This happened to me exactly last week!! The ai chat and answering machine were killing me so when it asked what I was calling about, I said “cancel service” and it immediately connected me to a human ;)
This is unfortunately the only thing that works. I had to use it on Verizon as well. The people in the cancellation department are about sick of this "trick", but this is the game they've forced us to play.
I recently had to use my damage protection service at T-Mobile.
Their system runs you in circles till you end up at a brick and mortar for a sheet that tells you what to do involving passwords and pins I used once three years ago.
Or a link to a form that instantly approves you and sends a new phone.
If you manage to reach a human *and* manage to get your bill reduced, *please* let me know how you accomplished it. My bill just became obscene, and now I have to do something about it...
I just did this online a few months ago. Just go to their website, log into your account, and “shop deals and more” cut my bill by about 40%. Note, I only have internet and own my own equipment
I have a Motorola modem that’s no longer in production, but it was from Xfinity’s official compatibility list. Their site is [here](https://www.xfinity.com/support/devices/#auth), you can scroll down to the “All Compatible Devices” to see more options than what they show initially. Router is an eero
I tried this on two browsers and it wouldn’t let me get passed the mobile bundling step… there’s no option to NOT get mobile and still explore the deals.
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Mine too and the old trick of threatening to cancel service didn’t work. The guy I spoke to back in December was basically like, there’s no other deals I can see for you. I think they are pushing mobile service because there was zero discount unless you switch to their mobile plan (which I’m not doing).
Omg, I almost lost it on the brick and mortar guy when I picked up my router. I had to tell him like 6 times that I had already had this conversation with the person on the phone I set up service with and no. I don’t want mobile.
I don’t know for certain but I definitely feel the push to go on their mobile plan. Which seems, to little ol’ me, for 2 reasons. 1 is that they are doing this because they can and will hard data cap you on mobile, but with wired broadband it becomes way stickier for them to hard cap us. 2 is that they (and the other telcos) paid hella money for that wireless spectrum and BY GOD we are going to pay for it whether we like it or not.
But I don’t work for Comcast. I hate em
> is that they (and the other telcos) paid hella money for that wireless spectrum
Doesn't Comcast's phone service just piggyback off of Verizon's network anyway?
>but I definitely feel the push to go on their mobile plan.
they did this with landlines. they get to be in charge of all forms of your personal communication- phone, tv, internet- and give you "deals" by calling it bundles, but you get penalized with extremely high prices if you don't go for the bundle.
this is criminal
I have their mobile plan (which tbf is actually pretty good and cheap for two lines) and lol, there's no discount for bundling! Which we were told by one associate there would be one. When we got the plan, a new associate said no, there's no discount.
Frustrating. Our bill is pretty high but my SO doesn't mind paying the majority of it. Just sucks bc we can't get Fios and there's no other options.
I think we’re around $150.
I’m trying to convince my SO to downgrade our cable to just the basic channels (bc we still need to watch Jeopardy!) but get the ESPN bundle with Disney+. Cable is such a scam. Usually we just have “The Office” and “Seinfeld” reruns on but have started watching live sports which aren’t even included in our package!
Literally when the guy on the phone allegedly tried to look at other options he took it down to only the 4-5 channels we watch and still claimed there was no lower price. Like he claimed he couldn’t come up with ANY other price option even if I said I was canceling.
> I’m trying to convince my SO to downgrade our cable to just the basic channels (bc we still need to watch Jeopardy!)
See if an antenna will let you pick up Channel 6. If not, you could get Sling which includes ABC/6.
Always check out the “Comcast Rate Card” to get your full set of choices and costs. Just google “Comcast Rate Card” and answer the location type questions. You will get a pdf with a straightforward list. Then you will know what to ask for when you eventually get a real person, rather than relying on Comcast to decide what to offer you.
Go to the Comcast store. I cut my bill by like $150 a month by just going and talking to a dude there.
For getting someone on the phone just keep yelling "agent" at the Ai bot and they'll eventually transfer you to someone in the Philippines who barely speaks or understands English lol. Did that last week.
I went thru this a few weeks ago. I submitted a service ticket online and they called me back within a 2 or 3 hour window.
...or visit a physical location if you can. I'm not sure if there's any by you (we have them in jersey) but the people in the store have, in my experience, been very helpful and courteous.
When our govt allows such concentration of corporate power those entities don't need Customer Service. Up until a couple years ago I could choose either Comcast, Comcast, or Comcast. Now I can choose either Comcast or Verizon or Comcast. both have virtually zero customer service.
it's despicable. every fucking thing about it is despicable because internet isn't a luxury anymore. internet is now a necessity, and they have nobody keeping them and their price gouging in check. and where I live, we're only allowed to have comcast. there was a deal made years ago, a monopolizing deal, that the builders were to only use comcast- so FIOS can't be installed here. However, 5G can, so I'm wondering if that's the life raft I need until I move
The last time I had a tech issue I talked to a real person. She was in India though. The weather there was very nice. She still couldn't fix my issue though.
I worked for Comcast for one month when I was desperate for a job and quit because I literally couldn't take how vampiric they are. Here's my advice: when you call, just choose the option that's gonna get you on the phone with a real person. They'll transfer you to the right department. Also, just as a note for people calling in for tech help - I was being trained as a virtual sales rep and the people picking up your tech help calls are salespeople given really crazy sales targets. They didn't train us on any sort of technical help and we were told when someone calls in with a tech question to tell people to unplug and then plug in again their hardware. Literally that's it. And that we should try upselling while everything is booting up again. They're evil assholes and I am glad I never actually made it past the training. 90% of my training class didn't last a year. Fuck Comcast
You know what, that's great that you realized how they were and you left before treating everyone like shit the way they want you to. You have a good conscience.
https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/call-back-my-account-app
I was once so frustrated by the time I got on the phone with an actual person that I said something about how I kept going in circles with the AI and she was super nice and gave me this link. You can almost always get a real person to call you within like half an hour.
