Comcast Xfinity Double play - actual cost
Can someone who has Comcast/Xfinity double play (Internet and TV) tell me what the actual cost is once the first year is up? The $89 a month sounds good but I read it would be extra for a sports fee? A DVR fee?Also what other "extra" charges do they apply. I'd also be adding two other rooms for tv so I'm sure there is an additional room fee? In talking to them I get mixed answers with no definitive number....I have their 25mg internet now and that costs me $49.99 month as is even though I have my own modem. Thanks!
Grascal
Steven Part of the confusion is there isn't just one double play, there are 5. Internet Plus, Economy, Starter, Preferred, and Premier. Which one do you mean? From the price you stated it sounds like you mean Preferred.
As far as I know, you get one DVR converter included. I have Preferred with internet (double play) with one DVR and there is no extra charge.
To know which channels you get with what service, look here:
https://www.xfinity.com/learn/channel-lineup
I have Preferred which it looks like you're considering, and it has the MLB Network, ESPN, NHL Network, NBA Network, YES, Golf, etc. that are on the regular sports package. It does not include the coverage of all home games (like MLB Extra Innings or NHL Center Ice), those are extra on all plans. However what may be confusing is there is a tax you get of $5 that is sports related. It is not for the channels, but it is on top of the base fee. Just as there is a $7 "broadcast" fee on top of the base that everyone pays in addition to what ever taxes there are.
Additional outlets are more no matter what you do, I have upstairs and downstairs so I get an extra $10 charge for the second outlet.
If you go through all of the 20 questions needed to figure out all of the above, they will tell you the base fee. (which includes the $12 fees I mentioned) But they can't tell you the exact amount because they don't know the taxes until after the fact. My base fee which sounds like is going to be similar to yours is $159. You can expect about $20 is taxes.
The exact name of that is XF Digital Preferred Double Play. The only thing I see different from my bill is yours will probably be $10 more because of the three rooms instead of my two.
HTH.
GC I had it for 8 years, in the end, even with calling the "retention" department and getting renewed to the latest double play, I think my total bill was around $140 ish per month
Mind you, by the end of it I had multi room DVR (two rooms) with voice control, and their fastest internet...always got suckered into some sort of upgrade. The only time we had special channels (HBO ...etc) is when they offered it for free.
Darrin Steven, I use a Motorola MD# MB7420 I pay for 25mb service but get 30 with this modem. I've had it over 2 years now. It runs about $70 on Amazon.
Thanks GC and Darrin, Yes it is the preferred. It sounds like with your numbers I'd about break even if I left Direct tv. I pay them $138 a month with four rooms total.. plus HD and two DVR's. So my internet tv total is $188.00. I have some thinking to do. I'm annoyed with Direct tv's raise in rates and unwillingness to talk on price. Although Direct TV gives me 180 + Channels and Xfinity is 220+. GC what speed internet do they give you?
It's a scam - you have to rent their modem & box plus tax - add another at least 20 to 30 bucks per month on that. Let alone YES is like 5 bucks a month alone.
ru ru - I have my own modem but not my cable boxes. There is no fee for the modem since I own it, the first cable box is free, and the "additional outlet" charge covers the second cable box.
Grascal - It's 25mb internet because my original plan was at a time when 100+ did not exist. If you sign up today it should be 100mb as a base for the first year $89 rate. If you have to, you could always just go back to 25mb after a year.
Katherine - the $250 level is the XF Digital Premier, not the Preferred.
Correct, with xfinity, I always bought my own modem on amazon. At the rental rates, buying your own usually had a 1 year pay off, and I would get 2-3 years out of it before they started hounding me that the modem I had was out of date, was not going to work with their new internet....yada yada yada.
Interesting to know grascal. I have direct TV now, but I am on their initial promo still paying $75 for 4 room DVR....
I use Verizon DSL now for internet....huge downgrade, but it's all they offer unless I wanted data limited satellite internet...and I use a lot of data, so would rather it slow and there, as opposed to fast and afraid to use it.
Why the hell is getting tv and internet so darn expensive?!?!?!
I have very basic double play and pay $74.99 a month plus tax. I have one main box and 2 wxtra small boxes. Total approx.$83.99!
I wanted to cancel my TV and just keep internet, but they said I'd be paying the same price. Its ridiculous!!
Anyone know a different internet carrier I can get?
Botheredbyuu2 Hello,
My father is on social security and cant afford cable anymore ..ours with xfnity is $200. has anyone tried Sling or Hulu live? My dad is a huge baseball fan and I wouldn't want to miss the soccer world cup. so any idea how to get these at a reasonable price?
nathalie 
BrotherDog I have found either Playstation Vue or DirectTV now to be best choice as far as channel lineup.
