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submitted 2 years ago by c2h6@lemmy.world to c/technology@beehaw.org

Comcast blasted for seeking "loopholes" in rule requiring disclosure of all fees.

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[-] fubo@lemmy.world 57 points 2 years ago

If your billing is too complicated to be accurately described to your customers, then you may have put yourself in a situation where you are incapable of being honest with your customers. That's on you.

It's the job of regulators to ensure that you are honest with your customers; therefore, they can reasonably forbid you from having billing so complicated that it cannot be described accurately.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 22 points 2 years ago

It's funny, my local ISP tells me I owe X dollars a month and that's what I pay. How on earth do they do that? Comcast is telling us it can't possibly be that simple

[-] fubo@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago

The airlines managed to figure it out, weirdly enough. Calculating the price of an airline seat is Turing-complete, and at least one airline software service, ITA, needed the runtime compilation feature of Common Lisp to do it efficiently. Yes, when a user asked for a ticket price, their systems wrote and compiled a piece of code to determine the answer.

[-] transgwender@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 years ago

Oml thats actually insane and incredible. My goodness wow

[-] xavier666@lemm.ee 8 points 2 years ago

Many companies, specially telcos, have a complex scheme of paid plans to confuse the users so that they become fed up and say "ok, so how much do I have to pay". This is their exact objective.

My local ISP (not a part of some huge elite ISP) is similar to yours. Pay X and you get unlimited internet for a month at Y Mbps uplink/downlink. Somehow it's too complex for Comcast.

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[-] keeb420@kbin.social 6 points 2 years ago

mine even manages to do it for the price they advertise. and without a data cap. and without having to have a comcrap router in order to pay more to not have a data cap. i had my own router i didnt want to use theirs mine was better. but the only way i could find to pay to not deal with the cap was to have their router. fuck that.

[-] psudo@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah, but are they making their faceless shareholders insane profits? I say this as a joke, but I do feel like that's a large reason why Comcast and the like are so terrible to their customers.

[-] misguidedfunk@beehaw.org 5 points 2 years ago

I’d love to have a local option. We get spectrum or wind stream, which means spectrum. They charge whatever they want because they have a pseudo monopoly.

[-] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 34 points 2 years ago

"We don't know what they are until we charge you."

[-] hexachrome@monero.town 21 points 2 years ago

Boohoo Comcast. Hopefully the FCC tells them to get wrecked.

[-] ptsdstillinmymind@lemmy.studio 5 points 2 years ago

If the FCC is anything like the SEC/DOJ I wouldn't hold my breath. All of these regulatory agencies are regulatory captured via the revolving door.

[-] Casmael@u.fail 17 points 2 years ago

Man do I ever get sick of corpo bullshit

[-] c2h6@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Too hard to disclose fees but easy to charge them huh

[-] BackOnMyBS@kbin.social 14 points 2 years ago

That's some straight up gaslighting shit. If they can figure out to charge it, they can print it on a bill.

[-] CrimsonOnoscopy@beehaw.org 6 points 2 years ago

Typical corporate lawyer speak.

[-] GreenPlasticSushiGrass@kbin.social 14 points 2 years ago

Comcast: "But I am le tired."
(This reference goes back a few years, kids!)

[-] ASK_ME_ABOUT_LOOM@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 years ago

Then have a nap... AND THEN POST ZE FEES!

[-] Death2lois@lemmy.one 3 points 2 years ago

F$cking Kangaroos!! ...can we curse on here??

[-] ASK_ME_ABOUT_LOOM@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

This is the internet, you can say whatever the fuck you want.

[-] Death2lois@lemmy.one 3 points 2 years ago
[-] c2h6@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Oh god now I feel both nostalgic and old at the same time. "Australia's like wtf mate" 😂

I thought the end of the world and "I JUST WANT BANG BANG BANG" was the funniest shit ever back then.

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[-] smolgumball@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

Can't wait to try this during tax season next year

[-] debounced@kbin.run 2 points 2 years ago

lol, my thoughts exactly

[-] Rentlar@beehaw.org 11 points 2 years ago

It's a simple solution, Comcast. Don't charge any fee you aren't willing to spend the effort to disclose.

[-] falsem@kbin.social 10 points 2 years ago

broadband facts

FCC stahp, I can only get so hard.

[-] k32481@lemm.ee 9 points 2 years ago

If it is too hard/difficult for a company to itemize all their fees, they are charging way too many fees.

[-] Banzai51@midwest.social 8 points 2 years ago

Funny, it was never too hard when they billed me.

[-] dan@upvote.au 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I'm so glad I don't have to use Comcast any more. A small local ISP (Sonic) expanded to cover my area last year and offers 10Gbps symmetric fiber for $40/month - half the price I was paying Comcast for 1.2Gbps down / 35Mbps up.

[-] frostycakes@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I'm super jealous. At least I'm moving to a new apartment with fiber from CenturyLink at it, but even they are running $70/mo for gigabit. I'm living the T-Mobile 5G home internet life right now because CL only has DSL at my current place, and fuck Comcast in general.

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[-] worfamerryman@beehaw.org 7 points 2 years ago

They need to do a reset of their pricing them. Figure it out again from the ground up.

I pay exactly what my isp advertises never a cent more.

I live in a third world country.

[-] jherazob@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago
[-] Prevailing@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago

That headline is some NotTheOnion material.

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[-] Helium@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago

Comcast is a truly rotten company. Like without fail they continue to impress me on their new clever ways of misleading customers. Like remember "10G" from earlier this year...?

[-] Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 2 points 2 years ago

Most cable companies appear to be rotten to the core... Cox Communications is rolling out fiber into my neighborhood... Know what speeds they're advertising? 900/30... Which is WORSE than their gigabit coaxial option... At least there you could get 960/30

[-] Grimpen@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 years ago
[-] c2h6@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Nonono it's simple when we bill you, just too hard to list it upfront.

[-] Mydispo@midwest.social 5 points 2 years ago

"The label hasn't even reached consumers yet, but Comcast is already trying to create loopholes." Is anyone surprised? I'm not a huge fan of Google's privacy practices, but their Fiber service is outstandingly easy to use and fast. I'm lucky to live in Kansas City though...

[-] c2h6@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I wish Google fiber were in more states.

[-] psysok@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago

They will just have to create a fee to "cover the costs" of having to tell you what they are going to charge you.

[-] c2h6@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Nonono it's easy to charge you, it's just hard to disclose it. Duh

[-] SomeGuyNamedPaul@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago

There's an easy fix, just don't allow charging any fees that aren't listed along with the advertised price. See? Very simple. They'll figure out how to list them thereafter, believe in them.

[-] miroppb@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago
[-] chriskoss@lemmy.fmhy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

I think comcast getting fucked by regulators forcing fee disclosure has the potential to make a lot of people 'too hard'

[-] Pluto_Is_A_Planet@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

poor comcast. gotta feel so sorry for them /s

[-] Spaceman2901@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

Have they tried…not being corpo sleaze?

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this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
168 points (100.0% liked)

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