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My mom and dad’s house might explode, but Comcast wants its cable box back

sethclifford.me

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Re: My mom and dad’s house might explode, but Comcast wants its cable box back

#21

Post by smsm42 »

michaelpinto wrote: post #15
grecy wrote: post #4

I know this is going to be unpopular, but... Comcast is a business, and their goal is to make ever increasing profit. Yes it's horrible your family and hundreds of others lost everything due to a natural disaster, but that's not Comcast's fault or problem. When you signed up for service from them, I'll bet it's in the fine print that you are responsible for returning the cable box. If it got stolen, that's not Comcas…

In true capitalism you have competition, and in many cases Comcast is a monopoly when it comes to cable television — so that really makes them a utility. And like any other utility (phone, gas or electric) that means there needs to be some government regulation to balance things out. So yes they're a business and of course they should make money, but that needs to be balanced out by the needs of their customers. It m…

How breaking up would help? Instead of one huge Comcast you'd have 1000 regional mini-comcasts, with the same people and same rules. If some region has only one cabling network, they'd have only one mini-comcast controlling it, and so nothing would change for them - except for mini-comcast eating up the costs of natural disaster actually may be a huge hit, unlike Comcast today for which it would cost them less than salad dressings on annual employee appreciation barbecue (provided they have one).

Re: My mom and dad’s house might explode, but Comcast wants its cable box back

#22

Post by matthewowen »

grecy wrote: post #4

I know this is going to be unpopular, but... Comcast is a business, and their goal is to make ever increasing profit. Yes it's horrible your family and hundreds of others lost everything due to a natural disaster, but that's not Comcast's fault or problem. When you signed up for service from them, I'll bet it's in the fine print that you are responsible for returning the cable box. If it got stolen, that's not Comcas…

Yes, and customers are entitled to complain about obnoxious behaviour, are entitled to choose not to give their business to such companies, and are entitled to publicise such obnoxious behaviour.

Comcast might not be legally at fault, but I have no doubt that they are ethically. When companies behave unethically, it ought to be sung from the rooftops - that is how you put a cost on unethical behaviour.

Re: My mom and dad’s house might explode, but Comcast wants its cable box back

#23

Post by esrauch »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #13
enoch_r wrote: post #7

If your toaster is destroyed in a hurricane, Target does not replace it. If your car is destroyed in a hurricane, Honda does not replace it. So if your cable box is destroyed in a hurricane, I don't see why Comcast should be expected to eat the cost of replacement. You're renting an item with the express provision that failing to return the item means you've bought it. Expecting Comcast to provide free hurricane insu…

But it's not "their" cable box. It's Comcast's cable box. IMO, it would be fine for Comcast to charge for damage due to negligence or intentional vandalism, but not due to circumstances beyond the homeowner's control. Do they charge if the box is damaged by lightning, e.g.? Certainly my old cable company didn't, but I don't know about Comcast (I got rid of the cable after Comcast bought the company I had).

If it was a leased car it wouldn't be "their" car either, but it would be ridiculous to expect the company you are leasing it from to eat the cost of the car simply because it was destroyed by a natural disaster. While you are in possession of the property it is your own decision to insure it or not. In this case it many (almost all?) forms of home insurance would cover the cost of the destroyed cable box.

If Comcast stuck a mandatory $3/month "cable box insurance" fee on everyone's bill people would be posting about how they are money grubbing assholes, but if they are effectively insuring all of their leased equipment against loss then they are doing exactly that except just not putting it as a separate line item on the bill.

Re: My mom and dad’s house might explode, but Comcast wants its cable box back

#24

Post by LiveFanChat »

Uhm did you not realise you are responsible for this equipment? basically if your house burns down your insurance will need to cover it.

What do you want Comcast to do....basically pass on your loss to all of their other users across the USA?

If its just a matter of not being able to return the box this month....no big deal just rent to service for another month and then return it in 2 weeks once you can gt to the house again.

Re: My mom and dad’s house might explode, but Comcast wants its cable box back

#25

Post by smsm42 »

JeremyBanks wrote: post #2

There's a follow-up by The Consumerist. Once they got in contact with Comcast, Comcast predictably changed their tune: http://consumerist.com/2012/11/01/comcast-knows-that-your-st...

Right, just as I said above - once it is escalated to the level where people are allowed to think it becomes completely possible to be flexible.

Re: My mom and dad’s house might explode, but Comcast wants its cable box back

#26

Post by enoch_r »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #13
enoch_r wrote: post #7

If your toaster is destroyed in a hurricane, Target does not replace it. If your car is destroyed in a hurricane, Honda does not replace it. So if your cable box is destroyed in a hurricane, I don't see why Comcast should be expected to eat the cost of replacement. You're renting an item with the express provision that failing to return the item means you've bought it. Expecting Comcast to provide free hurricane insu…

But it's not "their" cable box. It's Comcast's cable box. IMO, it would be fine for Comcast to charge for damage due to negligence or intentional vandalism, but not due to circumstances beyond the homeowner's control. Do they charge if the box is damaged by lightning, e.g.? Certainly my old cable company didn't, but I don't know about Comcast (I got rid of the cable after Comcast bought the company I had).

Interesting. I see the box as rented equipment, temporarily owned by the homeowner. Anything that happens to the box during the rental period is something the renter is responsible for. I'm actually surprised that your old cable company replaced the lightning-damaged box.

But judging from the response here, clearly lots of other people think of the box as a part of Comcast's infrastructure that happens to be portable. And from that point of view, it makes sense for Comcast to eat the cost--just like they'll eat the cost of their cable lines being torn up in the hurricane.

And I suppose that if the vast majority of people have the latter view when they're signing up for cable, then Comcast should probably change their policies to fit that model, and just charge for loss or damage caused by the user.

Re: My mom and dad’s house might explode, but Comcast wants its cable box back

#27

Post by baddox »

Steko wrote: post #9
grecy wrote: post #4

I know this is going to be unpopular, but... Comcast is a business, and their goal is to make ever increasing profit. Yes it's horrible your family and hundreds of others lost everything due to a natural disaster, but that's not Comcast's fault or problem. When you signed up for service from them, I'll bet it's in the fine print that you are responsible for returning the cable box. If it got stolen, that's not Comcas…

"Comcast is a business, and their goal is to make ever increasing profit." And part of that is Brand Management AKA not looking like dicks after a hurricane level event and adding to people's misery.

Actually, the task of Brand Management would be to compare the potential costs of thousands of people's equipment against the potential cost from a fewer bloggers' online complaints.

Re: My mom and dad’s house might explode, but Comcast wants its cable box back

#28

Post by batgaijin »

Steko wrote: post #9
grecy wrote: post #4

I know this is going to be unpopular, but... Comcast is a business, and their goal is to make ever increasing profit. Yes it's horrible your family and hundreds of others lost everything due to a natural disaster, but that's not Comcast's fault or problem. When you signed up for service from them, I'll bet it's in the fine print that you are responsible for returning the cable box. If it got stolen, that's not Comcas…

"Comcast is a business, and their goal is to make ever increasing profit." And part of that is Brand Management AKA not looking like dicks after a hurricane level event and adding to people's misery.

Um, they are doing pretty well in terms of brand management or as I like to call it: "no sir, that service is called Xfinity now."

Re: My mom and dad’s house might explode, but Comcast wants its cable box back

#30

Post by wheelerwj »

I posted this because while I was not affected by Sandy, I did lose my apartment to a fire a few years ago and had to deal with the same thing from Direct TV. I got send to collections for the cost of the satellite, the receivers, and the failure to maintain the last part of the contract even though I was homeless.

I am a business person and I understand that profitability is the bottom line, but these companies make billions of dollars and this is unacceptable behavior from community members. Those rules and return policies are put into place to prevent theft, not to handle disasters, personal or national.

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