NJSkyWatcher I downgraded my comcast TV to the basic package effective Monday the 20th. I will be trying Hulu as my Live Stream. I also have Verizon DSL so not sure if it will work out or not.
Any suggestions?
Verizon DSL is $20.00 cheaper than comcast.
happycamper Thanks everyone. looking at Direct tv now as they are giving free apple 4k tv.
So I'm learning all this stuff now.
Soo..internet.. is the comcast performance 25mbps enough to stream. there's mostly 3 people at the house that will use most of the data to stream.
Direct Tv now I believe only allows 2 streams at once. Double check this. If so, only 2 different shows can be watched at one time. I have it and I like it.
Dodgeball Also I stream 2 channels at the same time on the 25 plan with no problem. If you are doing wireless get a good router, I have no problem with my AC router to smart tv's. Wired is always the best but not necessary.
I do not stream 4k, I have watched some 4k on my one tv with no issues wireless, have not done 2.
Don't care to watch 4k myself, don't feel it's necessary for myself and family.
I can't tell you for sure if 25k is sufficient for 4k programming for 3 simultaneous users.
Thanks Dodgeball
So only two tv in the same service at the same time? I wonder if online streaming/ app streaming is the same.
I have no idea what 4k is ..I'm totally new to all this ...time to research. :)
I just called Xfinity today to set up new service when I move in two weeks. 200mbs download with 140+ channels for $79.99 for 2 years. I own my own modem so that's my base price and with all taxes and fees my total monthly cost is $93 & change. If you do not own your own modem you'd have to add $10 a month to that price.
weebiekins Has anybody had both Verizon DSL and xfinity internet to make a direct comparison? We are not fans of Comcast at all and swore we would never go back...but our Verizon wi-fi is awful! We have purchased our own modem and it didn't make a difference...it cuts in and out and really can't handle multiple devices. We love our direct TV and will continue keeping that regardless of what we do for internet so the bundle services won't work for us.... So upset that we are stuck with Comcast here in Hackettstown! Does anyone know if these Cable contracts have start and end dates with municipalities? ..just wondering!
For Comcast: DON'T get "An Introductory Special", it's like $75, and within 6-12 months it keeps going up to $180.
what you have to do is get a NON special for the Triple Play (Phone-Cable-Internet- & Basic Cable), and will pay $120 a month total, and it doesn't go up, maybe $1 a year. the secret is to NOT get an Introductory Special or Promotion!!
if you don't want Basic Cable, it will be $40+ more a month.
Hackresident We've had both Verizon DSL (for about 10 years) and now have Comcast. We've been with Comcast about 11 months now, and so far it's been much more reliable. We constantly had to reboot our DSL modem, and often we couldn't make WI-FI connections through our smart TV. We've only had to reboot the Comcast modem a couple of times now in ten months and we've been very happy with it. Sorry, I don't know anything about the contract info---it's a wife thing.
Mr. Resident I had Verizon DSL also for about 10 years. The wifi part was stable but the 3mb speed horrible.. so opted for Comcast and my own Motorola modem. For about $7 more (after the second year) than Verizon I get constant 28 mg download (on a 25mg service) and never have had any issues in two years. Wifi always on ..so thus far I'm ok with keeping Comcast for those reasons. We will see how much it goes up after the third year then ponder some more.
Had DSL and besides the lack of bandwidth for video, was OK and reliable. But had a network issue, and they said two weeks to get there. NBL and I had CCast up that day. Took a few months to port my phone due to being out-of-town and CCast totally screwing up. Best part was when they kept telling me my SS number was wrong because their system said so.....
It is faster and I like the aps which I expect to expand for awhile until someone starts charging for them like the Netflix ap which they have too.
Like DSL for power failure, CCast has ----as heard on HL --- 45 minutes of holdover. Used to just start chromecasting when that happened, but noooooo. Guess I need to get my dvd player to work again.....
Oh yeah, the nomorobo is stopping robo calls and I can actually see it working. Excellent and free!!!
strangerdanger Thank you so much for the feedback! It is really helpful. Looks like we will be giving Comcast a try again. My kids end up staying at college on the weekends because they need reliable wi-fi for their studies .....and the DSL always cuts out at the least opportune times! My husband just hated dealing with the customer service people at Comcast when we had it many years ago. We just had the cable for TV and when we left for satellite TV the lady in the office chided my husband and said, "You'll be back"! when he returned the box. He was so angry there was steam coming out of his ears when he got home!
I guess technically we are not getting the same service from Comcast since we have never had cable internet.....hopefully that will make it an easier "pill to swallow" for the hubby!
