Shaft
Good ol' Comcast. I recently moved my existing Comcast digital cable / broadband service from my old apartment to my new home. On installation day, the Comcast rep informed me he had to run a "new drop" from the outside of the house. Okay - I thought - whatever you have to do. Within an hour, the service was up and running.
A week later, I received the first month's bill. $240 for installation.
I've phoned customer service twice, and demanded both times an explanation for the ridiculously large charge -- especially since I was moving existing service (an active account I've paid for over three years), and the Comcast rep didn't have to drill holes or install any jacks. In short, my house was wired.
To Comcast, the fact that he had to run a new line to the house was reason enough to slap me with $240 of labor.
Word to the wise - next time you transfer service, or have new service installed, make damn sure you know what you're getting into.
Comments
If they didn't tell you in advance what that charge was, and have you either verbally or signed approval for that extra work, then contractually you are not obligated to pay them that fee. By law, the service provider must get pre-approval for any work performed, plus an expectation of costs.
Posted by: Jason Estes at June 26, 2003 1:37 PM
I'm surprised you were surprised. This is normal. Par for the course.
Wait until your first pipe bursts at 9 pm on Friday night.
Posted by: William at June 26, 2003 3:24 PM
You might talk them into at the least a credit to your account of half that bill as you are a long term customer and new installs usually only run $99 - $150 these days.
I'm with Comcast right now and will be moving to a new rental home in a month, taking my current service with me. This is good to know. Thanks for posting. I'll try to get notification up front.
Posted by: jeremy at June 26, 2003 5:33 PM
Jason's advice seems to be right. There's NO way an installer can tack on huge service charges to an order without notifying you of the *possible* amount on your bill.
My suggestion would be to notify the cable company about THEIR error (since your home was pre-wired anyway.. but you already did that), and suggest that they remove it from your bill. If they refuse to budge, you may want to look into the local Public Utilities regulatory board and file a complaint with them (they're the board that monitors consumer complaints with your area's utilities). Good luck.
Posted by: eh at June 26, 2003 6:45 PM
Is cable considered a 'utility' now? Wow, 21st century indeed.
Posted by: dowingba at June 26, 2003 7:57 PM
The same exact thing happened to me, though I was able to dispute the charges and get a full refund. Working through their customer service chain of management seemed to do the trick.
Posted by: SU at June 26, 2003 8:46 PM
I'd refuse to pay it. Comcast will waive it if you use some grit... They tried to charge me for a broken modem (which was totally my fault, but still...) and I refused. They caved in...
Posted by: JMBR at June 27, 2003 2:02 AM
They charged me $500 for my dial up service.
Hey wait, why is the cable company charging me for a telephone line, damn I've been suckered just like you.
Posted by: CHRISTo at June 27, 2003 6:38 AM
Wow, I just ordered new Comcast service, including the installation of four new cable outlets & internet hookup, and our install bill is gonna be $79.
They're currently running a special (in MD, anyway) that includes free installation of the first outlet & three months of digital cable w/ Showtime for $19.95/mo. There's also a special for the Net service of $19.95/mo. for six months.
Guess I shouldn't expect any favors once I'm a customer, though. (All these offers are only good for new customers.)
Posted by: ksmith at June 27, 2003 9:12 AM
One word for you: DIRECTV
There are so many things which make DirecTV a better choice these days than digital cable and really only one small drawback: Having to put a dish on your roof.
Especially if you are planning on getting that widescreen TV, you're going to need a signal with better resolution than digital cable. DirecTV resolution is higher than digital cable, and in fact, *analog* cable resolution is even higher than digital cable. Additionally, if you are a TIVO guy (which how could you not be?), DirecTIVO blows the doors off of cable TIVO. For one, it's only $4.95 a month instead of $12.95. Secondly, you can record two things at the same time and watch a third thing. Third, it's a direct MPEG2 signal you're getting right into the box.
Posted by: Mike Davidson at June 27, 2003 10:53 AM
I'm going through the same thing with Earthlink, as we speak. I moved last weekend, and called to switch DSL service to my new address. Because I'm changing addresses, they slapped me with a $150 fee for a breach of my user agreement, which I don't remember ever agreeing to.
Then, after the 2-4 weeks it will take them to switch on the account to the new address, they'll credit me back $100 of it, pocketing the other $50 as a transfer fee.
Keep in mind, this is DSL...no installation, no service visit, no sweaty guy in a van...just provisioning the line and flipping the 'on' switch...
They've got us right where they want us...
Posted by: Sharif at June 27, 2003 5:12 PM
The poster before me said it all...SATELLITE
I stupidly ordered new digital cable service at my new home without bothering to check out satellite...and the digital cable picture is not as good as analog cable. The "high" channels look OK (just OK) but the lower ones stink. They switched out boxes, put new doo-dads on the pole outside...nope...grainy, ghost images, etc...can I live with it? Yes...but digital-get-down-on-your-knees-and-thank-the-lord this is not!
Go with the satellite and see what video is supposed to look like...and while you're at it get yourself one of those new Panasonic DVD recorders...woo-hoo!
Posted by: Paul V at June 27, 2003 8:04 PM
We've had similar problems with Comcast. We had Comcast cable tv/internet in our old apartment. When we moved to our new apartment, the former tenant also had Comcast tv/internet which worked fine. The incompetent technician came out and took 3.5 hrs trying to get it to set up, and had to run a new line into the house.
He also picked up our old box and modem which a service rep told us to move to the new place. Then they sent us a bill for $468 for unreturned equipment because he didn't send in his worksheet saying he'd picked them up. Their service rep's solution was that we'd have to go down to their office to show them our copy of the bill that said he picked them up. Apparently they don't keep their own record of anything they do.
I can't wait to see if they send us an additional bill for the new line!
Posted by: Tim at July 11, 2003 12:41 PM
You know what's interesting about Washington? It's the kind of place where second-guessing has become second nature.
Posted by: Espinola Steve at May 2, 2004 5:20 PM
