After not too long ago finishing a 2-year contract with Comcast Xfinity, I went by means of one other spherical of value negotiations and got here out significantly better for it. By means of the negotiation course of, I used to be in a position to drop the overall value of my cable TV, HD DVR, high-speed (“Blast”) web, and Xfinity Cellular (see my Xfinity Cellular assessment) bundle to underneath $95 monthly – roughly a 34% value financial savings versus my end-of-contract value.
Having AT&T U-Verse fiber not too long ago launch in my neighborhood may have helped with these negotiations, as I used to be supplied new buyer pricing for a recent a 2-year contract. What I found within the negotiations, is that Xfinity had modified a number of issues in its pricing construction on HD and DVR charges. On the finish of my contract, I had been charged a $9.95 “HD Know-how Charge” and $10 “Anyroom DVR Service” price for my use of an Xfinity X1 DVR machine:
Submit new contract negotiation, the HD price was gone and if I restricted my DVR storage to twenty hours (the present most for cloud DVR), I may pay simply $5 for the DVR to be downgraded to a set-top “TV Field” designation, as proven on my new invoice:
Replace: Comcast Xfinity raised the “TV Field price” from $5 to $7.50 monthly, per machine, beginning in January of 2021 and later to $8.50 monthly for the primary machine.
I’ll take that commerce any day. However the place issues get much more fascinating is that I came upon within the value negotiation that much like changing an Xfinity modem with your individual with the intention to do away with the Xfinity modem price (now $168/12 months!), you too can do the identical with Xfinity TV containers and DVRs (now $102/12 months for the primary machine and $90 for every further machine within the house!).
How one can Substitute an Xfinity TV Field together with your Personal
In talking with the Xfinity loyalty/retention specialist, I (unsuccessfully) tried to negotiation away the now $8.50 TV Field price. He did notice, nonetheless, that I may do away with that price if I changed the Xfinity TV Field with my very own buyer owned-partner machine and use the Xfinity Stream app (which incorporates stay TV and cloud DVR).
I made a decision to analysis this additional. After logging into the account (and clicking on “TV Tools“), and “Edit” subsequent to my TV Field, I discovered this:
Click on on the “I’ll watch on Xfinity Stream” field and you may do away with your TV Field and DVR charges by switching to Xfinity stream and a third social gathering machine, utilizing the next steps:
Step 1: Buy a Suitable Xfinity TV System
On the time of publish, it seems to be like a lot of Roku units are thought of suitable Xfinity TV units, together with the next:
- Roku Extremely
Amazon Fireplace TV is now suitable as properly.
Numerous specified LG and Samsung sensible TVs are thought of suitable accomplice units too, however that’s more durable to line up. As famous, all can be utilized with Xfinity Stream’s stay TV and cloud DVR (if wanted).
And, even higher, in accordance with Xfinity, utilization of those accomplice units doesn’t depend towards your month-to-month web information utilization allotment, in most use instances:
No. The purpose of utilizing the app in your Accomplice System is to present you extra choices exterior of our rented TV Packing containers to entry your full TV service inside your private home. The service delivered by means of the Xfinity Stream app shouldn’t be an Web service, so our information utilization plans don’t apply.Nonetheless, video companies which can be delivered over the Web, like TV In every single place content material accessed by means of the Xfinity Stream app and internet portal or content material from NBC.com or the NBC and NBC Sports activities apps, are handled precisely the identical approach as every other Web-delivered companies, like Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon, and are topic to any information utilization plans that may apply.
Step 2: Join your New Xfinity TV System
Join your new Xfinity TV accomplice machine to your Xfinity WiFi, be certain that your firmware is updated, and set up the Xfinity Stream app on that machine to log in and activate.
Step 3: Return your TV Packing containers to an Xfinity Retail Location
You may provoke a TV Field return on-line, and ship again your set-top TV Field machine again by way of a UPS drop-off location with a pay as you go label. Or, you can also make an in-person return at an Xfinity retailer location close to you. Be sure you get and {photograph} a receipt in your set-top return, and verify your future payments for the credit score for utilizing your individual machine!
This straightforward course of will prevent $8.50/month ($102 per 12 months) for the primary machine and one other $7.50/month ($90/12 months) per further machine within the house, and is one other of lots of the artful methods to chop your Comcast invoice all the way down to affordable ranges.