Comcast’s XFINITY Home won’t help if the thieves are already inside your house.

Gary O’Reilly and his family moved into their new Libertyville, Ill. home last year and took advantage of a Comcast promotion offering the family a deluxe package of Internet, cable television, and XFINITY Home, Comcast’s home security and automation system. It was a costly mistake that would eventually threaten to leave the family out $1,000, their credit rating destroyed, and hours wasted fighting to get Comcast to live up to its service commitments.

O’Reilly was attracted to Comcast’s security system to protect his family — his wife was pregnant with their second child and they were moving to a new address. In March 2013, two Comcast technicians spent more than eight hours installing four exterior door alarm sensors and two digital thermostats.

Within hours, the family realized something had gone wrong. In the middle of the night, one of the thermostats began beeping relentlessly, indicating a problem.

“It was defective, and because the thermostat was digital, I could not control the temperature in that half of my house,” O’Reilly told the Chicago Tribune’s problem solver. “My pregnant wife and 2-year-old son were freezing in their own home.”

Comcast decided scheduling a service call several days in the future was acceptable under the circumstances, but O’Reilly learned patience isn’t a virtue at Comcast.

Comcast assumes any service call is a potentially billable event, regardless of who is at fault, and O’Reilly discovered they not only charged him for the service call, they also billed him for the replacement thermostat, requiring 8-10 hours of live chats and phone calls to eventually find someone willing to remove the charges from his bill.

The replacement thermostat managed to work for less than a month before it also failed, requiring yet another service call and replacement. Yes, Comcast billed him again for both, requiring another telethon-length session arguing with Comcast’s overseas call centers and live chat employees to remove the charges from his bill yet again.

As you might have guessed, the third replacement began acting up almost immediately, completely draining its AA batteries every 24-36 hours.

That’s your problem, responded Comcast, who would not schedule a return visit to explore the issue further. O’Reilly bought “a ton of batteries over the next few weeks.” The unappreciative third thermostat died anyway.

In mid-June, Comcast returned with thermostat number four, which lasted just a few weeks before it joined the earlier three in thermostat heaven.

Comcast’s idea of compromise is a shotgun wedding: Agree to resume your service and we won’t take you to court.

Shockingly, O’Reilly decided against a fifth replacement and called to cancel his XFINITY Home service. The Comcast representative literally chuckled to O’Reilly after processing his cancellation to “keep an eye out for the termination charges.”

Comcast’s penalty for early cancellation of service: $1,000, conveniently billed on his next invoice.

After literally months of chats and phone calls, Comcast steadfastly refused to waive the charges, reserving the right to charge interest and impose other penalties if O’Reilly didn’t pay.

O’Reilly argues he owed Comcast nothing because the company never lived up to its end of the agreement by supplying reliable service. Nonsense, responds Comcast. After all, they were willing to replace his broken equipment each and every time, all five times.

Comcast wielded everything at its disposal to get paid. The cable company trashed O’Reilly’s over 800 credit score to below 650, preventing him from refinancing his mortgage. The collection calls have also been relentless, and increasingly threatening. On his last call with a Comcast collection agent he was told to pay them in full or they will see him in court.

Even with the venerable Chicago Tribune intervening and willing to serve as a referee, Comcast stubbornly refused to relent, although it offered O’Reilly its definition of a fair compromise.

Comcast spokesman Joe Trost claimed they had reached a settlement with the O’Reilly family.

“Together, [we] talked about the possibility of restarting services with Comcast with the agreement to waive the installation fees and (early termination fees) from the previous account, as well as clearing him from collections and the credit bureaus,” Trost said in an email. “We’re providing Mr. O’Reilly with different package options and composing a letter to overnight to Mr. O’Reilly with the information we discussed over the phone.”

Trost said O’Reilly and Comcast will “move forward together.”

In reality it was a 21st century digital version of a shotgun wedding.

Comcast first offered to remove him from collections, erase the $1,000 early termination fee and clear up his credit history, but only if he agreed to re-establish all of his previous services, including XFNITY Home.

