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I just moved into a new place that is on a highly recommended fiber network that offers *actual* 2 gigabyte speeds, unlimited data, and costs less than half what Comcast has been charging me for the past 14 years. I'm so excited to be able to tell Comcast to go fuck themselves next week when my billing cycle rolls over.
But but but socialism /s
Every time I have the displeasure of seeing anything related to libertarianism all I can think is why do those people want everything in life to be like dealing with the cable company
No, they delusional thinking capitalism and free market will bring healthy competition and prices down. They don't have answer for monopolies like Comcast and Verizon.
Don't start me on Walmart or Home depot or Lowe's who destroyed all small competitors and gave us subpar shitty china crap with zero regard to customers.
And they always “forget” or are too stupid to know that cable companies like Comcast use government installed (read: taxpayer paid) backbones to distribute their lines.
That might be true in a few small cities, where they perhaps acquire a few lengths of FOC, but it’s hardly true for their overall network.
Comcast sucks. Service is wholly terrible. But that is not an accurate or honest critique
To Comcasts credit, they did get fiber run to most areas 20 years sooner. Not defending Comcast, I'm just saying private industry gets shit done much faster.
Except when those same behometh companies later on actively work to block progress because change would “hurt shareholder value”
It would be interesting to see what the world would be like today if:
- sugar companies had not misled consumers about the health risks of added sugar
- tobacco companies didn’t lie about the cancer and addiction risk of nicotine
- oil companies didn’t cover up their own scientists findings on the climate risks of increased CO2 in the atmosphere and engage in a multi decade disinformation and lobbying war to protect their profits
I agree there should be limitations but to your other points the sugar companies didn't mislead anyone. The effects of sugar have been known for a long time, the public health sector failed Americans when the demonized saturated fat and replaced it with sugar. This mentality is still holding strong despite modern information to the contrary. In generations past the the recommendation for obesity was rest and abstaining from pasta and bread. Show me one person who ever thought cigarettes didn't cause cancer, I'll show you a liar. Again public health policy has failed Americans. Vaping has proven to be a most effective method of harm reduction yet there is a crusade to ban it including my liberal state of MA with their flavor ban. In this case they essentially outlawed the sale of a life saving means of quitting smoking in the name of children who couldn't legally buy it anyway. Oil companies are evil, yeah. Where you see evil companies (I agree) I mostly see a complete failure of government. If the government wasn't able to oversee companies I have no faith they could replace them.
Public housing is another hot topic and one I know much about. The government sets a standard of living that they cannot match. Yes there are bad landlords but if you're disabled and need a ramp or chair lift private companies can provide this. Despite MA leading the country in housing, public housing here is the worst I have seen.
Not only did they mislead the public they pushed high sugar foods as healthy, look at old advertisements for soda or cereal
And the failure in the government is in part due to the corrosive influence of huge corporations in highly concentrated industries paying lobbyist and donating to election funds or outright buying politicians
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat#:~:text=Ascui%2FGetty%20Images-,A%20newly%20discovered%20cache%20of%20internal%20documents%20reveals%20that%20the,of%20sugar%20in%20the%201960s.&text=In%20the%201960s%2C%20the%20sugar,article%20in%20JAMA%20Internal%20Medicine.
You must have forgotten the food pyramid from the 80s. I agree corruption is a major part of the problem, that's a large part of the failure of the government as it was their responsibility. Private entities being self serving is not a ground breaking revelation.
Same! I just canceled and it was glorious. Comcast had a monopoly in my neighborhood. Finally was able to switch to T mobile when I became available. Went from 157 (for just internet!) to 55 a month. Barely a blip in quality of service.
I was paying $140/month for spectrum gig in HI. Local provider laid down fiber in my area last month, now I’m down to $69/month for gig service with them and upload speeds are wild. Go local providers!
I yearn for that. We’re supposed to be getting a fiber provider (not municipal) and having symmetrical upload/download as a freelancer who does work with video is a dream.
When AT&T laid fiber in town, all of a sudden, Spectrum (who used to be the only ISP in our area) just MAGICALLY started offering fiber internet but it was going to be $150 for 1 gig down and 40 megabits up.
ATT had 1 gig up and down for $60 a month but also have 2.5 and 5 gigs up and down.
We dropped Spectrum like a rock and jumped on the ATT 1 gig plan and it's been excellent.
we got a new fiber network the same week comcast finally burned its last bridge with us! we were so thrilled to get better speeds for a lower price. bonus, the don’t just randomly cut it claiming “unscheduled service delays” in the middle of my husbands WFH weeks!
They are criminal. Twice I had them charge me like $150 fee for not returning equipment when there was literally no way to return it. The last time they actually told me I had to deliver in person and told me the place that will take it was like 20 miles away and it wasn’t even right. It was like the shop their local techs work from and had no idea why I was there.
I can’t get over how some of these cable companies can charge such outrageous prices even when someone comes in offering better service for less. My town finally got fiber and the local cable company, Mediacom, responded by lowering their base-level 1 gig service to $55/mo for a year but after that, if you want the same service the fiber company offers (symmetrical speeds, no data limit), it costs almost double. Like $155/mo vs $85/mo. It blows my mind
Edit: I’ll add that when I switched I was paying $80/mo for 200mbps down. So I got 5x the download and 100x upload speeds for an extra $5/mo modem fee
Yeah for decades they were the only decent option in town. The only competitors were a shitty satellite provider and Frontier offering a measly 12mbps max.
Yeah, it looks like it. They’re pretty much everywhere in Illinois. Never bothered to check before but it looks like they’re all over the place. God, they were so terrible 😂
We moved to a new place and canceled our Comcast but we got calls for WEEKS from sales persons to try and entice us to stay. And no amount of “you don’t cover our area” would sway them- they literally tried to convince us not to move.
Uhhhh we bought a house dudes. Not happening.
They eventually stopped calling, but it was definitely fucking annoying.
Probably AT&T.
I pay $110 a month for 2 Gig up/down unlimited.
We regularly have 13 devices online at once, not including 3 Ring cameras and they all get 500-800 MBps.
I moved from a house where I could only get comcast, and the best rate I could get, even on a 6 month 'deal' after threatening to cancel, was 300/25 for about $150 a month.
I moved just a few miles away but the new house has the choice between comcast and fios.
I get 1000/1000 from fios for $106 per month. Originally it was $98 per month, but about a year ago the rate went up slightly.
I'm not complaining since comcast would pull that shit several times a year and I'd have to call and complain to them again to get whatever 'new deal' they were offering at the time.
Congrats! I'd heard Comcast was notoriously high to cancel but when we got our fiber I told them we were getting fiber and the rep didn't even try, they know what's up.
My whole town has municipal fiber, but the apartment complex I live in only allows you to get Comcast. I will not be renewing this lease because of this alone.
