You Can Now Get Comcast TV and Internet Service Through Amazon

An anonymous reader writes from a Fortune article: Comcast has struck a big online retail partnership. The media conglomerate has begun selling its Xfinity TV, phone, and Internet services through Amazon. Comcast's service bundles are available through Amazon.com's recently debuted Amazon Cable Store. Comcast customers have long complained about the company's shoddy customer service. "Xfinity purchases made on Amazon are supported by a dedicated team of highly trained Comcast customer service agents who are based in Comcast's new, state-of-the-art call centers in Spokane, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona," Comcast wrote in a blog post. According to Cable Store FAQ, users will have to go through Comcast directly if they want to make any changes to their existing plan.

Re:

[Opportunist]

I was more thinking along the lines "I'm pretty sure I can get rat poison via Amazon either, but why would I want to?"

Re:

[JazzLad]

Because now there are 3 new call centers to send it to? ;)

Re:

[NatasRevol]

Better prices & consistent, comparable prices.

$50 for 75Mbps where I live.

"highly trained Comcast customer service agents.."

[Darth Twon]

I didn't realize there was such a thing.

Re:

[MitchDev]

They are highly trained in how not to be helpful to the customer while maximizing upsales of comcast services...

Re:

[FatdogHaiku]

Just looked at the page, it's bundled with internet service. I see no place to buy just TV service, and I already have smoking fast cable so this doesn't add a thing for me.
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/13295274011 [amazon.com]

Re:

[Opportunist]

Or trained while high. Hence "highly trained".

Re:

[OrangeTide]

They are trained at ripping you off and insulting your intelligence.

Re:

[Opportunist]

The question is just, helpful for whom?

"Highly trained"

[kheldan]

Does that mean that English is their first language, and they've memorized the script they insist on them sticking to, instead of just having it in front of them at all times? Is it actual people now and not some chat-bot regurgitating pre-written responses?

Re:

[OrangeTide]

Highly trained chat-bot?

Re:

[Opportunist]

No. It means what it reads. Use your grammar.

Thoroughly means that something is done in a thorough manner. Gladly means that something is done while someone is glad.

Thus highly trained means they were trained while being high.

Re:

[FlyHelicopters]

Try signing up for a 75 Mbps plan somewhere where Comcast doesn't have competition.

^ Quoted for truth...

I have three high speed service options here, two fiber and one cable, and service is good and reasonably priced (300 meg up and down for $80 a month, gigabit for $105).

I shudder to think of living somewhere without options!

Re:

[__aaclcg7560]

I'm not sure where all the hate comes from.

Whenever a Comcast truck drove through the neighborhood, my previous roommate and I knew that our Internet service would get impacted. The conservations with the service agents boiled down to "your end" vs. "their end", where they blamed your end and denied that their end was the problem. I spent three hours on the phone one time, trying to explain to them as a certified network technician that the configuration was hosed on their end. A field tech came out to confirm that the problem was on their end.

Re:

[omnichad]

I've never understood the fact that an engineer can be dispatched to work on a whole neighborhood and potentially take them all down without the customers in the area being able to sign up for a service alert text. This isn't just Comcast, it's everyone (I'm in a Charter area).

Or, if an outage is confirmed, just let everyone know that you're aware of it via SMS. I wasted 20 minutes on hold just to find out that they were already aware of a problem. Internet is a utility, and my power company will actuall

Re:

[JazzLad]

You can't expect every company/utility to have the same level of technical expertise. Sure, your power company can do this, but that doesn't mean an ISP has the technical know-how to send mass-messages. ~

Re:

[omnichad]

You're right - telecommunications companies know far less about telecommuni...wait, what?

Re:

[JazzLad]

Well, I've worked for a few & unfortunately, that's more true than it should be.

In this case, though, the '~' at the end denoted sarcasm [wikipedia.org] :)

Re:

[omnichad]

Yeah...I'm not going to respect made-up punctuation, especially when the one bit of documentation you provide of its existence merely says that one single sports blog has adopted it.

Re:

[JazzLad]

It's all good, I hardly originated it (I'd happily take credit if I did). Tone is difficult to get across in text, though I really thought I laid it on thick enough that the tilde was unnecessary. Never underestimate Slashdot users ability to read sarcasm literally :)

The wiki I posted was out of laziness; there's a handful of people on /. and Reddit (wasn't going to source the latter ...) advocating it. I'm not one of them, but I use it occasionally.

Re:

[Opportunist]

You act like Comcast had any qualms forging reviews.

Re:

[tnk1]

Why would they forge reviews? Comcast getting one whole shiny star would actually be an improvement. Their executives have bonus clauses for every .05 of a star that they can get.

