Today In Comcast - They Are Charging People $90 To Install Internet Where It's Already Installed
Ars - Comcast is making it difficult for many new customers to avoid paying installation fees—even if they purchase their own modems and are willing to set them up themselves.
Based on our tests, signing up for standalone Internet or TV service on Comcast.com often requires payment of a $59.99 or $89.99 installation fee, depending on where you live. (The fee was $60 in two Massachusetts suburbs and $90 at homes in Houston, Texas, and Seattle, Washington.) In cases where the $60 or $90 fee is charged, the fee is required whether you purchase your own modem or rent one from Comcast for another $11 a month.
The installation fee might be charged even if the home you’re buying service at has existing Comcast service, and even if you order Internet speeds lower than those purchased by the current occupant. That means the fee is charged even when Comcast doesn’t have to make any upgrades at the house or apartment you’re moving into. Internet speed makes no difference, as the fee may be charged whether you purchase 15Mbps downloads or gigabit service.
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I haven’t done a Today In Comcast in a while, but this one is a beauty and a half. It’s a fascinating article about how Comcast requires you to pay a $50-$90 fee to install Internet, even if all you need to do is put a wire into your own modem. It’s akin to Vizio charging you to plug your TV into the wall. The Comcast online system where you can choose to self-install with your own modem often doesn’t even let you finish your order without agreeing to pay that installation fee, even if the Internet is already running where you are moving.
It gets so good:
Ars staffer Lee Hutchinson recently switched from a business-class Comcast service to the company’s residential gigabit cable offering. The “installation” consisted mostly of “the tech watching me take my new cable modem that I bought out of its box,” Hutchinson told me.
“They told me the fee was mandatory, even though I brought my own modem and when the setup actually happened, it was a self-activation,” he said. The Comcast technician watched Hutchinson complete the self-enrollment process online, and then ran a speed test.
Ultimately, Comcast charged Hutchinson just $40 for installation instead of the original $90.
Amazing. Was only charged $40 instead of $90 for doing the work himself. Quite the deal if we’re being honest with each other. I mean they could have charged him the full $90 for plugging in his own modem, but they gave him over 50% off! Steal city.
The article goes on:
In Seattle, one of my co-workers has 250Mbps Internet service from Comcast. I pretended to be a new customer moving into the address and tried to purchase basic Internet service with much slower speeds than the Comcast network is already delivering to the home. There was no way to finish the checkout process without agreeing to the $89.99 installation fee, even if I selected the option to use my own modem.
I got identical results at an address in Houston, where the installation fee was also $89.99 for entry-level Internet speeds even if you use your own modem.
To compare Comcast and Verizon, I also posed as a new Verizon customer seeking to set up service at my current address. I chatted with a Verizon rep, who told me that Verizon’s $99.99 installation fee is waived if you order online, regardless of which service tier or bundle you choose. “Any service you order online, the setup fee will get waived for you,” the Verizon rep told me.
Comcast, baby. They will nickel and dime you in ways you didn’t even know were possible.
Here’s a listing of all my previous Comcast blogs. Enough reading and laughs to last you the rest of the day. Remember when they sent a lady a bill and named her “Asshole Brown”? Hilarious.
New Research Has Named…You Won’t Believe It…Comcast! As America’s Most Hated Company
Comcast Guys Park On The Road On a Snowy Day And Cause 100 Accidents
Leave It To Comcast To Charge a Company $60,000 For Internet They Never Even Set Up
Let’s Check In On Comcast Real Quick
CEO says they won’t raise prices, then raises the prices
Comcast won’t cancel service of guy whose house burned down
Woman tried to cancel her service, they sent her a bill to “Asshole Brown”
Comcast told a guy they wouldn’t charge him for their fuck up and then did anyway
Woman pulled a gun on Comcast after they said fixing it would be free and then charged her
The time Comcast literally won the “worst company in America award”