Update: Cablevision responds.
Cablevision is lying to customers by claiming that the FCC will require all subscribers to upgrade to digital cable boxes in 2009. Digital cable boxes cost $6.50 per month, plus an extra $10.95 for digital service. Cablevision recently sent a letter to all boxless subscribers threatening to cut several channels unless they forked out a bundle of extra cash for digital service. When one of our family member called for an explanation, Cablevision shirked responsibility and placed the blame squarely on some crazy new FCC mandate. We called shenanigans and decided to call back and record our chats with several customer service representatives. Inside, the recordings of Cablevision lies and the FCC’s flaccid response.
Before we get to the recordings, let’s look at Cablevision’s fairly innocuous letter:
Here’s the deal: Cablevision—not the FCC—has decided to move several channels to their digital tier. To keep receiving the channels, customer will need to upgrade to digital service with a digital box. Customers who don’t pony up for the service lose the channels.
40 million American families don’t use a digital cable box. Assuming all cable companies use Cablevision’s rates, operators stand to pick up an extra $698,000,000 per month by convincing all 40 million families to shell out an extra $17.45 for digital service. That small piece of change is worth more than the yearly GDP of several small nations.
Cablevision is well within its bounds to charge whatever it wants for service. They can tell us we need a cable box, and that service will now cost $300 per month. That’s a freedom afforded by the market. What they can’t do is cowardly hide behind the FCC and blame their money-grubbing on the government. Let’s listen as they try to do just that:
We spoke with four representatives, each of whom blamed the FCC for forcing us to upgrade to digital cable. We asked one representative how this information was conveyed to the CSRs, and she explained that Cablevision had specifically trained them to point to the FCC.
Let’s be perfectly clear: the FCC decision has absolutely nothing to do with the channels Cablevision is taking away, nor does it require anyone to upgrade to a digital cable box.
Don’t believe us? Let’s see if we can find someone to refute Cablevision…. Maybe Cablevision is up to the task?
Looks like they know the truth after all. The transition to digital television will have no affect on Cablevision’s service.
We spoke with two representative at the FCC who claim that several cable companies have engaged in similar deceitful and fraudulent actions. According to the representatives, the Commission is powerless to take action. One even defended the cable companies, saying:
“Most of [the cable companies] are blaming it on the FCC. It’s easier for us to take it. We have broad shoulders, you know? We’re the ones who have to explain it to all the consumers anyway when they find the 800 number and then they start calling and asking us: “why is my cable company doing this to me? I want to file a complaint.”
Unfortunately, there are no mandates for good customer service. I wish there was! I would really like there for to be a mandate that says: “I’m sorry, but people on the phone at my cable company have to be nice to me and they have to tell me the truth.” I wish there was, but there’s not.
A mandate for good customer service couldn’t be enforced by the 82nd-airborne, but lying? Regulated companies should not be allowed to lie to their customers.
Thankfully, the bespectacled bossman helming the FCC takes a different view. Chairman Kevin Martin recently slammed retailers for lying about the digital transition, dishing out several million dollars worth of fines to Sears, Best Buy and Walmart. Why can cable companies lie, but not retailers?
We know that Chairman Martin is a good guy who likes consumers. Let’s go back and listen to the sweet consumer-protecting swan song he sung so graciously in our defense last year:
If the cable companies had their way, you, your mother and father, or your next door neighbor could go to sleep one night after watching their favorite channel and wake up the next morning to a dark fuzzy screen. This is because the cable operators believe that it is appropriate for them to choose which stations analog cable customers should be able watch. It is not acceptable as a policy matter or as a legal matter.
Kevvy was announcing that cable companies would be required to carry broadcast channels (CBS, NBC, ABC, etc…) until 2012, and not Travel Planet or RAI, which Cablevision is preparing to yank. The Chairman did, however, explicitly endorse our right to enjoy cable service without a box, and Cablevision’s right to require us to rent one:
…the Commission is not forcing consumers to purchase or lease a set top box to continue watching their favorite channels. This decision lies in the hands of the cable company. They can avoid the need for new boxes bychoosing to downconvert the digital signal into analog at their headend. This downconversion would permit analog cable subscribers to continue watching broadcast television just as they do today without disruption.
