers in Seattle overpay for broadband Internet. For the last several years, I’ve had to call the company every six months to maintain the lowest competitive rate, about $29.99 per month.

Here’s how to cut your bill by more than half, based on my recent experience.

First, call Comcast at 1-800-934-6489 and tell them to cancel your service. Yes, that’s right; tell them to turn off your service immediately. Until you ask for cancellation, their customer care representatives are not authorized to offer you their best deal.

Then, insist they give you a year of Internet at $29.99 per month. If they hesitate, tell them you’ll switch to Qwest’s competitive offering of six months of high speed Internet for $14.99 per month for six months, followed by 6 months of 12 Mbps at $40 per month. That’s about $330 for the year. Landline phone service from Qwest is required for this offer or the rate is slightly higher.

I had to insist the representative give me the low rate for a full year. While he said the Comcast system only authorized him to grant a six-month promotion, he made a note on my account authorizing the rate for one year. Accept nothing less – or switch to Qwest. Its 12 Mbps DSL service is an equivalent deal.

Finally, if you’re renting a cable modem from Comcast, purchase a Comcast-compatible cable modem as described here. For as little as $20, you can eliminate the $7 monthly rental fee Comcast charges.

With these adjustments, you should be able to save as much as $420 on your cable bill during the next year.

You’ll need to be persistent, and cut through the barriers Comcast uses to conceal its best rates.

Prior to my cancellation call, an earlier representative repeatedly insisted -- incorrectly, as it turns out -- that my only option for lower-priced service was to upgrade to their cable-plus-digital phone package. She quoted a monthly price of $39.99. I told her that I did not want the digital phone service and wanted to continue using my own modem. Only after further questioning did she reveal that her quoted price did not include a required modem rental fee of $7. When I asked to schedule my termination for a specific date, she refused

It was only when I called back to cancel my service immediately that the company chose to give me their best price. The second call only took a few minutes to complete. The key is to start with cancellation.

I’ve been experiencing these kinds of frustrations with Comcast regularly for several years. It’s unfortunate that former Mayor Greg Nickels and the Seattle City Council granted Comcast a ten-year license renewal on its cable broadband monopoly (see http://www.cityofseattle.net/cable/franchises.htm) given its record of customer service. [Editor's note: See the clarification and discussion of this particular point in the comments below.]

The cost of broadband Internet should be regulated in the city so that all residents pay the same rate for the same connection speed. We shouldn’t be forced to call Comcast every six months to maintain this rate. Nor should some residents be paying more for the same service.

When I terminated my cable television service with Comcast earlier this year, they told me I would no longer be eligible for their bundled promotional broadband rate. Yet, after asking to cancel, they gave me the same low rate as before.

The Internet is becoming too vital to our daily lives for Comcast to play these kind of games with customers and pricing.

Basic broadband Internet service should not be more expensive because I choose not to subscribe to Comcast’s television services. Can you imagine Seattle Public Utilities charging a higher rate for sewage unless you sign up for yard waste?

The next Seattle cable agreement should require both transparent, consistent, affordable pricing and the strict enforcement of status-quo net neutrality principles in every region in which the provider operates. Perhaps eagle-eyed attorneys will find a way to help the city terminate its contract so we don’t have to wait until 2016.

Instead of changing its name, Comcast should change the way it treats its customers.

You can learn more about Seattle’s Office of Cable Communications here.

Jeff Reifman is the founder of NewsCloud, a developer of open source social media applications for Facebook. He recently received a $249,942 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to work with twelve news organizations to apply NewsCloud’s technology. Learn more about NewsCloud’s Ruby on Rails Facebook application at http://opensource.newscloud.com or @newscloud. Jeff can be reached at jeff@newscloud.com or @reifman.

Opinions expressed in guest posts are those of the author and don't necessarily reflect the views of TechFlash.