The Legend

The Legend

Monday, January 9, 2017

Comcast and Kiner

Today I decided to tackle a task I had been dreading for well over a month. I live in an area in which little competition exists for cable and Internet. I've been a hesitant Comcast customer my entire adult life. Fortunately I don't have any war stories about customer service issues as they have always shown up for appointments and helped via phone when I've needed them.  My only issue is the overall value of my service as prices have gone out of sight.

Many of my friends have long left the big cable companies in favor of streaming services. That is a logical solution for anyone that doesn't like live sports.  Unfortunately for me and my bank account I'm a huge sports fan.  So like most Icommitted to one of those 24 month plans that start out at a very reasonable rate and then shoot up a good bit in year 2. I was aware of this and was fine with it. I'm well past that committment today.

A couple months back I noticed my bill kept going up a few bucks here and there to the point where I called today. It seems that a new user fee was added to where the bill went up $15-20 a month.  I called Comcast and told them I wanted to downgrade my service and they quoted a rate I was happy with.  When I got home I noticed they had taken off more channels than what the new plan was supposed to have.  This is when it gets kind of weird.

When I got a new customer service person on the phone he said my account had been dropped to economy.  I explained to him that wasn't what I wanted and he ended up offering me a deal that was better than my current setup and roughly $50 cheaper.  I was mad and happy all at the same time. Mad that I wasted all this time on the phone, but happy that a mistake lead to someone who offered a better deal. I guess the moral of the story is to keep Comcast on the phone until they give you what you want. It was just so damn frustrating that the first customer service associate didn't offer the improved plan.  What a waste of time, but I guess it worked out for the best.  Now I can watch Game of Thrones and the NBA Network.

Now to a funny card story.

A couple days before Christmas I drove to the town I grew up in to visit a few friends and drink some good beer. The next morning I noticed I had an email from eBay that said congratulations you won this card.

1948 Bowman Ralph Kiner RC

It was one of those oh shit moments thinking I may have done something stupid.  Fortunately this Kiner is far from mint and only cost me around $30.  I had a gift card at my disposal so it turned out to be only a few bucks.  At the time of ordering I must have been more coherent and then drank enough good beer to forget the auction win. Friends don't let friends have an imperial stout tasting and order vintage baseball on eBay! 

Thanks for reading! 

12 comments:

  1. Really cool card! I'm glad you're drinking and eBaying story had a happy ending, there are many a message board posts filled with stories of much less positive outcomes.

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    1. I bet. The guys that collect Mike Trout, Lebron and Connor McDavid need to stay away from EBay if they are drinking.

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  2. Sweet card!

    I don't think I'll ever cut the cord, at least not anytime soon. Like you, I watch too many sports. I have two cable boxes, but doesn't stop me from streaming to other TVs in the house. In fact, just put a new Roku TV in the kitchen without cable box. Plus bought an HDTV antenna for it and immediately picked up over 50 channels, including all the local ones. Glad it worked out well for you in the end!

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    1. The equipment adds up fast. That is where I'm probably going to negotiate next. I'm still running some old HD boxes.

      Good idea on the hdtv antennas.

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  3. Good thing the drinks led you to eBay and not back to Comcast! My own bill just made the jump last month to 4 times higher, I am going to have to make some calls myself...

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    1. Godspeed! I kept a pretty cool head and never gave a quitting ultimatum. Just said I was looking to cut some costs. The first person I talked to was worthless.....The second person was much more helpful

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  4. I wish you could by your cable a la carte. As a guy who watches zero Tv and zero movies besides sports and a little news. I always pay more than i want.

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    1. A la carte service would be fantastic but I'm sure they would come up with a way to screw you.
      HDTV $3.00 a month
      AmC $5.00 a month
      Local sports channel $100 a month

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  5. We have two Rokus and use the antenna to pick up local channels. It works pretty well, except that we use Comcast for our Internet... ugh. I really hate dealing with Comcast.

    Honestly, I think you should drink more imperial stouts and Ebay at the same time. That's a pretty sweet card!

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    1. I'm usually in the minority, but customer service hasn't been an issue for me with Comcast. I just got pissed at the business practices. I hate that they will offer different packages for the same setup. Doesn't seem fair.

      Maybe I'll do an IPA tasting and end up with a Stargell rookie!

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  6. I had that Kiner card growing up and probably still do. My valuable childhood cards are in a safe deposit box (this one, Roberto Clemente (1955 or 1956, can't remember which -- which is lame considering that card & its value), Nolan Ryan rookie, etc. It's been eons since I've seen these cards actually. Thinking I need to take stock.

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    1. You better go check. Need to make sure your cards weren't Ocean 11'd.

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