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Washington State Sues Comcast For $100M Over 'Pattern of Deceptive Practices' (komonews.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Washington State has filed a lawsuit against Comcast to the sum of $100 million, accusing Comcast of "engaging in a pattern of deceptive practices." It claims that Comcast's documents reveal a pattern of illegally deceiving its own customers for profit. KOMO News reports: "The lawsuit (PDF) alleges more than 1.8 million individual violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act. The Attorney General's Office says 500,000 Washington consumers were affected. The lawsuit also accuses Comcast of violating the Consumer Protection Act to all of its nearly 1.2 million Washington subscribers due to its deceptive 'Comcast Guarantee,' Ferguson said. The lawsuit accuses Comcast of misleading 500,000 Washington consumers and deceiving them into paying at least $73 million in subscription fees over the last five years for what the attorney general says is a a near-worthless protection plan. Customers who sign up for Comcast's Service Protection Plan pay a $4.99 monthly fee to avoid being charged if a Comcast technician visits their home. But the plan did not cover wiring inside a wall, the lawsuit says. The Attorney General Office says 75 percent of the time, customers who contacted Comcast were told the plan covered inside wiring. Customer service scripts, which the Attorney General's Office said it obtained during its investigation, told Comcast representatives to say that the plan covers calls 'related to inside wiring' and 'wiring inside your home.'" According to KOMO News, the lawsuit is seeking more than $73 million in restitution to pay back Service Protection Plan subscriber payments; full restitution for all service calls that applied an improper resolution code, estimated to be at least $1 million; removal of improper credit checks from the credit reports of more than 6,000 customers; up to $2,000 per violation of the Consumer Protection Act; and that Comcast clearly disclose the limitations of its Service Protection Plan in advertising and through its representatives, correct improper service codes that should not be chargeable and implement a compliance procedure for improper customer credit checks.
with that - even if they win it will be settled for something like $10 million. chump change compared against to what they would ripped off.
Don't most large companies just budget for this amount as a lawsuit settlement fund for any new initiative? Seems like pocket change for most big guys, especially since they probably have billions in liability insurance stashed away for just such a purpose...
$100 million, this is peanuts, especially for comcast. Its local news not worth of my attention. Next story please.
Who buys protection plans for a service? If the service doesn't work, Comcast needs to fix it on THEIR dime, or the service gets cancelled. After all, their dime is YOUR dime, because you are paying a monthly fee for the service.
To provide service in their entire monopoly areas. They don't serve my block in Seattle despite having a city-granted monopoly.
They do and they don't even try to hide it.
Without punitive damages (loss of right of ways, permission to do business) they will laugh this off and keep right on going.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
If Washington state wanted to do their people a real solid. They would eliminate all monopoly status granted to comcast and other companies at the city level.
Monopolies have no reason to improve other than to increase profit. They control it all. Things like deceptive practices would be weeded out by competition.
A happy customer tells no one. A unhappy customer will tell at a minimum 7 other people. With a monopoly those other 7 are meaningless and do nothing.
Do the same.
Then, if the prevailing winds of change shift just a little, maybe they can be classified as a utility.
Nice to see some real money for these violations. $100M certainly wont bankrupt Comcast, but hopefully it will make them sit up and take notice.
But the plan did not cover wiring inside a wall, the lawsuit says. The Attorney General Office says 75 percent of the time, customers who contacted Comcast were told the plan covered inside wiring.
Why oh, why every single effing company in this whole wide world is doing the very same mistake over and over again? Are terms of service and the education of sales and service people so impossibly difficult in every single country this has happened? All this lamenting is only subsided by the creeping conspiratorial suspicion of foul play from the side of managers and their unholy secret order of customer let down.
The Comcasts of the world are the backbone of the U.S. economy, the job creators, shining examples of the free market at work. And yet again, we have government coming in to ride rough-shod over a company with a long history of innovation and customer service. If only there were a candidate who was a real leader when it came to business. Then we'd see things change for the better...
