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Comment by jds375 | Hacker News Reader

I think it's really shifting away from TV. As a college student, my friends and I have been completely satisfied with Netflix and the like. I can confidently say that there is nearly a 0% chance I'll be getting cable/directv/whatever when I can just get Netflix/Hulu/etc instead.

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Don't most ISPs make it economically infeasible to get internet services without also getting cable TV? Comcast here bundles servies such that internet only is more expensive than internet + cable.

Yep, this is the case here as well. Paying Comcast for TV + internet because it's $15/month cheaper than internet alone. The cable box they sent me is sitting unpacked in the closet.

What I do is call them and outright refuse to pay more for just internet. I tell them to lower my bill to below that each year my "promotion" expires. They forward me to the "Loyalty" department and somehow find a new promotion for me each time.

Fuckers.

> Fuckers.

Interesting, do you have another provider in the area?

I think a lot of the negotiating power comes from the ability to threaten to switch to <competitor>. If they know there is nobody else (and in many places in US there isn't), they can often say "yeah sorry to see you leave", knowing that you can't really go anywhere.

I have for example been oscillating between two local providers. Both have equipment on "premises" installed and just have to switch it on and off. So as soon as one ends promotions, I switch to another and do so on. Sometimes they give me the promotion rates back without having to go the full switch around the circle.

Promotions usually run 6 month to a year.

Not really.cthere are competitors but they suck too. I use reason with them most of the time. Once You Are transfered to the loyalty department it doesn't even matter. In some cases, just ask yo be transfered to loyalty. Losing $30 a month per customer isn't worth losing the customer or the negative social media.

I used to get the promotional rates re-applied every year. Now they just flat out refuse. So I cancelled my cable to call their bluff but I had to keep the internet because I have no other option. Never got a call from customer retention. So now I pay the same amount for comcast internet + directv but I refuse to switch back to comcast just because.

Can I ask where you live, and how much you pay? In the bay area internet only is marginally cheaper than any bundle. $99 for TV + 25mbps and between $66 for just the 25mbps. Teaser rates are $59 for the bundle, $29 for internet.

I live in Kirkland (a suburb of Seattle). Paying Comcast $50/month for "Blast Plus" which is 50 mbps + TV, while it's ~$69 for just 50mbps internet. Both are "promo rates" (aka call the retention dpt. once they run out and you'll get them for another year).

$69 for internet is the full price, not the promo teaser rate. The promo rate is $34 (see linked image). I don't know if you can get the promo rate if you aren't a new customer though.

http://i.imgur.com/dPqlKR2.png

Welp, that's new since I signed up. Will be calling them tomorrow - thanks for pointing that out!

Kirkland resident here, too. Have you looked into Frontier FiOS? We pay $40/month for Internet, non-promo and no TV. (I don't think they've laid fiber optic to every neighborhood in the city yet.)

Frontier's awesome, but they're not available in any apartments in the area and they've ceased fiber expansion a few years back :/

This was the case for me historically as well, but I recently got an HD antenna to avoid paying the fee for digital and told them I didn't want the box. They somehow unbundled them and now I have a more expensive data plan for the same overall cost, and no TV listed anywhere on my bill. I have no idea if I'm practically any better off, but it's nice not feeling like I'm paying for something I'm not using.

The promotional rates work like that sometimes, but if you get the lowest, lowest grade of internet- at the normal non-promotional rate, it is a good deal cheaper than the bundles.

Take my service for example. $40 standard rate (promo was $30). There ain't no bundle out there that runs $40 once the promo period is up.

Here in Central Florida Brightouse is very strict and internet alone is more expensive than bundled. However, after only a month on $130 bundle with ATT, I've "threatened" them to switch into Brightouse (bluff), because I needed cheaper plan and they gave me a $45/month/no contract internet-only plan for 12Mb download.

Its possible that you would achieve the same with BH, but at least ATT hates when you mention competitors, and they make so much money that they would rather make less on you, than lose you big time, knowing once a customer is gone, his/her re-acquisition is very expensive. At least this is my experience. I had an impression that I could push it even harder and call again, complain and they would lower my bill even more before finally dropping me for good, but I am already satisfied with my plan.

Edit: tl;dr - always bluff with your cable provider that you drop them b/c they are expensive and see how far you can get. Most likely your $150 bill can be cut 50% and they still will make money.

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