I finally did it

Thursday, 1:04 pm

By Kate

Feb

12

2009

This afternoon, I donned my armor and called Comcast. With the new year came a new and improved bill—at least from their perspective, I’m sure. I didn’t care for it very much. It was just enough incentive to finally cancel my phone service. I cannot justify paying nearly $50 a month for a service I rarely use. If they had tiered phone service there might have been some room for negotiation, but they’ve gone to one tier digital phone service, which throws in everything but the kitchen sink. Whether I need it or not. About the only thing my Comcast phone service has been good for is filling my voice mail with supplications for donations to this or that organization. And the fact is that if they have to call me to beg, they are obviously not on my list of charitable concerns and there’s a reason for that.

After being transferred a dozen times and listening to their Kenny G style elevator music while on hold and explaining repeatedly that no, I really do love my Comcast service, but I don’t need the phone (especially not at that ridiculous price), it’s nothing personal, they finally agreed to disconnect my phone service without further adieu.

So, now I have joined the burgeoning legions who are without a land line and who depend on mobile phone service to meet daily needs. It feels a little strange to not have a land line for the first time in my life, but I’m sure I’ll adjust without much notice. I rarely used it anyway and at least it’ll be nice not to have the phone ringing from someone I don’t want to talk to. Everyone else already calls my cell phone.

Oddly, however, I still have basic cable television. Because of Comcast’s demented bundle policy, I need the basic television connection to maintain a bundle discount price for my internet. Without the basic cable television connection, my internet bill would actually increase to about $12 more than the internet/television bundle price. I have a hard time understanding exactly how that makes sense, but that’s Comcast.