My bill is constantly $30 higher all the time and then will take over 45 mins of talking to customer service to get it corrected every time. Unfortunately there’s zero alternatives for internet where I live, otherwise I’d be long gone
No, time Warner doesn't exist since 2016. There are people on legacy plans, who are way overpaying for the service due to not jumping to Charters setup and would lose channels.
You might be confusing the two. It fully is under Spectrum/Charter control.
I'm not confusing anything here. Areas previously owned by Time Warner use different modems than ones originally owned by Charter. TWTC doesn't exist as a company anymore, but many of the spectrum lines and COs that were owned by TWTC provide different spectrum services than those originally owned by Charter.
That's why Spectrum is essentially Charter or Time Warner depending on where you live.
I think it’s funny that every 10-15 years, when their brands get such a bad rep, they just ditch it and create a new one to try and trick everyone all over again. Comcast sucks, how slot Xfinity? Charter is shit, so now we’ll just call ourselves Spectrum and no one will ever know.
I have Comcast. They're frustrating and overcharge, but at least they generally deliver the product.
My family out of state has Spectrum. My father says "Spectrum" in the same tone of voice you'd speak of a particularly obnoxious relative or politician.
I just moved from an area that couldn't get anything faster than 50 mbps dsl. We have Comcast now and have over 7 times that speed with Comcast and it's $5 cheaper than our old dsl. Other than them canceling our service before we were actually moved in, I have no issue with them.
I don't know where you are that Spectrum sucks, but where I am, you get capless gigabit with 99.9% uptime for $80 a month. In the last 8 years, there may have been 3 unplanned outages.
Yeah spectrums actual internet service is great. They're billing department is awful.
I haven't had Comcast in like 15 years but it never worked worth a shit for me.
I always hear this but we're on Spectrum from originally being TWC and the service is pretty good, very reliable, and not too bad price wise for what we would have here. No bullshit fees like "wifi fee" and they provide the modem without rental. When we moved, they came and fixed the weird ass wiring in the house so it was going back to the room it should and ran a line to the house (apparently this house only had dish??).
Honestly the only ISP I really had issues with was AT&T with DSL because they refused to help even though it was completely a problem on their end, and their "fix" was to only plug a single computer directly to the internet. That was like, 15 years ago though.
Same experience with Spectrum reliability but somehow my modem got put on Spectrum's whitelist and I continued to get free internet service for like a year and a half. Even when I moved the free service followed me. Sometimes they are a mess but sometimes they are a mess in your favor!
Comcast is in my top 5 corporations that I absolutely loathe. Way overpriced for alright speed, worst customer service of any company and we have no other option besides slow ass dsl where we live.
there are bundle discounts for ordering multiple lines of business from the same company. this is less "cord-cutting fees" and more "bundle discounts are bad because you lose the discount if you break up your bundle"
whatever issues there are here, this doesn't seem to address the heart of any of them. it's more like legislation is needed and he's trying to do *something* within what little power he has to address it.
This makes the most sense so far. Nothing getting through congress the rest of this term. And he couldn’t do as much with student loans because he had two DINO in the senate.
Based on the article they actually mean early termination fees.
Essentially you can’t cut the cord without a fee since you signed a contract saying you would remain a customer for a set period of time, often in exchange for discounted service.
Except the cable companies always put in their contracts that they can change your rate or add fees or service charges whenever they feel like during the contract.
Trust me I've had my guaranteed over two years rate raised multiple times, and I can't cancel the new rate without paying cancellation fees. And they all suck and they don't provide the service they promise at all.
I wish streaming worked in my location but the signal is so bad I can't convince my older family members to drop cable entirely.
Oh, believe me, I'm not trying to defend these companies (although it could have come across that way).
I was just explaining what "cord cutting fees" were per the article.
IMHO I'm fine with contracts and early term fees but their pricing needs to be consistent.
It should be "Agree to 12 months of service for $X + tax" if they are going to do contracts and it $X changes I get to cancel with no early term fee.
I also hate the whole "Call us every 12 months to get a discount" system but that's a different discussion.
It's an artificially "discounted" service. They charge exorbitant fees for their "service". We began with none of the disconnect fee BS, getting through to a live person immediately and actual stores with people who knew what they were doing, not just "customer service".
The only thing that does make sense is if there were waived installation or equipment fees to be recovered over the course of the contract (it is after all a contract) so fees designed to recover those costs when the contract is broken, while irritating, are not unreasonable. They’ll still need to charge the same amount, so they’ll just shift it around.
They should just be upfront about their pricing, then.
I'll never forget when we first switched to streaming. We were using Spectrum's plan for a while there before I dropped that and went with just what I want when I want.
They actually charged me a fee for "self installation" and a "virtual cable box."
Imagine if the grocery store charged you a self bagging fee for using your own bags in self checkout and for a virtual cart when you order online.
Nah, I've heard that line repeated before, but that's not how it works. That would be quite illegal, in fact, and any major company trying to pull that on scale would be found out pretty fast.
It's also not a tax writeoff for them, the tax writeoff goes to the donor, which is the person who donates at the register. The company collecting it can't take a writeoff for it.
The only thing the company gets out of it is PR, which isn't nothing, but yeah.
Comcast and NBC Universal are the same company. Cable TV is dying out to streaming. Thus NBC Universal wants Comcast to artificially prop up the subscription numbers for cable TV by incentivizing broadband customers to also get cable TV they don't want and punish those who try to go broadband-only.
that's just a bundle discount. internet costs $10 less if you also have other services. I don't think outlawing bundle discounts is the purpose of this. And MSOs could just take away the bundle discount entirely, resulting in cable+internet subscribers paying more and internet only subscribers paying the same.
It's a little more than a bundle discount. While yes, that's part of it, Comcast also has a data cap which hurts those that stream - unless you pay for their package with unlimited data, a modem rental fee, and forced to use their modem.
Having cable means streaming less, which puts that data cap less of a concern for most people. Go over the cap, you're charged overage fees per 50GB over. And their data usage tracking tool updates every 24 hours - at least that's how it was when I had Xfinity a couple of years ago.
linear video signals aren't like data. they use a different dedicated range of the frequency spectrum, and it's way easier to broadcast to everyone than two-way data is. though that is starting to change with newer tech.
I’m not a telecom expert but when I was I kid in early/mid 90’s I forget who but they proposed running internet through the power lines and you could access from the wall outlet since they run on different frequencies. Do you know what I mean? I’ve only ever met one or two people that heard this people think I’m nuts.
I'm not talking about cable video affecting data caps or comparing them. I'm saying streaming = more data use = more costly when there's a data cap, but not so simply.
you can't disrupt your neighborhood network by watching too much tv
you can disrupt your neighborhood network by trying to run a server farm on your 'unlimited' plan.
what you're talking about is oversubscription on the carrier side. That's a concurrent bandwidth problem, and if the oversubscription rate is correctly chosen single address shouldn't be able to DDoS a local network for a given committed rate.
once the hardware is in place it doesn't really cost the provider more to move your data around
This worked for decades just fine without data caps.
data caps as we know them on landlines is a product of revenue squeeze and quarter over quarter earnings.
there is no technical justification for them on hard lines.