O’Reilly held fast, saying he had no desire to have XFINITY Home back.

With a follow-up story looming in the newspaper, Comcast finally agreed to waive the fees and clean up his credit if he reconnected his Internet service with a higher-speed, more costly Internet tier. O’Reilly said yes.

Another satisfied Comcast customer. It only took 13 months, days of calling and chatting, and a last desperate plea to the Tribune to clear things up.

The Frobinson Family

Sprint’s Framily Plan swims with the fishes starting this Friday.

Ex-CEO Dan Hesse’s latest (and last) attempt to get creative with a talking hamster selling cell service was a fantastic flop.

“There’s no longer going to be Framily as of this Friday,” incoming CEO Marcelo Claure said to employees, who oohed and applauded the forthcoming eviction of the eclectic Frobinson family.

Framily was the closest Sprint came to a desperate multi-level marketing scheme that turns customers into irritating recruiters hassling friends, family, and strangers to join their wireless plan for bigger discounts.

Framily began earlier this year offering four lines for $160 a month with 1GB of data each. Unlimited data was a $20 add-on.

T-Mobile’s John Legere mocked the plan from day one and more importantly obliterated its savings by undercutting it with T-Mobile’s Simple Choice plan ($100 a month for four lines and 2.5GB of data on a much faster network.)

Even worse, if you were convinced to sign up for Framily and another member of your “extended family tree” decided Sprint’s network disruptions and performance were no longer worth the trouble, every other family member’s bill increased when they defected — talk about an awkward moment with friends and family.

“It’s quite the confusing plan to sign up and more confusing when people drop off,” said Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics. He noted Sprint’s network disruptions from the extensive upgrade effort had sent some customers packing.

“If Sprint doesn’t work for them, your price goes up. So you get penalized for Sprint’s network,” Entner said.

Out with the Frobinson Framily, in with Sprint’s Family Share Pack.

Starting Friday, the Sprint Family Share Pack will offer considerably more data for that $160 a month. At that price, Family Share offers four lines and 20GB of data, compared to 10GB of data for the same price from AT&T or Verizon. Really big families will appreciate Sprint’s support for up to 10 lines on one account. Existing customers won’t appreciate the fact Sprint won’t offer existing customers any promotions or discounts.

A kick-off offer promises even lower prices if you don’t mind sharing data. For $100, a family of four can share 20GB of data and unlimited talk/text through the end of 2015. As an added bonus, customers will get an extra 2GB per line for up to 10 lines. (The $100 offer is available Aug. 22 – Sept. 30, 2014 only when customers switch to Sprint. It includes $15 a month in line access charges waived through 2015. Valid only on 20GB or higher data allowance plans.)

For example:

Sprint Family Share Pack – How it Works

Customers can build their own plan in three steps as shown below.  First, choose the data allowance. Second, add up to 10 lines of data access with unlimited talk and text while on the Sprint Network.  Third, include your tablet devices for $10 per month per line and mobile broadband devices for $20 per month per line. There is no early termination fee and no annual service contract with non-discounted phones.

Everyday pricing for competitors that have shared data plans:
Limited-time Promotion for Customers Switching to Sprint Family Share Pack

For a limited time, customers who bring their number and activate on the Sprint Family Share Pack can receive a Visa Prepaid Card up to $350 to compensate for early termination fees charged by their current carrier. This switching offer will be available at Sprint stores and Sprint Telesales.

With the limited-time promotion, Sprint is waiving the data access charge for handsets, tablets and mobile broadband devices on 20GB or higher data allowances for up to 10 lines. To qualify for the offer customers must switch their number from another carrier to Sprint.   All devices must be purchased through Sprint Easy Pay. Existing customers do not qualify.

T-Mobile is back with some very aggressively priced packages on data plans, including one offering almost a year of free data. But more impressively, customers also have a chance to buy a 4G LTE-equipped tablet for the same price as a Wi-Fi only version.

