Hate renting set-top boxes from Comcast? So does one San Francisco Comcast subscriber. He’s suing, claiming that the rental fees are far in excess of what the boxes would be worth on the open market.
From the Suburban Chicago Daily Herald:
The suit, filed Feb. 2, seeks class-action, or group, status on behalf of all Comcast digital-cable service subscribers. Mays asked for a court order barring Philadelphia-based Comcast from making rental of the boxes a requirement for subscribing to its digital service. Consumers can’t buy the boxes separately from retailers, he claimed.
“Comcast does support third-party cable boxes,” Sena Fitzmaurice, a spokeswoman for the company, said in a telephone interview. She declined to comment further on Mays’s claims.
Unless we are mistaken, Comcast-brand cable boxes are a requirement for certain features such as OnDemand.
Is Comcast is the wrong for forcing you to rent the boxes?
Comcast accused of overcharging for cable box rental [Daily Herald]
(Photo:O Pish Posh)
More From Consumerist
-
Comcast Locks Customers’ Screens On C-SPAN In Middle Of Basketball Game
-
FCC Tells Comcast It Had Better Get To Marketing That Standalone Broadband Service
-
Boston Mayor To FCC: Please Don't Listen To Comcast
-
Comcast Employees Caught Taking Payments From 5,975 Customers To Permanently Lower Bills
-
Judge Sides With Comcast Against “Shakedown” Porn Lawyers
I think either the person suing Comcast needs a tech update, or Comcast’s system is different where they live, because I have a Vizio HDTV that picks up Comcast’s digital channels fine. No converter box required. It’s been this way for a good year now, at least.
@TaterTom:
my dad’s hdtv picks up extra channels also, but non-hdtvs don’t. we need the boxes to receive digi signals and on demand. however, they are charging us for a digi converter, which is inside the box! so we are paying 2 fees for one component. also, if u don’t have a digi cable connected to ur house, like we didn’t for the 4 years we paid for digi cable, u won’t get digi reception. i want to sue them for these wrong doings. it’s a contract/customers service issue.
@MaraCalliope: Hmmm. The converter fee seems inappropriate, if it is in fact for the converter box. Something tells me that’s not the case, or at least Comcast can argue as such [conversion vs converter, for example].
Let’s be clear here, though: all equipment connected to a digital TV network receives the digital channels. Older TV’s don’t translate and show them. There’s no grounds for lawsuit against a digital radio station because your radio only plays analog stations.
This reminds me somewhat of an article I read some time ago, of a case in which a cable TV pirate was exonerated from charges of stealing services, on the grounds that the services were being piped into his home, and he simply built a more-advanced-than-usual device to interpret them.
Charging for installation of a device you never get is certainly wrong, but it seems like the consumer in the suit will have a hard time.
dish network is just as bad. the VIP622 DVR you have to “buy” for $150 and then lease it for $6/month also
When Bell was a monopoly phone company you RENTED everything. You even had to pay extra if you wanted a longer cord on the handset or a different color than black.
i bought a digital cable box from ebay, and called comcast to activate it and they ask a million questions of where i got it from then wanted the serial# from the back of the box first to check if the box was stolen from comcast . after waiting on the phone several minutes the comcast rep came back and said it was not in their inventory and could not activate it. then told me to return it to ebay. when a questioned he about having my own equipment she said i could by my own modem or router if a had the internet service but not cable boxes. I am so for suing comcast for rental charges. class action lawsuit is a must.
with the digital cable boxes from comcast the first box is included in each digital packages… what the extra charges are for is the additional boxes that are optional… With the DTV transition happening yes boxes are required for digital programming but local channels with still be simulcasted on the analog feed for those without boxes on a/all televisions…
@midawg33: “yes boxes are required for digital programming but local channels with still be simulcasted on the analog feed for those without boxes”
NO… The entire signal, including digital channels, internet, and VOIP phone services are piped into every device connected to the service provider’s network. Encryption-defeating authorization aside, any device that can interpret the signal can play it for you to enjoy. Such is the case in my living room, where many digital channels show without any converter box attached to the cable line whatsoever.
This also has nothing at all to do with the DTV transition. That only concerns people who are not customers of a piped-in service, like cable television or satellite.