Comcast Fined $2.3 Million by FCC For 'Negative Option Billing' Practices (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader shares an ArsTechnica report:The FCC announced a $2.3 million fine against Comcast on Tuesday after confirming that the company had been billing customers for products and services they had never ordered. After calling the fine "the largest civil penalty assessed from a cable operator by the FCC," the federal agency's announcement detailed exactly how Comcast bilked customers -- and new company practices that must be put into place as a result. According to the FCC's Office of Media Relations, the agency had received "numerous complaints from consumers" about the issue of "negative option billing" -- meaning, receiving charges for items that the customers had never affirmatively requested. (The FCC reminds readers that in the telecom world, this practice is known as "cramming.") The listed complaints revolve specifically around items related to cable TV service, including "premium channels, set-top boxes, and DVRs."

Comments

Re:2.3M? -- That'll teach them!

[Penguinisto]

True - wish that "M" was a "B", which would damned sure get their attention...

Seriously, when a corporation gets over a certain size (in terms of market cap/cash on hand/etc), they really should jack the fines up by at least an order of magnitude, if only to prevent the 'fines are the cost of doing business' tactic.

Crippling a company that way has a bonus... the CxO suite is no longer praised for jacking value by any means necessary, but instead tarred and feathered (and likely sued into oblivion) by pissed-off shareholders who just saw their investment go to shit overnight.

One solution

[fulldecent]

https://sillyutility.net/ -- Compare your Comcast bill with others in your ZIP code to see if they are charging too much. Just launched today. It is mostly for the Philadelphia market but actually it works anywhere in the US.

Funny though, this actually just launched today.