
Amazon begins reselling Comcast services on its new site, the Amazon Cable Store - prostoalex
http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/21/amazon-begins-reselling-comcast-services-on-new-site-the-amazon-cable-store/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29
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vinhboy
This actually does remove one pain point of buying these services. If you ever
been on the Comcast or ATT website, you know how annoying they are.

They won't show you the options you want, and navigating them is a nightmare.
They upsell like crazy there.

At least here it's like ordering anything else on Amazon.

I think that's a pretty worthy improvement.

I do notice they did keep Comcast's deceptive marketing though. Under 10Mbps
-- "1 device at a time", "Single user".

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Shivetya
the issue I have is that the offers I receive through mail do not necessarily
exist on the website. I can call and get the offer but only that way. Then to
top it off, my current Comcast account is not even listed as an available
option, meaning the speed and price I pay is no where to be found on the
website.

when your product offering is so confused how do they expect the experience to
be good?

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derefr
Presumably, the website is a general point-of-contact for the parent
corporation, while the offers might be specific to your region. If it were a
grocer or a pizza place, the deals specifically for you would likely be behind
a "find your store" form. But Comcast likely wants to pretend they don't
discriminate by region, so they just don't expose that at all.

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dublinben
They actually have distinctly different promotional offers in the same areas
online, in person, and over the phone. You cannot register for an online-only
deal in person or over the phone. It's a wonder their service even works at
all.

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Arcsech
If I could deal with Amazon customer service instead of Comcast, I definitely
would. If I had any sane option other than Comcast for internet service (i.e.
not satellite), I would jump ship in a heartbeat, even if it meant paying
twice as much.

Every time I've had to contact their customer service, they act like the issue
is my fault, then try to sell me a bunch of shit I don't need or want, then
insult me again when they eventually get around to actually fixing the issue.

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sosborn
> they act like the issue is my fault

They absolutely shouldn't do this, but I bet that the vast majority of issues
they handle are indeed the customer's fault.

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Arcsech
For what it's worth, the issues in question were:

1) When they turned off my service a month after I moved into my new place,
because they had somehow gotten the "moving from" and the "moving to"
addresses backwards, despite repeatedly confirming this when I went to
transfer service. I honestly don't know why it ever worked in the first place.

2) When they turned off my service when they suddenly decided that my modem,
which was purchased new from Amazon and had worked for more than a year
previously, had a MAC address associated with their low-income program and
couldn't be used on my plan.

3) When their system forgot my account exists (I literally had to create a new
one), leading to me being unable to pay my bill.

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sosborn
Wasn't trying to imply that your issue was your fault.

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Someone1234
They still refuse to tell me the maximum speed internet I can receive.
Comcast's website lists speeds like 150 Mbps, but a neighbour claimed after
signing up to Xfinity that they could only receive up to 25 Mbps, and weren't
told until very late in the sign-up process.

Xfinity have several coverage maps, none of which legitimately tell you what
services they can offer your property, just broadly what is on offer in the
area.

I'm not even a Comcast customer and even I hate them. Their entire sign up
process has tons of small print, gotchas, competing packages, and so on.
Amazon might be able to improve that, but why would I want to have to deal
with someone that obtuse?

Unless Amazon literally bought out Comcast/Xfinity, I don't think I can switch
to them. The stress isn't worth it.

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nommm-nommm
What's even worse is they do what amounts to a bait-and-switch. I call up
Comcast to get Internet service. Then they quote me a price on the phone and I
sign up. However, the price they quote is only the "base" price. There's tons
of fees and taxes that aren't disclosed until you get your bill. There's
literary no limits to these line items and they can increase at any time. None
of these were ever disclosed to me over the phone. I can't understand how this
is legal.

They also did hard pull on my credit without my explicit permission.

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swalsh
The bad customer service I think is a reflection of the bad practices internal
to comcast. Unless Amazon uses their might to leverage comcast to upgrade
their network etc, they're just going to be a friendler face ontop of a bad
service.

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mcpherrinm
I somewhat disagree: At least in my experience with Comcast, the customer
support is far worse than the internet. They're the best ISP I've ever had,
except when I have to talk to a person.

I suspect the support issues are mostly a result of Comcast trying to save as
much money as they can on that front. Supporters never want to spend the time
figuring out what's wrong: they want to end the call as quickly as they can,
and probably hit their quotas.

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CamperBob2
Did you have business service, or residential?

 _Always_ sign up for business service when dealing with Comcast.

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spike021
For what it's worth, I've had Comcast residential for over 3 years now and
have only suffered a severe outage once, but usually no issues like that.