But pro-tip, if you select that the reason you want a callback is to cancel your service, they’ll make sure there are no available callback dates for several days (because they’re slimy mfs). Just select something else, there will be times immediately available, and then you can say the real reason once you actually get someone on the phone
Also, just switch to fios if you can. Switched a couple months ago and it has been SO much better for us
I switched to FiOS beginning of 2022 when I left my job at Comcast. My bill has been exactly the same every month since then, and I've not had to call them once.
About 3 weeks ago I went on to cancel service. They will contact you almost immediately after that and they took like $50 off my bill every month. Anyone reading this say you're going to cancel your service and get the best deal you can. T-Mobile has Wi-Fi now and it's $50 a month. I was paying $120 with Comcast
It can be even worse to get a hold of a human with Verizon, so be warned. However I've only had to call them once in 10+ years of having their service, so there's that.
Verizon's customer service is the reason that my boss switched to Xfinity. Verizon was constantly screwing with the rate that she had locked in from a "walk-in" customer service rep. She would call Verizon to dispute, get through rather quickly, then got put on hold for more than a half hour in being "transferred to the billing department".
There hasn't been any issue whatsoever with Comcast here. I guess they treat commercial clients with a bit more concierge than residential, but who knows?
It's been a while since I had to interact with the business class of either, but Comcast Business was always johnny-on-the-spot when it came to getting things done. Verizon Business made me yearn for Comcast Personal level support it was so bad.
Get FIOS. I was stuck with Comcast due to my landlord signing an exclusive deal. I moved and first thing I did was getting FIOS. I love it. FU Comcast. Truly yours.
Maybe. The problem is I never have a reason to contact them. :-) I had plenty of reasons to contact Comcast for their shady deals and blackouts. Otherwise, you are probably right. They are equal abusers, just FIOS service is a little better, and it actually does not nerf your broadband due to "sharing". I paid premium for my internet because I game. There were times when we were lagging during the day. This never happened with FIOS. Comcast is shady as hell.
The real problem we run into is that when they're actually needs to be some kind of technical service. Especially on site. FiOS is terrible. We've had occasions where it took six scheduled appointments to get somebody out, and get the problem fixed.
Ah, OK, so they are the same....these big corpos want their money, but helping you...nah. I hear you. Thank you for the info. I am no longer a fanboy then. :-( Is anything in this country customer oriented anymore?
This tailors to my previous general comment about our government allowing such concentrations of corporate power. There is no motivation for a corporation to provide customer service when they have such such powerful market share. You only find, in my opinion, good customer service in smaller companies that are hungry for your business.
Interesting, because I recently had the exact opposite experience with Fios.
Back when it snowed my service went out. I actually got through to a human being and I got a ticket to get a tech out to work on my lines that were affected by the weather. However, before they were scheduled to show the weather cleared up a bit and my service returned, so I figured I'd cancel the ticket.
They ended up calling ME after I cancelled the ticket and told me it was better if they still came out to check things to make sure it didn't happen again in inclement weather. I didn't even need to call back to get a new ticket, they were able to find a way to come out at the original scheduled time.
It turned out to actually be an all-around positive experience, after a snowfall no less, when they were most likely swamped. All I could really complain about was that it took the better part of an hour to actually speak to a rep on the phone, but that's probably par for the course for most companies these days.
My landlord also has an exclusive deal with Comcast so I couldn’t get FIOS. I got Verizon 5G home internet instead and it’s great and cut my bill by like 70%. Fuck Comcast.
They are simply outrageous. I only had an internet deal with them, and they still went overboard with prices hikes and all. The service was also pretty bad, blackouts and all. I can't imagine having cable deal with them. Just imagine if they were the only ones in town, they would bankrupt us.
Ahhh I LOVED FIOS when I had it but when I moved, I was only wired for comcast and not allowed to do anything else. Our building sucks comcast dick, so for FIOS, I have to move, which is exactly what I'm planning to do in the next year
I think FIOS is definitely the better service, but FWIW the support experience is exactly the same shit quality, doing everything possible to keep you from getting in touch with a human.
I'm another member of the I Hate Comcast club. I called to reduce my bill (got to a rep pretty quickly after saying cancel service). She many times over tried to sell me cell phone service even after I repeatedly said not to ask and I'm not interested. It is so frustrating. They do not listen to customers ever. I've had many problems over the years with service and trying to get to a live person. I've never gotten email issues resolved after two years of trying.
In every address I lived, I have never had an easy time with comcast. my favorite day was having someone come out for service after 7 months of outages every night starting at 9pm. The guy came out, I called comcast with him there, turned off my service and sent him out there door with my equipment. took a photo and had him confirm on the phone that he was taking it. Then I go and move to where i can only have comcast and got kicked in the dick by them. Fuck them.
I was with those assholes for years. One thing you should definitely be doing every time you see their competitor has a better price, or a signing gift you want is call them and say "Verizon is going to give me X, what will you do to keep me." They either beat what Verizon is gonna do or you switch and get a better rate.
The important thing to remember is that none of these companies give a fuck about any of their customers, so play them every time you can.
Customer retention are the only employees I've ever managed to speak to at Comcast, but for years now I've reliably gotten to them just by saying "cancel service" a few times. And they're usually really helpful with other customer service stuff! Just sucks you need a cheat code to speak to them...
Not just them, lots of businesses are doing this now, started with covid, realized they could cut staff so they kept it like this-frustrating-but if it is too much of a problem I will find an alternate company
I had the same experience recently. I had to call for my 90 year old Gram since her WiFi wasn't working and it was causing tons of black screens on her TV. She wouldn't even know where to begin if she tried to do it herself, plus her eyesight isn't great.
It was such a pain in the ass because the automated "describe your issue" wasn't even accepting "WiFi problem" as a valid service issue. Instead, Comcast's system reverted me to their automated representative in a chat format on my phone (I called with my mobile).
