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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

#31

Post by dredmorbius »

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…

As a business, Comcast can forsee this sort of risk, much better than any individual customer could, and insure against it.

The costs still get passed on to customers, but are distributed among all customers, are not incurred as an additional fee or cost at a time of hardship, and Comcast's size and negotiating power against an insurance company would almost certainly result in more favorable rates and terms than an individual could secure.

To say nothing of the brand management issues which would be avoided.

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

#32

Post by batgaijin »

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…

Dude, what? The whole point is that the little comcasts could offer fiber to other areas in order to gain subscribers.

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

#33

Post by newman314 »

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…

Let's be clear, Comcast is not cheap cable. There are many places in the world that have much faster internet access for less.

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

#34

Post by crusso »

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…

How breaking up would help?

They would need to be broken up the same way that AT&T was broken up back in the day. The breakups allowed for the sharing of infrastructure by various competitors so that you could call Sprint, MCI, or whomever for (at very least) your long distance service and possibly your local service as well.

You only really competition if you can choose your cable provider wherever you live.

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

#35

Post by 35636 »

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…

Moreover, people don't want to pay Comcast for the modem, but I guarantee you everyone who remembers that they lost a modem will declare it with their insurance company.

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

#36

Post by jrockway »

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.

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. I'm sure enough complaints will result in a token slap on the wrist, if that makes you feel any better.)

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

#38

Post by jrockway »

whichdan wrote: post #17

Comcast boxes are such a ripoff. They used to be $3/mo, and now they're at $7/mo. A brand new DOCSIS3 modem is less than $90[1], and the ones most people rent are bottom of the barrel DOCSIS2 modems. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-SB6121-SURFboard-DOCSIS-Cable...

Of course, $7 a month is a bargain not to have to call customer service and attempt to provision your own equipment.

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

#39

Post by njharman »

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.

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

#40

Post by HarryHirsch »

whichdan wrote: post #17

Comcast boxes are such a ripoff. They used to be $3/mo, and now they're at $7/mo. A brand new DOCSIS3 modem is less than $90[1], and the ones most people rent are bottom of the barrel DOCSIS2 modems. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-SB6121-SURFboard-DOCSIS-Cable...

Indeed. A new cable modem is less than USD 100, the expected lifetime is 5 years, and it depreciates over that time.

What that blog post does not say is just how much Comcast have charged their subscribers for the lost modems, but one would think it is more than the present value.

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