T-Mobile’s Simple Starter Plan – $40/mo Unlimited Talk, Text + 500MB 4G LTE data

Simple Starter provides an affordable $40 unlimited talk and text offer with a 500MB entry-level data allowance with no overlimit fees. T-Mobile is intending to shame AT&T and Verizon to ditch overlimit fees on their data plans by demonstrating that a mobile carrier can automatically shut off data when a customer reaches their allowance, inviting them to voluntarily pay extra for continued service instead of slapping overlimit fees on the bill automatically. T-Mobile’s “data pass” resets the allowance, but often for only a limited time, such as $10 for one extra gigabyte, expiring after one week.

Still, the plan may be a comfortable fit for anyone unlikely to run a lot of data applications on their phone and prefer the convenience of having access to 4G speed when they need it. Some other carriers force value-priced plan customers to use 3G-only service, especially in the prepaid market.

Operation Tablet Freedom – Buy a 4G-equipped tablet at Wi-Fi prices, free 1GB data for the rest of 2014, free 200MB data for life.

The biggest problem wireless carriers have selling tablets is justifying the cost of 4G-equipped models that typically run at least $100 more than a Wi-Fi only version. As a result, 4G-equipped portable devices like these just don’t sell well. T-Mobile is tackling that problem by discounting the MSRP of their 4G tablets to the same price one would pay for a Wi-Fi only equipped device.

T-Mobile is also offering trade-in deals for tablet customers who want something new.

“Now you can come to T-Mobile, trade it in and upgrade to a 4G LTE-enabled model and pay no more than you’d pay for the cheaper Wi-Fi-only model,” said T-Mobile’s Mike Sievert. “For example, you might choose to pay the Wi-Fi price of $499 instead of $630 for the 4G LTE-enabled iPad Air (16GB). Or pay the Wi-Fi price of $200 instead of $312 for the 4G LTE Samsung Tab 3. And remember, on all of these tablets you might qualify for no interest financing with nothing down.”

T-Mobile will also cover any early termination fees charged by your current carrier if you purchased one on contract.

Customers will also find good deals on tablet data plans. Beginning April 12, new and existing postpaid voice customers can add tablets to their plans and get nearly 1.2GB of data per month free for the rest of this year. In 2015, customers can keep that data plan for $10 a month or revert to T-Mobile’s 200MB for life data plan, free of charge. Customers who want a 3 or 5GB data plan will find them priced $10 off for the rest of 2014. Be aware that the free 1GB data offer does seem to require at least one voice plan, whether that’s an existing one or one you sign up for in store when you get your tablet.

AT&T’s investment in U-verse expansion is expected to peak this year as part of its “Project VIP” effort to bring the fiber to the neighborhood service to more areas and offer faster broadband speeds to current customers.

AT&T is spending $6 billion over three years to broaden the footprint of U-verse, which now earns AT&T 57% of its total consumer revenues. In 2013, AT&T earned $13 billion in revenue from U-verse, up 28%.

AT&T’s investment in U-verse is dwarfed by the company’s efforts to benefit shareholders. In the last quarter of 2013, AT&T realized $6.9 billion in profits on revenue of $33.2 billion. For 2013, AT&T repurchased 366 million shares of its own stock for around $13 billion and paid out another $10 billion in shareholder dividends. Together, the total return for shareholders for the year was $23 billion and in the last two years AT&T achieved a new record benefiting shareholders with $45 billion in returns. In contrast, AT&T will spend just $6 billion on the current round of U-verse upgrades, with those markets left out likely pushed to wireless-only service if the company succeeds in winning approval to decommission its rural landline network.

Most of AT&T’s revenue growth is coming from its wireless business, particularly wireless data. After AT&T eliminated its flat rate plans, monetizing data usage has become very profitable — $23 billion per year and growing at 17% annually. Because increasing wireless usage forces customers to upgrade to higher cost plans offering more generous usage allowances, AT&T’s average revenue per customer increased by 3.9% — the highest in the wireless industry and the 20th consecutive quarter of customers collectively paying higher cell phone bills.

“The next steps are to make our networks even more powerful and layer on services that will drive new growth in the years ahead,” said AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.