This isn’t the first time Cablevision has used the DTV transition to beat customers like cash-spewing pinatas. The cable giant was previously caught sending letters to prospective customers telling them that TV would disappear in 2009 unless they started paying $240 per year, despite the availability of $20 converter boxes that will keep the Price Is Right up and running.
Cablevision is clearly engaged in a pattern of deception and fraud. The FCC has a responsibility to investigate and admonish Cablevision for their abusive conduct. Predatory upseling simply cannot be tolerated in a responsibly regulated marketplace.
PREVIOUSLY: Cablevision Uses Digital TV Transition To Upsell Basic Cable
Sears, Best Buy, Wal-Mart And Others Fined For Not Warning Consumers About Analog Obsolescence
FCC Takes Action To Prevent Cable Companies From Dropping Digital Broadcast Networks From Analog Cable
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Just an informative note: you can also, if you wish, use a CableCard box (usually, a Tivo HD or Series 3) to receive digital channels.
TiVos can’t do switched digital video, though, so check with your provider and ask if they use SDV for channels you may want before buying.
TiVo has claimed updates to the TivoHD will allow SDV with an adapter.
Don’t you just want to reach out and slap them? Just sitting there, blaming the FCC because THEY want more of your money – for SAME service. LESS really, if you need a converter box for each TV!
Yet another reason I can’t wait for more cable companies to move into the Southern CT area. I have been force-fed the “Optimum” Network for over three years now. Verizon is slowly inching their way in but Cablevision keeps throwing up walls. I know its a lesser of two evils, but I would rather have the lesser evil that gave me better picture and faster internet!
It sounds like, atleast in the first recording, that the woman was fed this info and wouldnt know the truth from what she was being paid to read. I’m not saying that makes it right but it didnt sound like she even knew what the truth was.
PS: how about making my comments show, my replys arnt any worse then what half the other people posting have wrote.
@rainmkr: Yeah. Hoping that if I ever do have to deal with SDV, the adapters will be available.
Time Warner recently changed HBO, which we are paying for, from channel 3 to channel 113. Unfortunately, we don’t have digital, and therefore cannot receive that channel.
Time Warner Cable informed us that the only way to do it would be to upgrade to a digital box and then pay even more for HBO.
This is going to cost us at least $20 more a month for the same thing.
@Zaeyde:
Most cable companies are moving premium channels and PPV channels to digital only tiers. Probably the biggest reason is that “descrambler boxes” that people always bought on the black market dont work on digital channels. Its MUCH harder to get free HBO and PPV on digital cable.
Back home (North Jersey), Cablevision is our only option. My parents don’t have a digital cable box, but they do watch some of these channels. I suggested taking the opportunity to leave Cablevision without an ETF, but like I said there’s no alternative. In fact, my parents insist we don’t even have a commitment and wouldn’t have to worry about an ETF anyway. There’s just no one else around.
I’m not about to let Optimum walk all over us just because they have a local monopoly. Anyone know a way to keep these channels without having to pay an extra monthly fee? I see a few comments about TiVo, but don’t they charge monthly? Is there some digital cable box we can just buy and keep the same exact service/fee that we have now?
Ideally, I’d like a solution that doesn’t involve any extra monthly fee at all, but if we must pay something then I’d rather it go to a third party.
As long as the FCC is getting money they don’t give a shit. Really.
This happened in my community as well, hidden on the Comcast bill was a notice that MSNBC and a few others were being put on the digital tier due to the transition required by the FCC.
My first step was to contact Comcast and ask if there was going to be a discount on my cable bill due to the service reduction we were all experiencing. I was gleefully told no, but offered several different digital packages.
Next step was to email my local government cable representative, a member of the board that oversees the cable contracts, because I’ve heard these people are fairly responsive. Four months later I’m still waiting for a response.
