Comments on: Comcast sneaks in back-door rate increase by increasing “equipment charge”

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:22:08 +0000

Comcast is very deceptive in their billing practices..and THEY DON”T CARE WHAT CUSTOMERS THINK…In most cases you have little to NO other choices. That is the problem..a lack of competition. Promotional packages are eliminated and replaced by MUCH more expensive packages…you have no alternative. Frankly it is pathetic..it angers me and really makes me dislike Comcast.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:15:50 +0000

I to was furious about the increase. And yes you can use your own modem and dont pay a fee at all. I purchases one for 38.64 from office max…………hmmm….. comcast was already rippin us off with the 3 bucks…… Cable modems are very inexpensive and that excuse about rising equipment cost is crap. Im sure this will urge more customers to get their own or even get other service. Bad move comcast!!!! oh yes p.s, im still pissed about the nfl network incident years ago…… Chumps!!

By: jik

jik — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:54:09 +0000

I am a Comcast CSR and YES, you can buy your own cable modem and avoid the fee.

Well, it sure would be nice if they told you that! Nobody every told me. It’s not discussed anywhere obvious on the Web site.

RCN, in contrast, makes it obvious.

See the difference?

Also, it has been more than 10 years since Comcast has raised the cost of modem rental fees…

So what? I don’t believe the cost of the relevant hardware has gone up significantly in that time. And even if it has, the fact of the matter is that the rental fees I paid to Comcast before I got smart covered the cost of my modem several times over. I’m sure that’s true of most people who rent modems from Comcast. This suggests that the rental fee is not for cost recovery, but rather yet another way for Comcast to earn revenue. Therefore, as I said, increasing the modem rental fee was nothing more than a backdoor way for Comcast to increase its profits. And that’s not FAIR, it’s DECEPTIVE.

Even if one were to accept your argument that the fee was raised because it hasn’t been raised in ten years, a FAIR increase would be one that is comparable to inflation during that time period. However, an increase of 66%, from $3 per month to $5 per month, is more than double the rate of inflation over that ten-year period.

By: ComcastCSR

ComcastCSR — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:29:42 +0000

I am a Comcast CSR and YES, you can buy your own cable modem and avoid the fee. Also, it has been more than 10 years since Comcast has raised the cost of modem rental fees…hence the change. The only FAIR way to deal with the rising cost of doing business is to raise the cost for EVERYONE….makes sense to me.

By: Quantum Mechanic

Quantum Mechanic — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:58:40 +0000

You’re out of luck, Samantha. Both RCN and Verizon are also all-digital and thus you have to either use converter boxes or CableCARDs (on miniscule chance your TVs have CableCARD slots).

I can’t recall what the “additional outlet/converter” charges are for RCN and Verizon.

By: Samantha

Samantha — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:01:55 +0000

NOt only has Comcast found a back door charge for the CDV equipment now they have also “upgraded” their service and if you have more than 2 tvs you are going to pay for it!!!! I have so many problems with this but I’ll stick to my 2 problems….

1) this “free” upgrade is unnecesary and will now force me to add a box in my kitchen which I can neither fit nor do I want in my kitchen. I spent too much money for a crappy TV because of it’s small size so that it was digital and it fit and now I have to add a box…where am I going to put it?????

2) for my kids to watch disney and nick, my hiusband and I to watch history channel in our room, the kitchen and the kids room it will now cost us $2.99 a month (on top of the increased CDV charge) to get the service I already have – I am so angry I am now looking into Verizon – which I’m sure I won’t be much happier with!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: NGHIA

NGHIA — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:57:48 +0000

I think the CEO of Comcast have made a big mistake because in business, you made one customer upset, you will lose at least 10 more customers. You thought that you can get more money or customers are stupid, 2 dollars is not big amount of money, but nobody like sneak, for example, I will tell all my family in 14 states do not use Comcast and I will stop the comcast now.

By: How to lower your phone + internet cost from $80 per month to $50 per month: buy your own cable modem and kick Comcast to the curb « Something better to do

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:58:20 +0000

[...] raised the equipment charge for my cable modem from $3 to $5 per month. That pissed me off, so I bought my own cable [...]

By: jik

jik — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:14:42 +0000

Does Comcast allow you to provide your own cable modem and not pay the charge?

I’m looking into that, and I’m also making sure to let everyone I deal with know that the reason I’m doing this is because of their duplicity, and that by jerking me around, they’re turning a $3/month income stream into a $0/month income stream rather than the $5/month income stream they’d hoped for.

I believe the charge covers not just the rental of the equipment, but also the replacement of said equipment should it fail.

It is not plausible that these modems fail often enough for them to need to charge $60/year/subscriber to cover the cost of replacing the failed units. Hardware like this rarely fails. I’ve had Comcast service for well over a year, and my modem has never failed, nor do I expect it to any time soon. You can get compatible modems on eBay for well under $30.

Granted, often when a subscriber is having a problem Comcast will blame the modem and replace it before looking for other possible problems. They did this to me when the problem wasn’t my modem, but rather a bad splitter in the box on the pool outside my house. It is neither justified nor appropriate for Comcast to charge customers for modem replacements that weren’t actually necessary.

Not to mention the fact that the equipment charge is not an insurance pool — it is neither justified nor appropriate for Comcast to charge me because of other people’s failed modems — so if that’s indeed what the charges are about, then it would be both reasonable and appropriate for them to charge a one-time fee when installing or replacing a modem, not a recurring monthly fee that never ends.

By: JonT

JonT — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:00:25 +0000

Does Comcast allow you to provide your own cable modem and not pay the charge? RCN does, and I’ve sometimes felt like a bit of a chump for not doing so, though last I checked the prices it would’ve taken 2-3 years to pay for itself.

I believe the charge covers not just the rental of the equipment, but also the replacement of said equipment should it fail. Given that, I don’t know that a price increase might not be all that surprising, though no doubt it must be a big source of profit for the company (as similar telephone rental charges for the old Ma Bell monopoly were for AT&T).