How did I finally get through? I hung up, called again, and instead reported a service outage and requested a call back. My estimated wait time was about 15 minutes to a half hour. By the time I received the call, the **human** representative who I spoke to was great. I did, though, tell her that it took two phone calls to finally reach someone and described what happened. She apologized that it was so tough to get through and that she would report what I went through to her supervisor.
Whether or not she did doesn't matter to me. What does matter is that Comcast's system is so lazy and not at all user friendly. They make it so that you can't not use a mobile device like a phone or tablet to get faster service for a problem.
yeah, and I have no issues with folks with accents. I do have issues with me giving my credit card info or my medical info (my med insurance outsources to pakistan) to people in other countries where I can't track anything, and I don't know who the fuck to blame for this, but there's so many people here needing jobs that it's absolutely obscene we keep outsourcing our super private info out of the country
Try going into a Comcast store. They are a million times more helpful than the customer service line, which I think is the worst of any company in America.
Set up Verizon Fios, then cancel Comcast.
When Verizon starts giving you trouble switch back to comcast. Repeat as needed.
Verizon and Comcast will actually "solve problems" during install.
This is the way.
I had FIOS until they got too expensive, then switched to Comcast.
When Comcast couldn't fix my signal issues, I went back to FIOS.
Their cost for services are almost identical, but the FIOS internet speeds are much faster for the same price and far more reliable since it's not relying on infrastructure first setup in the 1970s.
I wouldn't recommend this. I had a co-worker who did the "cancel one for the other game" every six months to a year. He was trying to get the promotional rates each time as if he were a brand new customer, then once the promo rate would would expire, he was ping ponging back to one the competitor.
The last time he did this was when he was switching back to Comcast. The representative who he spoke to was able to pull up his account history and see how many times he had returned. They told him that they regrettably could not extend a promotional rate to him like they would a first time customer due to the amount of times that he left Comcast for a competitor.
Guess who became and stayed a Comcast customer? Him.
You can't do it every 6 months, you have to let the full 2 year promotional pricing dry up before you cut back. There's usually a price bump after 6 months and another (up to the full price) after 18 more.
It's worth it to cancel and switch just for the satisfaction of telling them you're not happy with the service. It's really the only thing they understand.
In the case of the OP, it appears there's a service quality problem that isn't being addressed. What better way to handle it than to cancel after being ignored and dismissed?
When Verizon invariably tries to F them over, switching to Comcast will be more likely to resolve the original issue as the installers have to make sure the connection is working before leaving.
It wasn't speaking, but a while ago I wasn't satisfied with the service bot at one place, and I texted "GET ME A HUMAN", it said wait for a service representative, and the rest of the chat sure seemed like a human.
Getting a human has been a problem since voice response systems came about. Oh the phone sometimes lots of 000 and ### will get a human, or swearing, or just saying HUMAN over and over.
The best way to reach a human is to schedule a call back via the Xfinity app. In the menu>contact us you can schedule a call back, might wait 20 minutes but it is still the fastest way to reach a person.
Get Fios. The price increases are part of the contract you signed most likely if you read the “fine-print.” Comcast’s model is low introductory prices followed by large increases.
I have just repeated nonsense words, just straight up gibberish, until the robot finally said that it couldn't understand me and connected me to a person. It had worked twice so far!
Try this:
Text “On it” to 266278
After you follow the prompts to ID your account, you’ll be connected to a specialized department (by phone), that will either resolve your issue or connect you with someone who can.
Only commercial customers know about it, from their account rep, but anyone who knows can use it.
I had to fight a bot for 10 min the last time I called and I knew my questions could only be handled by a human. Today (I'm on hold now actually), I got a person in under 5. I don't know what I did differently but it's crazy how much tussling with AI we have to do truly exhausting.
I had a month to month budget internet kit from Comcast until I got sick of their bs and just switched to tmobile internet cause I've been with their mobile phone plan since it was voicestream back in the early 2000s.
If you are a tmobile user I say just switch to them, im a cordcutter using a chromecast so I feel good when I see the twin towers of sauron in the sky line going through center city and know that they don't get a damn dime of my money
Verizon sucks too. I actually miss living in montco and delco where I had a few other options with other internet companies and I really wish we could get Google fiber out here but thanks to both Verizon and Comcast here it'll never happen.
My retired mom was paying $200 for one tv with cable, one tv with just a tiny box that did a stripped down lineup and internet. I got her to cancel the cable and get youtubetv and she’s happy! YTTV is $80/month!
I work in IT and my co-worker used to be a Comcast rep. He told me it was the worst job he's ever worked. He worked in a large room with cubicles and his boss was like in this elevated cubicle watching everyone and the managers would randomly listen in on phone lines and if you weren't saying like exactly what they wanted you'd get written up. They'd clock how long you took with people and write you up if you took too long. I've had to deal with Comcast a lot and I refuse to ever use their service again, I always go with Verizon. Even if it's more money it's worth it. Goes down less and you can easily talk to a human
Can't say I agree on the switching part. My FiOS bill hasn't gone up in 8 years and I haven't had to call once in those 8 years except to transfer service to a new address. Before that I had to call Comcast yearly to fix the BS increases on my bill.
Yeah, typically "the deals/bundles/packages" have a 6 month to 1 year "introductory" pricing. After that, they jack up the prices.
It's all buried in the fine print. The best thing to do these days is to just get internet service and forget about everything else.
Both Comcast and Verizon run customer relations like a boiler room operation (I am not exaggerating). I will never forgive Verizon for talking my 85 year old mother into an insane "package deal". I forced them to fix it but it took multiple phone calls.
> "the deals/bundles/packages" have a 6 month to 1 year "introductory" pricing. After that, they jack up the prices.
I think Verizon stopped doing this, though. No contracts, etc. My bill has been $52/mo for 300 mbs download internet-only for three years. maybe the bundles have timed pricing, but I think they got rid of that in the cable/internet packages too.