Hackettstown mom I had both Verizon and now Xfinity Triple Play. Verizon was so so bad. I had to reboot my computer a few times a day in order to stay on the internet. It was also very very slow. I swore I would not ever go back to Comcast however the 2 year agreement that I purchased last year brought me significant savings of over 50 a month plus I rarely if ever have to reboot and the internet is fast. I never had a problem with Direct TV and actually liked their channels and TV it was Verizon that got to big for themselves and service went down hill so fast!
Dianne Thank you Dianne! I appreciate hearing these first-hand experiences and look forward to having reliable wi-fi soon!
Question. I have basic Comcast channels now. If I just keep comcast internet, and subscribe to Hulu, how much different would viewing choices really be? Will I have live local news? And I don't play video games, but sometimes work from home. What is the minimum internet package I need for it all, plus Netflix? Normally 1 TV on. And yes, just got a Comcast increased bill plus less channels
Thanks!
maja2 Most have (or refundable) free trial periods so I’d suggest trying each to see if they would meet your needs. I’d also include DirecTVNow in the list.
justintime All I can contribute is the fact ive been with comcast forever. Every month my bill goes from 120.00 to 180.00 . I have the internet and basic cable. They promised if I got rid of some of the boxes and switched to basic cable it would stay under 100.00. Not ever once was it not 125.00 a month. Dont order movies or events at all. But they keep telling me a different story everytime i call. Long story short looking elsewhere for the whole situation. If ur a day late on the bill they charge an automatic 12.00 for being late. Im done with there crazy bs to collect more $.
Kikinj Comcast is a joke. There is only 1 hd channel for each group of movie channels. Otherwise the picture quality is a joke. Over 200$ a month for that sucks.
Forcefed4door Interesting the Comcast Costs tread has updated today. I was on the phone with them Comcast discussing the cost of the triple play package I have had for 2 years, starting with an "introductory price" then and it just increased to 273.00 / Month. I work from home and need higher internet bandwidth, that and 3 tvs with HBO put my starting price just shy of 190.00 when I signed up two years ago. Now that package price went up 83.00 / month. So I went on Comcast to see what the "packages" are going for now.
First thing I notice it you can't see the introductory package if you go to the comcast site from an existing account location. Comcast steers you to an account change page, of course pricing based on what one is charged at the moment.
So in an effort to get to the new accounts package, I broke out my Verizon Cellphone Hotspot and bam, the introductory rates are visible.
My services at current introductory pricing is 170.00, less then what I signed up for 2 years ago. So the next call was to Comcast. Me ranting to the customer service person that a new subscriber would be paying 103.00 less than a loyal customer!
What gives I asked. I got the "well you are off the introductory rate and on the full rate". So I say, "cancel my account and re-sign me up at 170.00". I get back "can't do that, you would have to be a non-customer for 2 years. So I say, "well I guess I will have to go elsewhere for service then". Side note: we all know in this area there is no "somewhere else" for good internet service, and TV. The customer service rep tells me "let me check a few things".
So after a few minutes they come back with the package I saw as in introductory rate of 170.00 but at 200.00. I said "you have to do better", knowing I am completely bluffing as I need speedy internet and they are the only game in town. She came back with a 185.00 number, but I will have to speak to the retention team Monday thru Friday to try and get that rate. If I assure you I will.
It kills me that the hypothetical person next door, new to comcast, will be paying less for basically the same service I have had for two years. I guess, brand loyalty is dead, oh wait, it is the only brand to go with, so loyalty doesn't matter.
Sorry for the ranting but, with only one provider in the area, there is no way we as consumers will be able get a reasonable price for what in a sense, is almost a necessity (internet, tv).
The powers that be, the Board of Public Utilities in this state need to get off their assets and do something about this unfair pricing practices and get some competitive solutions in place.
Sorry to all for the rant, and poking at a wound we all have.
JiminMF Jim,
You are correct , there is a monopoly on these services and the owns are not being transparent .
Regarding JiminMF’s experience.....Xfinity is currently really pushing an advertising campaign about their “customer first” experience and making the customer experience their priority. It’s all over the tv and internet. While not completely successful in the past, I found that being relentless with the Retention department by throwing their ad campaign in their face has paid off in getting an acceptable rate, and terms . With the streaming services available now, getting those as an option is looking more and more attractive.
I chased the suggestion up the retention food chain that I would like to have “a la carte” selection of channels, i.e. let me choose the 35 channels I want and pay a flat rate for those. The reply, “we can’t do that because the companies that own those channels won’t allow it without bundling in their other channels.” Imagine if that were the case at a restaurant, or other retailer. I didn’t win that one, but it made me feel better that I tied up their “managers” for a while and kept punching holes in their baseless logic. It’s no wonder these services consistently rank at the bottom of the Consumer Reports lists. Without the monopoly, they would be out of business.
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