Unfortunately, they also appear to have bigger bonus clauses for how many people they can piss off at once. I hear that they've had to create a new bonus tier for their most recent efforts.

New customers only

[cyberchondriac]

I can't deal with DSL anymore, and the only other (better) game in my town is Xfinity/Comcast. I have no love for either them (or Verizon), but 25MB sounds a lot better than 3GB. But I think I'm SOL here where signing up through Amazon is concerned because I already have a Comcast account.. for cableTV. If I click on "existing customer", the Add Service button gets disabled. Ah well.

Re:

[unrtst]

...but 25MB sounds a lot better than 3GB.

Speak for yourself :-)
I suspect you mean 25Mbit/s versus 3Mbit/s.

Re:

[cyberchondriac]

Whoops, yeah, I butchered that.

Re:

[cyberchondriac]

Oh, it's horrible, I know. We deal with them for cable TV. That said, I haven't found Verizon to be one stitch better. When I was to upgrade my DSL modem from them last year (free upgrade), I waited a week for the mail, and they sent a useless DSL filter kit instead, no modem. Ookay, I guess that happens. So I called them back, and could barely understand the guy (Indian, thick accent); they tried again. This time, I got a phone cord. I shit you not. A phone cord. Nothing else. Morons. I called aga

Comcast complaints?

[Okian Warrior]

Firstly, I don't think "agents not being in a new or high-tech call center" is one of the complaints people have about Comcast.

Secondly, Comcast is well known [slate.com] for not allowing customers to terminate the service.

After purchasing the service through Amazon, will you be able to terminate the service?

The fact that it's through Amazon means nothing if you're still routed to Comcast customer service.

It'll still be (*) Comcastic!

(*) Remember the old meme "he's so $something, when you look it up in the dictionary there's a picture of him"? Comcast is so bad, they've got an entry [urbandictionary.com] in the urban dictionary. That's sayin' something!

Amazon + Comcast = Morons Without The Oxy

[__aaclcg7560]

[...] highly trained Comcast customer service agents [...]

Does this mean that the field tech won't be installing the bypass filter backwards in the box and blocking Internet service for a month while the customer service agent denies that the problem existed because everything worked fine on their end?

My roommate and I went through that. Every time a Comcast truck drove through the neighborhood, we knew our Internet service would get impacted. Bloody bastards.

Fascinating,

[Stray1]

Can anyone actually qualify for a package? I get "We're sorry but this package isn't available in your area. Please select another package."

On pretty much every choice i make. Plugging in random area codes...

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[H3lldr0p]

It's not that they don't want to sell it. It's that they only want to sell so much of it.

Don't forget that all cable providers are getting charged by the content providers based on the number households that are subscribed to those channels. In fact, there are probably tiers of cost in the agreements. So it makes sense that they want to cut off at a certain point to preserve as much profit as possible. We already know that telecommunication companies are notoriously cost adverse they'd rather let infrastruc

Re:

[Stray1]

Update: I talked to the online chat, and asked why I couldn't find anything available in my area (Boston MA, Brookline MA) they told me i need to call Comcast to see if my address is eligible. so much for customer service.

Ridiculous.

Re:

[leonbev]

Yeah, it says that only the 25 mbps service is available in my zip code. That's not true, since I can get the 115 mbps service from the Xfinity site.

Still, I like the idea of having a one stop shop for getting cable service. This new amazon cable site might actually be useful for price shopping once it gets a few more providers.

Re:

[b0bby]

I had to choose No Term rather than 1 Year to start seeing choices.

so, if you're new, you get "special"

[yagu]

According to Cable Store FAQ, users will have to go through Comcast directly if they want to make any changes to their existing plan.

Well, that's special... new customers get top notch service. Long time customers (10+year customer here) relegated to same old.

Re:

[Stray1]

Agreed, My assumption is that these deals online are things a current customer cant get anyways.

Re:

[internerdj]

Finally somewhere that Comcast is not below industry standard. They don't really care anything about existing customers, just like everyone else.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[WheezyJoe]

Yes! For a moment my foolish mind imagined all Xfinity channels streaming in HD over Amazon Prime for like, what, $9/mo? Plus free shipping on all Amazon purchases?!!??

Then, reality checked-in like the hot kiss at the end of a wet fist. Fuck you, Comcast. They suck harder than a black hole, within which all information of your account requests are destroyed and no fees or customer services can escape.

Then Go Fuck Yourself, On That Point Alone

[Kunedog]

According to Cable Store FAQ, users will have to go through Comcast directly if they want to make any changes to their existing plan.

