Twelve days ago, I received an unexpected email from Comcast: “Important Service Announceme
But what they didn’t say in the email is that my bill is also going up.
That’s right — apparently there is a price hike effective December 22, 2011. Turns out that Performance Internet is going up in price from $59.95/month to $62.95/month. While Comcast was willing to send an email announcing the (not requested) feature improvement, the price hike was first mentioned on page 3 of my monthly bill.
What bugs me is that I pretty much never read Comcast monthly bills — and I’d bet many other people don’t do it either. I have “eco-bill” turned on, which means that an email is sent to me each month with a link to login instead of sending me a paper bill. The email doesn’t include any billing information (although it should!); and, after logging in, I have to download a PDF. That’s quite a lot more work than simply opening an envelope… And if I’ve made it this far, I still have to get to page 3 of the bill in order to learn that there is a price increase coming.
Like many others, I have “auto-pay” turned on, which makes me even less likely to want to login to check a bill that ostensibly is the same each month.
Seems like Comcast is being a little inconsistent here with when they decide to email customers…
The other odd thing about my November Comcast bill is that it went up by $1 for no apparent reason. Last month, I was charged $44.95. This month, I’m being charged $45.95. The $1 increase seems to be coming out of a “service discount” — but no explanation is given on last or this month’s bills.
Seems like bad business to increase a bill by $1 with no notification/justification, and disclosing another $3 price increase only on page 3 of an eco-bill — all while proactively telling the customer that they are receiving “25% faster” internet.
Frankly, I’d rather pay $4 less and stay on the original plan (you know, the one I signed up on?). I don’t feel like the difference between 12 and 15 mbps will make a real impact (especially since we’re talking about “PowerBoost” temporary speeds), but now I’m paying $48 more per year.
