(I don’t remember the real name), the cost will be $30 less then you are paying now.
Huh?? So, I get the basic cable and the internet service (just like I’m getting now) and I get $30 off (the exact amount that you just raised rates)??
Yep, that turned out to be the deal.
So I’m back to where I was before, with a different title on it, but the old cost.
---
### Author:  [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-you-suck-donkey-balls/217820/22 "2003-12-09T22:26:16Z")
I love it when the cable company says things like ‘If you have satellite, you won’t get your TV signal when there’s bad weather.’
The cable companies then neglect to inform their customers that they, the cable company, get their signal from satellites.
---
### Author:  [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-you-suck-donkey-balls/217820/23 "2003-12-09T23:33:18Z")
I think I see where my misunderstanding came from, BTW. I don’t have **digital** cable. Just the regular plain ol’ cable that comes out of the wall, and I’m pretty happy with that. That’s where the gap in money comes from, I’m sure.
---
### Author:  [@Sam\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_H)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-you-suck-donkey-balls/217820/24 "2003-12-09T23:51:21Z")
\*\* UncleBeer\*\* wrote:
> [@](#):
>
> You’re lucky they’re not charging you for a business account. Those can be much more expensive due to expected greater bandwidth comsumption. Plus, it sounds like they gave you a properly pro-rated refund. I can’t see any legitimate aspect of your gripe with this.
Lucky? You’re kidding. I use no more bandwidth with my current project than any other user who keeps the internet on for a few hours a day. Charging me for a business account would be laughable.
My phone company got the bill wrong two months in a row. They apologied with a free month. My local supermarket wouldn’t take a coupon because their computers were down. The sent me double coupons to make up for it. Comcast should learn from their examples. You treat the customer respectfully or the customer goes elsewhere.
While my ISP was down I looked at my bill and realized that it has gone from $35 a month to $59 a month in less than two years. I can’t think of another bill I have that has risen so far so fast.
The idiots there are just a bunch of goddamned profiteering scum who are under the delusion they have a monopoly and can therefore jack up prices leaving the customer with no options but to pay. They’re wrong.
---
### Author:  [@Magickly\_Delicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magickly_Delicious)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2003, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-you-suck-donkey-balls/217820/25 "2003-12-10T00:37:14Z")
**avabeth** , definitely call and check with the company that your bill is correct - make sure you know what _all_ of those stupid abbreviations on your bill mean. Comcast billed me for about 5 months’ worth of cable I didn’t ask for or receive before I caught the error.
I pay $42.95 a month for cable internet and something like 11 bucks for basic cable, all from Comcast. DSL isn’t available in my area at all. :mad:
---
### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-you-suck-donkey-balls/217820/26 "2003-12-10T01:20:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> It’s like Comcast is just jacking up prices to jack them up. There’s no reasonable explanation for it.
Yeah, there is. The same explanation for, “Why does a dog lick its balls?”
_Because it can…_
[http://www.consumersunion.org/telecom/comcast1102.htm](http://www.consumersunion.org/telecom/comcast1102.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> Wednesday, November 13, 2002
>
> CONTACT:
> Gene Kimmelman or David Butler
> (202) 462-6262
> Consumers Union Washington, DC Office
>
> CONSUMERS UNION STATEMENT ON FCC APPROVAL OF
> AT&T-COMCAST MERGER
>
> WASHINGTON, DC – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today announced its approval of the merger of the cable television providers AT&T Broadband and Comcast.
>
> Gene Kimmelman, Senior Director for Public Policy and Advocacy for Consumers Union, made the following statement today regarding the decision:
>
> "This is a dangerous merger that allows one company to control video programming and high-speed Internet services for more than 40 percent of cable households in America. It is mind-boggling how federal officials have let the largest cable companies consolidate and thereby dictate the choices of cable channels and high-speed Internet services for consumers nationwide.
>
> "The merger creates a cable giant with complete or partial ownership of cable systems serving more than 30 million subscribers, which is more than 40 percent of the nation’s cable subscribers. This merger will dramatically increase concentration in video distribution markets in violation of antitrust merger guidelines, and it is inconsistent with a meaningful cable ownership limit that Congress called for in the 1992 Cable Act.
