Hmm, are cable companies engaging in deceptive trade practices with VOIP phones?

[AndrewR]

Has anyone ever looked into this? Comcast advertises its VOIP phone service for $24.99, at least in an ad recently, but nowhere in the ad does it mention that in order to receive the service you MUST use their telephony modem for an additional rental cost, which makes it comparable in price to a POTS line with the exception of long distance. I suspect other cable companies are similar.

Does that strike anyone else as being deceptive? I'm wondering if I should bring it to the local PUC (Public Utilities Commission) for investigation. I hate Comcast and would love to tweak them a bit if I could. I just want them to allow people to buy a modem and use it, rather than having to rent.

 

[spidey07]

No, it's called advertising/marketing. Buyer beware and always read the fine print.

 

[darrontrask]

just like digital cable. you pay for the service and even if you have a digital tuner you have to rent their equipment to recieve it. I am very intersted to see how this pans out next February and asked TWC if I would be able to recieve the digital channels through my tuner instead of throigh their box and I didn't get an answer.

 

[tw1164]

Originally posted by: darrontrask
just like digital cable. you pay for the service and even if you have a digital tuner you have to rent their equipment to recieve it. I am very intersted to see how this pans out next February and asked TWC if I would be able to recieve the digital channels through my tuner instead of throigh their box and I didn't get an answer.

You need to use a cable card solution. The digital change next Feb is all about Over the Air (OTA) signals.

 

[kranky]

I think it's deceptive to advertise a price when there is no possible way to use the service without paying more than the advertised price.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: kranky
I think it's deceptive to advertise a price when there is no possible way to use the service without paying more than the advertised price.

:thumbsup:

(Excluding taxes)

 

[sdifox]

you are new to life right? This has been happening for decades...

 

[40Hands]

Comcast will try to screw over their customers at every turn. Better to just assume that they will charge you ~25% more then whatever they advertise. (rental charges, service fees, etc) Also if you choose to buy your own equipment, watch for the rental charge to still appear on your bill. I had to jump through a bunch of hoops to prove to them I had my own modem because they didn't have a record of me returning my rented one. They came into our area and bought up Adelphia which left all their records all fucked up. Did they bother converting the entire database over to their system? Why would they do that when they can just pick up the billing end and charge us their new rate. Come to find out when I called them about speed problems they told me they would boost me up to the 6mbs (from 4) that I had been paying for since they took over! The person on the phone acted like she was doing me a favor! :roll:

Thank god there is finally a new company in the area that I will be switching to soon. Hopefully they are better but I'm also switching to them out of my hatred for Comcrap.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: spidey07
No, it's called advertising/marketing. Buyer beware and always read the fine print.

Well, that's the weird thing about it -- it's not in the fine print on the ads (and there's plenty of fine print). Guess I should have mentioned that.

I'm used to the deceptive large print in ads, but eliminating the fine print which gives the detail seems odd to me.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: 40Hands
Comcast will try to screw over their customers at every turn. Better to just assume that they will charge you ~25% more then whatever they advertise. (rental charges, service fees, etc) Also if you choose to buy your own equipment, watch for the rental charge to still appear on your bill. I had to jump through a bunch of hoops to prove to them I had my own modem because they didn't have a record of me returning my rented one. They came into our area and bought up Adelphia which left all their records all fucked up. Did they bother converting the entire database over to their system? Why would they do that when they can just pick up the billing end and charge us their new rate. Come to find out when I called them about speed problems they told me they would boost me up to the 6mbs (from 4) that I had been paying for since they took over! The person on the phone acted like she was doing me a favor! :roll:

Thank god there is finally a new company in the area that I will be switching to soon. Hopefully they are better but I'm also switching to them out of my hatred for Comcrap.

No, they register the modem (or authorize it by MAC or something), and they will not allow any piece of equipment except their own to be used for telephony. I don't think that applies for standard broadband.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: sdifox
you are new to life right? This has been happening for decades...

Welcome to our parallel universe. Telephony modems aren't decades old, and typical "additional fees" are listed in the fine print.

Off you go for your meds.

 

[PokerGuy]

Deceptive indeed, but at least with the cable company you can just say "wait a minute, you want me to pay for what??? Forget that!" and just tell them forget it. With DirecTV and cell phone companies, by the time you see how they get you with such sneaky arrangements, you're locked into some 2 year deal and are stuck.