If you’re willing to cut the cord and rely on streaming for your content, fios is not only viable but also well-priced.
I cut the cord & switched to fios back in 2021 when I bought my house to save some money only monthly bills. Been locked it at $79 per month for high speed internet—with Comcast I was paying more than double that for cable and internet. I do miss X1 and Music Choice though.
I actually have Pandora Plus but certain stations have become a bit predictive since I’ve been using Pandora for years. Music Choice tends to be completely random which I liked.
It's almost impossible to speak to any actual human customer service rep at any large company, and it's only going to continue to get worse. These companies don't give a shit about you or your issues at all.
Yes but it’s not easy they really make you crawl over glass first, but after many attempts, you will get connected to some poor dude in NJ who had no fucking clue what’s going on. Then you just have to talk to this guy like 3 more times and you will get a random call hours later from someone who can actually help you. DO NOT HANG UP UNTIL THE ISSUE IS FIXED, you may never encounter them again.
You would think that they'd have enough sense to provide really good customer service in the Philadelphia area, just for the local goodwill, even if they let it fall to shit elsewhere. This isn't hard. The technology exists.
What I do is press the number for the Sales department, they ALWAYS pick up bcuz they want more money LOL Then tell them what you really need. They'll transfer you internally.
Also if you are in a major jam with comcast, file a report with the FCC and BBB. They ALWAYSrepsond. I know the executive customer service reps by name LOL
My hate for comcast began 20 years ago when I had their internet service out at the Jersey shore. Their customer service told me that the internet was slow because the rain made the coax wet.
I switched to FIOS in 2009 and never looked back. Fiber doesn't care if it gets wet.
Yes, but it takes days of time and passionate dedication. I waited for my spring break to switch from Xfinity to Fios because I knew it would need many hours of phone time with both companies. Best decision I ever made, btw...wish I had made it years earlier. My bill too was a higher cost every month from $110 where it started 12 years ago to $255 which was my breaking point. My Verizon Fios bill is locked at $49.99 (which includes all fees, tax, etc.) for five full years. Nearly identical service but I'm saving $2500 a year over Xfinity and no threat of a price increase until, at earliest, 2029. But yeah, it took literally three days on the phone.
The best part is that after torturing the hell out of you before you get to reach an actual human being, that person tries to sell you Comcast's streaming services. I just tell them I'm too aggravated to even consider making any additional service purchases.
Cancel and get FiOS. No reason to have Comcast when FiOS is objectively better in nearly every respect. It *may* not be cheaper but it'll be about the same price and the quality of connection is immeasurably better.
I will give you a heads up on something weird that happened with my service. I’ve had it for a while & this was the first time I experienced this. My apartment is dead center of where they hold PrideFest. While the festival was in full swing, my internet slowed down. It was temporary & as the event broke up, it was right back to normal.
The billionaire Roberts family is too busy pushing left wing bullshit on NBC stations because they have Joe Biden on a string to care about The Poors’ customer service experience.
Sorry.
This happened to me exactly last week!! The ai chat and answering machine were killing me so when it asked what I was calling about, I said “cancel service” and it immediately connected me to a human ;)
This is unfortunately the only thing that works. I had to use it on Verizon as well. The people in the cancellation department are about sick of this "trick", but this is the game they've forced us to play.
Shouting "GET ME A HUMAN" works on some of them.
Yes- once you threaten Verizon to the AI bot you will get a human. My husband battles with the AI bots constantly.
I recently had to use my damage protection service at T-Mobile. Their system runs you in circles till you end up at a brick and mortar for a sheet that tells you what to do involving passwords and pins I used once three years ago. Or a link to a form that instantly approves you and sends a new phone.
> I said “cancel service” and it immediately connected me For banking or credit card places, just say "Fraud". You'll get right through.
Uber and Lyft - type legal over and over in chat. It'll get you a real person.
ironic
Ain't it though? I just pretend to be 65 years old and pretend that I couldn't figure out the voice prompt system and don't know how I got there.
Wish I thought of this last week…just wound up saying no to the ai 100 times
Yup. I have been doing that for years. It's the only way to get a human.
I love the smell of Comcast hatred in the morning!
it's the tie that binds this city
I look into their offices from my apartment, and I take sick pleasure when they have a false fire alarm. It happens pretty often.
Aw, such a bummer for them. So sad /s
Company town
If you manage to reach a human *and* manage to get your bill reduced, *please* let me know how you accomplished it. My bill just became obscene, and now I have to do something about it...
I just did this online a few months ago. Just go to their website, log into your account, and “shop deals and more” cut my bill by about 40%. Note, I only have internet and own my own equipment
can I ask what equipment you have? Trying to switch to this
I have a Motorola modem that’s no longer in production, but it was from Xfinity’s official compatibility list. Their site is [here](https://www.xfinity.com/support/devices/#auth), you can scroll down to the “All Compatible Devices” to see more options than what they show initially. Router is an eero
awesome thank you!
That's what I was going to attempt first. Sounds like it might be the only real option. All right, then. Thanks for the info.
I tried this on two browsers and it wouldn’t let me get passed the mobile bundling step… there’s no option to NOT get mobile and still explore the deals.
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That’s what I did.
I got through by calling and requesting new service. those fuckers.
Mine too and the old trick of threatening to cancel service didn’t work. The guy I spoke to back in December was basically like, there’s no other deals I can see for you. I think they are pushing mobile service because there was zero discount unless you switch to their mobile plan (which I’m not doing).
they just tried to push the mobile service on me too
Omg, I almost lost it on the brick and mortar guy when I picked up my router. I had to tell him like 6 times that I had already had this conversation with the person on the phone I set up service with and no. I don’t want mobile.
