After 10 hours on the phone with customer service, two trips to the local Comcast office and a chat with a rogue technician, the myth has been busted:



The $250 installation fee for faster internet service is a scam.



I embarked on my search for truth by talking to several people working in the industry. Arming myself with information on cable internet access, broadband speeds and hostile negotiation strategies, I felt fully prepared to take on Comcast’s infamous customer service (see the previous post).



Things didn’t go smoothly. Bounced between the departments of billing, retention, tech support and sales, no one could give me a straight answer to my question:



Why do I need to pay $250 for faster internet?



Some of the more amusing answers, quoted word for word:



“We need to send a technician out to your house to change out your cable box”



“We need to check that the signal levels are strong”



“We need to make sure your modem and router are fast enough”



“We need to switch your modem to a different node”



“We need to install our own router so you can get the fast speeds over Wifi”



One guy from “tech support” couldn’t differentiate megabytes and megabits. I almost gave up then, but eventually, I found the loophole. I told them the installation had already been done by the previous owner, and it was set up to handle the faster speed. Not true, but it worked with some persuading. It’s important to establish this, since it lays the groundwork for later.



Step #1: Get customer support to add a note to your account: “Residence is already equipped to handle 105 Mbp, installation was done with previous owner”



Step #2: Schedule the appointment with a technician to upgrade the service.



I got lucky and was sent a rogue technician. He claims almost all of Comcast’s installation fees are nothing short of highway robbery: that everything technicians are sent out to do (besides plugging and unplugging things) could be done remotely. He said he keeps his job at Comcast to hack the system from the inside, telling customers how to avoid fees and extra expenses.



He tapped a couple buttons on his phone, asked me to reboot the modem, and I was good to go.



Step #3: As soon as your technician shows up, ask him if you really need a physical installation, or if it can be done on his device, followed by a thorough round of modem reboots. Cable companies love that phrase.



My technician claims that 95% of the time, there’s nothing they need to install, since the difference between 50 Mbps and 105 Mbps is negligible on the cable hardware level. Phrases like “upgrading cable boxes” and “checking signal levels” are used to justify the installation fees.



Step #4: This is the tricky part. If the technician will play ball and activate your internet service, you can ask him to “cancel the appointment upon arrival”.



Use that exact phrasing and have him add this note to your account: “Installation was not required for the 105 Mbps service, appointment was canceled on arrival”.



Step #5: Last step. Head into the local Comcast office and have the $250 charge refunded. Point to the two notes on your account, about the installation done previously and the canceled appointment. This was the easiest step, I was refunded without any questions.