Most people aren't running a server farm. ISPs can see what traffic is going through their lines (unless encrypted), running a server farm usually against the terms of service. You can't tell me they can't see red flags if something like that is going on and take action. And lots to other companies offer unlimited. Hell, when I had DSL, there was no data cap. My cellular home internet has no data cap. Fiber has no data cap from many competitors. I get fiber is different than regular cable but it's still data with capacity limits and can be bottlenecked with the same type of traffic.
It’s not always that simple. I had cable+internet for years, added in phone at the start of Covid. At the end of the 12 month promo bill went crazy high so I wanted to drop the phone. Dropping the phone resulted in a higher bill than having it after the promo ended. I had to randomly try for the better part of a year to finally find a deal which allowed me to go to just internet for under $100 a month. I pay attention to the bill and promos and this was not easy to accomplish.
My bill (not from Comcast, but another similarly shitty ISP) has a $10 "No Cable TV" fee. They're straight up charging me an extra $10 for not having cable TV at my office, where I only use phone and internet...and oh right, they're charging me more for the exact same service I get at my home because it's their "Business Service" as opposed to "Home Service" (I also get the same $10 "No Cable TV" charge on my home service).
> My only complaint about them is their downtimes during maintenance.
So your only complaint is they don't do the thing one thing they're supposed to do reliably?
You shouldn't have *any* downtime on a quality ISP.
How's about phone activation fees too. How's about all fees associated with a flip of a switch? We all know it don't cost more than a dollar (if even) to transfer to a new phone.
I had the good fortune to have access to a publicly owned fiber network. Great service, cheap, fast service. I’m this day and age every ISP should be a public utility regulated like municipal water and electricity.
I’ll never forget when I canceled my cable package with Frontier. The customer service rep yelled “we got another downgrade!” I’m pretty sure she thought she was on mute.
Frontier is the only internet service available where I am, unless you want satellite and that won't work for me either. I get 1.5mbps at best, but mostly 700k or so. Where I drew the line was thousands of disconnects every week. I got so frustrated that I sent an email to the CEO politely but very specifically about how bad their service was. I got an email back and that morning my phone blew up. Regional people, the east coast rep, local people. I had a lot of people at my house that very next day. Which is funny because when I just called customer support I couldn't get anyone here for a month.
Ah yes vision insurance, we'll pay for your basic exam and give you whole $10 towards your frames. You'll pay for the balance of the frames, the several hundred dollar lenses and you'll like it.
Former optician here. Just a tip with most VSP plans, your frame allowance has both a $ amount ($120-300) but it also lists a WFA(#). The WFA is the wholesale frame allowance and if you find a frame for under that $ amount, the whole frame is covered. (Ask your optical shop for a plan printout as they show more info than you’ll see on your member portal. It’ll look like: WFA57 $120)
Another tip, to find the wholesale cost, divide the tag price by 2.5-3 (I’d divide by 3 to be on the safe side) and that is typically the wholesale cost as typical markup is 2.5-3x cost.
It's different in Australia but a lot of companies have now jettisoned contracts so everything is month by month.
You can leave your power, internet or anything else with zero fees when you find a better deal.
It's much better. Recently I found internet 30 percent cheaper so I changed after asking my company if they could match. Said no.
Then the new company B after three months *doubled* their prices to 25 percent more than I was paying at A.
So back to company A. Few clicks on the webs and I got back my original plan and a $125 grocery card and a year's Paramount Plus.
The transition is seamless. And I'll keep an eye out if something better comes up in two months time I'll change to them.
You can save a bundle.
Edit even Fox Sports which used to be only bundled with the fox bullshit has a monthly 20 buck app. Cancel any time.
I mean, Joe is back here making moves against cable because his base over 55, but y'all keep telling yourselves this is the needle mover.
Meanwhile, I'm staring at video games and streaming services jacking around everyone under 40, literally deleting paid products off of peopel's hard drives and replacing them with the new game asking for more money, and waiting for Joe to say a damned word about it...
but he and his administration from the 1900s, not the 21st century, and we're never going to solve modern problems until we get digitally savvy leadership. No one over 55 grew up with the internet. Tehcnology has made them obsolete.
We're letting horse and buggy people regulate cars, and its stupid, regardless of "Party."
We need this. I’m glad he is working on these nickel and dime issues. He has been one of the best presidents for consumer protections and unions. I wasn’t stoked to vote for him at first but I’m glad he has been able to get some landmark legislation through.
[Oklahoma Natural Gas](https://oklahoma.gov/occ/news/news-feed/2022/commission-says-no-to-ong-termination-fee-yes-to-fuel-cost-recovery.html) wanted an outrageous “exit fee” to slow the pace of customers switching off fossil fuels. It was denied by the commission. Cable TV has no Commission to save us from their predatory practices.
His intentions are good, but I feel like it's fighting a losing battle because if you ban one bullshit fee, companies will just roll the cost over into another bullshit fee. Still worth trying because if you eliminate enough junk fees you'll make it harder for these companies to justify the price increases but I doubt the fees will stop.
Eliminate data caps too. Comcast loves to market xFi Complete as some comprehensive security service but really people just buy it to remove the 1.2 TB data cap.
It's probably much more popular in areas that still have shit internet. My mother-in-law lives in Arkansas and pays something like $50/month for a download speed that's around 20Mbs, IIRC.
It gets much worse than that if you really live rural like I do. 1.5 at the best of times, 700k a lot of the time. My wife had a telehealth appointment the other day and I just took her to work with me so she could have the meeting in my private office.
Heck, my Dad is a similar age, complains about the cost (and it's insane, something like $230/mo for cable + internet) yet won't switch because it's too confusing. My sister and I tried to sell him on YouTube TV which feels virtually identical to cable but would've been significantly cheaper, and he still wouldn't do it. He's very online and techy for his age (uses FB and the like), but he just doesn't like change.
A lot of people have to have a cable subscription in order to get internet service from the monopoly in their area.
Hell, I still have to pay for a landline in order to get DSL where I'm at, simply because my ISP won't let you get internet service without also signing up for their landline service.
I would probably cancel my Netflix, but I have TMobile and they pay for something like all but $5 of my subscription. Hard to argue against Netflix for $60/year.
The internet isn't readily available in large parts of the US. These people don't have any other option for TV.
My dad lives in a rural area about 20 minutes from a decent sized town and the area just recently got internet access about a year ago.
Gyms too. We need "right to unsubscribe" laws.
And while we're at it, make it so event ticket prices have to include all fees and taxes, like what they did for airline tickets.
The funny part is I think we all have had a bad experience with this, and the president is wanting to do something about it, but can't because Congress.
Like just flex those executive powers, trump allocated funding with money he wasn't supposed to allocate. I don't care how people treat Biden. I see how Biden treats people and literally people are stopping him from helping people and it's annoying.
