15 Yrs Into Agreement To Provide St Paul’s Elderly A Cable Discount, Comcast Reps Never Heard of It

[Panich52]

Consumerist

As part of a contract that lets it be the exclusive cable company in town, Comcast offers low-income and elderly St. Paul, MN residents a discount off their cable bills. Great, right? Well, it would be… if anyone could actually manage to sign up for it.

http://consumerist.com/2015/07/16/15-years-into-agreement-to-provide-st-pauls-elderly-a-cable-discount-comcast-reps-have-never-heard-of-it/

[hollysmom]

1. sounds about right

I had lost all power at the beach and lost my place after Hurricane Sandy, and called to cancel my Comcast service, They would not let me cancel, I said,I have no home here any more. They said I could build another, or I could just keep their service and watch on the internet, I didn't need a home. I finally cancelled the service in a registered letter.

[yeoman6987]

4. Weird. My comcast is month to month

I also thank goodness don't have limits on streaming......yet. I hope never to. My sister has 250 data. Mine is unlimited. I hope it stays that way.

[jeff47]

10. When you try to cancel Comcast, they send you to the "retention" department.

The primary goal of that department is to get you to not cancel. Their main tactic appears to be keeping you on the line so long that you give up before they actually cancel your service.

[PoliticAverse]

2. This is what happens when you grant monopolies "in the public interest". n/t

[NickB79]

6. Thankfully, Comcast is facing some real competition in the Twin Cities now

http://www.startribune.com/centurylink-aims-to-bring-competition-to-twin-cities-cable-tv-market/298682901/

Doesn't do me a bit of good, being 30 miles out in farm country south of St. Paul where all we can get is DSL and DirecTV, but my city friends are pumped.

[JimDandy]

3. Sounds like a ripe class action suit.

Isn't this kind of consumer problem within the purview of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

[PoliticAverse]

7. This would be more the FCCs purview. CFPB is...

"We supervise banks, credit unions, and other financial companies, and we enforce federal consumer financial laws."

Note that Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders just wrote the FCC about cable companies, see:
http://www.ibtimes.com/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-think-your-cable-tv-bill-too-high-they-want-fcc-2003592

[JimDandy]

8. Thanks! n/t

[dembotoz]

5. not uncommon and pretty sure reps are evaluated on revenue so giving the discount hurts your numbers

give out too many discounts and you are flagged

flagged too often and you apply to work elsewhere

call centers are evil places
on the phone with att on thursday and the person i talked to went out of her way to help me
at the end when they ask about how they did i gave her high marks but att low marks and i think that affected her
rating.
the problem was att policy was stupid in this case and it hurt my customer.
not the reps fault but the companies fault

[Rex]

9. The less diversity, the more things cost. Happens all the time with monopolies.

Some consumers are too foolish to realize they are being taken for a ride by their local monopoly. Some just have no choice. America, land of diversity in everything except commerce and politics.

Why is that?