Comcast broke law 445,000 times in scheme to inflate bills, judge finds:
Comcast yesterday was ordered to refund nearly 50,000 customers and pay a $9.1 million fine when a judge ruled that it violated Washington state consumer protection law hundreds of thousands of times.
Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued Comcast in August 2016, accusing the nation's largest cable company of tricking customers into buying a "near-worthless 'protection plan' without disclosing its significant limitations."
Buying the $5-per-month plan ostensibly prevented customers from having to pay each time a Comcast technician visited their home to fix problems covered by the plan. But in reality, the plan did not cover the vast majority of wiring problems, the AG's lawsuit said. Moreover, Washington state attorneys said that Comcast led customers to believe that they needed to buy a Service Protection Plan (SPP) to get services that were actually covered for free by the company's "Customer Guarantee."
In yesterday's ruling (pdf), King County Superior Court Judge Timothy Bradshaw found that "Comcast violated the Consumer Protection Act more than 445,000 times when it charged tens of thousands of Washingtonians for its Service Protection Plan without their consent," Ferguson's announcement said. Each wrongful monthly charge was a separate violation, so there were multiple violations per customer.
Washington state attorneys sought more than $171 million, asking the judge to order Comcast to pay $88 million in restitution to customers and $83 million in fines.
The $9.1 million fine Comcast was ordered to pay is a fraction of the amount sought by Washington. But Comcast's refunds to customers are separate from the fine, and it's not clear exactly how much they'll amount to.
If this just another "cost of doing business" or do you think this will actually change things?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 17 2019, @05:11AM (1 child)
Comcast is an evil corporation. Don't need a judge to confirm that.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 17 2019, @06:25AM
Nothing will happen, because they are too big to be taken down.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday June 17 2019, @05:18AM (2 children)
Yes. MTV will start playing music videos, and maybe bring back Beavis and Butthead. These are appropriate times for that.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday June 17 2019, @08:35AM
Yeah, well, what can they do? The Angry Kid [wikipedia.org] continues his show from the Whitehouse, so Beavis and Butthead it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 17 2019, @08:39AM
Normal person: steal or defraud one person go to prison.
Comcast: Steal or defraud 50,000 people, pay a fine and walk...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 17 2019, @10:05AM (3 children)
Let's do the math. The fine fine is $9.1 million. A large amount to be sure. Comcast profits in 2018 were $11.731 billion, an astronomical figure.
(9 vs. 12731)
So definitely no change. Expect many more sham products.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 17 2019, @01:03PM
Expect an email from concast about a 10% price increase for basic cable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 17 2019, @08:20PM
Wait, so is the fine really fine or is there a fine for the fine? ...Brilliant! We can crush Comcast if we assess a recursive fine upon them!
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday June 18 2019, @03:58AM
I like the sneaky way you changed that from $11.731 to 12731. Is it an analogy to how Comcast tries to subtly increase the numbers on your bill? That explains how they are making $13.731 billion a year. One dollar here, one dollar there, and poof, $14.731 billion in profits. God, I wish my salary was $15.731 billion. The tax on $16.731 billion would be huge though. I'd have to look into ways to stash that $17.731 billion offseas.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Monday June 17 2019, @12:57PM
It'll change things but in a very minor temporary way.
They'll probably remove the "service protection plan" or whatever they were calling it.
A few years (or perhaps, months) from now when there's a new marketing VP and everyone (probably even them) have forgotten this, they'll deploy a somewhat similar scheme with a new name and coat of paint; then it'll start all over again.
Comcast is so huge, this is too small scale and localized to have a longer term effect.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Monday June 17 2019, @01:23PM
At least, the NY mafia delivers actual protection services [unilad.co.uk] for those money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 17 2019, @02:31PM (1 child)
Why did Washington let comcast off with so little money for this Comcast scam? Can the decision be appealed? Was someone paid off to accept the lower judgment?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 17 2019, @04:21PM
Concast has a mole... Ashit Pie
(Score: 5, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday June 17 2019, @05:20PM (1 child)
I once posted this on the "other site." It's what I think of whenever I see yet another story about customers being screwed over by Comcast:
It wouldn't surprise me if it was unofficial Comcast policy to have random employees troll customers with absurd phone calls on Sundays. That's how evil Comcast truly is. Anyone who signs up for some service claiming to give "customer support" with that company is just asking to have their money stolen from them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 18 2019, @09:19PM
The supervisor probably had a bunch of metrics they needed to fudge. You should have politely told them you're going to record and transcribe the conversation so you can reference it later, phished them for identifying information and then adamantly insist on keeping the ticket open with a warning that you'll complain if the ticket is closed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 17 2019, @11:04PM
They should be shut down for this amount of flagrant abuse. Any one of us that did the same thing would be in prison for a sentence well beyond our lifetimes. Comcast should have been broken up years ago.