[murjinsee]

Are they the only provider in your area?

Every year when my contract is about to expire they tell me my rates will be increasing from $60 to $90/mo., I call in and say I want to cancel and go to CenturyLink unless there is a comparable retention offer, and they continuously offer me a similar rate if I sign a new contract. It takes about 5 minutes, though I wish I didn't have to jump through hoops.

In a competitive market, they will do this for me within 2 calls usually with no escalations.

My friends in places where there is no other option go all the way up the chain with no results, since their threat to leave has no teeth.

It was crazy observing the difference in customer service when I moved to a major metro.

What I'm trying to say is that I agree that they suck, but they do subsidize the cities with higher fees in the country, and also that haggling is important.

[kgermino]

> [comcast] do subsidize the cities with higher fees in the country

That may be true, but cities also cost less to serve than rural areas. Less density means that equipment serves fewer customers, each customer requires more cable to serve, technicians need to travel further between calls (or you need more of them), etc.

[sebasmurphy]

I've gotten around that recently by just cancelling my account and then having my girflfirend subscribe. We have Charter and their policy is that if you haven't been a customer for a certain amount of time (6-9 months) you count as a new subscriber.