"Breaking the fees out makes it easier for customers to see what they're paying for and lets us be clear about the factors that drive price changes," Comcast said.īut as the Minnesota lawsuit notes, breaking the fees out separately also helps Comcast advertise lower rates than it actually charges. On customer bills, the charges are disclosed and listed separately from actual government-imposed taxes, Comcast said.Ĭomcast hasn't explained why so many of its employees apparently made the same exact mistake, however.Ĭomcast noted that other cable companies started charging the broadcast TV and sports fees before Comcast began doing so in 20 and that "they reflect the increasing amount we need to pay for broadcast and sports." "Employees may go off script and incorrectly characterize things, but that is not in line with our policy because are not government-mandated fees," Comcast said.Ĭomcast pointed out that the fees are described correctly at this Comcast webpage. When contacted by Ars, a Comcast spokesperson yesterday said that "our policy is to be very clear to our customers about the broadcast TV and RSN fees and that these are not government-mandated fees."īut employees make mistakes, the Comcast spokesperson said. "Comcast/Xfinity's conduct has violated Minnesota's consumer protection laws and injured thousands of Minnesota consumers who purchased Comcast/Xfinity's cable television packages," the complaint said. The AG's office also says that Comcast charged many customers for services they didn't request, and it promised prepaid Visa gift cards as incentives but "did not deliver these gift cards to thousands of Minnesota customers." Comcast "has chosen to segregate these fees from its base price so it can deceptively advertise and promise an artificially low price to price-sensitive customers, and at the same time confuse and conceal the true monthly cost of its Cable Television Packages." Advertisement For example, Comcast/Xfinity told Minnesota consumers in 2015, 2016, and 2017-when the consumers called the company regarding undisclosed increases on their supposedly fixed-price bills-that the Broadcast TV fee and Regional Sports fee had increased or been added to their bills, but that "those fees are actually local fees and correspond to the FCC and we don't manage those okay? Those aren't up to Comcast " "but that's something again that's out of our control " that the increases "are outside our control " "we have no control over the fees " "the only thing Comcast cannot control are the taxes and fees within your state " and that the Regional Sports fee can't be taken off because it's part of the "taxes."īut in fact, "Comcast/Xfinity is not required by any state or federal law to collect such fees," the Minnesota complaint said. Here's what the Minnesota AG's complaint says about how Comcast described the controversial fees to customers:ĭespite creating the Broadcast TV fee and Regional Sports fee on its own initiative and increasing them at its own whims, Comcast/Xfinity has sometimes misrepresented to Minnesota consumers that it cannot control whether it charged consumers these fees or how much it charged for the fees. But Minnesota says that Comcast's lies about the sports and broadcast fees continued into 2017, which is after Comcast knew about identical allegations raised in a separate class action complaint filed in 2016. These two fees, which are not included in Comcast's advertised rates, have gone up steadily and now total $18.25 a month.Ĭomcast has responded to some lawsuits-including this one-by saying that the company had already stopped the practices that triggered the court actions. The complaint alleges, among other things, that Comcast reps falsely told customers that the company's "Regional Sports Network (RSN)" and "Broadcast TV" fees were mandated by the government and not controlled by Comcast itself. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson sued Comcast in Hennepin County District Court on December 21, seeking refunds for all customers who were harmed by Comcast's alleged violations of the state's Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act and Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Getty Images | jetcityimage reader comments 200Ī new lawsuit filed against Comcast details an extensive list of lies the cable company allegedly told customers in order to hide the full cost of service.
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