AT&T is counting on even higher customer bills as the company moves forward on several revenue-enhancing initiatives:

1. Moving an increasing number of customers away from subsidized handsets. AT&T Next allows wireless customers to get a new handset every year, but in return AT&T no longer subsidizes equipment purchases. Instead, most Next customers finance their current phone and will finance their next one, assuring AT&T of a constant revenue stream for equipment. AT&T expects to gradually move away from phone subsidies altogether;
2. Data plans for cars are forthcoming, as auto manufacturers install wireless capability in new vehicles. Many are signing agreements with AT&T that will make it easy for current customers to add vehicles to their existing plan, but customers of other carriers may find signing up for a new plan prohibitively expensive;
3. Internet-connected home security systems are getting a major marketing push in 2014 with advertising blitzes and other promotions. The alarm systems are connected to and use AT&T’s wireless data network;
4. AT&T customers are being pushed to wireless data plans with much higher data allowances than they need, delivering extra profits for AT&T with no impact on its wireless network;
5. AT&T wants to begin selling “sponsored data” services to companies willing to foot the bill for accessing preferred websites. AT&T calls it “toll-free data” but Net Neutrality advocates complain it monetizes data usage and establishes a unlevel playing field where deep pocketed companies can help customers avoid AT&T’s usage meter while others have to contend with customers worried about their data allowance.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/ATT Next – Get A New Smartphone Every Year from ATT Wireless 1-2014.flv[/flv]

AT&T explains its Next program, which lets customers upgrade to a new smartphone every 12 or 18 months. AT&T doesn’t tell you the plan is effectively a lease that benefits them by not having to pay a phone subsidy worth hundreds of dollars to discount a phone they will eventually refurbish and resell after you return it. AT&T Next, as intended, is an endless installment payment plan that never stops as long as you keep upgrading your phone. You also can’t leave AT&T until you pay your current phone off. (1:30)

A new way for AT&T to end phone subsidies.

Despite fierce competition from T-Mobile, AT&T so far has seen little impact from T-Mobile’s aggressive marketing. AT&T added 566,000 new contract customers in the last quarter and sold 1.2 million smartphones to its customer base. AT&T’s customer churn rate — the number of customers coming and going — remains very low despite T-Mobile’s latest offer to cover AT&T’s early termination fees to encourage customers to switch.

Stephenson says AT&T’s superior wireless 4G LTE network and its larger coverage area make customers think twice about taking their business to a smaller carrier.

In 2014, AT&T laid out these plans during its quarterly results conference call this week:

• U-verse will get an expanded TV Everywhere service allowing customers to view programming on smartphones and tablets inside their home and out;
• U-verse broadband speed enhancements should be available to at least two-thirds of customers, with speeds up to 45Mbps;
• LTE coverage expansion targets are expected to be ahead of schedule;
• AT&T will begin a “big effort” on network densification — adding overlapping cell towers and small cell technology in current coverage areas — to handle network congestion;
• AT&T will focus on improving its wired and wireless networks to prioritize video delivery;
• If approved by the government, AT&T will use its acquired Leap/Cricket brand for aggressive new no-contract plans marketed to customers with spotty credit without tainting or devaluing the AT&T brand;
• AT&T will use its agreements with GM, Ford, Nissan, Audi, BMW, and Tesla to offer AT&T wireless connectivity in new 2015 model year vehicles.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Bloomberg ATT Latest Results Good 1-28-14.flv[/flv]

Bloomberg notes AT&T’s latest financial results are ahead of analyst expectations. Despite competition from T-Mobile, AT&T’s customer defection rate is at a historic low. (2:03)

Cablevision CEO Jim Dolan may have to eat his words when he told shareholders he was done giving promotional discounts to customers bouncing back and forth between competing providers. Now Verizon has given Cablevision customers an excuse to say goodbye to the cable company for at least the next two years.

The Verizon FiOS $79.99 Triple Play promotion is back and includes a $300 Visa rebate card and free activation when ordering from Verizon’s website.

The package includes: