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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

#41

Post by bathat »

smsm42 wrote: post #21
michaelpinto wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 s…

Obviously breaking it into 1000 mini-comcasts, like AT&T, wouldn't, by itself, do anything useful. I think the unstated assumption is that in addition to breaking up Comcast, you'd also break the franchise agreements in order to allow competing cable companies within each territory.

It's very difficult for a start-up cable company or ISP with an innovative product, say, a la carte pricing, to get going because Comcast can undersell them (or offer the same innovative product) for as long as it takes for the start-up to burn through their capital. They can do this because 1) The start-up's limited capital prevents them from opening in every market at once; and 2) Comcast's national presence allows them to use the profits from one region to subsidize service in the region where the start-up is competing. It's probably cheaper to just buy Comcast than to try to beat them in a race to the bottom.

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

#42

Post by gm »

njharman wrote: post #39

I don't see a problem with that. If party 'A' has something belonging to party 'B'. Just because the property is inaccessible or destroyed doesn't suddenly evaporate's 'A' responsibility for returning it. Comcast should provide a grace period 30-60 days, but that's about it.

Agreed. Not sure why people see a problem with this simple principle.

It's not like they would be ok with Comcast saying "We're having cash flow issues, so we took the liberty of charging you double this month"

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

#43

Post by Turing_Machine »

enoch_r wrote: post #26
Turing_Machine wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"Anything that happens to the box during the rental period is something the renter is responsible for."

Most rental contracts (for anything) that I've seen make the owner responsible for normal wear and tear and so-called "Acts of God".

If you rent an apartment, you're not generally responsible for the rebuilding costs if it gets blown away in a hurricane or tornado.

Here's an example lease:

http://www.sitenet.com/toolkit/lease/database/l12.htm

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

#44

Post by HarryHirsch »

jrockway wrote: post #36
Steko wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

Brand management is only important when you have a choice of service providers. It's not like you can switch your cable service from Comcast to RCN or Time Warner if you want to. They already bribed the appropriate government officials to ensure that that is not possible. And now they want $500 for their $39 cable box and there's nothing you can do about it. (You might write to the state's attorney general's office.…

It might be fun to let them drag you into court and see what happens if they demand USD 500 for their ancient Motorola 4100 Surfboard, considering that today a new, more capable modem is less that USD 100. I would take the chance.

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

#45

Post by rfugger »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #44
jrockway wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brand management is only important when you have a choice of service providers. It's not like you can switch your cable service from Comcast to RCN or Time Warner if you want to. They already bribed the appropriate government officials to ensure that that is not possible. And now they want $500 for their $39 cable box and there's nothing you can do about it. (You might write to the state's attorney general's office.…

It might be fun to let them drag you into court and see what happens if they demand USD 500 for their ancient Motorola 4100 Surfboard, considering that today a new, more capable modem is less that USD 100. I would take the chance.

Most likely they would just put the unpaid bill on your credit report and move on, leaving you with tarnished credit and no recourse.

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

#46

Post by cowsaysoink »

enoch_r wrote: post #26
Turing_Machine wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I pay the monthly fee for my dsl modem because it comes with insurance and if the box breaks, which they seem to do, I don't eat the $100 dollar or more fee for a new one, the phone company ships one.

Now it really depends on how it is done but when I had comcast I did the same thing and I was always able to get someone on the line to replace it on their dime because of the monthly fees. Granted I never have had a hurricane blow through an office I think most of the time they are willing to work with you.

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

#47

Post by dfjacobs »

A hurricane just blew threw, your neighborhood has just been declared a disaster area, your house is about to explode, and you're freaking out over a return charge that you haven't even been billed yet? IMO, Comcast isn't the only ones with their priorities out of whack here.

If you do eventually get a bill for not returning the cable box, just go to the local Comcast office (the place you were supposed to return the boxes to) after things have settled down, and explain the situation to a local employee who actually has some discretion in how to respond to the situation. I'm sure you won't be the only one in the area with this problem. Expecting call center reps thousands of miles away, who have probably heard every variant of 'the dog ate my cable box' story at least twice, to waive the charge immediately, without any proof, and no directive from higher up, is asking a bit much. I'm guessing the Comcast staff in the hurricane zone have a few more pressing concerns right now than adjusting bills that haven't gone out the door yet.

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

#48

Post by wmf »

gm wrote: post #42
njharman wrote: post #39

I don't see a problem with that. If party 'A' has something belonging to party 'B'. Just because the property is inaccessible or destroyed doesn't suddenly evaporate's 'A' responsibility for returning it. Comcast should provide a grace period 30-60 days, but that's about it.

Agreed. Not sure why people see a problem with this simple principle. It's not like they would be ok with Comcast saying "We're having cash flow issues, so we took the liberty of charging you double this month"

Not in this particular case, but sometimes I feel like "the customer is always right" has become a license to steal for some people.

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

#49

Post by Turing_Machine »

esrauch wrote: post #23
Turing_Machine wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It probably depends on how the contract is written, and I am not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that default contract law is that the owner (not the renter) is responsible for "Acts of God". The renter has the duty to treat the property with reasonable care, but isn't responsible for normal wear and tear or disaster scenarios.

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

#50

Post by [deleted] »

esrauch wrote: post #23
Turing_Machine wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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