Amazon begins reselling Comcast services on its new site, the Amazon Cable Store | Hacker News Reader

Amazon begins reselling Comcast services on its new site, the Amazon Cable Store

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44 pointsprostoalex50 comments

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".

Do you know if you still get backend access to Comcast to manage your bill and such?

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?

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.

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.

The features I want in a cable provider is control of my dvr from a mobile app, the ability to hide/delete/unsubscribe from a bazillion channels to only show me the channels I actually like watch and the ability to have profiles like Netflix.

But if you report that you ordered service from Comcast and what you got was not what you ordered, do they send you another internet? :-)

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.

I finally switched from Comcast to another provider and I get the same service now for half the price. It wasn't customer service that drove it, it was their predatory attitude toward offering deals to keep me onboard, then gradually increasing the price of my service. When I left, I called to cancel my service, and they sent me for a 10-minute conversation with a "customer loyalty rep" or some such thing, who wouldn't even give up when I made it clear that the other company's box was already installed and working in my house.

Just tell them you're moving out of the country. Zero attempts to upsell or retain. Worked 5/5 times for me.

They started pressing me to see if I had a friend I could transfer service to.

thats the first thing that i thought of too, why would i want to mix my really good experiences with amazon, with the potential of shit that is comcast. I also just realized as i am typing this, that im a business client, and dont have a consumer channel.

> 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.

Ah, the classic "try turning off your router for 60 seconds" because consumer routers are not reliable.

However, they usually don't listen to the end user stating what procedures have already been completed. It seems like everything would fair better if they just pinged the modem the moment the user identified themselves to get initial diagnostics.

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.

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

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.

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but did you see this story?

http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/03/comcast-failed-to-in...

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.

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.

According to the page, they will have dedicated support people for these customers.

You're right with respect to network or maintenance issues, but customer service might be a "bad practice" that they can improve by outsourcing. Actually I expect Amazon will cancel this deal soonish, as it becomes clear that Comcast have to screw somebody, and if they can't reach the customer Amazon will get screwed instead.

I don't know, Amazon is historically pretty good at being the screwer, rather than the screwee.

I'd honestly love to see Comcast try to fuck with Amazon, and then the frantic backpedaling as Bezos throws a thousand lawyers at them.

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.

I used to have Comcast. It was pretty unreliable for a couple of years, then eventually firmed up and it was OK.

The customer service is definitely atrocious. I remember one incident where the modem was clearly indicating that it wasn't seeing a signal on the line. I called up, and the guy asked me to reboot my computer. I explained that this was clearly unnecessary, and he agreed and proceeded with proper troubleshooting. Then at some point he must have forgotten and reverted back, and asked me to reboot my computer again! It was bizarre.

Worse was when they had to send techs out. They give four-hour windows and then never even make them, nor do they ever communicate to tell you they're going to be late. I had one guy show up at 5PM for a 12-4 window and then act baffled at why I wasn't there. When I did manage to make contact, they often sucked. One guy did some work on my exterior wiring and then just left without cleaning up. I went outside to find open cable boxes, wiring sticking out, and bits strewn around on the ground.

Things got better when I discovered the @comcastcares account on Twitter and started telling them about the ridiculous stuff that was happening. But it shouldn't even require that.

Now I have FiOS. I've had to call for a problem exactly once. That one time, I got a person and told them that I logged into the router and it said it couldn't obtain a DHCP lease from Verizon. This tech understood exactly what that meant (I never had a front-line Comcast tech understand "DHCP") and immediately launched into appropriate troubleshooting. She had me back online in a few minutes with no bullshit.

Did you have business service, or residential?

Always sign up for business service when dealing with Comcast.

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.

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.

Given the anecdotal evidence as well as surveys, it seem you've just been lucky (as was I for numerous years till this year). My recent support experience was terribly frustrating until I did two things: asked to be routed to retention, and then filed a form to email their VP: http://customer.xfinity.com/help-and-support/vp-contact-form

Speed issues still aren't resolved, but it's tolerable now.

Can you name 1 or 2 telcos that don't have hordes of angry customers cursing them?

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.

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.

> 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.

You'd think there'd be some service you could subscribe to that'd do this for you. Like an on-contract corporate buyer, but for consumer services.

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.

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

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.

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

That happened for me too.

Choose "no term" under "Agreement Length"

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.

Ditto. I've had up to 150mbit from comcast in the past, and amazon only has 75mbit available in my area either term or no term.

HOWEVER, the one advantage is that the amazon cable store offers me no-tv packages cheaper than comcast does directly. Usually when I call in, they 'upsell' me into being a cable tv subscriber because they give me one step up in internet speed AND $5 cheaper/mo, all to inflate their subscriber numbers.

The TV they give me is 'basic' which used to be called 'lifeline' and is so worthless that I just have the cable box up in my attic; my antenna works far better. Though they do throw in HBO which means I can use HBO go to watch silicon valley/john oliver/etc.

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

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

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

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

Comcast was actually pretty good with me when I dropped services.

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

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

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

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