Want to read 2,000 complaints against Comcast? It’s your lucky day

Sep 15, 2015 12:03pm PDT

Comcast customers filed more than 2,000 complaints against the company from April to June, according to documents released by the Federal Communications Commission.

The documents were obtained from the FCC through a Freedom of Information Act request by CityExplainer, a Baltimore-based blog. CityExplainer yesterday posted an article about the complaints and made them all available to read in a spreadsheet and PDF.

There were many complaints about data caps, billing problems, service outages, slow speeds, and poor responses from customer service representatives.

"You’ll see senior citizens and others complaining about unrelenting billing errors, people complaining about alleged data throttling and data caps, and residents’ sad tales of dealing with technicians who come—or don’t come—to their homes to fix problems," the blog post said.

Some consumers claimed Comcast is violating net neutrality rules, though this was often due to people misunderstanding the FCC's regulations. One person claimed that Comcast "charg[ing] more for faster Internet services... violates the regulations on net neutrality," which is not correct. The core net neutrality rules prohibit blocking, throttling, and charging Web services for faster access to consumers, but not different price tiers for home Internet service.

Comcast is the largest cable and broadband provider in the country, with about 22.3 million TV customers and 22.5 million Internet customers (with a lot of overlap between those two groups).

TV, phone, and Internet providers are required to respond to consumers who file complaints on the FCC's complaint site. As we've previously reported, customers of Comcast and other companies have sometimes had better luck resolving problems by complaining to the FCC than to the providers directly.

Complaining to the FCC isn't foolproof, though. A Florida resident on June 27 told the FCC, "Comcast disconnected my account without reason or notice. I am disabled homebound. I moved in to my house and for 2 weeks had no new Internet service after setting up my new account. I called several times. They told me the modem was the problem. Then I called today to say there was no signal to my home. They said my account was cancelled. I asked why and they said there was no reason. I was never notified."

The customer posted a few follow-up messages saying that Comcast had gotten in touch but not solved the problem. "I still have no service and the FCC representative at Comcast never called back as promised," the person wrote on July 1. "I now have charges and have never had service. Additionally, Comcast has added TV service to my account even though I only ordered Internet for 14.99. This is the second time they have done this without my permission. It seems like an ongoing game with their office."

Even if not every complaint is resolved, Comcast employees are reading and responding to them. "We reach out to every customer (by phone and sometimes e-mail) who files with the FCC to see how we can address their concerns," a Comcast spokesperson told Ars. "We then respond to the FCC with a letter explaining how we resolved—or tried to resolve—the issue, and also send the customer a copy of that response as required by the rules. If the person isn’t a Comcast customer, we copy them on our written response to the FCC as required by the rules."

Comcast raises cable TV bills again — even if you’re under contract

11/26/2018

Comcast is raising its controversial "Broadcast TV" and "Regional Sports Network" fees again on January 1, with the typical total price going from $14.50 to $18.25 a month.

The newly raised broadcast TV fee will be $10 a month, and the sports fee will be $8.25 a month, Cord Cutters News reported last week. The new fee sizes are confirmed in a Comcast price list for the Atlanta market.

About a year ago, Comcast raised the broadcast TV fee from $6.50 to $8 and the sports fee from $4.50 to $6.50.

The new price hikes will take effect in most of Comcast's regional markets across the US on January 1, but some cities will get the increase later in 2019, a Comcast spokesperson told Ars. The fee sizes can vary by city based on which stations are available, so in some cases they could be less than $10 and $8.25, Comcast said.

The fees, which have become common in the industry, are controversial because they are not included in Comcast's advertised prices and because Comcast imposes fee increases even on customers who are under contract. The broadcast and sports fee increases will also be applied to customers who pay Comcast's promotional rates, which typically last one year, Comcast told Ars.

Equipment rental fees are rising, too. Comcast last year raised its modem rental fee from $10 to $11 a month. The new price list for January 1 lists an "Internet/Voice Equipment Rental" fee as $13. Comcast confirmed to Ars that the modem rental fee is rising $2 a month. Customers can avoid that fee by purchasing their own modem.

Comcast agreed to improve fee disclosures

Comcast faced a class-action lawsuit over the TV and sports fees, but the company settled out of court in May. Comcast did not disclose the terms of the settlement when asked about the case today. We contacted the plaintiffs' lawyer and will provide an update if we get one. (UPDATE: Plaintiffs' attorney Dan Hattis told Ars that the plaintiffs voluntarily allowed the case to be dismissed. However, Hattis is representing other plaintiffs in a newer, bigger class action against Comcast. The newer suit was filed on behalf of 2 million California residents.)

Separately, Comcast this month agreed to pay $700,000 in refunds and forgive debts for more than 20,000 Massachusetts customers to settle allegations that it used deceptive advertising to promote long-term cable contracts. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey found that Comcast advertised a $99 lock-in rate but "did not adequately disclose equipment costs and mandatory monthly fees" that would add to monthly bills and "failed to adequately disclose that the fees could increase while the customer was locked into the long-term contract."

As part of the settlement with Massachusetts, Comcast also agreed to improve the disclosures it makes to customers before they sign long-term contracts.

Comcast and other pay-TV operators that charge broadcast TV and sports fees say the fees are necessary to cover the rising costs of programming. But payments to programmers are a standard expense in any cable TV company's business, and those contribute greatly to the general monthly rates that customers have to pay. Breaking some of these programming costs out into separate fees allows Comcast to raise customers' prices each year even if the customers have multi-year contracts.

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