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Submitted via IRC for Fnord666
FCC plans to stop reviewing informal complaints—filing a formal one costs $225.
Ajit Pai's Federal Communications Commission is proposing that it stop reviewing the vast majority of consumer complaints about telecom companies. Going forward, consumers harmed by broadband, TV, and phone companies would have to pay $225 in order to get an FCC review of their complaints.
The FCC accepts two types of complaints: informal ones and formal ones. It costs nothing to file an informal complaint and $225 to file a formal one; given that, consumers almost always file informal complaints. Besides the filing fee, formal complaints kick off a court-like proceeding in which the parties appear before the FCC and file numerous documents to address legal issues. It isn't an easy process for consumers to go through.
[...] Chairman Pai's proposal to change the informal complaint procedure comes in a larger proposal about formal complaints; the change to informal complaints is explained in a footnote. "We delete the phrase 'and the Commission's disposition' from the last sentence of that rule because the Commission's practice is not to dispose of informal complaints on substantive grounds," the footnote says.
Customers will still be able to submit informal complaints, and telecom providers will still be required to respond to them within 30 days. But consumers who don't get what they want from the ISP will have to file a formal complaint and pay the $225 in order to get the FCC to take any action.
Even if the telecom provider fails to reply to an informal complaint, the only recourse would be filing a formal one. "[T]he Commission will notify the complainant that if the complainant is not satisfied by the carrier's response, or if the carrier has failed to submit a response by the due date, the complainant may file a formal complaint," the proposed version of the FCC complaint rule says. By contrast, the current version of the rule says that "the Commission will contact the complainant regarding its review and disposition of the matters raised. If the complainant is not satisfied by the carrier's response and the Commission's disposition, it may file a formal complaint."
Democrats from the FCC and Congress say the change will make it more difficult (and expensive) for consumers to get complaints resolved. "This is bonkers. It's unacceptable," FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement to Ars.
But, see also: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/07/11/no-fcc-is-not-forcing-consumers-pay-file-complaints/.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday July 16 2018, @05:32PM (1 child)
Except that it didn't happen that way at all [census.gov]: A slightly higher percentage of younger voters (< 30 years old) voted in 2016 than had voted in 2012, and they were the only age group to increase their voting participation. The largest drop in voting was in the 65+ set.
But I don't blame you for thinking that was the problem: A lot of people have spent a lot of time and money convincing the general public that the main reason Hillary Clinton isn't president right now has something to do with the young people who supported Bernie Sanders not being "loyal" to the Democratic Party, and had nothing at all to do with this [census.gov].
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 17 2018, @07:39PM
And these days it now seems likely that Trump got the electoral votes by some hacking of election machines. The recent indictments are a total smoking gun, I wonder how many heads around here will explode if it turns out Trump had to rely on cheating to win.
Eh who am I kidding, they'll just repeat the same "bussed in illegals to vote!" garbage. Maybe that fake news got started as a way to insulate Trump's base from the likely discovery of the truth?