Another reason the cable companies want to move channels to digital-only tiers is to free up bandwidth. They can carry several digital channels in the same bandwidth required by a single analog channel, so it allows them to increase the number of channels they carry without having to upgrade their physical plant.
If they weren’t morons, they could make the case to consumers that what they’re doing is increasing the total number of channels they offer, but it’s easier to blame the gub’mint.
Re: switched digital… the barrier to switched-digital for cable-card devices won’t last, because cable companies are required to use cable-cards in their OWN new set-top boxes now, so there won’t be a technological barrier to switched-digital, though Scientific Atlanta may continue to try to make it proprietary as long as they can.
Doesn’t surprise me that Cablevision is doing this. They like to play fast and loose with the rules, especially labor rules.
I am so glad you reported this as I have had Cablevision for years and have received so much conflicting information as to what exactly will happen in February 2009, and what exactly I have to do. I don’t really have to do anything it seems.
Frankly, I could live without those channels although I would miss Cops. Now if they mess with TVLand then I will be ticked.
I wonder if they will change their mind on this now that they have been been outed. I doubt it.
Verizon is putting up fiberoptic cables in my neighborhood as we speak. I wonder if all the cable companies are going to do something similar.
Shame on them. I am glad I am now informed. Thank you.
All I see here is a couple of sales reps who don’t know anything about this saying what needs to be said to sell service and get commission..
The ONLY reason you’ll need a converter box for, is if you currently view channels OVER THE AIR THROUGH AN ANTENNA.
Switching channels to digital is inevitable. It is to better the service that is provided by the cable company. They will all be switched eventually, so get over it.
Why don’t they mandate 4 free boxes with any account? It ridiculous that they are getting away with this per tv pricing model.
I do custom audio/video installation for a local Chicago known electronic & appliance store. The amount of backwards information on this issue is asstonishing. Every customer that asks me seems to have a different understanding of it, quite a few installers here are under the impression that all analog channels threw any basic cable company provided line thats plugged straight into a tv is going to stop working. I’ve tried to shed some light on the fact that the entire thing seems fishy, and there is no reason for the companies to discontinue the analog cable lines but it always ends in arguments. Likely one of the many reasons I don’t have a cable box or a tuner.
An important note regarding cable card. If your running an HDTV cable card with Comcast, RCN, WOW, or Time Warner it can only run at a MAX of resolution of 720P.
This is exactly why I don’t pay for cable. The bill is just a money-sucker. There is noting that comes on TV that I can’t find online, and I can run audio/video cables to my television.
Of course, the internet companies will start something similar soon, and then what will I do??
Nicely written!
Yeah, I wouldn’t really expect someone in a call center to know exactly what’s going on.
I wonder what the higher-ups would say about this article!
It’s bad enough that cable companies have little monopolies going on in city markets. Yes, I have the option to switch to satellite, but frankly, I don’t want a TV solution that can be defeated by a cloud. My in-laws have DirecTV and every time it storms their signal gets fuzzy or goes out altogether. Some competition between cable companies in city markets would benefit the consumer, I think.
@WraithSama: heh, that’s why all those “Cable Competes” ads that were on the Consumerist earlier this week were driving me up the wall…those are industry ads designed to convince consumers that cable companies compete with telcos, so they shouldn’t have to compete with one another.
@blowjustinup:
Well you don’t have to yell. I think it is crystal clear that most people don’t need a digital converter. The point is not that things are changing but that this company used deceit to make more money from an item that people do not need to purchase. And they wrongly put the blame on the Feds.
Half the population remembers when they had no cable and had to actually change the channel manually. Trust me, they don’t care about digital signal. They don’t want to buy a new TV and they don’t want to pay a small mortgage to watch TV. And this is going to be a problem for the cable companies. The channels that pay to be on their system will not be offered to people who don’t pay the ransom, the advertisers will have less viewers and then what?
What is so great about digital? I am not being facetious, I really want to know. Honestly, I can’t tell the difference except maybe it is a little more distinct of a picture which I really can live without.
