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Comcast To Offer Pay-As-You-Go TV, Broadband Service (dslreports.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from DSLReports: Comcast plans to roll-out prepaid cable TV and internet services later this year in portions of Illinois and four other states. According to a company announcement, Comcast's Xfinity Prepaid Services lets users sign up for TV or internet services and renew service for seven or 30 days at a time -- instead of paying by the month. A one-time setup fee of $80 includes equipment and 30 days of service, with users paying $15 for an additional seven days and $45 for an additional 30 days. "We want to create an easy, pay-as-you-go option for people who want more flexibility and predictability when buying our services," said Marcien Jenckes, Executive Vice President, Consumer Services, Comcast Cable. "And our partnership with Boost Mobile will give Xfinity Prepaid customers even more places where they can conveniently sign-up and pay-as-they-go."
Pardon my stupid, but whats the difference between paying for a month, and paying for 30 days?
$80 ??
are you insane?
I'll stick with torrents.
go fuck yourself, comcast. I'll use you for data, but I see you are still in dreamland when it comes to voice and video.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
has the economy gotten this bad? Pay-As-You-Go isn't something companies do to be friendly, they do it because they don't trust their customers to pay their bills after the fact.
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Cable TV has always been one of those 'services' that requires you to pay in advance for your service, how is this any different?
Pay as you go means you can stop paying then start up again at a later date, for people with irregular income for who an annual contract may not be the most economically feasible thing.
If it turns out this is just an excuse to charge 80 dollar setup fees every time somebody starts back up though... Fuck you Comcast, you assholes!
If it doesn't, then they finally have a solution for people like my friend, who have a 60 dollar window each month between paying all their bills and adding to their debt.
Can you take that prepaid box and use it on your post paid account? to get out of paying that $2.99-$10 /mo fee?
What you get per prepaid and later move to post paid do now have this box for free + the main box as part of the base rate?
What if you want want a cable card? Under the law they must give you one and refund the cost of there hardware.
What if you want to add something like HBO? under the law they must let you add stuff like HBO to any base plan. Even if just to get a lower HBO promo price then HBO standalone.
There site says you own the box but they may not let move that owned box to an other plan
The cable card law says
Pay only for equipment you have. Your operator must give you a discount on any packages that include the price of a set-top box if you choose to use your own CableCARD-enabled device. FCC Rule 76.1205(b)(5).
Use your own set-top box without extra charge. FCC Rule 76.1205(b)(5)(C). Your cable operator may charge you to lease a CableCARD or tuning adapter, but may not charge you an additional service fee for using your own digital-cable-ready television or set-top box.
Receive all "linear" channels (channels other than "on-demand") in your subscription package. This includes premium channels and specialty channels. For some channels delivered using a technique called "switched digital video," you may need a second device called a "tuning adapter." This device is typically provided at no additional charge to CableCARD customers. FCC Rule 76.1205(b)(4). CableCARD-ready devices currently cannot receive your cable operator's Video on Demand services.
There line of BS makes there rant about how people own there own boxes is bad after seeing the FCC ideas that would allow customers to buy the cable boxes rather than leasing them from cable co. Seem like there are playing it both ways to rip people off. May at least the can get them to list the fee as outlet $9.50 box rent $0.50
What about per paid internet why are forced to buy there hardware for the internet plan and can't use hardware that you own now?
The $80 set up fee and $45 monthly charge will would have to be doubled if you would like both internet and TV from them.
If you don't like the deal, don't fucking buy it.
It is a step in the right direction, but we have already cut the cord.
Never going back.
Comcast can't even properly bill a single address getting a single service unchanging month after month. There's no way their billing system can properly handle people constantly dropping in and out. With all the billing mistakes they make, I don't know how they haven't been sued into bankruptcy yet.
This would be good for when relatives and house guests come, especially elderly or kids that have the cable TV addiction. I personally cut the cord, but some people live and die by the boob tube..
CableCards don't work, deliberately. Comcast doesn't care, because they know the FCC won't do shit to them.
LOL. Merkel better get right on that. But she has more pressing things to do, like let 100,000 more "refugees" in to further destroy the country.
Let's fight for a toad government !
You're still paying X amount for Y amount of time-based access to a service. It doesn't charge you any more or less based on how often you actually use it, or how you use it. Good marketing, useless execution. I'm not sure how they think consumers are going to fall for this -- not that they need consumers to, there's no competitor in their regions of operation.
Because people want ala-carte, not pay as you go. I swear businesses really are trying to be stupid.
No! It's a *SIG*. Keep the Special Interest Groups away! (Con joke!)
a solution for people like my friend, who have a 60 dollar window each month between paying all their bills and adding to their debt.
Your friend should not be buying Comcast's crap, even in a good month.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
What they mean is:
"We want to get as much business from poor people as we can, even the ones whose service we shut off all the time for not being able to pay their bills in full and on time. And they'll bitch to us and about us less when their service runs out, just like with the "pay until you're too broke to pay for a while" cell phones they've become accustomed to. This low-end service is better (for us) than low-income customers giving up on our expensive services completely because we've priced them out."
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
LOL. Merkel better get right on that. But she has more pressing things to do, like let 100,000 more "refugees" in to further destroy the country.
Mr Trump, you can't hide behind the AC tag here, we can spot your populism-shrouded, bigoted, and blatantly off-topic views a mile away.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
Comcast is not a charity, so assume that they are doing this to suck even more money out of their customers.