Comcast: Has your bill gone up?

[Avista]

I just opened my Comcast bill. It has been $80.78 per month. This bill was $98.78. The difference was in the Comcast Highspeed Internet. It has gone from $24.95 to $42.95 per month. I called Comcast. They said we had a promotion rate for the last 6 months. That is over now. Wow! $18/month is a pretty good jump. May I ask if this has happened to anyone else. If so, are there any alternatives? Thanks, Barb

[Hancle704]

:welcome: to the world of ever increasing rates for Village Residents.

Basically that has happened to everyone that signed up for Comcast's three month introductory hi-speed internet service. Might as well get used to fact that Comcast will raise your bill every year around April 1st.

On a different subject for newcomers did anyone tell you when you bought in TV that your Amenity fees are tied to the Consumer Price Increase (CPI). As they go up, so will your amenity fees on the anniversary of date that your home closed on. Been here 10 years and have never seen the CPI go down.

[F16 1UB]

Thanks Hanc,

Another piece of wisdom to enter in my repertoire

Steve

[REDCART]

Hancle704, I recall that the maintenace fee is capped by the annual increase in the CPI but does it automatically increase or is this just a cap on the amount of the increase?

[Hancle704]

GR:
Not clear what you mean about maintenance fee. I was referring to Amenities Fee. It apears on my combined Monthly Statement from VCCDD. It includes utilty (Water and sewer) TrashBusters and Amenity Charge. Statement advses in advance when Amenity Charge will be adjusted. I believe the cap on it, is limited to increase in CPI.

[zcaveman]

After the first three years your amenities fee goes up by the CPI. It is written in your deed restrictions. It is in 4.3 in mine.

My Comcast went up about $3 last year. I have Comcast Preferred service (without the box) and Hi-speed Internet. Now that I bought a HDTV I need to go down and get the box. I went the other day but the office was "closed for lunch".

[REDCART]

I must have been using condo-speak. I used the term maintenance fee but I really meant the monthly amenties fee. Also in Mallory, my amenities fee is separate from the water, sewer and trash bill.

[zcaveman]

They used to send out a separate Amenities bill. Now they put it at the bottom of the Water, Sewer, Trash bill just to save a stamp.

[Frangyomory]

There actually is a maintenance fee in addition to the amenities fee. We were notified that our district 6 is meeting to discuss an increase in this fee in September. It is about $400 a year right now.

We were told that our amenities would not go up when newly purchased homes got higher fees. Been here two years and just got my third increase! Went from $119 to current $127 a month.

Unfortunately there were several items that were not fully explaned to those of us who bought new from the developer. I have learned to live with some of it but not all of it. Amenities, maintenance and bonds are just a few of what was just skimmed over when we closed. By the way, the maintenance, per the card we got, is for road maintenance, etc. If you are in district 6, you should have a card. I don't know how it is done in each district so you will have to look into it yourself.

Oh, and we have Dish and are considering Comcast since all the rain has interferred with our viewing. Anyone else out there tinking along these lines???

[Frangyomory]

I still get a separate amenities bill each month. Water, sewer and trash are on one bill.

[Hancle704]

oshunluva:
I believe it depends on where you live and when you moved in. Some folks on the Historic side still have their cable and trash for free. That was part of their deal and incentives when they moved in many years ago. As long as they still own it, they keep the freebies. When they sell the free stuff does not transfer to new owner. POA had to battle with developer to honor this arrangement

On the north side of CR 466 we have a single water system. We water our lawns from the same water source that runs through our single water meter. In the newer sections they have dual water systems and their rates reflect that. They irrigate with drinking water they bought orginally and were charged a sewer rate to get rid of, then they buy it back to water their lawns. That can be explained better, I'm sure, by folks who live in newer area.

[KenMac]

oshunluva:
I believe it depends on where you live and when you moved in. Some folks on the Historic side still have their cable and trash for free. That was part of their deal and incentives when they moved in many years ago. As long as they still own it, they keep the freebies. When they sell the free stuff does not transfer to new owner. POA had to battle with developer to honor this arrangement

On the north side of CR 466 we have a single water system. We water our lawns from the same water source that runs through our single water meter. In the newer sections they have dual water systems and their rates reflect that. They irrigate with drinking water they bought orginally and were charged a sewer rate to get rid of, then they buy it back to water their lawns. That can be explained better, I'm sure, by folks who live in newer area.


