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In many ways it’s a rite of passage in America: being ripped off by your cable company and trying to figure out how they did it. Now a lawsuit against Charter Communications is seeking to uncover just that.
The biggest scam of all – pressuring or forcing subscribers to “rent” the clunky, technologically outdated cable box at a greatly inflated price – is still in place, despite a brief effort by the FCC in 2016 to shut it down.
And then there are hidden costs – such as “broadcast TV fees” and “regional sports fees” – raking in tens of millions of dollars in pure profit for unscrupulous cable companies, despite Consumer Reports focusing on the topic for a number of years, and now Congress even starting to pay attention.
But although we have all grown used to our cable fees rocketing the second you are off the special two-year contract rate, requiring you to call up the company and threaten to move to a competitor until you are offered the next incredible special deal, Charter may have pushed things too far with its latest special offer: a two-year flat fee deal that somehow, it is claimed, grew more expensive every month.
Five Charter Communications customers, based in Ohio and Kentucky, have formally accused [PDF] the company of a bait-and-switch scam for its cable TV service. The biz advertised a fixed monthly rate, they say, but far from being fixed, every few months it cost a little more.
Are the cable companies to blame, or the sports and movie channels that are charging more?
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday May 29 2020, @04:46AM (4 children)
But google fiber works consistently, is a self hookup, has a basically affordable cost, and cannot come more highly recommended.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Friday May 29 2020, @12:18PM
That's quite the coverage map:
https://broadbandnow.com/mapshot/provider/sm/Google-Fiber.jpg [broadbandnow.com]
We've got fiber, I think by Verizon, in the higher density areas of town. Our neighborhood has ~1 house per acre, we're not holding our breath.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Kalas on Friday May 29 2020, @06:05PM (2 children)
I hear the performance is fantastic in places you can actually get their service but keep in mind the downside of giving Google direct 100% access to all your home internet traffic.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday May 29 2020, @08:27PM (1 child)
You also give them that if you use chrome or firefox and don't fuck with the settings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @05:53AM
Just a reminder for those smug fucks on Firefox with all teh blockers [mozilla.org]:
Security
Deceptive Content and Dangerous Software Protection
"When you download an application file, Firefox checks the site hosting it against a list of sites known to contain "malware". If the site is found on that list, Firefox blocks the file immediately, otherwise it asks Google’s Safe Browsing service if the software is safe by sending it some of the download’s metadata."
Oooh scary.... Dangerous! Better leave the default checkbox on right? Every site (not on the list of malware) you visit gets sent to Google.