Comcast "Hidden" Fees

UPDATE (3/17/17):  The post has FINALLY been corrected although there was no explanation for where the $158 average monthly bill figure came. Additionally, another error that I didn't even point out initially has been corrected.  The article falsely claimed that Comcast phone customers pay a $2 Voice Technology fee, but this fee does not exist (see confirmation here).   

ORIGINAL POST:
Hello.  This is the first post on Real Cord Cutters and will point out some of the misinformation that exists out there re: cord cutting.  There's a site, Cord Cutters News whose description is  "Delivering all the news you need to get the most out of being a cord cutter."  However, a closer examination of many posts on the website yield the following:  misinformation, sensationalized headlines and false statements.  Here’s an example.

A post from 2/17/2017 titled “Taking a Close Look at Comcast Xfinity’s Hidden Fees” is a perfect example of the misinformation & dishonesty that exists out there re: cord cutting.

The post starts off with “Recently many readers have reported that Comcast is offering TV plus Internet for less than Internet only.” And goes on to say “The truth is it hides the cost of TV plus Internet behind a promotional rate but shows the full cost of Internet only. It goes even farther to hide the real cost of TV behind a ton of fees.”

It then proceeds to list a bunch of “hidden fees that Comcast likes to bury behind a wall of text.” such as: Broadcast TV Fee: $7, Regional Sports Fee: $5, HD Technology Fee: $9.95, DVR Fee: $10, and Adapter Fee: $5.99.  It then points out that someone who subscribes to Comcast TV service with 2 extra tv’s (i.e. 3 total tv’s connected), DVR service, and a modem would pay $51.93 in fees in addition to their $158 monthly bill.  He “claims” that the “real monthly bill” for a Comcast TV subscriber in this situation would be $211.93/month with all fees included.  Unbelievable!  Over $211/month for Comcast TV service!  Except, it’s not true. Below are all the misleading/false/incorrect statements made in this short post starting with the most glaring.

·        The $158 monthly bill figure is not cited or referenced anywhere.  The only citation in the post is to another article on the website from 1/2/2017 “The Average Comcast Customer Now Pays $158 a Month Plus $53.93 a Month in Fees”.  The only citation in that post (related to Comcast) is to an article from Bob Fernandez of Philly.com, website of the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Comcast hikes bills 3.8 percent for 2017, with higher fees for sports” from 12/12/2016.  It states “Typical customers pay Comcast about $148 a month, including phone service if they are Triple Play customers, so the rate increase could amount to $6 a month, based on publicly available data.”  So doing a little basic math confirms the $6 figure: .038*$148 (representing the 3.8% increase in bill cost for 2017) = $5.33 which is probably rounded up to $6.  But adding that to the $148 typical customer bill gives $153.33, not $158.  Where does the $158 figure come from?  Is it a typo?  Is CCN just terrible at math?  It’s probably the latter as you’ll see in a little bit.
·    The $158 monthly bill figure INCLUDES all fees.  The post adds the $51.93 in monthly fees (more on this later) to the (incorrect) $158 figure.  There is no citation in the Philly.com article for $148 typical monthly bill figure, but it is most likely the average revenue per user (ARPU), i.e. the total amount of revenue/total number of subscribers.  (Note: here’s a post with ARPU values from Q1 2016 with Comcast at $146.15 so $148 being the ARPU as of 12/2016 lines up with this reasoning).  Thus, this figure already includes all fees, package costs, etc. In other words, CCN is taking the TOTAL average monthly bill and adding the fees to it AGAIN (i.e. double counting them) so their $211.93 figure is complete nonsense.  Is that because they are being intentionally dishonest or just really don’t know that the “typically monthly bill” would already include all applicable fees?

·    The $51.93 figure for monthly fees in the example is mathematically wrong.  First, note that the post does not list HD service in its example.  So technically the figure is wrong because it counts $9.95 for that while not listing it.  But let’s just assume that’s an oversight.  The total cost for someone in that scenario is $53.93, not $51.93 (see below)

o   Broadcast TV Fee: $7 + Regional Sports Fee: $5 = $12

o   + HD Technology Fee: $9.95 = $21.95

o   + DVR Fee: $10 = $31.95

o   + Adapter Fee $5.99 (extra tv 1) = $37.94

o   + Adapter Fee $5.99 (extra tv 2) = $43.93

o   + $10 modem rental = $53.93.  
This is just basic elementary school level math but CCN is apparently not capable of it.

·    The (incorrect) $51.93 figure is attributed to “someone who subscribes to Comcast TV service” but that fee total would only apply to someone who applies to Comcast TV AND internet service. The $51.93 $53.93 figure includes a $10 modem rental charge which would obviously only apply to a customer who has internet service in addition to TV service.  Yet there is no mention made of internet service anywhere in the hypothetical example.  Why?  A Comcast TV customer would only pay $43.93 in fees on his/her monthly bill in this example due to their TV subscription.

So to summarize, we’ve got 3 statements that are completely false ($158 average monthly bill figure, $51.93 fee total for the hypothetical customer, and a new average monthly bill total of $211.93) plus the misleading statement that the $51.93 in fees are for a Comcast TV customer when 18.5% of the fees ($10) are for internet service. 

Here’s an image of the original post with some “corrections” made.

Now, I’m not fan of the ridiculous fees that Comcast adds to your bill which can greatly inflate the actual price you pay compared to the advertised package price.  But incorrect math, unverified numbers and misleading statements are not the proper way to discuss them.  Here’s what an insightful, intelligent discussion of Comcast’s “hidden fees” might look like.