...OK. I give up. I can't type with a straight face anymore.
Living in Washington State and having used Comcast for several years because their internet access is the only reasonable thing in the area, I can attest to their deceptive marketing, poor service and price gouging!
They sell two bundles at a decent price and tell the customer this is the price for a year or two years. After about 3 months, I would notice the price going up.
When I called, they would tell me that this promotion expired or that promotion expired. I would explain that it was supposed to be for the year or two.
Their response would be, "I am not sure who told you that but (insert promotion here) expired.
I have gone through this a few times and talked to several other people that have experienced some form of this.
The issue is there is no REAL competition for internet speed which makes them the only viable game in town.
Google Fiber... where are you?!
You might find this article interesting.
In any event, if you think any issue is more important than illegal immigrant amnesty, feel free to vote for that other candidate.
Specifically, amnesty that will dump 17 million new job seekers into the economic market.
If you're secure in your job, and don't think you'll have trouble finding a new one if needed, then by all means vote for her.
Places should not be able to hide under fine print & a system of contractors / sub contractors.
It's seems like reps where saying one thing but the fine print stated something different. Now maybe when it's 1-2 reps the company should not take full responsibility but when it's poor training / a big hit your sales numbers or your out push / miss leading scripts and or sales pitches then company needs to take responsibility.
Also 200 fix codes just shows how messed Comcast's back end is and how easy it is for a tech to pick the wrong ones.
Now the AG needs to also sue comcast contractors / sub contractors just they can't pin the blame on them or say we did not do that but jay's cable service llc did it / get there documents under discovery.
$2,000 per violation of the Consumer Protection Act. Shouldn't that be more like $2,000,000 per violation?
That's not much of an incentive to keep companies from screwing customers.
The correct amount is that which will depress the stock value. Only then will the investors take action to purge management of the vermin that infests it now.
$100 million or a $1 Billion, whatever it takes.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
...and this isn't it. My goodness, the government of the State of Washington is packed with losers. Please, please, please, please, please, would you finally allow other vendors to compete by providing content and internet connections over RG-6 coax cable and fiber optic lines? Stepping back and allowing our capitalist free marketplace to operate properly will provide results. This bullshit lawsuit will not.
Forcing multiple providers to compete for the public's dollars on a fair and level playing field is THE ONLY THING that will make them lower prices, increase quality, and provide some sense of customer service.
Pull your bureaucratic heads out of your collective asses, Washington. You're embarrassing yourselves and your constituents like me.
If the corporation has rights and is considered a entity, can't the state declare that the entity has revealed itself to be a habitual violator and undesirable corporate citizen and remove its' utility protections ? Systemic violation and internal documentation that enforces unfair/illegal practices should be rewarded with 'shunning'
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Otherwise known as business - why single Comcast out?
Requiem for the American Dream
I remember calling BS on this when I had Comcast Comcast is a bad actor.
Big pharma is just buffering up the cash to deal with the inevitable 1-800-BAD-DRUG lawyers and class action suits. I'm pretty certain they'll cure cancer but the cure may cause ouchy hangnails in 0.0001% of patients, and 1-800-BAD-DRUG will put them out of business.
Washington is a state.
Comcast failed to install Internet for 10 months then demanded $60,000 in fees
Bet this guy wishes he had paid Comcast's paltry $500/month "we won't sue you after we fuck you over" protection fee. They don't push that one quite so heavily. You have to know and ask about a special promotion code.
That’s great, but once you’re done with Comcast, you need to go after CenturyLink, too.
Having subscribed to both companies' services in Seattle, I can tell you that CenturyLink is WAY sleazier than Comcast. I had to file three complaints with the WA state AG's office in the first two months of service because of CenturyLink's deceptive and fraudulent practices. I have never felt the need to file a complaint with the AG's office before nor since. CenturyLink is just a horrifically unethical company.
The state AG announced the lawsuit the day before the primary election. Bob's definitely looking to make friends!