This is an excellent post, one that needs much more exposure. I hope some of the mainstream media picks it up.
I don’t want to ever convert to a digital cable box, because then my DVR will no longer be able to record two different channels while I am away.
Whatever happened to the days when companies were more concerned about meeting the customer’s needs than lying to cheat them out of their money?
*scratches head*
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but what you’re describing is Cablevision engaging in deceptive business practices and fraud. In fact, those were exactly what you called it.
From http://www.cxrlarus.com/assets/glossary.html:
“[The FCC is the] United States government agency that supervises, licenses and controls electronic and electromagnetic transmission standards.”
So what exactly can they do about underhanded business practices? Now, the FTC… that’s another matter.
Consumerist – Barking up the wrong tree way too much these days.
All these bad stories regarding television service recently remind me of more reasons why I don’t own a television.
Wow… you guys have really been on the ball here lately with the big breaks! Keep up the good work!
Blaming the FCC is slimy, but dumping analog stations makes a lot of sense. The cable companies have limited bandwidth and consumers (like me) are demanding HD.
Unfortunately the cable companies can’t keep consumers like me and people whom can stand digital cable boxes happy at the same time.
I am anxiously awaiting the TiVo SDV resolver and a decent selection of HD channels. In the interim I get my HD over the air and my SD channels from DirecTv. I want more, but a DVR that isn’t TiVo isn’t an option.
If you like TV, great. If you want to spend 100-200 a month for cable and TiVo and other stuff, that is your business. But the answer is simple–if you don’t want to pay it, don’t. Cable is NOT a utility and nowhere in the US Requirements to be Entertained does it say someone needs a 1200-3000 television. Seriously, it’s JUST entertainment. But I guess that is why gas is 3.45 a gallon. People complain but they still drive. I have no sympathy whatsoever for anyone thinks they HAVE to watch TV to be happy. Yeah, I will get blasted for that but I can’t believe the level of complaints over nonessentials.
Actually Comcast is claiming something along these lines as well. I recently downgraded my service from the premium digital package to extended basic with no box and the CSRs all claimed I would lose channels in three months or so due to the switchover to digital. Granted theirs only costs $1 more per month and I had to call them before they gave the lie but it’s still money I don’t want to pay out and others shouldn’t be tricked onto paying.
I could only make it through the first call because I was so annoyed at the lies that they told. Over the air (OTA) broadcasts will be the only ones effected by the transition in ’09. Cable companies are fed digital broadcasts, but have been allowed to convert that broadcast to analog before giving it to customers. There is no date set for when they will no longer be allowed to do this (as far as I know). It is definitely past the OTA conversion date, though. But, cable companies lie all the time. I see Comcast commercials boating the fact that by the end of this year they will have over 500 HD channels, despite the fact that it is impossible to transmit that much data over a coax wire.
@danseuse322
Amen brother! It’s not clean, running water, it’s not heat & light, it’s f***ing crappy TV. The supplier can charge what the hell they like & you have 2 choices; pay up or give it up.
Isn’t this illegal? Especially if you signed up for the cableplan that included these channels for no extra charge?
I hate Cablevision. First they take Soapnet and make it box required and now all of these stations. They’re going to keep doing it until all that’s left is the few broadcast stations.
I haven’t gotten a letter like this yet and wonder if maybe its only sent to certain customers since I have televisions with both Digital boxes and ones without.
comcast moved Cartoon Network to Digital and has no moved G4. you have to have a digital box which costs more.
Guys,
Good for you for investigating this.
Its a shame that the FCC is not being more aggressive with their oversight.
Best,
James
“Cablevision feigned responsibility and placed the blame squarely on some crazy new FCC mandate. “
This sentence isn’t making sense to me. Are you sure “feigned” means what you think it means?
I too have had a similar situation with Comcast locally. For years they’ve given us basic cable + HBO for free at work (government offices get free basic cable for the right to sell in the area) but since they moved HBO over to digital, all we have is the BBC. I tried to explain to the other guys that demanding that the local government buy digital boxes for every TV in the building isn’t going to work.