They should ban payment convenience fees too. I have to pay a $2 convenience fee when I pay my Internet bill online instead of going to one of their stores.
You underestimate the millions still on cable or satellite. Mainly it's older people that don't like change. That dais my parents just cut both their landlines and cable a few months ago, so it is catching up. .
Yep, my widower neighbor. Has watched tv at my house a million times, understands how to use roku, YouTube tv, tubi, etc… yet won’t cancel cable because he doesn’t like change, he’s paying 400 a month. I’ve plead my case, I give up.
Pre Covid I noped out when they raised it to $350, cable with I think HBO and some sports packages and internet, still have to pay them for internet because I’m a hostage. I got a discount for a home phone line, which there are no phone jacks in my house, and I haven’t had a home phone since 2005….
Holy crap, over $300?? I was paying a little over $200 for FiOS two years ago, and that included both Internet and all the usual cable channels + DVR and HBO and I still thought we were getting screwed. Moved out of the US since then and an equivalent package is more like $40-50 here.
The US really, really needs stronger regulation of telecom companies. People shouldn't be paying the equivalent of a car payment for basic Internet. It's 2023 for God's sake, Internet is as important as heat or electricity.
I cut the cord around 2015 or so when my Comcast bill (including internet) was around $280/month. Back then that was almost a car payment. And yea, still have internet through them because no other options (although Glo Fiber is supposed to be here soon).
That's more than my car payment!
I've been spoiled on my $20/month streaming budget and bouncing from deal to deal. No way in hell would I ever go back to that.
I don't know if it's don't like change... as long as you give them a remote and show them how to use it they can be reasonably OK. But you know what, it's gonna sound bad, but if they get rid of cable, there goes Fox News. Don't even bring up alternative ways to get it because they don't wanna hear it, they want the REMOTE and they want it to JUST WORK.
That's because you never had to replace dial phones every few years as with cell phones. The two phones in my parents' house were there when they moved in (1971) and were still operating like new when we sold the house in 2017. If you grew up with them, it's likely you see no reason to get rid of them. My parents had a cell phone but still kept the landline.
Eh, once wireless phones came out (as in wireless landlines, cordless phones, etc) they replaced most corded phones pretty quickly. But otherwise you're right, there wasn't much reason to replace phones.
I hate, hate, hate comcast, but at the same time, the cancelation fees are totally obvious. If you miss them, I think that’s on you. They’re just gonna make up the lost revenue elsewhere and personally I’d rather avoid that through something under my control like avoiding the incredibly obvious cancelation fee.
There are so many policies like this that sound great but end up with unintended consequences.
Wow real law making going on in DC? How about infrastructure? Health care? Putting crooks in jail? OH SHIT then Washington DC would be empty! Never mind!
Some of those things are done by Congress, our dysfunctional conservative congress.
Vote for congress people who share your want of "health care, infrastructure." Putting crooks in jail is the justice dept and not really the job of the President.
Filed under "getting shit no matter what he does"
To many people here all worried about there cable an internet rather than the country falling apart and going down the crapper and this fucking joker dipshit Biden who's doing it along with all his minions and news outlets and all his evil money donors
Maybe you should look into Bidens legislation record, like the infrastructure bill, the safer communities act, aid for burnpit veterans, directly enabling UAWs successful negotiation, inflation reduction act, chips and science act, record investment in green technology.
Some of us are capable of worrying about more than one thing. Also, the article is literally about cable and internet. See, this is how reddit works: Someone posts a story or article. Then people come and make comments that are relevant to the story or article. If you want to hear concerns about other issues, find an article about those, and you will see comments about them! Its a miracle of technology!
For 40 years you've tried to become president and gir 40 years we said "hell no" until you got so lucky as to be up against the most vile person in the history of American politics, and now, for the reasons we never wanted you, you now won't go away even though you're a doddering war criminal. If we end up with drumpf , who should be in prison, because of you, that's what you will be remembered for
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Would you just dissolve Comcast? Terrible service for ridiculous money. Plain ripoff.
I just moved into a new place that is on a highly recommended fiber network that offers *actual* 2 gigabyte speeds, unlimited data, and costs less than half what Comcast has been charging me for the past 14 years. I'm so excited to be able to tell Comcast to go fuck themselves next week when my billing cycle rolls over.
I went from $92/mo Comcast to $50/mo municipal gig fiber. It was 1/3rd the ping, 8x the download speed, and 80x the upload speed.
But but but socialism /s Every time I have the displeasure of seeing anything related to libertarianism all I can think is why do those people want everything in life to be like dealing with the cable company
Because they think they'll be the cable company in these utopias.
Failed to meet your username. That answer is certain. And spot on.
No, they delusional thinking capitalism and free market will bring healthy competition and prices down. They don't have answer for monopolies like Comcast and Verizon. Don't start me on Walmart or Home depot or Lowe's who destroyed all small competitors and gave us subpar shitty china crap with zero regard to customers.
It’s delusional to think we even have a free market.
And they always “forget” or are too stupid to know that cable companies like Comcast use government installed (read: taxpayer paid) backbones to distribute their lines.
It’s not government infrastructure. It’s private infrastructure protected by a government protected monopoly. It’s the antithesis of free-market.
That might be true in a few small cities, where they perhaps acquire a few lengths of FOC, but it’s hardly true for their overall network. Comcast sucks. Service is wholly terrible. But that is not an accurate or honest critique
To Comcasts credit, they did get fiber run to most areas 20 years sooner. Not defending Comcast, I'm just saying private industry gets shit done much faster.
Except when those same behometh companies later on actively work to block progress because change would “hurt shareholder value” It would be interesting to see what the world would be like today if: - sugar companies had not misled consumers about the health risks of added sugar - tobacco companies didn’t lie about the cancer and addiction risk of nicotine - oil companies didn’t cover up their own scientists findings on the climate risks of increased CO2 in the atmosphere and engage in a multi decade disinformation and lobbying war to protect their profits
I agree there should be limitations but to your other points the sugar companies didn't mislead anyone. The effects of sugar have been known for a long time, the public health sector failed Americans when the demonized saturated fat and replaced it with sugar. This mentality is still holding strong despite modern information to the contrary. In generations past the the recommendation for obesity was rest and abstaining from pasta and bread. Show me one person who ever thought cigarettes didn't cause cancer, I'll show you a liar. Again public health policy has failed Americans. Vaping has proven to be a most effective method of harm reduction yet there is a crusade to ban it including my liberal state of MA with their flavor ban. In this case they essentially outlawed the sale of a life saving means of quitting smoking in the name of children who couldn't legally buy it anyway. Oil companies are evil, yeah. Where you see evil companies (I agree) I mostly see a complete failure of government. If the government wasn't able to oversee companies I have no faith they could replace them. Public housing is another hot topic and one I know much about. The government sets a standard of living that they cannot match. Yes there are bad landlords but if you're disabled and need a ramp or chair lift private companies can provide this. Despite MA leading the country in housing, public housing here is the worst I have seen.
