New Comcast problem

[questionseverything]

Last edited Thu May 4, 2023, 06:49 PM - Edit history (1)

For years we have had Comcast unlimited internet plus the tv package… it’s expensive but at least it was easy to use

Now we only get so many gb and supposedly went over by fifty bucks ($300 total)

There are five of us and between surfing the net, watching shows, laptops for work and school we use a lot but I am hoping my du peops can suggest a better, cheaper provider

Any help is appreciated

Update: so turns out I didn’t have unlimited and we upgraded to that, thank you all for the support and suggestions and just letting me vent

You all are good peops!

[bamagal62]

1. Not sure. We left Comcast and

Went to Verizon fios. I hate it and I actually miss Comcast. I hate all of them and wish I could come up with an alternative. But, I found Comcast easier to navigate. They all suck. I have a family member that decided to stop all cable providers and just stream what they wanted. But they find they can’t always do that and then are frustrated by their decision. So, I’m not sure what the answer is. Hoping someone has better ideas.

[questionseverything]

7. Streaming uses the net and that's what they say we are going over

[Iris]

2. Check Comcast's website for deals

Or call them and see if they will give you one.

[questionseverything]

5. They changed the way they charge us , no more unlimited

I don’t trust them for an honest billing either

They could say we used any amount and we couldn’t prove different

[claudette]

3. I ditched cable

long ago for Roku and I love it while saving money that formerly went to Spectrum. I do have Spectrum Wi-Fi which is great and costs less than $60.00 a month. Not sure it’s available in your area but it is very good. I have three devices on the network

[UTUSN]

4. No expert here, a cord cutter

I started off with HUGE satellite dish in the ('90s?), then went to Dish (never MURDOCH Direct) for some 15-20 years, with all of it being hundreds of unwatched channels - y/know, all packages, yearly increases in price.

Finally/eventually became a cable cutter. some 5 yrs ago, get the local channels on air antenna, and use iHeart & TuneIn radio to access audio of MSNBC & CNN.

It's all free, don't need to see Joe SCABS face.

[hunter]

6. Internet only works.

Comcast or some other provider.

5G wireless is available in some places.

My wife and I quit Comcast a long time ago.

We stream all our television, usually two or three channels (Netflix, etc... we're not loyal to any) budgeting less than $35 a month.

The young people in our family don't pay any attention at all to traditional broadcast or cable television. It simply doesn't exist in their universe.

[questionseverything]

8. The internet overages is my problem

I need an unlimited provider (like Comcast used to be)

What net provider do you use?

[hunter]

16. It's a local provider we've had since the later 'nineties... ancient.

Comcast and Pacific Bell weren't even offering internet service then.

It's a grandfathered DSL flavor these days, cheap, unlimited, and adequate for a single stream of 720p video.

I've been on the internet since the late 'seventies.

Our adult children work on the internet.

I suspect the availability of fast unlimited fiber internet has determined where they live. We don't have that here.

[bamagal62]

18. This. My kids just stream everything.

But they don’t watch sports. That’s our problem. We want SEC football.

[hunter]

31. Sports has to figure out that they'll become irrelevant to the kids without streaming...

.

[piddyprints]

9. We have no choices.

So we're stuck with Comcast. Sure, some of the dish companies are available, but it's far too windy to get a reliable signal.

We have 2 in our household. Comcast called a month or so ago telling us that we were close to our limit and we could have unlimited for so many dollars extra. It was unlimited when we signed up, but now it's not and there wasn't any discount for the downgrade. Not sure how or why or when it changed, but apparently it did. We went ahead and signed up for unlimited for the extra dollars.

We only get internet, no tv, an upgraded speed because my husband works from home, and we rent their modem. So it's not the cheapest internet they offer.

We were paying $94.32. Then it went up to $98.41 for one month. When we changed to unlimited, the first bill was $119.82 and the second bill was $107.76. Hard telling what it will settle at as we haven't seen the third bill yet.

I'd drop the tv and sign up for Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, and any other streaming service. You can stop and start them and only keep the ones you watch. For instance, this month I'm not watching anything on Hulu, so I dropped it. I can pick it up again when I want to. I had Netflix turned off while I was watching Hulu. Easy peasy. Just go online and turn on or off. Even if you didn't do that, the combined cost for all 3, without commercials, is around $45, including tax.

Find out how much Comcast charges just for unlimited internet. You may be able to save some money that way. You can also threaten to quit and they may give you a temporary discount.

[Prince99]

17. local options

We sort of do the same, but I have been hesitant to cut DirecTV because we watch our local news. What do you do for local channels or anyone else?

[piddyprints]

22. I hate watching local news, especially here in TN.

Hate commercials. We get what we need from the internet. We don’t miss tv one bit.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. I have unlimited, high speed internet from Comcast.

Visit them or call and get a new unlimited plan. Here they're pushing unlimited data and xFi gateways.

[questionseverything]

12. They just started charging for overages

Definitely will talk with them

[DemocraticPatriot]

11. Isn't 'Comcast' now know as "Xfinity"?

so far as I know, there is no such thing as 'Comcast' any more....


Last I checked, both Xfinity and ATT (my only 2 choices) have a monthly usage limit of 1 GB on their basic packages, which is plenty for me, a single guy who does watch plenty of live-streams---- but for 5 active users, that would never do...

Sorry, no suggestions. Good luck!