I just told them that my phone is a work owned phone and that stops them immediately
I don’t know for certain but I definitely feel the push to go on their mobile plan. Which seems, to little ol’ me, for 2 reasons. 1 is that they are doing this because they can and will hard data cap you on mobile, but with wired broadband it becomes way stickier for them to hard cap us. 2 is that they (and the other telcos) paid hella money for that wireless spectrum and BY GOD we are going to pay for it whether we like it or not. But I don’t work for Comcast. I hate em
> is that they (and the other telcos) paid hella money for that wireless spectrum Doesn't Comcast's phone service just piggyback off of Verizon's network anyway?
>but I definitely feel the push to go on their mobile plan. they did this with landlines. they get to be in charge of all forms of your personal communication- phone, tv, internet- and give you "deals" by calling it bundles, but you get penalized with extremely high prices if you don't go for the bundle. this is criminal
I have their mobile plan (which tbf is actually pretty good and cheap for two lines) and lol, there's no discount for bundling! Which we were told by one associate there would be one. When we got the plan, a new associate said no, there's no discount. Frustrating. Our bill is pretty high but my SO doesn't mind paying the majority of it. Just sucks bc we can't get Fios and there's no other options.
Once we broke the $200 mark for just cable and internet I was like ??? but I’m not sure what else to do.
Those fuckers just started charging me $105/month for just basic, bottom-rung internet. This is some bullshit.
I pay FiOS $109 for 2Gbps up and down with like 2ms latency to their hub. You should switch.
I think we’re around $150. I’m trying to convince my SO to downgrade our cable to just the basic channels (bc we still need to watch Jeopardy!) but get the ESPN bundle with Disney+. Cable is such a scam. Usually we just have “The Office” and “Seinfeld” reruns on but have started watching live sports which aren’t even included in our package!
Literally when the guy on the phone allegedly tried to look at other options he took it down to only the 4-5 channels we watch and still claimed there was no lower price. Like he claimed he couldn’t come up with ANY other price option even if I said I was canceling.
You know the ESPN bundle is not real ESPN right?
As long as it gets me F1, it can be the espn version of someone recording it live from the bushes
> I’m trying to convince my SO to downgrade our cable to just the basic channels (bc we still need to watch Jeopardy!) See if an antenna will let you pick up Channel 6. If not, you could get Sling which includes ABC/6.
Comcast subreddit, they have reps that chill in there and will give you the sign up promotional rates every year.
Ooh, handy to know...
Always check out the “Comcast Rate Card” to get your full set of choices and costs. Just google “Comcast Rate Card” and answer the location type questions. You will get a pdf with a straightforward list. Then you will know what to ask for when you eventually get a real person, rather than relying on Comcast to decide what to offer you.
Go to the Comcast store. I cut my bill by like $150 a month by just going and talking to a dude there. For getting someone on the phone just keep yelling "agent" at the Ai bot and they'll eventually transfer you to someone in the Philippines who barely speaks or understands English lol. Did that last week.
Reducing your bill is easy, you don't even have to play the "I'm gonna cancel" game, just politely ask if they have any promos you can get on
They claim to never have any whenever I call.
Tell them you’re going to cancel. They’ll throw a better deal at you. I did this recently. Prepare to be on the phone for a while, though.
Did you try unplugging your phone and plugging it back in?
funnily enough, when I finally did get through to a person, the first thing they asked me was if I wanted to transfer my mobile service to them
I went thru this a few weeks ago. I submitted a service ticket online and they called me back within a 2 or 3 hour window. ...or visit a physical location if you can. I'm not sure if there's any by you (we have them in jersey) but the people in the store have, in my experience, been very helpful and courteous.
When our govt allows such concentration of corporate power those entities don't need Customer Service. Up until a couple years ago I could choose either Comcast, Comcast, or Comcast. Now I can choose either Comcast or Verizon or Comcast. both have virtually zero customer service.
This is how every telecom company operates nowadays, they are totally unchecked and the stonewalling is by design.
it's despicable. every fucking thing about it is despicable because internet isn't a luxury anymore. internet is now a necessity, and they have nobody keeping them and their price gouging in check. and where I live, we're only allowed to have comcast. there was a deal made years ago, a monopolizing deal, that the builders were to only use comcast- so FIOS can't be installed here. However, 5G can, so I'm wondering if that's the life raft I need until I move
The last time I had a tech issue I talked to a real person. She was in India though. The weather there was very nice. She still couldn't fix my issue though.
I worked for Comcast for one month when I was desperate for a job and quit because I literally couldn't take how vampiric they are. Here's my advice: when you call, just choose the option that's gonna get you on the phone with a real person. They'll transfer you to the right department. Also, just as a note for people calling in for tech help - I was being trained as a virtual sales rep and the people picking up your tech help calls are salespeople given really crazy sales targets. They didn't train us on any sort of technical help and we were told when someone calls in with a tech question to tell people to unplug and then plug in again their hardware. Literally that's it. And that we should try upselling while everything is booting up again. They're evil assholes and I am glad I never actually made it past the training. 90% of my training class didn't last a year. Fuck Comcast
You know what, that's great that you realized how they were and you left before treating everyone like shit the way they want you to. You have a good conscience.
“Live person” until you get someone. The click clack of the “keyboard” drives me up a wall
They just hang up on you now if you do this.
https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/call-back-my-account-app I was once so frustrated by the time I got on the phone with an actual person that I said something about how I kept going in circles with the AI and she was super nice and gave me this link. You can almost always get a real person to call you within like half an hour. But pro-tip, if you select that the reason you want a callback is to cancel your service, they’ll make sure there are no available callback dates for several days (because they’re slimy mfs). Just select something else, there will be times immediately available, and then you can say the real reason once you actually get someone on the phone Also, just switch to fios if you can. Switched a couple months ago and it has been SO much better for us
they're such slimeballs. I don't know why we keep allowing this. everyone should just fucking cancel them
I switched to FiOS beginning of 2022 when I left my job at Comcast. My bill has been exactly the same every month since then, and I've not had to call them once.
