Comcast Lost 167,000 Broadband Subs in Second Quarter

MacLeech

GSM-in-FL As those old packages and promo’s roll off, they’re stuck with the prices offered today which is commonly $40 and up. See the links I posted.

Unless you have time machine for today’s customers, quoting old prices is pointless.

lesmikesell

MacLeech As those old packages and promo’s roll off, they’re stuck with the prices offered today which is commonly $40 and up.

And switching to prepaid is as hard as switching to a different company.

GSM-in-FL

MacLeech Not sure what you’re even arguing. I already said earlier the promo pricing model is stupid and is the reason cable companies are losing customers…

Like I said earlier, they should just move to a fully flat pricing model like fiber and fixed wireless, and stop with this “$40 for a few years, then it increases to $85” nonsense.

People would stomach the price increases better if it increased by $5 every 5 years, or something more reasonable.

GSM-in-FL

lesmikesell And switching to prepaid is as hard as switching to a different company.

Which is why most don’t bother doing either. It’s much simpler to just call retentions and ask for a new promo than it is to cancel and switch to a different provider.

MacLeech

GSM-in-FL Depends on price. I don’t know many people who would switch from $30 Comcast to $75 fiber just because they hate Comcast.

GSM-in-FL I don’t know the stats, but most customers are on some type of promo price.

And generally if you call in and threaten to cancel you can get a new promo price.

GSM-in-FL I already said earlier the promo pricing model is stupid and is the reason cable companies are losing customers…

Funny you didn’t mention that today when you brought up $30 Comcast promos and calling to get a new promo price. Meanwhile fiber and wireless are both offering promos too, which is why it’s $35 now and the $75 price you brought up later

ALL the prices you see first offered online for the vast majority of providers are promos. It’s the game they’ve played for decades.

Donut417

iahawkeye83 Maybe if they would have US based customer support that you don’t have to jump through hoops to get a live representative

You think it’s that easy to get US based support going? Customer service jobs are a revolving door. It cost a bit of money to hire and train people, just for them to quit. It’s very hard to attract the right talent for what they likely want to pay.

GSM-in-FL

MacLeech Fixed wireless and fiber is generally only that cheap when you bundle it with postpaid wireless service, which is already very overpriced and expensive, so I’m not really sure how much you end up saving when you do the math.

I’m paying $25 for prepaid wireless, vs. postpaid which is $70-90+ for a single line.

If you’re an AT&T customer in a Verizon FiOS market (or vice versa) you get no bundle discount. Or me as a prepaid customer also gets no discount.

Verizon FiOS is $50 without the bundle discount, or $60 without auto-pay.

Also worth noting that Verizon FiOS has only raised their price by $10 in 20 years.

FiOS started at $40 in 2005, and now it starts at $50.

MacLeech

Spectrum’s been hiring US based support reps starting at $20 per hour since around 2020:
https://jobs.spectrum.com/20
…but they’ve also had several rounds of layoffs the last couple of years too:
https://broadbandbreakfast.com/charter-planning-to-lay-off-107-engineers-managers-in-missouri/
https://www.mainepublic.org/business-and-economy/2025-12-11/cable-giant-charter-lays-off-176-workers-from-portland-call-center
https://www.reuters.com/business/charter-lay-off-close-1200-employees-source-says-2025-10-21/
https://www.fierce-network.com/broadband/charter-pulls-plug-1k-call-center-jobs

MacLeech

GSM-in-FL Also worth noting that Verizon FiOS has only raised their price by $10 in 20 years.

FiOS started at $40 in 2005, and now it starts at $50.

They raised their initial PROMO price by $10 in 20 years. That starting price is a promo. Mine went up more than $10 in the 4 years I had it because the promo rolled off.

GSM-in-FL

MacLeech That starting price is a promo.

No it’s not. They don’t do promo pricing. It’s flat pricing.

The extra $10 is the auto-pay discount, but that’s not a promo.

MacLeech

GSM-in-FL Oh look, their “flat price” is actually $59.99, not the $35 of their rate first shown on their website or $50 you said. Seems like that $35 is a promo. The more you look the higher it gets.

It’s often still cheaper than what customers are paying Comcast though.

GSM-in-FL

MacLeech Oh look, their “flat price” is actually $59.99

$50 is with the auto-pay discount, so again, not a promo.

MacLeech Seems like that $35 is a promo.

No, it’s the bundle discount with postpaid Verizon wireless service. Most people don’t qualify for that.

