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

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Thu, Jul 14, 2016 at 6:30 PM, Kirk Bocek <t004 at kbocek.com> wrote:

> No notice of any price increase. But the rep talked about a system change
> that wouldn't allow whatever billing setup I previously had. So this might
> not be a price change.

Every so often Comcast runs various "audits" on their customer
accounts and adjusts the accounts auto-magically if certain
issues are discovered.  Watching the bill carefully I have, in the
past, seen some of those audit results (which, in one case,
actually resulted in lower fees; yes, I was surprised too, and it
was only a dollar or so, but still).

The Comcast billing and provisioning system sometimes has
allowed CSRs to enter features/subscription/package
combinations that simply are not part of the franchise offerings,
and the audits detect those invalid combinations, and "fix"
them to be valid (AFAIK the audits do not generate customer
notification).  This audit is complicated not only because every
franchises agreements are different, but also because while some
combinations are not valid today, they may have been in some
past bundle that was offered (and one may be grandfathered
into that two year contract, which means they have to let it go,
while someone else who has ended that long term contract
can no longer receive it).  While there may not be 30 million
different contracts out there (one for each customer), there
are a *lot* of variations.

It is possible (based on what you reported) that you may have
gotten caught up in such an audit review.  But it is nearly
impossible to know for sure (since you do not have access
to that information, and the average CSR is likely not to know
what the audit was actually doing).

There are also different audits that try to identify potential
ToS violations and (are rumored to) flag various unusual
combinations for more investigation, and yet other audits
to try to detect certain cases of (organized) fraud.  Yes, just
as with the IRS, some of the flagging ends up being just
business as usual (and nothing actually occurs after they
manually review the account), but sometimes they do have
to escalate to the corporate security offices.

> Related to this, I asked for a price list detailing
> all possible charges. He said it wasn't available. That doesn't seem right.

It does not sound right at all.  I believe they are required to be
able to provide a fee list.  Although the CSR (as likely as not)
simply did not know what you are asking for (and those lists
are franchise dependent, so there is not one master list to
pass out or email).  Last I knew you could walk into a local
Comcast office and get such a list (but it has been a long time
since I walked into a Comcast office and asked for one, so
perhaps things have changed).  I would go to the local office,
but also go back and look at your past bills.  It should be
in there.

Note that in most cases if Comcast changes the terms
of your contract you have 90 days to cancel with no
penalty for early termination.  The clock may be ticking.
(If it is a business class account, I believe you may have
to notify them in writing to the corporate offices in PHL,
but read the fine fine print in the contract).