That's a pretty astute observation! I wonder if this qualifies as double billing? I guess we could simply stop sending it back so they wouldn't have any to resell to us... hmmm

[Mike]

I am a real newbie -- closing next month. I saw them listed but how much are these sewer, water, amenities fees? Anyone have a ballpark estimate for me?

[schotzyb]

Here is a breakdown of bill this month for amenities,water, sewer and trash pickup and this is for a ranch home in Polo Ridge not occupied.

Amenities = 121.95
Water = 5.90
Sewer = 11.35
Trash = 15.45

Hope this gives you an idea . Remember though that the house is not occupied during this bill cycle.

[Mike]

Thanks -- is this the same as that $130 per month fee that one of the agents called the "fun tax"? AKA Contractual Amenities fee?

[rdhdleo]

When we first moved here we had Clearlink Communications it was great, then the developer sold it to Comcast we had Comcast with high speed internet for some time and got fed up with their svc and price so we went to Dish which goes out almost everytime it rains. So now my husband wants to go back to Comcast as soon as this contract is up. But what I would like is to be able to get Brighthouse or ATT of course we know that will never happen since Comcast probably got exclusive rights to the area, so much for free commerce.

[snomore]

I was on Comcast High Speed Internet for many years. I found that it was going up all the time. Finally, we decided to try Dish Network for TV and at the time, Sprint had a package for Dish Network, DSL Internet (with Earthlink) and Telephone. We got it. The DSL is $29.95 (maybe even $24.95 now alone) for as long as you have it. NO INCREASES, they say. Of course, as they say, the only thing CONSTANT is CHANGE... now Sprint has become EMBARQ and my email is now (how crazy) embarqmail........ But it is fine, if you don't try to use their web mail page. I can tell very little difference in speed.
Snomore

[aford]

We also have Dish in what they call a bundled package. Phone, TV & high speed internet.

We had some problem with our satellite going out when it rained. They just came out here this morning and put a new part on the dish which is said to be new & better. The other one went bad, probably from the lightening we get.

The only thing I did not like was they wanted us switch to their email embarq. They kept saying and emailing that embarq will not support earthlink and that you had until Oct 31 to switch over to embarq. They made it sound like their system would not work with earthlink. What they did not tell you is basically you can still keep your earthlink account as long as you pay earthlink for it yourself.

I did not want to switch my email address. It is a big problem. So I am going to pay earthlink myself. I don't have any problems getting on to my email account with earthlink from any computer when we are away from home.

But I love Dish service and their high definition satellite.........too bad we all lost Clear Link. Their service was fantastic, heck they would even answer questions about your computer connection problems even though it was not their responsibility. And there was always a female human voice answering the phone when the cable was out. Well maybe some of you got a busy signal. But she was the only one there working on the problem. That Clear Link female suppervisor Christine would come into the office late nite and reboot the system when the electric went out and then came back on and take the phone calls because the tecs that were on call could not be reached.

The cable does not come on by itself as one would think it does. Your electric comes on but now somebody has got to, I'll call it reboot the satelite. I know this for a fact because she is my daughter. She had an unbelievable dedication and love for that job. Most of all she loved her clients.

[JohnM]

When we first moved here we had Clearlink Communications it was great, then the developer sold it to Comcast we had Comcast with high speed internet for some time and got fed up with their svc and price so we went to Dish which goes out almost everytime it rains. So now my husband wants to go back to Comcast as soon as this contract is up. But what I would like is to be able to get Brighthouse or ATT of course we know that will never happen since Comcast probably got exclusive rights to the area, so much for free commerce.

I recently received a marketing call from ClearLink and they mailed me their channel line up and pricing...Is ClearLink the same as Comcast...the material does not mention Comcast anywhere....

John

[chuckinca]

I still get a separate amenities bill each month. Water, sewer and trash are on one bill.+


If you consider that water, sewer & trash are "amenities" then it seems that the $127/mo for "amenities" is a real bargain!

[kwachowski]

Comcast is always going up. No competition. When we first moved here we had Clear Link and Comcast proceeded to buy them out so we are left with one cable company.

Also our ammenity fee has gone up every year for the past 5 years. I am wondering how high it will go????

[zcaveman]

The amenities bill will go up every year based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI).