Comcast made headlines last month when it announced plans to give a free streaming box to all of its internet-only subscribers — except, there’s an extra fee that Comcast didn’t clearly disclose at the time. It’ll only give the box to internet-only subscribers who also rent a modem and router from the company for an additional $13 per month.

After the free offer was announced last month, a Comcast spokesperson told me the rental requirement would be dropped “in the coming weeks” so that all internet-only customers could get the device for free. But a month later, that requirement is still in place, and Comcast’s checkout interface has even been updated to emphasize that its streaming box, called Flex, is only included when you rent the company’s modem / router combo, the xFi Gateway. The Comcast spokesperson now says the ability to use your own router and avoid the fee is “coming imminently.”

The Flex page repeatedly says it’s included at “no extra cost”

The $13-per-month rental fee for the xFi Gateway is a complete rip-off that Comcast (like other internet providers) pushes on its subscribers because people generally don’t know there’s an alternative. Instead of paying Comcast an additional $13 per month in perpetuity, you can instead buy a modem and router outright. By doing so, you’ll likely make up the upfront costs after a year, maybe two if you go for higher-end options. Once it’s paid off, you’ll be saving the $156 per year that you’re paying just to have a box sit in your house.

So for Comcast to say that its streaming box “is now included with an Xfinity Internet-only subscription,” that it is “available to internet-only customers for free” and that it is included “at no additional cost as part of an Xfinity Internet-only subscription” is misleading if not outright wrong.

The only place that Comcast clarifies the need for an additional subscription is at the bottom of the website for Flex. That page — which says in five locations that the box is “now included” with internet subscriptions or is available to subscribers at “no extra cost” — notes at the bottom that as part of signing up for new service, you should “select our xFi Gateway modem + router at checkout.” In fine print, it says a “compatible xFi Gateway” is required.

That Comcast would make something “free” and try to eke extra money out of it perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise. From the start, Comcast’s pricing for the Flex box was absurd: when the streaming box launched in March, it was available to lease for $5 per month. Even after last month’s announcement, additional units are still offered only at that $5-per-month price. With Roku streaming sticks as cheap as $30 flat, there’s no reason to ever rent a streaming box for an endless monthly fee.

Disclosure: Comcast is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.