Comcast is being forced to pay the largest fine the FCC has ever levied against a cable operator. Its offense: Charging customers for services and equipment they didn't ask for. The company agreed to pay a $2.3 million civil penalty and to submit to a "compliance plan," in which regulators will monitor Comcast for the next five years to ensure it cleans up its act. "It is basic that a cable bill should include charges only for services and equipment ordered by the customer -- nothing more and nothing less," Travis LeBlanc, chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, said in a statement. Related: FCC delays vote on controversial cable box plan The FCC said it received over 1,000 complaints from customers, who said Comcast charged them for premium channels, cable boxes, DVRs or other products that they never ordered. In many cases, the FCC said, customers expressly told Comcast that they didn't want the add-on options, but they were charged anyway. Complaints also describe how customers spent "significant time and energy to attempt to remove the unauthorized charges" and get refunds, the commission said. The complaints spurred the FCC to launch an investigation nearly two years ago. Today's settlement marks the conclusion of the probe. Under the five-year compliance plan, Comcast must begin sending customers special notifications every time a new charge or service is added to their bill. The company also has to add a way for customers to easily "block the addition of new services or equipment to their accounts," according to an FCC press release. Comcast will also be required to compensate for or address complaints from customers who have disputed charges, and it will be barred from referring an account to collections or suspending an account that has a disputed charge. Comcast (CCV) said Tuesday that it does not agree with the commission's decision to take legal action, but the company admitted it's fallen short in terms of customer service.... http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/11/news/companies/comcast-fine-fcc/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom
Do a search on CNBC to see if you can find any news there on this. A perfect example of how the wolves can't herd the sheep.
Here's something I posted on Slashdot back in February. Bottom line: I was one of many that had to complain to the FCC to get a refund. Here's the link to the Slashdot post: https://politics.slashdot.org/story...ther-cable-firms-for-unfair-billing-practices "I was billed by Comcast for a year for a cable modem rental even though I bought my own. Yes, I admit I should have been reading every line entry on my bill every month but I wasn't. When I discovered this error I called Comcast and they immediately admitted the mistake and stopped billing me for it. However when I asked for my money back for the $10/month for the previous 12 months they got all snippy and said I had only a 60 day window to challenge erroneous charges. So I filed a formal complaint with the FCC and within days I was called back by Comcast and credited the 12 months of erroneous charges. I highly recommend this path since it was so absurdly easy."
and they have capped data to boot.... https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...ternet-plans-and-people-arent-pleased.303445/
At one point, their customer service was so bad they just renamed themselves - to Xfinity. The Comcast name had such a negative image that they had to come up with something new.
Reminds me of the old Allegheny Airlines (aka Agony Airlines). They changed to U.S. Airways to leave behind the agony and were later known as Useless Airways. There's no dressing up something that's ugly to the core.
do a search on dtv... cnbc,bloomberg,fox business, cnbc world from asia for their open then to europe, and rural ag mkt all in the basic package, plus better everything.
@nitro thank you for posting this. I am so tired of all these frauds. It seems like everyday a new fraud is on the news. This can not be new strategy for these companies, it just has to be the freedom and speed of information flow between customers that allows all of us to be warned and bust these frauds.
what you going to do about it? the "new" strategy for verizon is this-you either buy used router from us for $60 OR pay "support fee" every month for an old one. now verizon trick is mor clever than comcast-you can't connect your own router. i mean-you can(in my particular case,where i have Ethernet cable from ONT box,instead of coax),but you won't get any guide,your dvr won't work etc. and if you on coax-you really can't do anything at all. there you have it! the called a "fee" , i call it -a racket. don't forget "video franchise fee", or regional sports network fee. WFT was that anyway? i dont' watch any sports EVER! seriously. grab a bill-30% of it is a various "fees" and really strange taxes. http://www.wsj.com/articles/busting-the-cable-box-monopoly-is-overdue-1462738795 someone in gvt tried to change the game with a good idea that any tv top box can be used, not only provided by these two. guess what? FAILED. no go. i have verizon box. that damn hot brick consumes more electricity 24/7 than any other appliance on the house. more than fridge. and i only have basic channels! air antenna won't work in my area. do i have choice? nope.