Wow, could it be any redder of a flag that a company famous for thwarting attempts to cancel service [youtube.com] wants to insert itself between customers and Amazon (a company known for oozing convenience) at the critical moment when they want to make a change?

Re:

[b0bby]

Since that's on the FAQ for Existing Xfinity Customers page, my reading of it is that you can't just switch over to the Amazon service if you're a current customer, you'd still have to deal with Comcast directly. So I'd hope that any changes as an Amazon customer would be through them.

I Took A Look

[Thelasko]

I priced out the services I have now. I would save $2/month ordering through Amazon. The thing is, I had to call and argue with customer service to get the rate I have now. They wanted to charge me $50/month more if I didn't call and threaten to cancel. If I don't have to deal with that frustration anymore, this service is priceless.

Re:

[jtmach]

Except for you most likely will have to still do the dance every year. For me every option says that the price goes up after 12 months regardless of if you select to have a contract or not.

New! Send your paycheck to Amazon!

[DogDude]

New service! Send your paychecks to Amazon directly, and suckle off of the warm, soothing teat of Big Mama Amazon. Why waste time spending money with reputable, responsible companies? Just send it all to Amazon because hey, who really gives a shit?

Re:

[omnichad]

Considering that employers don't generally pay employees outside of the checking/banking system, that's not really an important distinction. You still need banks to turn checks into cash. You could just as well do that at an ATM if you want cash so badly.

I'm Tempted

[b0bby]

Does anyone know how the "No term" thing works? I see the following options for 25mpbs:
        $34.99/month for the first 12 months
        $49.99/month after 12 months
        $69.95/month after 24 months
  Could I just switch to the 10mbps plan after 2 years & stay at $50? For my purposes 10mbps is fine really. I would really rather not deal with Comcast directly.

Re:

[Ksevio]

I've been with them for the no contract plans for a while. It's basically an agreement that they'll keep the rate fixed for that time, but you have no obligation to stay with them or that plan so you're free to switch plans at any time.

Comcast's new, state-of-the-art call centers

[NotDrWho]

"They told me to fuck off must faster than usual," said one customer.

"I didn't even have to wait on hold forever for them to tell me they couldn't help me," said another.

Re:

[stackOVFL]

Or you could just link to the Comcast XFINITY device itself:

http://www.amazon.com/Comcast-Interactive-Media-XFINITY-TV/dp/B00AOA9BL0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1458672644&sr=8-2&keywords=comcast [amazon.com]

Amazing that it has 4.5/5 stars. Not sure about that.

Re:

[Qzukk]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B6... [amazon.com] has 1.5 stars and 82 customer reviews right now.

Personally, I cannot imagine why either Amazon or Comcast thought this was a good idea.

Re:

[Registered Coward v2]

Oddly enough, as a former Comcast subscriber who ditched them a few months back it tells me their service is not available in my area. Must be Amazon's way of keeping customer's happy - prevent them from buy a crappy product.

Re:

[Lumpy]

Executives at Comcast are some of the most clueless people out there. I worked for them for years and they always have really stupid ideas or are clueless as hell.

Comcastic branding.... yeah they were surprised that backfired.
They hired a firm for $2.2million to survey all the employees and give a report. The company after study and interviewing most employees reported that the management was the problem with employee productivity, so they threw out the report and ignored it.

This first product with a rating of zero stars

[RandCraw]

How long will Comcast be willing to suffer the terrible ratings that Amazon customers will inevitably give to Xfinity signup? Hundreds of thousands of one star ratings and incendiary customer complaints?

That wealth of ill will will invite coordinated interstate legal action, like a cross country class action lawsuit. Then Comcast will quickly take action to suppress this, probably by withdrawing the service from Amazon entirely, or by reissuing the product under an oft-changing banner, in order to erase a

Re:

[Obfuscant]

How long will Comcast be willing to suffer the terrible ratings that Amazon customers will inevitably give to Xfinity signup? Hundreds of thousands of one star ratings and incendiary customer complaints?

Why would they care? You don't think Amazon will do anything, do you?

I just bought a new, unlocked cell phone through Amazon, and the first vendor sent me a refurb, test unit phone that still had the manufacturer usage collection software installed on it -- and it could not be turned off because it was a test unit belonging to the manufacturer.

The vendor told me to send the phone back to them at their address. At my expense. Without telling Amazon. And hope I got my money back.

I'd call that fraud. Amaz

Re:

[bhiestand]

How long will Comcast be willing to suffer the terrible ratings that Amazon customers will inevitably give to Xfinity signup? Hundreds of thousands of one star ratings and incendiary customer complaints?

Why would they care? You don't think Amazon will do anything, do you?

