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The only TV shows I regularly watch are on Comedy Central, and you can get them all free on YouTube anyway, so I had no reason to keep paying Comcast the obscene rates they charge for TV service (which included an extra $10-$15 per month each for digital service, HD service, an HD cable box, and an HD DVR just to get Firewire Media Center connectivity).

When I called to cancel my account, the Comcast reps refused to accept my "I don't watch TV" and "I just don't want it" explanations. Every time I tried to get them to cancel it they came back with "Oh, well here I'll give you a 6 month discount" or "I'll just switch you to a less expensive plan."

The call was bizarre - it was almost as if they truly didn't believe that it was possible for somebody to not want cable TV. I suspect that they get lots of calls from people who threaten to cancel until they can get some discount, so they just give away the discounts and nobody ever actually cancels. I also noticed that it's impossible to cancel service through their web site, but it's only a few clicks to add new channels. The huge list of fake "FAQs" like "How can I add more channels?" and "Why is Comcast Digital Voice better than traditional voice service?" doesn't even include a single reference to removing channels, services or canceling your account.

I gave up and called back later with a different strategy:

"Hi, I'd like to stop my cable service, my TV broke"

"Hold on one sec .. OK your account is canceled"

"Wow, that's it?"

"Yep, just drop off your box at the Comcast store"

So if you ever need to cancel your cable, just pretend that your TV broke