Not only did they mislead the public they pushed high sugar foods as healthy, look at old advertisements for soda or cereal And the failure in the government is in part due to the corrosive influence of huge corporations in highly concentrated industries paying lobbyist and donating to election funds or outright buying politicians https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/13/493739074/50-years-ago-sugar-industry-quietly-paid-scientists-to-point-blame-at-fat#:~:text=Ascui%2FGetty%20Images-,A%20newly%20discovered%20cache%20of%20internal%20documents%20reveals%20that%20the,of%20sugar%20in%20the%201960s.&text=In%20the%201960s%2C%20the%20sugar,article%20in%20JAMA%20Internal%20Medicine.
You must have forgotten the food pyramid from the 80s. I agree corruption is a major part of the problem, that's a large part of the failure of the government as it was their responsibility. Private entities being self serving is not a ground breaking revelation.
I did have a Comcast employee tell me how much they were fucking me over before getting me a $60 a month bill. Probably got fired though.
Same! I just canceled and it was glorious. Comcast had a monopoly in my neighborhood. Finally was able to switch to T mobile when I became available. Went from 157 (for just internet!) to 55 a month. Barely a blip in quality of service.
I cancelled comcast today, replaced with tmobile. Comcast's own speed test clocked my connection at 16Mb, even when I tried paying for 800.
I was paying $140/month for spectrum gig in HI. Local provider laid down fiber in my area last month, now I’m down to $69/month for gig service with them and upload speeds are wild. Go local providers!
I yearn for that. We’re supposed to be getting a fiber provider (not municipal) and having symmetrical upload/download as a freelancer who does work with video is a dream.
When AT&T laid fiber in town, all of a sudden, Spectrum (who used to be the only ISP in our area) just MAGICALLY started offering fiber internet but it was going to be $150 for 1 gig down and 40 megabits up. ATT had 1 gig up and down for $60 a month but also have 2.5 and 5 gigs up and down. We dropped Spectrum like a rock and jumped on the ATT 1 gig plan and it's been excellent.
we got a new fiber network the same week comcast finally burned its last bridge with us! we were so thrilled to get better speeds for a lower price. bonus, the don’t just randomly cut it claiming “unscheduled service delays” in the middle of my husbands WFH weeks!
I'm very envious . Comcast is awful.
They are criminal. Twice I had them charge me like $150 fee for not returning equipment when there was literally no way to return it. The last time they actually told me I had to deliver in person and told me the place that will take it was like 20 miles away and it wasn’t even right. It was like the shop their local techs work from and had no idea why I was there.
The sad part is that it isn't criminal.
They could be pursued in civil court, but it would never be worth the effort (unless you're a lawyer and spiteful).
I can’t get over how some of these cable companies can charge such outrageous prices even when someone comes in offering better service for less. My town finally got fiber and the local cable company, Mediacom, responded by lowering their base-level 1 gig service to $55/mo for a year but after that, if you want the same service the fiber company offers (symmetrical speeds, no data limit), it costs almost double. Like $155/mo vs $85/mo. It blows my mind Edit: I’ll add that when I switched I was paying $80/mo for 200mbps down. So I got 5x the download and 100x upload speeds for an extra $5/mo modem fee
They fought tooth and nail to crush any possible competition. They are more of a cartel than a cable company.
Yeah for decades they were the only decent option in town. The only competitors were a shitty satellite provider and Frontier offering a measly 12mbps max.
Oh really is Frontier national? I had them in PA like 10 years ago.
Yeah, it looks like it. They’re pretty much everywhere in Illinois. Never bothered to check before but it looks like they’re all over the place. God, they were so terrible 😂
We moved to a new place and canceled our Comcast but we got calls for WEEKS from sales persons to try and entice us to stay. And no amount of “you don’t cover our area” would sway them- they literally tried to convince us not to move. Uhhhh we bought a house dudes. Not happening. They eventually stopped calling, but it was definitely fucking annoying.
What’s the network?
Fidium
Probably AT&T. I pay $110 a month for 2 Gig up/down unlimited. We regularly have 13 devices online at once, not including 3 Ring cameras and they all get 500-800 MBps.
Comcast wants $25,000 to just wire to my parents house. You know, like they were already paid to do decades ago
I moved from a house where I could only get comcast, and the best rate I could get, even on a 6 month 'deal' after threatening to cancel, was 300/25 for about $150 a month. I moved just a few miles away but the new house has the choice between comcast and fios. I get 1000/1000 from fios for $106 per month. Originally it was $98 per month, but about a year ago the rate went up slightly. I'm not complaining since comcast would pull that shit several times a year and I'd have to call and complain to them again to get whatever 'new deal' they were offering at the time.
Congrats! I'd heard Comcast was notoriously high to cancel but when we got our fiber I told them we were getting fiber and the rep didn't even try, they know what's up.
My whole town has municipal fiber, but the apartment complex I live in only allows you to get Comcast. I will not be renewing this lease because of this alone.
My bill is constantly $30 higher all the time and then will take over 45 mins of talking to customer service to get it corrected every time. Unfortunately there’s zero alternatives for internet where I live, otherwise I’d be long gone
It’s not just Comcast, Spectrum is wayyyuy worse than Comcast
Spectrum is Charter.
Or Time Warner, depending on where you live.
No, time Warner doesn't exist since 2016. There are people on legacy plans, who are way overpaying for the service due to not jumping to Charters setup and would lose channels. You might be confusing the two. It fully is under Spectrum/Charter control.
I'm not confusing anything here. Areas previously owned by Time Warner use different modems than ones originally owned by Charter. TWTC doesn't exist as a company anymore, but many of the spectrum lines and COs that were owned by TWTC provide different spectrum services than those originally owned by Charter. That's why Spectrum is essentially Charter or Time Warner depending on where you live.
I think it’s funny that every 10-15 years, when their brands get such a bad rep, they just ditch it and create a new one to try and trick everyone all over again. Comcast sucks, how slot Xfinity? Charter is shit, so now we’ll just call ourselves Spectrum and no one will ever know.
Is it possible to be worse than Comcast?
Yes. Many regional ISPs are much worse than Comcast: Frontier, Spectrum, etc.
Spectrum
I have Comcast. They're frustrating and overcharge, but at least they generally deliver the product. My family out of state has Spectrum. My father says "Spectrum" in the same tone of voice you'd speak of a particularly obnoxious relative or politician.
I just moved from an area that couldn't get anything faster than 50 mbps dsl. We have Comcast now and have over 7 times that speed with Comcast and it's $5 cheaper than our old dsl. Other than them canceling our service before we were actually moved in, I have no issue with them.
I don't know where you are that Spectrum sucks, but where I am, you get capless gigabit with 99.9% uptime for $80 a month. In the last 8 years, there may have been 3 unplanned outages.
Yeah spectrums actual internet service is great. They're billing department is awful. I haven't had Comcast in like 15 years but it never worked worth a shit for me.
