Comcast Raises Rates!

It was just about a year ago that I wrote a blog entry titled Patriot Media Raises Rates!. That was at the end of 2007, and I was more than annoyed that Patriot was justifying the increase by touting expanded offerings for many of its packages, but was giving me nothing for the 3% increase in my service.

Last year brought a new cable company to town, and now a new rate increase. And this increase is even more exasperating than last year's, because they are trying to blame it on me!

Well, not ME specifically - at least I don't think so!

My January 15 bill has a note on Page One which reads:

"Effective 12/29/08, you made changes to your account. See the following page for more details."

What! O.K., let's see what's on the following page:

"Effective 12/29/08, you removed Expanded Service at $38.50 per month. You added Expanded Basic at $48.50 per month."

No. I did no such thing! Which is exactly what I told Customer Service Representative Chevelle when I called for clarification several days later. "Why would I charge myself ten dollars more for exactly the same service?", I explained.

After waiting on hold for several minutes, the young woman informed me that, indeed, I had not changed my service or initiated a rate change in any way - this was really a rate increase. It only reads like it is my fault - but I'm not to blame at all.

Thanks for the explanation Chevelle - I'm sure it's not easy to have to answer for such a deceitful company - one that would try to pass off rate increases by blaming it on bogus customer-initiated service changes.

And is it a coincidence that my rates went up on December 29 - exactly one year after I wrote about the previous rate increase?

I wonder.