[In It to Win It]

14. Xfinity is the brand, but Comcast is still called Comcast

[mvd]

13. It's too expensive. I have kept Xfinity for now

They never come up with any deals or downgrades where I would still have my sports and news. The mobile isn’t unlimited and they only gave me a Pixel 6. $34 a month for that.

I have thought about YouTube TV plus T-Mobile home internet and mobile.

[In It to Win It]

15. Call and ask for promo deal. If they have one available, they'll usually give it to you

I switched from TV and Internet, to just unlimited internet. For TV, I stream.

I went from paying $275 a month to Comcast to a $50 deal (that does expire in the next few months) and cheaper streaming.

[Sympthsical]

19. Cancel the television, move to streaming

I was in a similar boat to you about eight or so years ago. Kept Comcast with just HBO and home internet. Somehow, the monthly had grown to nearly $250/month. Not even sure how. It had started around $150 and kept getting worse and worse.

Finally just cancelled the whole mess.

Now we pay $60/month for solely internet. Can't remember our package. I get 600mbs down speeds in my office. Mix in a variety of streaming things. Depends what's going on. But generally it's about $60/month for whatever we're doing. Netflix, D+, HBO, Prime. About to cancel Netflix for awhile, I think, and take up Hulu to watch a couple shows. So that went from $250 to about $120.

Don't miss tv. Honestly, we barely ever watched it.

But the key thing is, you can keep it cheap and flexible. Only subscribe when you have a bunch of things you want to watch, then cancel for a bit.

--

Edit: I see you're talking about overages. Depends what your plan is. Our $60 Comcast/Xfinity internet is at 1.2 TB. We're non-stop streamers. I game and download all the time. We both work/school from home. I think our usual month is about 350GB.

Edit edit: Also check your speeds and see if they're slower than they should be. We had an issue last year where the internet was slowing down and our monthly data usage was at like 900gb. It was bizarre, because I knew we weren't eating that much data. I checked all the computers for data usage and it just didn't add up. Turns out, the modem needed replacing. It was constantly pinging back and forth around connections, and for whatever reason, it consumed data doing it.

[questionseverything]

25. 4-27 they warned we had 10% left

When the bill came, we were charged $50. In overage so that means in 4 days we “used” 10% of our package plus & $50. Of extra usage?

Doesn’t seem possible especially since in the first 27 days of month we used 90%

We don’t understand most of this which is probably why they take advantage of us

Will definitely try replacing modem

Ty for your detailed response

[Sympthsical]

26. Do this if you know how

On comcast's website, you can log into your account and check your data usage month to month.

Go in and see if there have been any unusual increases over the past 12 months.

That was the first thing that tipped me off that something might be wrong with my equipment. We had usual months of 250-350GB, and then it just started slowly ramping up each month until we were hitting 900GB.

I did look at their plans last night out of curiosity, and they do offer unlimited. However, it seems like certain states have different regulations that only allow certain plans. Particularly in New England.

[questionseverything]

29. So it turns out I didn't have unlimited

The lady at the store said “I’m 43 and you have been a customer since I was 4 years old “

I said,” seems like y’all would treat me better “

Long story short my bill is going to be 10 bucks higher but now my data/streaming is unlimited

Ty for taking the time to explain stuff and for listening to me vent!

😉

[Sympthsical]

30. Awesome!

Super glad it worked out for you.

[BSdetect]

20. Comcast can give you a FLEX device for "free".

We dropped our TV deal and just got internet.

Cost went from $187 down to $87

Speed dropped but is not noticeable.

Then we discovered they give you Flex which includes access to some cable TV stuff.

That was a huge pain to install. Also a pain to use but I guess better than nothing.

About to drop Netflix as they creep up their prices so much.

[Elessar Zappa]

21. Comcast around here offers an unlimited data service.

Call them and see if they offer it in your area.

[NutmegYankee]

23. I have Frontier, which now is switching to all fiber

I was on 25/2 Mbps ASDL for years, but they switched me over to 500/500 Mbps service with a landline for just $53 including taxes and fees.

[retread]

24. It comes down to where you live. It has been my personal experience living in an area where

there were scant alternatives to Comcast that previous "unlimited" accounts would, with little or no notice, become capped.

My first suggestion is to explore the alternative internet plans in your area.
If no good alternatives exist, Comcast does have plans with no caps.
One such plan is their "business" plan.

If you have a "modern" tv it is probably called a smart tv. That means you can use the internet to stream what you wish to watch and dump cable tv if you have internet with enough bandwidth.

More than likely you have few if any alternatives. The abuse tends to lessen when there are good alternatives.

[sarcasmo]

27. Spectrum has the best unlimited & speeds in my area. Is one of the five in your house

doing a lot of uploading?

[TheBlackAdder]

28. Comcast's Internet sucks balls. I've had Verizon FiOS for around 10 years and only had 4 outages.

.

I ditched TV and just have 1GB internet and voice and pay $90 after all taxes and fees.

Comcast also sends a compressed TV signal, which is slightly degraded. So, eff that shit.
I have a few neighbors and relatives who also had Comcast recently and they ditched them as well.
If you have a problem, often it's 2-3 days to get someone out to your home. Verizon same or next day.

The four outages, just one day due to Hurricane Sandy (I live in NJ), the other three were after midnight and were less than 30 mins each.

.