05 Feb Reducing Your Cable Bill in Less Than a Minute
Competition: It’s the American Way

Monopoly: A situation in which a single company owns all or nearly all of the market for a given type of product or service. This would happen in the case that there is a barrier to entry into the industry that allows the single company to operate without competition (for example, vast economies of scale, barriers to entry, or governmental regulation).

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Comcast verses Verizon. Comcast won –this time.

When the letter from Verizon informed me that fiber-optic television was now available in our area, I knew exactly what that meant. Competition had finally arrived for our TV viewing dollars. Like most parts of the country the cable franchise, Comcast, has enjoyed a monopoly in our neighborhood for years. Oh, yes, there is satellite TV but with so many trees around here there is no clear shot skyward. And who wants to deal with a dish?

Real competition could only come from an alternate landline reception and government cooperation. When the county approved Verizon’s bid to offer its competing FIOS service I knew I had gained a bargaining chip.

Verizon’s brochure offered 200 digital channels, “tons of Hi-Def” (that should mean more than five, right?), and a “massive On Demand Library” all for $42.99/month. Their copywriters made their service sound, well, delicious. I wanted a bite!

We were paying Comcast $54 a month for their standard plan of 78 channels. Let’s see, 200 massive digital tons verses 78 standard ones. Which to choose?

But wait. Hooking up to Verizon’s TV service would require we exchange our $18/month DSL for their $40 fiber-optic internet connection (apparently copper wire and plastic fiber just don’t mix). The savings would be anything but.

And we really didn’t want, no, we really didn’t need more channels. We weren’t even watching the ones we had. We had just nixed Discovery’s Health Channel from our 8 year old’s TV lineup. Too many über-realistic birthing shows were stressing her out and leading to too many premature questions.

With little free time plus our time-shifting TiVo and Netflix (which we recently downgraded from three DVDs at a time to two after we discovered the same film waited patiently on our mantle for three months before we watched it) we were quite satisfied with our 78 channels. Except for the price.

So, today, I called Comcast’s retention department and, well, if you’re a loyal reader of Life Outtacontext, you know what came next. I told them of Verizon’s counter offer and asked them what they wanted to do to keep me their loyal customer.

Bam! They lowered my cable bill by $15 a month: a 26% savings. No haggling and it was over in less than a minute. Over the next year that will save us $180.

Competition: it’s the only way.

Update: Even though we have some competition for cable here, the Washington Post is reporting: Cable War Fails to Offer Rate Relief in Montgomery.

Related Article: An even better deal: Reader Plays Quitsies To Get Time Warner Bill Lowered (via Consumerist.com)

• [ Verizon, Comcast, FIOS, Monopoly, Competition ]