I just bought a new, unlocked cell phone through Amazon, and the first vendor sent me a refurb, test unit phone that still had the manufacturer usage collection software installed on it -- and it could not be turned off because it was a test unit belonging to the manufacturer.

The vendor told me to send the phone back to them at their address. At my expense. Without telling Amazon. And hope I got my money back.

I'd call that fraud. Amazon calls that "ho hum".

I presume there is more to the story than you are sharing? Because this appears to be a story of "I bought through Amazon, had an issue with a vendor, and never contacted Amazon... so Amazon sucks".

Re:

[Obfuscant]

Because this appears to be a story of "I bought through Amazon, had an issue with a vendor, and never contacted Amazon...

Oh, for heaven's sake. Of course I contacted Amazon. I did the return through them. Did you imagine that I was going to just keep the stolen phone and not get my money back? I told them what was going on. And their response? Nothing.

How can I know what Amazon calls that unless I told them about it? Stop being insulting.

Re:

[bhiestand]

Because this appears to be a story of "I bought through Amazon, had an issue with a vendor, and never contacted Amazon...

Oh, for heaven's sake. Of course I contacted Amazon. I did the return through them. Did you imagine that I was going to just keep the stolen phone and not get my money back? I told them what was going on. And their response? Nothing.

How can I know what Amazon calls that unless I told them about it? Stop being insulting.

I'm not trying to be insulting, I just didn't see any of that information in your post... and was very confused about why you were blaming Amazon.

My personal experience has been pretty good customer service from Amazon, but I never dealt with returns to any third party sellers.

Re:

[Obfuscant]

I'm not trying to be insulting, I just didn't see any of that information in your post..

Yes, you are trying to be insulting, and you would have assumed I contacted Amazon because I wouldn't just keep the phone and be out the $450 had you not been.

My personal experience has been pretty good customer service from Amazon,

Customer service from Amazon is fine. I didn't say otherwise. (Well, except for the problem of them promising "second day delivery" as part of Prime membership and then stuff not arriving until day three or four -- because it's "by 8PM" delivery to a commercial address, and they include "arrived at the local post office by 8PM" when it's a USPS deliv

Re:

[L. J. Beauregard]

There will be an arbitration clause where you "agree" to sign away to right to sue, and instead must go to an "impartial" arbitrator. Thank your crooked Congresscritter for that.

Re:

[omnichad]

I think the ONLY good way to cancel cable service is to take your modem to the local office and drop it off. If they have one.

Re:

[Raistlin77]

I did that the last time I ended Comcast service (moving to an area served by a different cable co). They continued to try to bill me for the next 4 months, despite my contacting them and repeatedly giving them the order number on the receipt showing that I had returned all of their equipment.

In related news

[Registered Coward v2]

Amazon is changing it's logo from a smile to a scowl...

Note the fake pricing....

[Lumpy]

Excludes Equipment leasing | Installation charges (if applicable) | Taxes and fees

Comcast adds in all kinds of bullshit fees to make that nice looking price end up being far higher in reality.

Our CEO needs new toilet paper fee $1.00
Executive lunch reimbursement fee $4.00
No competition in your area fee $6.95

Correction

[Fnord666]

You can now order Comcast TV and Internet Service...

FTFY

Re:

[tnk1]

You can now pay for Comcast TV and Internet Service...

FTFY

Why so jaded?

I assume that they will be very efficient about accepting your payments.

Good news, bad news

[PPH]

That was the good news. The bad news is that its still Xfinity service, with Xfinity support and more than likely Xfinity TOU.

Does this mean we can write reviews?

[Dagmar d'Surreal]

...because I think it might actually serve as a wake-up call to Comcast if there were a public litany of how much of an utter shitshow Comcast's operational processes are. Maybe. Possibly. Okay, so maybe nothing short of the moon cracking open to reveal an angry alien race personally calling Comcast to the mat over their bullshit will do that, but we're still allowed to dream, aren't we?

Tech support not on commission

[ISoldat53]

Amazon's promising that the tech support won't be on commission so there won't be the incentive to up-sell on support calls.

Wah?

[wwalker]

Cable store? I don't understand, what's there to shop? You either have Comcast, or you have some other cable provider. Is there such a place anywhere in US where you can choose from more than one cable provider? What's the point of this? Does Amazon offer something that you can't get through Crapcast?... I mean, Comcrap.

What changes?

[lhowaf]

You know how they say, "This changes everything"? Well, this doesn't.

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Why even offer it...

[MoarSauce123]

...when it is not available nationwide? "We're sorry but this package isn't available in your area. Please select another package." That applies to ALL their packages. So why offer this service when they avoid any and all competition?