[mythtv-users] Comcast SF Bay Area Raised Cablecard Fees

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 5:10 PM, Kirk Bocek <t004 at kbocek.com> wrote:
> Wondering why my cable bill went up by $10. There it is, last month "Cable
> Card - $0.80." This month, "Cable Card - $11.40" <sigh>

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Every franchise is different (and I know you are in
different location than I), but have been paying, and
still pay, $1.50/mo for each CableCARD.  It is possible
that I am grandfathered due to currently being in a
"double play" bundle that has another few months to
run.  Are you (or were you) in a bundle that recently
expired, or are you on a month-to-month contract?

The last bill with detailed charging information in
my area was the September 2015 bill (line item by
line item for every service that Comcast offers, and
the current (non-bundled) rates), and the CableCard
fee was explicitly mentioned as $1.50/mo.  So, I am
being charged what Comcast claims I should be
charged based on their last detail item list.  I would
certainly recommend you go through all your (past)
bills to see if you can find that detailed item by item
list (of everything they offer) and see what it says for
CableCards.

Of course, it is entirely possible that my next months
bill will show the increase too.

It *is* possible that Comcast is starting to charge
the HD Technology fee for CableCard users(*).

Sounds like you may need to contact Comcast to
find out more.

Good luck.

Gary




(*) The HD Technology Fee in most franchises has
nothing to do with getting HD programming(**), but
enables the HDMI port on Comcast's boxen.  Since
a typical CableCard (only) customer (and that
means 85%+ of the time a TiVo user) has not
paid the HD Technology fee, but has an active
HDMI port, this was a curious omission on
Comcast's part to not require the fee for CableCard
users while requiring it for their own boxen).

(**) In a (very) few franchises, there *is* a HD
Programming fee for HD programming (which
is different to, and often in addition, to the
HD Technology fee, and actually changes the
channels you are subscribed to.

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