Occasionally at night there are disconnections.

But the customer service is definitely awful. I find I have best success
immediately asking to be transferred to the customer loyalty office rather
than the call center.

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CamperBob2
Right, that's the advantage to Comcast Business. It only costs a bit more, and
when something does go wrong, you get faster, better-informed service from
more knowledgeable people.

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midolzzzz
It's nice that you can get Comcast services without dealing with them directly
but this does not really solve the underlying issue IMO... Too many bundled
services and an antiquated business model. I recently left Comcast (TV)
because I only watched around 5-10 different channels yet to have high
definition and use their DVR the cost was $130 a month just for TV. I now use
streaming services and it has been great. There are a couple of channels that
are not offered anywhere outside of big cable but until I can select the
channels I want without paying for the ones I don't I will not go back.

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SloopJon
I have an unadvertised TV package from Comcast called Digital Economy that has
most of the non-premium channels (USA, Discovery, CNN, but not ESPN, SyFy,
FX). Paired with 25/6 Mbps Internet, it comes to about $95 / month (and
rising).

The cheapest Amazon Cable option, which requires a two-year commitment, has a
promo price of $90 that goes up to $170 after the first year. Not for me.

I know there are people that get intro rates every year or two by threatening
to cancel, but that's just not my style.

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Someone1234
> has a promo price of $90 that goes up to $170 after the first year.

I hate that.

If you want to keep it cost effective you have to call them up once a year
without fail and re-negotiate your rate. Otherwise they just rip you off like
crazy.

Same thing with SiriusXM radio. $5 is completely reasonable, but calling up
every 5 months to receive it is too annoying, so I'll just stick with
FM/AM/etc.

I'd prefer to pay honest rates than fake-cheap/fake-expensive ones. Just set
the rate between the promo and full price one (e.g. $130 for $90/170) and
leave it the heck alone indefinitely. 0 month contract.

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jlgaddis
SiriusXM's pricing is outrageous but, fortunately, they're pretty easy to deal
with and they're quick to offer/renew promotional pricing if you call in.

I've got it on three vehicles -- my truck that I drive, my car that my
girlfriend drives, and my motorcycle now (that I get to ride for about half of
the year) -- plus the streaming option (I have one of the old tabletop radios
on the nightstand next to my bed or can use their app on my iThings and Roku).
I'm not sure but I think I'm probably paying full price for everything now. I
know for sure that I have at least two different accounts with them and it may
even be three.

I just hate having to deal with them once every couple of months (since my
packages expire/renew at different times) and so I just let everything auto-
renew at whatever price they then want to charge me.

What sucks is that I mostly listen to only two or three channels. The
girlfriend has a few that she primarily listens to as well. They did just
recently introduce an "a la carte" option it seems, but apparently that
requires new hardware. :/

I also just recently received an e-mail letting me know that the pricing on
each package will be going up -- again. Someday I'll say "hell with it!" and
call them up to cancel everything but I'm sure they'll just offer me the usual
$5/month for five months promo and I'll end up staying.

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Bjartr
I wonder if doing this is part of a content licensing agreement to get more
content onto Prime Video.

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ocdtrekkie
This is really simplified and unfortunately, doesn't 'tell the whole truth'.
For example, it shows 10/25/75/150/250 Mbps options, in my area. But our
'Extreme 105 Mbps' service here hasn't been upgraded to 150 Mbps like
elsewhere in the country. 150 Mbps isn't actually the speed offered here, but
Amazon thinks it is.

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BorisMelnik
interesting it says "not available in your area/zip" and I currently have the
package they are talking about.

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forbiddenlake
Choose "no term" under "Agreement Length"

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mikeash
Wow, it works! You'd think Amazon, of all companies, would understand that
they should guide customers to what's available instead of just saying "no,
guess again."

Edit: it works a little too well. Selecting "no term" gives me options even
for an address where Comcast is not available. Great job, Amazon.

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vblord
Too bad they don't offer Amazon prices on the Comcast service. $67/month for
25Mbps internet... give me a break.

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joesmo
So will I lose my cable TV service too if Amazon closes my account for
violating unstated terms of service?

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meepmorp
As opposed to service with Comcast where you can't get rid of it on purpose.

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jessaustin
Wow this deal could unintentionally solve problems for lots of people.

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jessegreathouse
Yuck. I don't want comcast getting my money. They suck.

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Esau
So the company that mistreats its employees is joining forces with the company
that mistreats its customers. This should go swimmingly.

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Aelinsaar
Really? I think this might be a case of trying to over-polish a turd.

