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The biggest scam of all – pressuring or forcing subscribers to “rent” the clunky, technologically outdated cable box at a greatly inflated price – is still in place, despite a brief effort by the FCC in 2016 to shut it down.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: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @09:11PM
I've had Comcast internet for over 15 years. My experience has been that service is reliable and on the rare occasion I've needed technical help, it has been excellent.
On the other hand, the sales and billing department are pure liquid evil. It's cruel and unusual punishment to deal with them over the phone, and a good policy to record the conversations you have with their representatives. (I think the law requires you to inform them that you're recording the conversation.) But if I walk into the local office (before COVID-19) and ask for information or help with my bill, it always gets taken care of properly.
But while the local office could tell me exactly what I would pay, including fees, they couldn't cut rates that much. So I only use Comcast for internet, and an OTA antenna for television.