I received a note from my apartment complex office today that referenced the situation with Comcast, the local cable provider.  As you may recall, just days ago, I was considering the “unthinkable” action of canceling cable service to get some bills paid.  The letter says, in part:

“We have entered into an agreement with Comcast to provide its Digital Starter service as a new amenity for our residents.  You will continue to receive a monthly bill for any services and equipment that you obtain through Comcast that are in addition to the Digital Starter service.  The channel line-up for Comcast’s Digital Starter service is attached.”

What that says to me, unless I’m missing something, is that everyone gets this lineup, and since it’s a “new amenity,” it ought to be covered in the rent; that is to say, I ought to get that service for nothing.  If I subscribe to cable internet, or cable HD or cable anything-else, which I don’t, then I should have to still pay for that stuff separately.

Does anyone else read anything different?

I’m not sure that’s what they mean, but that’s how I read it.  In any event, there appears to be no way to opt out, so it is what it is.  If it’s truly free, that will save me about $50 per month.  If it’s discounted at all, I’ll take those savings, whatever they are.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, after raising a stink with the New AT&T over their abrupt suspension of my internet service when I in fact had a zero balance with my account, I was promised that my service would be restored and that I would receive a courtesy call from a billing representative by Monday morning at the latest.

It’s no longer Monday morning, as far as I can tell, in any part of the world.  The call never happened.  While my service quietly came back on hours after my call, there was no apology, no explanation, no offer for discounted service to compensate for their inconvenient blunder.

I called their billing department this evening just to find out the logistics of canceling local telephone service but keeping internet service.  I learned that if I do internet-only, it will work out to be about $50 per month.  But that beats the roughly $130 a month I’m currently paying for local telephone service, unlimited long distance (which I really don’t need), internet, and the complete choice package that allows me to block a lot of telemarketers and fax machines, but fails to block them all, anyway.

The office that would have to cancel the telephone service, conveniently, wasn’t open.  Typical.  They can take payments any time, but they restrict the time you can cut your service.  But tomorrow morning, I’ll take a leap into the 21st century by dropping my land line and maintaining cell phone service only.  (I never realized how many other people have already eliminated land line service!)

So if I’m right about the way I read the cable letter, between that and my phone service, I could be saving up to $125-130 a month, which will be a nice chunk of change to pay off a few bills early, particularly that little transmission bill.

I’m all for that.

• UPDATE:  Of course the “free” idea was far too good to be true.  Cable will be $40, but based on what I’ve been paying, that’s still about $15 bucks off the bill.  Every little bit helps, right?