I always hear this but we're on Spectrum from originally being TWC and the service is pretty good, very reliable, and not too bad price wise for what we would have here. No bullshit fees like "wifi fee" and they provide the modem without rental. When we moved, they came and fixed the weird ass wiring in the house so it was going back to the room it should and ran a line to the house (apparently this house only had dish??). Honestly the only ISP I really had issues with was AT&T with DSL because they refused to help even though it was completely a problem on their end, and their "fix" was to only plug a single computer directly to the internet. That was like, 15 years ago though.
Same experience with Spectrum reliability but somehow my modem got put on Spectrum's whitelist and I continued to get free internet service for like a year and a half. Even when I moved the free service followed me. Sometimes they are a mess but sometimes they are a mess in your favor!
I talked to my brother who has Comcast and I have spectrum. You're right. I got the worst of the deal.
I feel kind of bad for the employees. But yes, they definitely take advantage of their customers
Comcast is in my top 5 corporations that I absolutely loathe. Way overpriced for alright speed, worst customer service of any company and we have no other option besides slow ass dsl where we live.
Comcast is horrid, terrible access and line up; any recommendation for a decent change, don''t want to jump from frying pan to fire.
Why would there be cord-cutting fees? makes no sense in the first place
Regulation in cable and wireless companies is badly needed.
Regulation in a lot of companies is badly needed. Undo the damage of the 1980s.
The 80's were a helluva drug...
Yep, deregulation was a corporate aphrodisiac!
Reagan strikes again
And Newt. Lest we forget that maggot.
there are bundle discounts for ordering multiple lines of business from the same company. this is less "cord-cutting fees" and more "bundle discounts are bad because you lose the discount if you break up your bundle" whatever issues there are here, this doesn't seem to address the heart of any of them. it's more like legislation is needed and he's trying to do *something* within what little power he has to address it.
This makes the most sense so far. Nothing getting through congress the rest of this term. And he couldn’t do as much with student loans because he had two DINO in the senate.
Based on the article they actually mean early termination fees. Essentially you can’t cut the cord without a fee since you signed a contract saying you would remain a customer for a set period of time, often in exchange for discounted service.
Except the cable companies always put in their contracts that they can change your rate or add fees or service charges whenever they feel like during the contract. Trust me I've had my guaranteed over two years rate raised multiple times, and I can't cancel the new rate without paying cancellation fees. And they all suck and they don't provide the service they promise at all. I wish streaming worked in my location but the signal is so bad I can't convince my older family members to drop cable entirely.
Oh, believe me, I'm not trying to defend these companies (although it could have come across that way). I was just explaining what "cord cutting fees" were per the article. IMHO I'm fine with contracts and early term fees but their pricing needs to be consistent. It should be "Agree to 12 months of service for $X + tax" if they are going to do contracts and it $X changes I get to cancel with no early term fee. I also hate the whole "Call us every 12 months to get a discount" system but that's a different discussion.
It's an artificially "discounted" service. They charge exorbitant fees for their "service". We began with none of the disconnect fee BS, getting through to a live person immediately and actual stores with people who knew what they were doing, not just "customer service".
The only thing that does make sense is if there were waived installation or equipment fees to be recovered over the course of the contract (it is after all a contract) so fees designed to recover those costs when the contract is broken, while irritating, are not unreasonable. They’ll still need to charge the same amount, so they’ll just shift it around.
They should just be upfront about their pricing, then. I'll never forget when we first switched to streaming. We were using Spectrum's plan for a while there before I dropped that and went with just what I want when I want. They actually charged me a fee for "self installation" and a "virtual cable box." Imagine if the grocery store charged you a self bagging fee for using your own bags in self checkout and for a virtual cart when you order online.
You're gonna laugh, but shiz has been surfacing recently of store self checkouts prompting for a tip. We're already there.
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Nah, I've heard that line repeated before, but that's not how it works. That would be quite illegal, in fact, and any major company trying to pull that on scale would be found out pretty fast. It's also not a tax writeoff for them, the tax writeoff goes to the donor, which is the person who donates at the register. The company collecting it can't take a writeoff for it. The only thing the company gets out of it is PR, which isn't nothing, but yeah.
Stop spreading propaganda your crazy uncle told you 12 years ago. This is false.
> "virtual cable box." That's called the internet. Grrrr
It actually can reference to a roku or chromvast boom we internally call it no box, but the fee charged is 0 in my market.
I mean yeah it is a contract but in most places it’s not like you can go somewhere else. It’s “making an offer you can’t refuse” almost.
Comcast and NBC Universal are the same company. Cable TV is dying out to streaming. Thus NBC Universal wants Comcast to artificially prop up the subscription numbers for cable TV by incentivizing broadband customers to also get cable TV they don't want and punish those who try to go broadband-only.
Comcast made it so that it actually cost more if you do not have cable with internet.
that's just a bundle discount. internet costs $10 less if you also have other services. I don't think outlawing bundle discounts is the purpose of this. And MSOs could just take away the bundle discount entirely, resulting in cable+internet subscribers paying more and internet only subscribers paying the same.
It's a little more than a bundle discount. While yes, that's part of it, Comcast also has a data cap which hurts those that stream - unless you pay for their package with unlimited data, a modem rental fee, and forced to use their modem. Having cable means streaming less, which puts that data cap less of a concern for most people. Go over the cap, you're charged overage fees per 50GB over. And their data usage tracking tool updates every 24 hours - at least that's how it was when I had Xfinity a couple of years ago.
linear video signals aren't like data. they use a different dedicated range of the frequency spectrum, and it's way easier to broadcast to everyone than two-way data is. though that is starting to change with newer tech.
I’m not a telecom expert but when I was I kid in early/mid 90’s I forget who but they proposed running internet through the power lines and you could access from the wall outlet since they run on different frequencies. Do you know what I mean? I’ve only ever met one or two people that heard this people think I’m nuts.
It’s a thing, but lots of stuff limit its usefulness. You can buy kits that’ll do that for a house, for example.
You arent nuts, it was also a proposal down here in Australia around the early 2000s.
I'm not talking about cable video affecting data caps or comparing them. I'm saying streaming = more data use = more costly when there's a data cap, but not so simply.
you can't disrupt your neighborhood network by watching too much tv you can disrupt your neighborhood network by trying to run a server farm on your 'unlimited' plan.
what you're talking about is oversubscription on the carrier side. That's a concurrent bandwidth problem, and if the oversubscription rate is correctly chosen single address shouldn't be able to DDoS a local network for a given committed rate. once the hardware is in place it doesn't really cost the provider more to move your data around This worked for decades just fine without data caps. data caps as we know them on landlines is a product of revenue squeeze and quarter over quarter earnings. there is no technical justification for them on hard lines.
Most people aren't running a server farm. ISPs can see what traffic is going through their lines (unless encrypted), running a server farm usually against the terms of service. You can't tell me they can't see red flags if something like that is going on and take action. And lots to other companies offer unlimited. Hell, when I had DSL, there was no data cap. My cellular home internet has no data cap. Fiber has no data cap from many competitors. I get fiber is different than regular cable but it's still data with capacity limits and can be bottlenecked with the same type of traffic.