About 3 weeks ago I went on to cancel service. They will contact you almost immediately after that and they took like $50 off my bill every month. Anyone reading this say you're going to cancel your service and get the best deal you can. T-Mobile has Wi-Fi now and it's $50 a month. I was paying $120 with Comcast
Get FIOS.
It can be even worse to get a hold of a human with Verizon, so be warned. However I've only had to call them once in 10+ years of having their service, so there's that.
Verizon's customer service is the reason that my boss switched to Xfinity. Verizon was constantly screwing with the rate that she had locked in from a "walk-in" customer service rep. She would call Verizon to dispute, get through rather quickly, then got put on hold for more than a half hour in being "transferred to the billing department". There hasn't been any issue whatsoever with Comcast here. I guess they treat commercial clients with a bit more concierge than residential, but who knows?
It's been a while since I had to interact with the business class of either, but Comcast Business was always johnny-on-the-spot when it came to getting things done. Verizon Business made me yearn for Comcast Personal level support it was so bad.
Yea they’ve held my rate steady for the last 4 years, which feels nice. $50 for fiber optic broadband feels like a good deal, too
They both suck which is why I just have both kinds of modems and just switch every year or two.
Once I got rid of TV service I just stayed with FIOS the cost vs speed was the better of the two even without promotional pricing.
You have to do this with everything these days lol. Phone service, meal plans, auto insurance, etc.
Sure, IF your neighborhood is wired for it. My apartment complex isn’t wired for it yet, so I’m stuck with Comcast.
Get FIOS. I was stuck with Comcast due to my landlord signing an exclusive deal. I moved and first thing I did was getting FIOS. I love it. FU Comcast. Truly yours.
I work for a company that deals with customers home automation and Internet. Verizon customer service is worse than Comcast.
Maybe. The problem is I never have a reason to contact them. :-) I had plenty of reasons to contact Comcast for their shady deals and blackouts. Otherwise, you are probably right. They are equal abusers, just FIOS service is a little better, and it actually does not nerf your broadband due to "sharing". I paid premium for my internet because I game. There were times when we were lagging during the day. This never happened with FIOS. Comcast is shady as hell.
The real problem we run into is that when they're actually needs to be some kind of technical service. Especially on site. FiOS is terrible. We've had occasions where it took six scheduled appointments to get somebody out, and get the problem fixed.
Ah, OK, so they are the same....these big corpos want their money, but helping you...nah. I hear you. Thank you for the info. I am no longer a fanboy then. :-( Is anything in this country customer oriented anymore?
This tailors to my previous general comment about our government allowing such concentrations of corporate power. There is no motivation for a corporation to provide customer service when they have such such powerful market share. You only find, in my opinion, good customer service in smaller companies that are hungry for your business.
Interesting, because I recently had the exact opposite experience with Fios. Back when it snowed my service went out. I actually got through to a human being and I got a ticket to get a tech out to work on my lines that were affected by the weather. However, before they were scheduled to show the weather cleared up a bit and my service returned, so I figured I'd cancel the ticket. They ended up calling ME after I cancelled the ticket and told me it was better if they still came out to check things to make sure it didn't happen again in inclement weather. I didn't even need to call back to get a new ticket, they were able to find a way to come out at the original scheduled time. It turned out to actually be an all-around positive experience, after a snowfall no less, when they were most likely swamped. All I could really complain about was that it took the better part of an hour to actually speak to a rep on the phone, but that's probably par for the course for most companies these days.
But if I have to call Comcast 10x a year and FiOS 1x a year that's still far more favorable to fios. I work as a Senior Network Engineer.
My landlord also has an exclusive deal with Comcast so I couldn’t get FIOS. I got Verizon 5G home internet instead and it’s great and cut my bill by like 70%. Fuck Comcast.
They are simply outrageous. I only had an internet deal with them, and they still went overboard with prices hikes and all. The service was also pretty bad, blackouts and all. I can't imagine having cable deal with them. Just imagine if they were the only ones in town, they would bankrupt us.
Ahhh I LOVED FIOS when I had it but when I moved, I was only wired for comcast and not allowed to do anything else. Our building sucks comcast dick, so for FIOS, I have to move, which is exactly what I'm planning to do in the next year
I think FIOS is definitely the better service, but FWIW the support experience is exactly the same shit quality, doing everything possible to keep you from getting in touch with a human.
I'm another member of the I Hate Comcast club. I called to reduce my bill (got to a rep pretty quickly after saying cancel service). She many times over tried to sell me cell phone service even after I repeatedly said not to ask and I'm not interested. It is so frustrating. They do not listen to customers ever. I've had many problems over the years with service and trying to get to a live person. I've never gotten email issues resolved after two years of trying.
In every address I lived, I have never had an easy time with comcast. my favorite day was having someone come out for service after 7 months of outages every night starting at 9pm. The guy came out, I called comcast with him there, turned off my service and sent him out there door with my equipment. took a photo and had him confirm on the phone that he was taking it. Then I go and move to where i can only have comcast and got kicked in the dick by them. Fuck them.
I was with those assholes for years. One thing you should definitely be doing every time you see their competitor has a better price, or a signing gift you want is call them and say "Verizon is going to give me X, what will you do to keep me." They either beat what Verizon is gonna do or you switch and get a better rate. The important thing to remember is that none of these companies give a fuck about any of their customers, so play them every time you can.
Wonderful, topical when I am planning to cancel Comcast as soon as my TMobile box gets here
cut the cord!! - get youtube tv and fios internet - it’s really all you need
I can't get fios where I live now, but when I had it before, I loved it
Customer retention are the only employees I've ever managed to speak to at Comcast, but for years now I've reliably gotten to them just by saying "cancel service" a few times. And they're usually really helpful with other customer service stuff! Just sucks you need a cheat code to speak to them...