>
> "Cable rates have shot up 45 percent in the six years since Congress approved the Telecommunications Act, which initiated deregulation. The approval of this merger means that many consumers are likely to see more price hikes, and it’s going to be harder than ever for competitors to break into the cable and high-speed Internet markets served by AT&T and Comcast.
>
> "The Bush Administration has closed its eyes to the price gouging of cable monopolies. It is doing nothing to put a lid on cable rates or boost competition that would drive down prices. This Administration is so caught up in its deregulatory zeal and its tunnel-vision approach to antitrust and communication policy that the problems of consumers are being ignored. The Bush Administration’s antitrust and FCC appointees won’t block the merger of two of America’s biggest cable providers, and they are doing nothing to make satellite a more serious competitor, so consumers are left beholden to the cable monopolies.
>
> “Cable’s persistent monopolistic practices have been a black eye for regulators and antitrust officials in the Bush and Clinton Administrations. Cable companies will continue to gouge consumers until the federal government changes antitrust and regulatory enforcement practices.”
Hindsight being 20/20 and all…
---
### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-you-suck-donkey-balls/217820/27 "2003-12-10T14:50:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> The cable companies then neglect to inform their customers that they, the cable company, get their signal from satellites.
I’ve addressed this not-quite-accurate perception here:
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=220703&highlight=satellite](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=220703&highlight=satellite)
> [@](#):
>
> It is mind-boggling how federal officials have let the largest cable companies consolidate and thereby dictate the choices of cable channels and high-speed Internet services for consumers nationwide.
This isn’t entirely accurate either. As a guy who is sometimes involved in building channel line-ups for cable operators, I can tell you that the companies providing the content hold great sway over what a cable operator may purchase (I’m kinda in the middle of one right now - in an overbuild situation even, so yeah, that _does_ happen). That’s often why you see such odd channel packages offered by your cable provider. MTV, ESPN and Playboy are a few of the worst in this regard. If a cable operator wishes to broadcast one of their channels, they have to purchase a whole package of additional useless crap.
Certainly a giant like Comcast is gonna be able to negotiate a better deal for themselves than Fred’s cablesystem, but Comcast doesn’t really operate as a megalith. The regional offices, and there are a couple hundred of them (I can think of five in the Detroit area alone), can and do operate pretty autonomously. In case you haven’t guessed yet, Comcast is one of my larger clients.
---
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2003, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-you-suck-donkey-balls/217820/28 "2003-12-10T23:45:47Z")
[Consumers Federation Of America has a number of papers on these very issues](http://www.consumerfed.org/backpage/telecom.cfm)
---
### Author:  [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-you-suck-donkey-balls/217820/29 "2003-12-11T01:16:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by UncleBeer \*
> **I’ve addressed this not-quite-accurate perception here:
> [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=220703&highlight=satellite](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=220703&highlight=satellite)**
So the cable companies do get their signals from satellites, except for the local channels they can pick up with a big antenna. Which means in bad weather, when DirecTV is entirely out, cable is _almost_ entirely out - except for channels 2, 4, and 6.
Doesn’t that mean the weather argument only applies to people who are so far away from town that they can’t pick up the local stations with their own antennas? IOW, the very people who might not even be able to get cable?
---
### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2003, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-you-suck-donkey-balls/217820/30 "2003-12-11T13:35:00Z")
Well, ya gotta remember, Mr2001, that it’s not the _satellites_ themselves that are affected by inclement weather, but the _receiver_, the dish. And the chicken-shit little thing you hang on the side of your house doesn’t have nearly the signal collection power that the big dish farms the cable company is using. Nor do you have a big bank of complex electronic amplifiers and filters to clean up the signal that the cable company is using. The comparison you are making doesn’t reflect the differences in the technology implemented.
You don’t have to believe me though, I’m sure you can find plenty of information on the 'Net about dish systems that’ll tell you the same thing I am.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comcast-you-suck-donkey-balls/217820.md?page=1)