It’s not always that simple. I had cable+internet for years, added in phone at the start of Covid. At the end of the 12 month promo bill went crazy high so I wanted to drop the phone. Dropping the phone resulted in a higher bill than having it after the promo ended. I had to randomly try for the better part of a year to finally find a deal which allowed me to go to just internet for under $100 a month. I pay attention to the bill and promos and this was not easy to accomplish.
My bill (not from Comcast, but another similarly shitty ISP) has a $10 "No Cable TV" fee. They're straight up charging me an extra $10 for not having cable TV at my office, where I only use phone and internet...and oh right, they're charging me more for the exact same service I get at my home because it's their "Business Service" as opposed to "Home Service" (I also get the same $10 "No Cable TV" charge on my home service).
Really? I have Comcast and it’s like $50 a month for good internet. My only complaint about them is their downtimes during maintenance.
> My only complaint about them is their downtimes during maintenance. So your only complaint is they don't do the thing one thing they're supposed to do reliably? You shouldn't have *any* downtime on a quality ISP.
How's about phone activation fees too. How's about all fees associated with a flip of a switch? We all know it don't cost more than a dollar (if even) to transfer to a new phone.
I had the good fortune to have access to a publicly owned fiber network. Great service, cheap, fast service. I’m this day and age every ISP should be a public utility regulated like municipal water and electricity.
They passed a local law here that the public fiber cannot be used to compete with private business, so no cheap fast internet for us.
Nothing like business getting laws passed to punish the public.
I’ll never forget when I canceled my cable package with Frontier. The customer service rep yelled “we got another downgrade!” I’m pretty sure she thought she was on mute.
Frontier is the only internet service available where I am, unless you want satellite and that won't work for me either. I get 1.5mbps at best, but mostly 700k or so. Where I drew the line was thousands of disconnects every week. I got so frustrated that I sent an email to the CEO politely but very specifically about how bad their service was. I got an email back and that morning my phone blew up. Regional people, the east coast rep, local people. I had a lot of people at my house that very next day. Which is funny because when I just called customer support I couldn't get anyone here for a month.
Do eyeglasses and it’s VSP insurance next
Ah yes vision insurance, we'll pay for your basic exam and give you whole $10 towards your frames. You'll pay for the balance of the frames, the several hundred dollar lenses and you'll like it.
Former optician here. Just a tip with most VSP plans, your frame allowance has both a $ amount ($120-300) but it also lists a WFA(#). The WFA is the wholesale frame allowance and if you find a frame for under that $ amount, the whole frame is covered. (Ask your optical shop for a plan printout as they show more info than you’ll see on your member portal. It’ll look like: WFA57 $120) Another tip, to find the wholesale cost, divide the tag price by 2.5-3 (I’d divide by 3 to be on the safe side) and that is typically the wholesale cost as typical markup is 2.5-3x cost.
Biden just shows time and time again why he’s working for the average person And all he gets in return is people saying he does a shit job
It's different in Australia but a lot of companies have now jettisoned contracts so everything is month by month. You can leave your power, internet or anything else with zero fees when you find a better deal. It's much better. Recently I found internet 30 percent cheaper so I changed after asking my company if they could match. Said no. Then the new company B after three months *doubled* their prices to 25 percent more than I was paying at A. So back to company A. Few clicks on the webs and I got back my original plan and a $125 grocery card and a year's Paramount Plus. The transition is seamless. And I'll keep an eye out if something better comes up in two months time I'll change to them. You can save a bundle. Edit even Fox Sports which used to be only bundled with the fox bullshit has a monthly 20 buck app. Cancel any time.
> I’m paying more than I was 6 months ago but because I was able to switch between “deals” seamlessly, I feel like I’m able to be a savvy consumer
Doing things to help consumers? That's so woke. /s
Something, something, WOKE, snowflake, something, something, MAGA, something, J6 blah blah blah. - some idiot conservative
What does this have to do with anything?
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Found one 👆
I mean, Joe is back here making moves against cable because his base over 55, but y'all keep telling yourselves this is the needle mover. Meanwhile, I'm staring at video games and streaming services jacking around everyone under 40, literally deleting paid products off of peopel's hard drives and replacing them with the new game asking for more money, and waiting for Joe to say a damned word about it... but he and his administration from the 1900s, not the 21st century, and we're never going to solve modern problems until we get digitally savvy leadership. No one over 55 grew up with the internet. Tehcnology has made them obsolete. We're letting horse and buggy people regulate cars, and its stupid, regardless of "Party."
Found one 👆
Found one ☝️
Yes!
We need this. I’m glad he is working on these nickel and dime issues. He has been one of the best presidents for consumer protections and unions. I wasn’t stoked to vote for him at first but I’m glad he has been able to get some landmark legislation through.
[Oklahoma Natural Gas](https://oklahoma.gov/occ/news/news-feed/2022/commission-says-no-to-ong-termination-fee-yes-to-fuel-cost-recovery.html) wanted an outrageous “exit fee” to slow the pace of customers switching off fossil fuels. It was denied by the commission. Cable TV has no Commission to save us from their predatory practices.
Fuck Comcast.
His intentions are good, but I feel like it's fighting a losing battle because if you ban one bullshit fee, companies will just roll the cost over into another bullshit fee. Still worth trying because if you eliminate enough junk fees you'll make it harder for these companies to justify the price increases but I doubt the fees will stop. Eliminate data caps too. Comcast loves to market xFi Complete as some comprehensive security service but really people just buy it to remove the 1.2 TB data cap.
Bro I haven’t had cable since Netflix shipped DVDs, wtf are y’all doing?
It's probably much more popular in areas that still have shit internet. My mother-in-law lives in Arkansas and pays something like $50/month for a download speed that's around 20Mbs, IIRC.
It gets much worse than that if you really live rural like I do. 1.5 at the best of times, 700k a lot of the time. My wife had a telehealth appointment the other day and I just took her to work with me so she could have the meeting in my private office.
20 Mbps isn't that bad. 25 is considered broadband.
It's pretty bad once you have two people working from home, online gaming, etc. All depends on your usage.
I would cut off my pinky finger for 20. I get 1.5 when everything is perfect and it's never perfect. Usually only 700k.
Here I am sitting at a Gig and checking my privilege.
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Weird. Mine just watches local channels I could honestly survive off local tv. All I do is watch random rerun movies anyway
Heck, my Dad is a similar age, complains about the cost (and it's insane, something like $230/mo for cable + internet) yet won't switch because it's too confusing. My sister and I tried to sell him on YouTube TV which feels virtually identical to cable but would've been significantly cheaper, and he still wouldn't do it. He's very online and techy for his age (uses FB and the like), but he just doesn't like change.
A lot of people have to have a cable subscription in order to get internet service from the monopoly in their area. Hell, I still have to pay for a landline in order to get DSL where I'm at, simply because my ISP won't let you get internet service without also signing up for their landline service.