Also not a promo, but a bundle discount.

iahawkeye83

Donut417 and the abuse that phone reps take is insane. I work in a supermarket and while we take an abusive customer here and there (and the customer is literally two feet away from us and they could have anything in their pocket, under their waistband or show us the back of their hand) I rarely have an abusive or aggressive customer. My neighbor in Iowa worked in call centers doing outbound sales in the days before caller ID and the abuse was on every other call and it ranged from them slamming the handset on the base (when you could get a phone for less than $30 at RadioShack and not $1,500 like the one in my pocket) to them blaring a boaters horn into the handset and his ear was ringing for days because it made a loud nasty noise in his headset. Not to mention the colorful language they would use on the phone. The only worse call center job besides outbound sales aka telemarketing is a debt collector. They must take an insane amount of customer abuse. And many call centers that are US-based are in federal minimum wage states, I won’t take that abuse at $7.25 an hour. Even if it’s work from home I’ll take working in the supermarket over that. And there is metrics. They want you to take so many calls in a certain amount of time. They always rush you off the phone, not that they don’t want to help you but they want to meet their metrics for the month. And they never have enough agents. Hour long holds to get rushed off the phone. That’s customer service these days. And your call is never answered in the order received. They prioritize sign up/sales calls and cancellation and support calls get pushed to the back of the queue.

px_eliezer_

MacLeech Altice/Optimum has been converting their network to FTTH for the last 12 years, lost customers the entire time, and is on the edge of bankruptcy.

Their conversion is slow.
The network is just bad.
Their customer care is abysmal.
Although their business gateway equipment is good, their residential gateway is awful.
Nothing is easy with them, just connecting a modem is a multi-hour adventure (not automated) and they are the only company that does not try to maintain a decent list of recommended modems.

Etc x 1000.

MacLeech

GSM-in-FL No, it’s the bundle discount with postpaid Verizon wireless service. Most people don’t qualify for that.

Also not a promo, but a bundle discount.

So again,prices on all of the providers website aren’t what you pay. The vast majority aren’t paying Comcast $30 and can’t get that price without quitting and signing up like a new customer. The vast majority aren’t paying the $40 they advertise on their site either. The average price customers pay their providers is closer to the ARPU on their quarterly reports.

That’s why customers switch providers. The advertised promos and offers they get when they call are cheaper than what they’re paying with they current provider.

MacLeech

px_eliezer_ othing is easy with them, just connecting a modem is a multi-hour adventure (not automated) and they are the only company that does not try to maintain a decent list of recommended modems.

That’s because they’re putting the majority of their effort into their fiber service since Altice had taken over. They provide the ONU, install it for you, and don’t give you a choice to use your own.

MacLeech

iahawkeye83 the abuse that phone reps take is insane.

Doesn’t matter who or where you work, phone support jobs are all about the same, suck, and have high turn over. Comcast isn’t any different in that.

GSM-in-FL

MacLeech The vast majority aren’t paying the $40 they advertise on their site either.

I think it was Charter who said most of their customers are on promo pricing, not paying the rack rates. I forget the percentage they quoted, I think it was like 60%.

MacLeech That’s why customers switch providers.

Most do not, actually. Churn in general is pretty low.

Like I said, when people call to cancel or complain about price, they’re offered lower pricing to stay.

Most accept that instead of bothering to switch.

MacLeech

GSM-in-FL I think it was Charter who said most of their customers are on promo pricing, not paying the rack rates. I forget the percentage they quoted, I think it was like 60%.

Charter has stepped promos, so they decrease over a couple years until the customer pay rack rate. The initial offered promo only lasts 6-12 months usually and many are upsold so aren’t even paying the advertised rate. It’s the game the providers all play in some form.

GSM-in-FL Most do not, actually. Churn in general is pretty low.

Like I said, when people call to cancel or complain about price, they’re offered lower pricing to stay.

Yet they’re still losing over 100,000 customers per quarter, like the title of this thread says.

GSM-in-FL

MacLeech I guess my point is, lower prices are available without switching providers.

100% of Comcast customers could switch to $30 prepaid tomorrow if they wanted to.

Same with postpaid wireless. Visible, AT&T Prepaid, US Mobile, and many others are offering $25 unlimited plans. Most people are just too complacent or lazy or not tech savvy enough to bother switching.

Yes, I wish the providers made it easier, and it requires some effort and knowledge from the customer, but it is possible.

It’s not in the provider’s best interest to make the customer knowledgeable about how to cut their bill in half lol, unless they feel there’s a risk of them leaving entirely (like when they call retentions to cancel).

« Previous Page Next Page »