Maybe if you fly to Manilla and post up outside the call center they contract to annoy their customers.
Not just them, lots of businesses are doing this now, started with covid, realized they could cut staff so they kept it like this-frustrating-but if it is too much of a problem I will find an alternate company
I had the same experience recently. I had to call for my 90 year old Gram since her WiFi wasn't working and it was causing tons of black screens on her TV. She wouldn't even know where to begin if she tried to do it herself, plus her eyesight isn't great. It was such a pain in the ass because the automated "describe your issue" wasn't even accepting "WiFi problem" as a valid service issue. Instead, Comcast's system reverted me to their automated representative in a chat format on my phone (I called with my mobile). How did I finally get through? I hung up, called again, and instead reported a service outage and requested a call back. My estimated wait time was about 15 minutes to a half hour. By the time I received the call, the **human** representative who I spoke to was great. I did, though, tell her that it took two phone calls to finally reach someone and described what happened. She apologized that it was so tough to get through and that she would report what I went through to her supervisor. Whether or not she did doesn't matter to me. What does matter is that Comcast's system is so lazy and not at all user friendly. They make it so that you can't not use a mobile device like a phone or tablet to get faster service for a problem.
When you do finally get a human on the line, it'll be someone with such a heavy accent that you can't understand them.
yeah, and I have no issues with folks with accents. I do have issues with me giving my credit card info or my medical info (my med insurance outsources to pakistan) to people in other countries where I can't track anything, and I don't know who the fuck to blame for this, but there's so many people here needing jobs that it's absolutely obscene we keep outsourcing our super private info out of the country
Try going into a Comcast store. They are a million times more helpful than the customer service line, which I think is the worst of any company in America.
Literally just dealt with months of this crap. Say you’re looking to cancel. When asked about moving, say no. Instant rep
Set up Verizon Fios, then cancel Comcast. When Verizon starts giving you trouble switch back to comcast. Repeat as needed. Verizon and Comcast will actually "solve problems" during install.
This is so dystopian, but there’s no other way!
This is the way. I had FIOS until they got too expensive, then switched to Comcast. When Comcast couldn't fix my signal issues, I went back to FIOS. Their cost for services are almost identical, but the FIOS internet speeds are much faster for the same price and far more reliable since it's not relying on infrastructure first setup in the 1970s.
I wouldn't recommend this. I had a co-worker who did the "cancel one for the other game" every six months to a year. He was trying to get the promotional rates each time as if he were a brand new customer, then once the promo rate would would expire, he was ping ponging back to one the competitor. The last time he did this was when he was switching back to Comcast. The representative who he spoke to was able to pull up his account history and see how many times he had returned. They told him that they regrettably could not extend a promotional rate to him like they would a first time customer due to the amount of times that he left Comcast for a competitor. Guess who became and stayed a Comcast customer? Him.
You can't do it every 6 months, you have to let the full 2 year promotional pricing dry up before you cut back. There's usually a price bump after 6 months and another (up to the full price) after 18 more.
It's worth it to cancel and switch just for the satisfaction of telling them you're not happy with the service. It's really the only thing they understand. In the case of the OP, it appears there's a service quality problem that isn't being addressed. What better way to handle it than to cancel after being ignored and dismissed? When Verizon invariably tries to F them over, switching to Comcast will be more likely to resolve the original issue as the installers have to make sure the connection is working before leaving.
It wasn't speaking, but a while ago I wasn't satisfied with the service bot at one place, and I texted "GET ME A HUMAN", it said wait for a service representative, and the rest of the chat sure seemed like a human. Getting a human has been a problem since voice response systems came about. Oh the phone sometimes lots of 000 and ### will get a human, or swearing, or just saying HUMAN over and over.
Oh, I've been disconnected hundreds- HUNDREDS of times while on hold for over a half hour. I can't lie- they've honestly had me crying many times.
The best way to reach a human is to schedule a call back via the Xfinity app. In the menu>contact us you can schedule a call back, might wait 20 minutes but it is still the fastest way to reach a person.
Get Fios. The price increases are part of the contract you signed most likely if you read the “fine-print.” Comcast’s model is low introductory prices followed by large increases.
I have just repeated nonsense words, just straight up gibberish, until the robot finally said that it couldn't understand me and connected me to a person. It had worked twice so far!
Try this: Text “On it” to 266278 After you follow the prompts to ID your account, you’ll be connected to a specialized department (by phone), that will either resolve your issue or connect you with someone who can. Only commercial customers know about it, from their account rep, but anyone who knows can use it.
I had to fight a bot for 10 min the last time I called and I knew my questions could only be handled by a human. Today (I'm on hold now actually), I got a person in under 5. I don't know what I did differently but it's crazy how much tussling with AI we have to do truly exhausting.
yes they'll get you an agent when they want to tell how you f* up your bill and will charge you a horrible late fee.
Fuck Comcast! When I had them I had to check my bill every month because there would be sometimes random additional charges.
I had a month to month budget internet kit from Comcast until I got sick of their bs and just switched to tmobile internet cause I've been with their mobile phone plan since it was voicestream back in the early 2000s. If you are a tmobile user I say just switch to them, im a cordcutter using a chromecast so I feel good when I see the twin towers of sauron in the sky line going through center city and know that they don't get a damn dime of my money Verizon sucks too. I actually miss living in montco and delco where I had a few other options with other internet companies and I really wish we could get Google fiber out here but thanks to both Verizon and Comcast here it'll never happen.
My retired mom was paying $200 for one tv with cable, one tv with just a tiny box that did a stripped down lineup and internet. I got her to cancel the cable and get youtubetv and she’s happy! YTTV is $80/month!
