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

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 4:54 PM, Kirk Bocek <t004 at kbocek.com> wrote:

> I'm still getting the 2x$2.50 credit. But I don't have any cable boxes at
> all.

The rules vary by location, but as I recall the original intent
was that if your package included a "free" rental STB
(obviously it was not free, but it was included in the package),
you should be able to get a "customer owned equipment
credit" for returning that STB (which usually meant the
customer had a TiVo.  Good for TiVo, I guess, since it
lowered the effective rate of their box).

Now, things sometimes got more complicated, because
some packages do not include any STBs (so one should
get no credits), some include one STB (so one should be
eligible for one credit if they have no STBs), and some
packages include a few STBs (so one could in theory get
multiple credits if they returned them all).  For Captain Hook
who has STBs (for on-demand) no credit might be the
(intended) right result, and it also may not be the correct
result, because, as always, the details matter.

But I am pretty sure the accounting/billing systems had
some inconsistencies in how they applied those credits
and what qualified for what (possibly depending on how the
CSRs entered the various services/features into the account).
The "second card in the same device" rate was one of
those cases which likely was based on how the CSR
entered things into your account since as you say it was
as likely as not based on that was how they understood it
at the time.  These are the types of issues that one might
expect that the various audits should be intended to identify,
but with all the variations of location rules and fees I am not
at all surprised that some inconsistencies last a long time
before they get (helpfully?) improved (which usually means
you get the opportunity to pay more, or to change or
cancel your services)..