Extra charges for cable card, anything I can do?

[frayedend]

I have an HD Tivo with a multistream cable card from my cable company. They are charging me $8.95 for the cable card plus an additional $8.95 for what they call "HD charge for the Digital Cable Card". The reason this bothers me is that had I gotten an additional HD converter box instead of the cable card I would not be charged this second $8.95. They have yet to explain a good reason to me. It seems like punishment for using Tivo. Are there any laws to protect against this sort of thing?

[rvsj]

What other Comcast equipment do you have, if any?

[pdxsam]

You can contact your local cable authority. They would know what "rules" they set up for the cable franchise and might be better suited to inform you.

If you don't get satisfaction there you can contact your states attorney general office.

[frayedend]

We don't have comcast. Our town controls the cable system along with the electricity. I have on HD converter box in my basement (no Tivo). That was my original, so I already pay all the regular fees. The cable company has confirmed that using a cable card results in double fees, but they haven't explained their rationale for it yet.

[dianebrat]

In general the rule of thumb is that when subscribing you get your initial cable STB at N/C with the service, and in many cases, you can have that be a CableCARD instead of a STB. Then each additional STB or CableCARD is charged accordingly.

It's a very general rule, but it does seem to be the rule, and then you get the weird exceptions like the S3 that takes 2x a CableCARD, and how to bill that, but all in all I've come to the conclusion that you can treat a digital STB and a CableCARD either as a single unit.

I'm generalizing like crazy, but this seems to be what the sample at TCF has seen over the years.

Diane

[frayedend]

I sent an email requesting further clarification from my cable company. I have found that the law may be on my side. Basically what my cable company has told me so far is that: If I added a converter I would get $8.95 added to my bill. With the cable card I get 8.95 plus another 8.95, which they say is for the HD charge. This can only be defined as a charge for an additional HD outlet (I'm waiting for them to say that). The reason I am waiting for them is that on my state (Mass) website I found this...

"Are cable operators allowed to charge for additional outlets?

Yes, however, under federal law, a cable operator may not charge
a fee greater than the actual cost it incurs in providing cable
services to each additional outlet. Rates for premium and pay-perview
services are not regulated; therefore, cable operators may
charge market rates for providing those services to additional
outlets. In addition, cable operators may charge a fee for any
necessary equipment and installation of the additional outlets."


Now, if my cable company doesn't charge this fee for people adding a converter, how can they claim they incur extra costs for another outlet with a cable card?

[LoREvanescence]

I sent an email requesting further clarification from my cable company. I have found that the law may be on my side. Basically what my cable company has told me so far is that: If I added a converter I would get $8.95 added to my bill. With the cable card I get 8.95 plus another 8.95, which they say is for the HD charge. This can only be defined as a charge for an additional HD outlet (I'm waiting for them to say that). The reason I am waiting for them is that on my state (Mass) website I found this...

"Are cable operators allowed to charge for additional outlets?

Yes, however, under federal law, a cable operator may not charge
a fee greater than the actual cost it incurs in providing cable
services to each additional outlet. Rates for premium and pay-perview
services are not regulated; therefore, cable operators may
charge market rates for providing those services to additional
outlets. In addition, cable operators may charge a fee for any
necessary equipment and installation of the additional outlets."


Now, if my cable company doesn't charge this fee for people adding a converter, how can they claim they incur extra costs for another outlet with a cable card?

It sounds like they are making up frees to rip you off / gain profit.

Confront them in either or letter / talk to a manger. Threaten them with you will be contacting and filing a complaint with the FCC and the Attorney Generals office.

They may be willing to drop the fees at the treat, or you might actually have to go through with it. But until someone pressures them, they are likely going to continue these charges.

[frayedend]

It sounds like they are making up frees to rip you off / gain profit.

Confront them in either or letter / talk to a manger. Threaten them with you will be contacting and filing a complaint with the FCC and the Attorney Generals office.

They may be willing to drop the fees at the treat, or you might actually have to go through with it. But until someone pressures them, they are likely going to continue these charges.


Here is what I sent them (two emails in a row, both are attached here). I sent the second one after I read about the law...



Hi again,



I’d also like to add to my last email. Based on my research I have also found that there is federal law that should help clarify my position. From Mass.gov I found the following:



Are cable operators allowed to charge for additional outlets?


Yes, however, under federal law, a cable operator may not charge
a fee greater than the actual cost it incurs in providing cable
services to each additional outlet. Rates for premium and pay-perview
services are not regulated; therefore, cable operators may
charge market rates for providing those services to additional
outlets. In addition, cable operators may charge a fee for any
necessary equipment and installation of the additional outlets.



Since it seems that people with converters don’t get an additional charge for the outlet, it doesn’t make sense that SELCO is incurring any further costs for my additional outlet. I am certainly not trying to make waves here. I just like to understand what I am paying for. If I am being provided the same service at a higher cost than people who choose a converter over a cable card I’d like to know what I am getting for that $8.95 per month.



I prefer email communication simply to keep a record so that should I question this again I will have an explanation rather than relying on my memory of a phone conversation.



Thanks again for your time,



Jim


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Subject: RE: Billing question on adding an outlet. Account 48692



Hi,



Forgive me for not calling and for being a pain about this. It is not easy for me to call during work hours.



I don’t understand why this can’t be explained in writing. If I had an HD converter instead of an HD cable card I would have a total addition to my bill of 8.95. MY original HD charge for my first converter would still be 10.95 and I would be charged 8.95 for the additional converter. But instead of a converter I have a cable card. So for a cable card I am getting charged 8.95 for the card plus another 8.95 for what you seem to be calling “HD charge on the cable card”.



Another way to ask my question is “Why does an additional HD converter incur the 8.95 charge, but not the additional 8.95 HD charge?”

I have called about this when I first got the cable card and it could not really be explained to me. The last answer I truly got was, “it’s hard to explain but you are being billed correctly”.



I realize my email is confusing. But let me try to put it one more way…



A house with 2 HD converter boxes gets a total charge of 19.90 added to their bill.

A house with 1 HD converter box and 1 HD cable card gets a total charge of 28.85 added to their bill.



Both houses have 2 HD televisions using HD equipment. The only difference is one has a cable card, one has a converter. So why is the cable card more money.



Thanks,


Jim

[dgvandal]

JIM...

I also live in Shrewsbury MA and I recently got a SiliconDust HD Prime cable TV tuner for computers. I called SELCO and they told me it's $8.95 for the card and $11.95 for HD. I did a search on Google on this issue and saw a people posting this type of info on the TIVO forum with you post about being additionally charded. I thought I'd only be paying for the Extra Card. What ever happened after you complained. Did they eventually drop the other charges other than for an additional CableCard?


THANKS!