
Comcast broke law 445,000 times in scheme to inflate bills, judge finds - whalabi
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/06/comcast-broke-law-445000-times-in-scheme-to-inflate-bills-judge-finds/
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erentz
I had these guys send me a giant oversized WiFi router I never ordered and
never used. Then three months after I terminated my plan they sent me a bill
for $100 for unreturned equipment. I had to waste about three hours of my time
fighting with them that I wouldn’t pay for something I didn’t order or use
before ultimately they agreed when I said I was filing a complaint with the
regulators.

I wonder how many people they have scammed with this. These kinds of actions
are clearly intentional. It’s remarkable to me how quickly things like this
have been getting worse over the past decade.

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themagician
I’ve never purchased a modem from Comcast. Ever.

But every now and then they seem to add “modem fee” to my bill. This has
happened probably 4-5 times in the last 12 years or so. I have to call and
have them remove it, then look back at old bills to see which ones also need
the fee removed.

I can’t help but think they actually do this on purpose. Like they run some
query to see who has service but isn’t being charged for a modem, and just add
the fee to all those accounts “by accident” hoping you won’t notice.

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salawat
So apparently, as long as you can systematically defraud people in the hundred
thousands, it's okay to do so, because you'll just get off with having to
sacrifice a portion of the proceeds; (they're only refunding the recurring
charge, and not subsequent payments for house visits) and a token fine.

Seems to me that if a system has become so extensive that fraud can occur in
these numbers, the punitive part should appreciatively scale if the purpose of
the system is punishment/deterrence.

I just find it hard to reconcile the divergence in how the justice system
operates with regard to "white collar" and "conventional" crime.

Wear a business suit, and defraud 100000+ people, and get a silk glove to the
balance sheet; make the mistake of being an ordinary Joe and stepping out of
line, and kiss your livelihood goodbye.

I get that the corporation relies on a gentler touch(ish) approach since it
provides the jobs and paychecks for many people, but until you start
extracting enough in order to make it unambiguously clear that X deceptive
business practice is unacceptable, it'll just be treated as cost of doing
business.

Never mind that this is just Washington. I'm keeping an eye out to see what
other states bring similar charges.

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curryst
That fine is roughly $20.44 per violation. Its less than 5% of the damages
sought by the AG; does anyone know why it's so low relative to what the AG
wanted? I'm curious if the judge felt the fine was excessive, or if the judge
didn't find them culpable on many of the things the AG charged them with.

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powerslacker
$9.1M fine, while Comcast makes profits upward of $35B/year. This is like
getting a speeding ticket for them.

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paulddraper
Literally.

It's a $50 ticket for someone making $200k a year.

Imagine how concerning that would be :/

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paulryanrogers
Time for strong anti-trust enforcement or at least some competition among land
line ISPs

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AngryData
So what, $20 per violation? How is that even a punishment? They could have
made more than that just on interest payments on their ill-gotten funds.