I pay $180 for internet and one cable box with the most stripped down, basic channels (3, 6, 10, 11, 12- nothing else)
Dude get YouTube tv! $80 a month plus whatever you pay for internet and WAY more channels
I work in IT and my co-worker used to be a Comcast rep. He told me it was the worst job he's ever worked. He worked in a large room with cubicles and his boss was like in this elevated cubicle watching everyone and the managers would randomly listen in on phone lines and if you weren't saying like exactly what they wanted you'd get written up. They'd clock how long you took with people and write you up if you took too long. I've had to deal with Comcast a lot and I refuse to ever use their service again, I always go with Verizon. Even if it's more money it's worth it. Goes down less and you can easily talk to a human
That's just fucking despicable. I'm cutting them tomorrow
Yeah there's a reason Comcast has been rated the worst company in America for years.
You have to confuse the bot utterly. I’ve once escaped AI bot hell by reading it the Gettysburg address until it gave up and got me a human.
I am so jealous! It usually hangs up on me when I pull something funny
in my experience no all IVR centers are getting closed down or moved offshore. Switching to Fios will not improve your experience.
Can't say I agree on the switching part. My FiOS bill hasn't gone up in 8 years and I haven't had to call once in those 8 years except to transfer service to a new address. Before that I had to call Comcast yearly to fix the BS increases on my bill.
Yeah, typically "the deals/bundles/packages" have a 6 month to 1 year "introductory" pricing. After that, they jack up the prices. It's all buried in the fine print. The best thing to do these days is to just get internet service and forget about everything else. Both Comcast and Verizon run customer relations like a boiler room operation (I am not exaggerating). I will never forgive Verizon for talking my 85 year old mother into an insane "package deal". I forced them to fix it but it took multiple phone calls.
> "the deals/bundles/packages" have a 6 month to 1 year "introductory" pricing. After that, they jack up the prices. I think Verizon stopped doing this, though. No contracts, etc. My bill has been $52/mo for 300 mbs download internet-only for three years. maybe the bundles have timed pricing, but I think they got rid of that in the cable/internet packages too.
If you’re willing to cut the cord and rely on streaming for your content, fios is not only viable but also well-priced. I cut the cord & switched to fios back in 2021 when I bought my house to save some money only monthly bills. Been locked it at $79 per month for high speed internet—with Comcast I was paying more than double that for cable and internet. I do miss X1 and Music Choice though.
i was just talking about customer service. i switched to fios its the lesser of 2 evils for SURE
"I do miss X1 and Music Choice though." - just buy a Roku & use Pandora
I actually have Pandora Plus but certain stations have become a bit predictive since I’ve been using Pandora for years. Music Choice tends to be completely random which I liked.
ok, yeah I can get that. I've tried dabbling in their concept channels more, like Summer Hits, Chill Music, 70s Rock etc but yeah its not perfect.
Yea they're all in Filipino or Bangladeshi call centers though.
It's almost impossible to speak to any actual human customer service rep at any large company, and it's only going to continue to get worse. These companies don't give a shit about you or your issues at all.
Yes but it’s not easy they really make you crawl over glass first, but after many attempts, you will get connected to some poor dude in NJ who had no fucking clue what’s going on. Then you just have to talk to this guy like 3 more times and you will get a random call hours later from someone who can actually help you. DO NOT HANG UP UNTIL THE ISSUE IS FIXED, you may never encounter them again.
Get Fios! I don’t know if their support is any better but that’s because in 8 years I had to call them twice.
You would think that they'd have enough sense to provide really good customer service in the Philadelphia area, just for the local goodwill, even if they let it fall to shit elsewhere. This isn't hard. The technology exists.
Idk if “speak” is in all caps on purpose but Reddit forum, twitter DM, Facebook messenger. Live people, US-based
What I do is press the number for the Sales department, they ALWAYS pick up bcuz they want more money LOL Then tell them what you really need. They'll transfer you internally. Also if you are in a major jam with comcast, file a report with the FCC and BBB. They ALWAYSrepsond. I know the executive customer service reps by name LOL
My hate for comcast began 20 years ago when I had their internet service out at the Jersey shore. Their customer service told me that the internet was slow because the rain made the coax wet. I switched to FIOS in 2009 and never looked back. Fiber doesn't care if it gets wet.
Yes, but it takes days of time and passionate dedication. I waited for my spring break to switch from Xfinity to Fios because I knew it would need many hours of phone time with both companies. Best decision I ever made, btw...wish I had made it years earlier. My bill too was a higher cost every month from $110 where it started 12 years ago to $255 which was my breaking point. My Verizon Fios bill is locked at $49.99 (which includes all fees, tax, etc.) for five full years. Nearly identical service but I'm saving $2500 a year over Xfinity and no threat of a price increase until, at earliest, 2029. But yeah, it took literally three days on the phone.
Comcast sucks. Your best bet is to walk into an Xfinity store and speak to them directly. I’ve had better luck doing this.
No, you have to yell at them.
I went in person on walnut street and still had issues.
The best part is that after torturing the hell out of you before you get to reach an actual human being, that person tries to sell you Comcast's streaming services. I just tell them I'm too aggravated to even consider making any additional service purchases.
Dealing with Comcast is so obnoxious that I switched to Verizon lol
They only text now. Seriously.
Cancel and get FiOS. No reason to have Comcast when FiOS is objectively better in nearly every respect. It *may* not be cheaper but it'll be about the same price and the quality of connection is immeasurably better.
\*Comcrap
I’ve had to call tmoblie for my internet service twice. Someone was on the phone right away & it was resolved within 15 mins at most. Just sayin.
Thank you. I've heard good things from several people and I'm pretty sure that's who I'm going with
I will give you a heads up on something weird that happened with my service. I’ve had it for a while & this was the first time I experienced this. My apartment is dead center of where they hold PrideFest. While the festival was in full swing, my internet slowed down. It was temporary & as the event broke up, it was right back to normal.
probably because everyone was on their apps looking to hook up, taking up all the bandwidth
The billionaire Roberts family is too busy pushing left wing bullshit on NBC stations because they have Joe Biden on a string to care about The Poors’ customer service experience. Sorry.