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Tony Kornheiser spoke for all Comcast customers on his podcast this week when he blasted the company for repeatedly raising his bill without actually adding any services.
“I’m angry at Comcast,” he said on this week’s The Tony Kornheiser Show. “Look, I can’t say this enough. I am unaffected by the vagaries of money at the moment. I’ve been very fortunate, I’ve done well, and I’m old, and I’m not worried about the bills I have to pay. You don’t have to hold a benefit for me as I’ve said thousands of times.
“But I’m also a regular human being, like you’re a regular human being, and I get bills, and I go, ‘What? What?’
“I have Comcast, and I like Comcast fine. And I know all the numbers I need to know. I know what 844 is. I know what 850 is. I know what 857 is. I know the numbers I need to know. And I’ve had it for, I don’t know, 100 years, Comcast. I’m cable. I’m not like [Michael] Wilbon. I’m not streaming. I don’t know what that stuff is. I’m okay with cable. It gives me what I want.
“But a year ago, I was paying about $250 on my monthly bill for cable, internet, and a landline, a totally useless landline. I was paying that $250. I didn’t get anything new in the last year. I didn’t get anything new. I got one thing new out in Rehobeth. I got MASN, because I wanted to watch the Nats. And by the way, when I’m done with the Nats’ season I’m getting rid of it. I don’t need it!
“So I was paying about $250, $252 for a long time. Then it went up to $275, and then it went up to $292, and now it’s $322! I’m getting the same stuff! I’m not getting anything else. It’s 322! I didn’t add anything! It’s actually less than a calendar year, and it’s up to $322. So I did what any old man would do: I called.”
Guess what happened? Nothing.
Tony Kornheiser says the Comcast customer service rep told him that they could lower his bill back down to around $290 … if he eliminated some premium channels that were on his bill, thus accomplishing nothing as far as lowering his bill for the services he would be keeping.
“I don’t actually watch any of them, but it seems to me they have good programming every once in a while. If you want to watch movies, they have good programming,” Kornheiser said.
“She said, ‘Well, that’s the only thing I can do.’ She said, ‘I can’t help you with anything else,’ but they’re so very polite that you just can’t stand it any longer. And I finally said, ‘Well, I’m going to pay the bill.’
“She says, ‘Is there anything else I can help you with?’
“And I said, ‘You know, honestly you haven’t been as big a help as I hoped for. And by that I mean you haven’t helped me at all.’”
Sounds about right.