On a similar note, what happens when there is a complete digital shift. Does the cable company give one digital box per office or have to give us like 30 digital boxes, 1 for each connected TV? This per-TV pricing model gets tough for the government.
One cable company in Tampa, FL is giving free converter boxes to all county offices after they moved PBS and public access to digital. Oh, and a $150,000 advertising bribe.
Article link:
[www2.tbo.com]
@tweemo:
Inconceivable!
Fines don’t scare huge corporations. If they can make more money by lying to customers and paying the subsequent token fines than being honest, they’ve no reason to be honest.
The year is 2008 for God’s sake; this is getting ridiculous.
Embrace technology.
The amount of bandwidth consumed on Cable provider networks over analog continues to degrade my current and future digital services.
While I agree with the consumers who buy enter-level services, it is also unfair to the consumers who want the latest and greatest technologies in their home.
Take a neighborhood with 40 people cable customers. 30 with digital boxes, mostly HDTVs, and 10 old-fasion analog subscribers.
Those 10 analog subscribers are consuming more bandwidth than the 30 people with hundreds more channels and larger monthly bills.
If those 10 customers were to switch upward to digital than the Cable company could drop analog all together. Which would intern allow those 40 customers to receive all channels 100% digital. Allowing for room for many new channels, in 100% full high definition with NO COMPRESSION!
Reason #35 to cut off cable completely. Thanks CableVision!
@pecheckler: You forget that in doing so, you now have to pay 7 bucks per tv. So 45 bucks for cable, 10 bucks for digital, and 7 bucks times 6 tvs. That makes your upgrade to digital an extra 52 dollars a month. Upgrading to digital will more than double people’s cable bills. Then any future increase in box rental will effect you six fold. Until our government bans equipment rental fees, digital cable is a scam.
This is a good report – thanks consumerist!
With Verizon FiOS, they sent me a letter a few weeks ago telling me that they were converting from analog to digital and that anyone without a set top box would need a digital adapter. Verizon is offering these adapters for free with no monthly service charge and they receive every single channel that you would normally receive with a set top box for free. Now that’s great service.
Easy fix, cancel your cable. My family has lived cable free for a decade.
Verizon Fios TV will be given digital adapters for FREE to ppl who don’t want a converter box so they can still watch their basic tv. Why can’t Cablevision do that?
These are the same assholes who own the Knicks. And play that stupid reggaeton commercial on NYC TV all the damn time.
Verizon sucks, but I’d rather have FIOS out here on Long Island and suck it up rather tha give the Dolans another dime to ruin a once proud sports city.
Cablevison rots from the top. How else do you explain Isiah Thomas being in charge for so long?
The reason that cable companies are moving channels to the digital tier is to reclaim bandwidth for more HD content and faster internet speeds. Analog spectrum is very inefficient — you can get about 3 HD channels out of the spectrum used by 1 analog channel. Since there is a growing demand for HD, and more competition from FiOS and DirecTV, they feel that reclaiming bandwidth makes more sense than devoting it to the analog service that contributes relatively low revenue.
The move to digital is because of market demand for HD and faster streaming speeds, not a FCC mandate. Cablevision should be explaining thsi to customers, but the FCC is an easier boogeyman to blame the issue on. However, I believe that reclaiming analog is the right call. It’s called technological advancement.
I hate this site for this reason. Instead of checking dslreports to see if the complaints are warranted they go and post an uninformed story.
First off cablevision is doing this to add room for more channels . You can get about 4-6 hd channels for the price of removing one analog channel.
Also If you did your research (like all GOOD journalist should) you would see that people will be getting one free cablebox for one year.
So please stop with the bad journalism. IT makes this site look pretty horrible.
@majortom1981: I guess you missed the point of the story. It’s not whether this change is good or bad, it’s the fact that they LIED about it.
Kudos to The Consumerist for a great story!