The important point of discussion here is the fact that cable or satellite TV bills these days can end up being much more than the advertised package rate due to both fees and other taxes/charges.  Additionally, these fees are making up an ever increasing part of the bill total.  These are absolutely things to be aware of when it comes to possibly signing up for a promo offer that includes some form of cable TV as compared to an internet only package.

In the example above, looking only at the TV portion of service, the $43.93 in fees comprise ~ 28.3% of the overall bill total which is kind of ridiculous, in my opinion.  From my own personal experience, I had Performance (25 mbps) internet with Comcast for $56.95/month ($66.95 regular price - $10 discount).  In January 2016 they raised the price by $3 so I would be paying $59.95/month starting 1/21.  I did an online chat to downgrade to Performance Starter (10 mbps & $49.95/month regular price) and was offered a promo of Internet Plus (Performance Internet + Limited Basic cable TV + HBO) for $39.99/month, plus a one-time $15 shipping charge for the “self-install kit” (i.e. an SD cable box).  However, my final bill total came to $47.39.  The extra $7.40 came from a Broadcast TV fee ($4.65) + a Franchise Fee ($1.40) + Sales Tax ($1.27) + an FCC Regulatory Fee ($.08).  Now, the Franchise Fee & Sales Tax do not go to Comcast (they go to your franchise authority—either city or county---and to your state) but they are extra charges you end up paying if you subscribe to cable TV that you do not pay (in most states) if you only subscribe to internet service.  So 15.5% of my total bill ended up being taxes & fees, but only 2/3rds of that (9.8% of the overall bill total) is actually being paid to Comcast.  When you factor in the “self-install kit” at $15.90 ($15 + sales tax), keeping this package for at least 7 months made it cheaper than the cost of Performance Starter.  So yes, my final bill was not $39.99 or anywhere near that.  But it was still cheaper than paying for internet alone either at the same level of service ($59.95/month) or at a reduced level of service ($49.95/month). 

Another thing to consider is that almost none of the fees CCN cites are “hidden”, at least if you are capable of doing basic internet research or reading your annual Comcast price list in your bill.  Some are “unadvertised” in the sense that Comcast advertises a package at $79.99 or $39.99 which does not include these fees (Broadcast TV and Regional Sports Fee are prime examples since they apply to most packages); hence you’ll be paying > $79.99 or $39.99 for your final bill amount.  But if you click on “Pricing & Other Info” on their website looking at packages (or ensure that you press the CSR either via online chat or over the phone to list all the fees & charges), they are listed there. 

Finally, every fee except the Broadcast TV fee is avoidable to an extent. 

·    Don’t want to pay the Regional Sports Fee?  Fine, subscribe to a package which doesn’t have regional sports channels (Limited Basic or Digital Economy). 

·    Think HD is overpriced at $10/month?  Ok, stick with SD service and pay no fee (which is what I’ve done for the last 10+ years) or buy your own cable box and get HD for only the cost of a cable card (which is free in many Comcast markets). 

·     Don’t think $9.95 for a DVR is worth it?  No problem, either buy your own DVR cable box or buy a computer tv tuner device to record shows onto a computer (this is again, what I’ve done for the past 10+ years).  In both cases, you’ll be able to keep your recordings forever and if you buy your own cable box (whether to avoid the HD fee or the DVR fee or both) you’ll also get a credit on your bill each month ($2.50 in most markets) for using your own equipment. 

·     The Adapter fees (i.e. additional outlets) are a little trickier.  First, it should be noted that the $5.99 Adapter fee is for a digital adapter which gets some, but not all, of the cable channels at an additional outlet (i.e. TV).  If you want all of the channels, you have to pay $9.95/month for an additional set top box.  So if you buy your own box and get a cable card to hook up additional TV’s (i.e. a 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th TV, etc.) you’re still paying $7.45/month for each additional outlet which is more than the current rate of $5.99 for a digital adapter.  There are a few ways to get service on additional TV’s without paying the Adapter/Additional Outlet fee though. 

First, you could purchase some type of place shifting device, Slingbox is the most common, and hook that up to your primary cable box.  Then purchase a streaming media player (Fire TV, Roku, etc.) to hook up to the additional TV you wish to use. You will then be able to watch your primary cable box on your living room on bedroom TV via the Slingbox app on the connected device (Fire TV, Roku, etc.).  Another option would be to use a set of devices to wirelessly transmit the signal from your primary cable box to another TV in the house (for more details see this post).  Another more impractical way would be to run a cable (HDMI, Composite, Component, Coaxial) out of the primary cable box to the additional TV; thus, you would be physically connecting 2 TV’s to the same cable box. 

However, all of these solutions only allow you to view 1 channel at a time.  If you want to be able to view 2 or more channels at the same time, then you will need 2 or more cable boxes and thus, be forced to pay for additional outlet fees.  There is one more sort of workaround though. You could connect one of the streaming media devices mentioned earlier to your additional TV and watch some (but not all) channels via the streaming apps they offer.  For example, you could load the WATCHESPN app on a Roku to watch ESPN2 on the bedroom TV while your primary TV is watching USA. Note that not all channels have streaming apps and this will also be dependent on the quality of your internet connection and the stream of a channel is usually behind live TV by some amount (usually 45-90 seconds). 

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