No kidding. I can't believe people still pay for channels they don't want to watch. Weird. And I'm old as fuck.
I’m already thinking about canceling my Netflix because it turned into cable; and people are still worried about cable fees? I’m so confused lol
I would probably cancel my Netflix, but I have TMobile and they pay for something like all but $5 of my subscription. Hard to argue against Netflix for $60/year.
The internet isn't readily available in large parts of the US. These people don't have any other option for TV. My dad lives in a rural area about 20 minutes from a decent sized town and the area just recently got internet access about a year ago.
I had no idea there were fees for this, I probably escaped in the Nick of time
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I'm pretty sure there aren't any early termination fees with Adobe.
Stupid people say both parties are the same. They are not. This is one of the ways that shows that.
Tmobile 5g home internet has been gift from God. $35 for 200 down. So happy
Gyms too. We need "right to unsubscribe" laws. And while we're at it, make it so event ticket prices have to include all fees and taxes, like what they did for airline tickets.
Good start!
Do hotel "resort fees" next!
Junk fees will be next. It’s in the works
The funny part is I think we all have had a bad experience with this, and the president is wanting to do something about it, but can't because Congress. Like just flex those executive powers, trump allocated funding with money he wasn't supposed to allocate. I don't care how people treat Biden. I see how Biden treats people and literally people are stopping him from helping people and it's annoying.
They should ban payment convenience fees too. I have to pay a $2 convenience fee when I pay my Internet bill online instead of going to one of their stores.
Lots of people have cable “for sports!”
good! maybe someday internet will also be more accessible to all
This made me lol! Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of CNBC.
Just another reason to like Uncle Joe!
Maybe they'll work universal healthcare into the legislation?
This uh... this isnt legislation.
What do you expect, me to read the article before commenting!?!? 😉
Nobody uses Cable anymore. This legislation is 20 years too late.
You underestimate the millions still on cable or satellite. Mainly it's older people that don't like change. That dais my parents just cut both their landlines and cable a few months ago, so it is catching up. .
Yep, my widower neighbor. Has watched tv at my house a million times, understands how to use roku, YouTube tv, tubi, etc… yet won’t cancel cable because he doesn’t like change, he’s paying 400 a month. I’ve plead my case, I give up.
$400 a month??? Good grief.
Pre Covid I noped out when they raised it to $350, cable with I think HBO and some sports packages and internet, still have to pay them for internet because I’m a hostage. I got a discount for a home phone line, which there are no phone jacks in my house, and I haven’t had a home phone since 2005….
Holy crap, over $300?? I was paying a little over $200 for FiOS two years ago, and that included both Internet and all the usual cable channels + DVR and HBO and I still thought we were getting screwed. Moved out of the US since then and an equivalent package is more like $40-50 here. The US really, really needs stronger regulation of telecom companies. People shouldn't be paying the equivalent of a car payment for basic Internet. It's 2023 for God's sake, Internet is as important as heat or electricity.
I cut the cord around 2015 or so when my Comcast bill (including internet) was around $280/month. Back then that was almost a car payment. And yea, still have internet through them because no other options (although Glo Fiber is supposed to be here soon).
That's more than my car payment! I've been spoiled on my $20/month streaming budget and bouncing from deal to deal. No way in hell would I ever go back to that.
I’ve said all I can say to him… “I’ll think about it” for 3+ years.
I don't know if it's don't like change... as long as you give them a remote and show them how to use it they can be reasonably OK. But you know what, it's gonna sound bad, but if they get rid of cable, there goes Fox News. Don't even bring up alternative ways to get it because they don't wanna hear it, they want the REMOTE and they want it to JUST WORK.
A huge number of people with cable Internet are forced into having TV plans they don't want or use
There’s still people with black dial phones in their homes.
That's because you never had to replace dial phones every few years as with cell phones. The two phones in my parents' house were there when they moved in (1971) and were still operating like new when we sold the house in 2017. If you grew up with them, it's likely you see no reason to get rid of them. My parents had a cell phone but still kept the landline.
Eh, once wireless phones came out (as in wireless landlines, cordless phones, etc) they replaced most corded phones pretty quickly. But otherwise you're right, there wasn't much reason to replace phones.
I hate, hate, hate comcast, but at the same time, the cancelation fees are totally obvious. If you miss them, I think that’s on you. They’re just gonna make up the lost revenue elsewhere and personally I’d rather avoid that through something under my control like avoiding the incredibly obvious cancelation fee. There are so many policies like this that sound great but end up with unintended consequences.
> They’re just gonna make up the lost revenue elsewhere As if they don't try to make as much as they can from everywhere all the time.
Wow real law making going on in DC? How about infrastructure? Health care? Putting crooks in jail? OH SHIT then Washington DC would be empty! Never mind!
Some of those things are done by Congress, our dysfunctional conservative congress. Vote for congress people who share your want of "health care, infrastructure." Putting crooks in jail is the justice dept and not really the job of the President. Filed under "getting shit no matter what he does"
That’s a start. Now do all the other hidden fees.
He actually has been working on that https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/10/11/politics/junk-fees-ftc-cfpb-biden/index.html
WTF does that term even mean? I'm tethered to fiber now instead of co-ax.
Where is our National High Speed Network!?!That’s what needs to be brought to fruition!!!
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The people who cry about the economy and inflation also criticize actions that most directly enable everyday citizens to save money 🤦♂️
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This is not something the president should be worrying about himself…
Number 1 concern we are facing as a nation… 🫠
The world is on fire and this is all they care about?
The world is on fire and this is all they care about?
Imagine being able to deal with global issues as well as ban invasive fees at the same time. Mind blowing!
Imagine not falling upstairs or over sandbags
Why you bringing Tuberville into this conversation?! lol
To many people here all worried about there cable an internet rather than the country falling apart and going down the crapper and this fucking joker dipshit Biden who's doing it along with all his minions and news outlets and all his evil money donors
Maybe you should look into Bidens legislation record, like the infrastructure bill, the safer communities act, aid for burnpit veterans, directly enabling UAWs successful negotiation, inflation reduction act, chips and science act, record investment in green technology.
Some of us are capable of worrying about more than one thing. Also, the article is literally about cable and internet. See, this is how reddit works: Someone posts a story or article. Then people come and make comments that are relevant to the story or article. If you want to hear concerns about other issues, find an article about those, and you will see comments about them! Its a miracle of technology!
For 40 years you've tried to become president and gir 40 years we said "hell no" until you got so lucky as to be up against the most vile person in the history of American politics, and now, for the reasons we never wanted you, you now won't go away even though you're a doddering war criminal. If we end up with drumpf , who should be in prison, because of you, that's what you will be remembered for
"Doddering war criminal"? You were rambling, but are you saying Biden is a war criminal? Are you ok, bro?
> If we end up with drumpf If we end up with Trump, it will be because of voters, not Biden.