Too Good to Be True

By: Arment Dietrich | March 20, 2008 |

Blog written by Angela Loiacono

I’m truly and genuinely tired of the scamming that large companies engage in on a regular basis. National cable, internet, and phone service provider, Comcast, touts this exact trickery — regularly. With an estimated 24.1 million cable, 13.2 million internet, and 4.6 million voice customers, this huge company takes advantage of their status to rope consumers into believing they are receiving a deal.

Let’s break it down:

· For Digital Starter Cable, Comcast advertises that customers pay $33.00 a month for three months. Good deal right? Try again. Read the un-bolded, smaller print to find out your rates will be hiked up to $56.48 after your three months of promotional pricing are up. (Don’t hold you breath for HBO either — those rates jump from $39.00 to $84.99.)

· For Internet services, Comcast advertises a nice $19.99 a month for six months. Then you bill increases more than 100 percent, and you pay $42.95 a month. Nice right?

Has customer service been completely lost? Why do we have to resort to this corporation “spinning” their fees? Sure, some people might say that if you don’t read the fine print, it’s your own fault for being suckered in, but this is over the top.

It’s ridiculous and unethical for companies to try and pull the proverbial wool over their customer’s eyes. Signing up for cable and internet shouldn’t be a game of deception; it should be a normal business transaction. Taking advantage of the opportunity to be inconspicuous with pricing and fees isn’t any different than straight up lying.

Companies such as Comcast need to buck up and be more honest.