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So I'm sitting at work, on a Sunday, waiting for the Comcast tech that was supposed to be here between 8am and 10am.
It is now a little after 12pm, and I'm on the phone with customer service for the second time. I was supposed to get a phone call within 30 minutes of the first time I called (at 10:40).
I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
I finally called back at 11:30am, and got the same run around. I've been on the phone with them for over 30 minutes now, and have talked to customer service, and am now chewing on a supervisor.
I was just told (at 12:15pm) that the ticket was invalidated and was never put through. So I've been sitting here for NOTHING. They didn't bother to tell me this when I called in 2 hours ago, or to do the courteous thing and call or email me when the ticket got invalidated. Adding insult to injury, they also tell me that they only compensate for down service, not for people sitting waiting on their non-existent technicians.
It is no wonder people hate Comcast and many other internet service providers. I remember now why I swore off using Comcast for anything.
So now, because misery loves company (and many people hate their ISP), what are your horror stories?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bradley13 on Monday December 21 2015, @04:54PM
I wonder if there is not some way to charge them for your time and inconvenience. Likely, you would have to send them written notice, and make some reasonable allowances. However, if companies can have an EULA that is accepted by default, why not customers?
"Dear Comcast, I hereby legally notify you that I am amending the service contract for my household with the following terms. Technical support calls exceeding 30 minutes will be billed at the following rate... Service interruptions longer than 24 hours will result in reimbursement of all connection fees for that month... Etc... Etc..."
Of course, they may just terminate your service. However, if they don't, it seems to me that such a contract could be made legally binding. IANAL, nor do I even live in the US, so YMMV...
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday December 21 2015, @05:16PM
Just make up an invoice and post it direct to their accounts department. Probably won't work, but you might get lucky.
(Score: 4, Informative) by MrGuy on Monday December 21 2015, @07:28PM
That's not how contracts work, unfortunately. You need both parties to agree to add new terms.
Unless one of the parties agrees as part of the original contract that the other party is allowed to change certain terms at their exclusive discretion over the life of the contract. And, as an ISP customer, YOU probably agreed to exactly that - you agreed that THEY could change the terms. However, the reverse is almost certainly NOT true - they did not agree that YOU could change the terms.
Therefore, you can't. At least, not without their agreement. Which you don't have.
Similarly, you can't get out of an existing contract this way - you can't try to change the terms and claim that a long-term contract you signed previously is void if they don't agree. A contract isn't void just because one party stops liking it. Absent mutual agreement on an amendment, you're stuck with it.
In GENERAL, this feature of contract law is good - it wouldn't be OK if you sign a contract with someone to fix your house, and halfway through they decide they want a different contract, and could void the contract if you don't agree.
However, in a (largely monopolistic, usually at least oligopolistic) service provider situation, it's problematic, because the provider can (and does) get you to agree to unconscionable (or at least unfavorable) terms because you lack options.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 21 2015, @11:17PM
"And, as an ISP customer, YOU probably agreed to exactly that - you agreed that THEY could change the terms. However, the reverse is almost certainly NOT true - they did not agree that YOU could change the terms."
Usually one sided contracts like this, especially when done by a big corporation against a regular person, are considered unenforceable by courts. Unless the two entities have reasonably equal bargaining power and a reasonably equal ability to negotiate contracts usually courts will find very one sided contracts between a big corporate entity like this and an individual unenforceable.
The problem, of course, is that an individual probably isn't going to bother taking any of this to court. It's very expensive, time consuming, and usually not worth it.
But still, if the contract states that they will provide you 100 Mb/sec for one year for $40 a month but they can arbitrarily change the conditions at will and later decide that they will charge you $50 a month for only 10 Mb/sec and that there is a $100 cancellation fee I imagine that their cancellation fee will not be enforceable and if they do attempt to enforce it on too many people they will end up having problems. So it's not like they can literally just do anything they want and expect it not to come back to haunt them.
But yes, overall, unfortunately, ISPs and big business does get away with a lot. and the sad truth is that our justice system, if left on its own, is too often very lenient on them and it ends up being things like public pressure that either has to directly compel big business to behave or, in the most egregious cases, they have to compel the legal system to do something about it.
(Score: 2) by chewbacon on Tuesday December 22 2015, @02:16AM
I went to this website the other day and it said "by using our site you agree to blaaaaahhhhhhhh slurrrrrp herpa durp..." I didn't agree to my agreeing with their terms to read their website, so I kept on reading. Does this not work both ways? "By not replying to these conditions, your companies excepts the terms."
(Score: 2) by Nollij on Tuesday December 22 2015, @03:05AM
True - you're stuck with it, but so are they. No matter what the contracts say, they cannot amend them unilaterally, without notice, and hold you to them. This is part of contract law, which is well established. (IANAL)
Ongoing contracts, OTOH, are a bit different. You may notice that every time the terms change on your month-to-month accounts, there's always a section about what happens if you don't agree. It usually amounts to "terminate all service, and pay the account balance." You can send Comcast amended terms (which would have to be sent to the right dept, btw), but their response will be to simply not agree, and terminate service. There is an outside chance of it getting lost in bureaucracy before the deadline for accepting/rejecting the amended terms, but not likely.
(Score: 1) by mgcarley on Friday January 01 2016, @07:42PM
And yet it can still be very difficult to sue someone for breach of contract.
We're 2 years in to a lawsuit with an ex-customer who defaulted on payment, re-assigned the maintenance part of the contract to a third party without any notice *AND* circumvented us for the service part (despite non-circumvention clauses) - all without cause.
We received a lot of tech-support calls (mostly complaints) from their users after that but we couldn't even do anything to help.
Founder & COO, Hayai. We're in India (hayai.in) & the USA (hayaibroadband.com) // Twitter: @mgcarley
(Score: 3, Interesting) by arulatas on Monday December 21 2015, @07:41PM
Why not put it on the check you send them for payment (or just send one just for this purpose)? Put it in tiny writing that by endorsing or cashing this check you validate the end user license specified on such and such a website. Where you can change the terms and conditions when ever you see the need.
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