

Most recommended from 64 comments



maartena

Elmo

Premium Member

join:2002-05-10

Orange, CA 43 recommendations maartena Premium Member Same story with every cable provider: *LOOK HERE* We offer television for just $19.95*



* $19.95 TV offer excludes a $5 sports surcharge, $5 broadcast surcharge, $8 in various taxes and fees we made up, $10 in equipment rental fees (per TV) and an additional $10 if you want that equipment to be able to record things. Also, the $19.95 is only when you bundle with internet. Stand Alone price is $39.95. Price for 1 year, after that normal rates would be charged. We have made it intentionally difficult to find the normal rates on our website.



And so your twenty-bucks TV ends up costing 50 bucks, and when the promotion ends its probably closer to 80 bucks.**



** price hikes not accounted for. Restrictions apply. As always.

Zenit

The system is the solution

Premium Member

join:2012-05-07

Purcellville, VA 2 edits 31 recommendations Zenit Premium Member About Time! Comcast has been adding and increasing fees like crazy over the past 5 years. It got to the point where I cut the cord completely of pay TV and switched back to VZ DSL/POTS. I miss the speed, but I do not miss the insane billing. Comcast bills are 90% fees, 10% service charges.



You know something is screwed up when CDV costs as much as POTS due to fees. CDV was supposed to be the cheaper, superior option over POTS; now its just an overpriced VoIP solution.



Modem rental shot up to $10/mo, mandatory with CDV. It used to be $3.something in my area. Now there is a CDV fee of $2 coming.



Then there are garbage fees like "HD Technology" where they charge you $10/mo for 2005 era 720P. It's like they are charging a "color technology fee". Renting a DVR is $9.99 for the box + $10 for DVR service. A simple SD box is almost $4 now.



Too add insult to injury with these fees, Comcast billing is atrocious. The retentions CSR neglected to tell me that porting my number out would drop me out of my bundle for the final 2 weeks of service, resulting in me paying $75 for TWO WEEKS of TV/HSI ("everyday price" extortion). In addition said CSR refused to offer me the county rate sheet price for Performance HSI which is $60/mo.



Screw you Brian Roberts, you greedy monopolistic fool.



It's a shame Comcast's great engineering team is saddled with such shoddy business practices. Their IP network is great, and the service ranges from acceptable to good, if it were not for the ever ballooning cost.



I am lucky to even have 7-10Mbps DSL as an option. Many people in Virginia in Comcast areas only have Comcast to pick from because Verizon failed to install DSL in remote terminals, so once your X feet from the CO, no more DSL even if your served off of a DSL capable fiber fed Litespan 2000. FiOS availability is a crap shoot unless your deep in Northern Virginia or VA Beach.



EDIT: My Verizon bill does NOT have a "broadband recovery fee". It is fairly straightforward for a POTS/DSL bill. Lowell McAdam, you better not get any ideas from the rest of the industry; your charging more than enough for service from 16 year old DSLAM's and 30+ year old copper loops.

camper

just visiting this planet

Premium Member

join:2010-03-21

Bethel, CT 13 recommendations camper Premium Member "...to be more transparent with our customers..."

If Comcast really had wanted to be more transparent with customers, then Comcast would have, e.g., itemized the broadcast fees on a per station basis so the customers could see (i.e., transparency) what station was the cause of each incremental amount of the overall fee. turnerbrewer

join:2011-11-22 1 edit 9 recommendations turnerbrewer Member Cut Comcast 100% I just cancelled my Comcast 75/10 w/ 1 tb cap internet and switched to DSLEXTREME 45/5 internet w/ no cap. I am f'n tired of Comcasts games.

Comcast will nickle and dime you to death. SunnyD

join:2009-03-20

Madison, AL 6 recommendations SunnyD Member It would be one thing if you could opt out of those "services" Imagine if the customer could say "No, I don't want broadcast TV, just the cable channels" to avoid that $6.50/month. That would be something, but the cable company doesn't give you that option. Therefore, it's not an additional fee, it's part of the base price of the service. But it's just like offering unlimited anything these days.

pokesph

It Is Almost Fast

Premium Member

join:2001-06-25

Sacramento, CA 6 recommendations pokesph Premium Member Time to add our own below-the-line fees... Whats good for the goose is also good for the gander, as they say.



We all should add the following fees to any company that uses shady billing practices including charging you to pay their bill:



1) Bill payment fee (a charge for my time and annoyance paying the bill): $4.99

2) Bill comprehension fee (charged for trying to understand your bill): $6.75

3 Support wait (varies monthly depending on jow long waited on hold): $9.99 /incident



etc..



if they can do it so can we, Exile714

join:2015-08-19 5 recommendations Exile714 Member Confused What I don't get is WHY the cable companies do this. Sure, their advertised cost is lower but who cares? What are people going to do, choose another cable provider? 95% of people don't have another option and when there is another choice they use the same pricing scheme. They're playing dirty like they're not a monopoly when that's exactly what they are.

Anon4464e

@comcast.net 4 recommendations Anon4464e Anon Broadcast TV Fee $10 Our "Broadcast TV Fee is $10 here and with the new price change it is going up $2.50 (12.50 total). CyberGuy

join:2006-08-21

Colbert, WA 3 recommendations CyberGuy Member They'll just come up with some new fee Legal research recovery fund: $1.99

JimThePCGuy

Formerly known as schja01.

MVM

join:2000-04-27

Morton Grove, IL 3 recommendations JimThePCGuy MVM How does one opt out? the plaintiffs in the suit opted out of the arbitration clause in their contract



How does one opt out of the arbitration clause? Papageno

join:2011-01-26

Portland, OR 1 edit 2 recommendations Papageno Member Yup, on the verge of telling them where they can get off... Glad some people have a reasonable choice between ISPs. A lot of us have the "choice" of ISP between Comcast fast (if overpriced) d/l speeds (but crappy uploads) and 3 to 5 Mbps DSL -- even close-in in big cities.



Now as far as TV goes, however, I'm already paying full retail for both internet (Blast Pro) and Digital Starter TV (what they used to call expanded basic back in the day), so cutting the TV cord should not make my internet go up. Thus I'm going to tell them to take the TV part and go pound sand. I'll get what I need TV-wise from a few services (may have to wait for some stuff), will watch the Superbowl and locally broadcast NBA games live OTA when I have to, and still probably save around 50 bucks a month (I already have Amazon Prime and Netflix, so I don't count the money spent there).

ptrowski

Got Helix?

Premium Member

join:2005-03-14

Woodstock, CT 2 recommendations ptrowski Premium Member Oh look, another fee!

»[CDV] New Voice Technology Fee - $2 (edit: article was taken down) $2 voice fee......