Billing

[GMONEY21]

I received a letter dated 2/10/12 stating that a $9.95 hd technology fee may not have been billed correctly and would be added to my next billing statement.  It also stated that I would not be charged for the period of time I was billed incorrectly (gee, thanks).  By my estimate, this time frame would be approximately a year and a half when, due to the mandatory digital migration, I was forced to upgrade to digital cable.  My bill dated 2/15/12 contained this charge in violation of the Comcast terms and agreements policy of 30 day prior notice for new charges.  Since I do not own any HD televisions, I found it odd to pay for this fee.  When I asked to have this fee waived, I was told by a CS manager named Leon that this was not possible unless the equipment was exchanged.  I then asked to schedule an appointment, but was told that there would be a service call fee.  I explained that when the equipment was installed, I was not made aware that it contained this hd technology, and therefore, I did not feel I should have to pay to have it removed, this being Comcast's error.  He stated that this also was not possible.  I then asked him to notate my account that I would be deducting the 9.95 fee from this and all future bills until Comcast either waives the fee or exchanges the equipment at no charge.  Is there any further action I should take at this time?  I don't want to fight with Comcast, nor discontinue service.  I also do not want this to affect my credit.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[CCCarole]

The Administrator has been notified of your post.  Watch for a reply please.

[ComcastLarry]

GMONEY21-

I have contacted the local area so we can get to the bottom of this matter for you. Someone will be contacting you soon.

[550Sandy]

I am being charged an HD technology fee, too and my bill indicates I subscribed to it.  I don't know what it is, don't want it and for the third time I'll be discussing this with Comcast.  My bill increased this month and I was not told and don't even know why.  I sent an email to Comcast and was told from them in an email to do an online chat.  I will not do that.  I need to speak with someone in person or on the telephone.  If equipment in my house is the reason, it's not my fault.   Last month the rep on the phone told me they did a random scan and found me to have HD.  Just because my TV says HD doesn't mean I signed up for anything.  People who see my TV on, said it is not in HD.  As for the increase in my service, I was specifically told last month by the Rep I spoke to on the telephone what my monthly bill would be.  I paid that amount online, same as it was on my bill last month, and got a message that my service could be interrupted because I didn't pay the full amount. The amount online was different than what was on the paper bill I received.  I don't understand what's going on but it's really stressing me.  I just had surgery and more to follow, so I'm in no frame of mind to beg, but that's what I must resort to if I want to watch television.  I hope you overcome your challenges.

[jsphfranklin]

I have had multiple problems with Comcast not honoring their contract with me. Further, they don't honor their customer guarantee. Customer representatives at the call center have no authority to correct billing errors and they certainly don't honor their promise to return phone calls. They simply read from a script and don't follow through. That's my experience.

I'm very upset and tired of trying to resolve problems through the call center. So, my next step is to contact my State's Utilities Commission and file a formal complaint. I will inform the SC Department of Consumer Affiars.

You can do the same by contacting your state's department of consumer affiars (the address is printed on your Comcast bill).

[CCCarole]

You can send an email to the We Can Help Comcast Team.

We_can_help@cable.comcast.com

.Please include all of the following in your email:

Service address

The full name on your account

Home phone number & an alternate number where you can be reached if possible

Your Comcast Account number

A link to this Thread

A detailed description of the problem

[550Sandy]

It's April 8th and my newest bill removed the charges for HD and then ADDED them again.  My standard bill increased alot  I did not pay the HD fee today (when I made my online payment), whatever that is; I never found out, and again the others charges compared to my previous bills are greek to me!  I didn't have any of these issues until a Tech came to my house to see what was causing pixels on my TV.  I did not get any paperwork from him and Comcast did NOT tell me I was going to have a bill increase or Technology fees. 

I am really furious that they can increase my bill and put charges and additional taxes on my bill that I do not have.  The bill keeps indicating I dropped something, then added something.  I did NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CCCarole]

550sandy,

I have notified the Administrator of your posts.  Watch for a reply during the regular business week please.

CC

[550Sandy]

I sent an email again this evening, with all the information requested, to the "we can help email address".

[Metaljournalist]

You rented a cable converter that has HD capabilities.  If you don't want to pay the HD fee, exchange it for what they call a "standard converter."  You'll get the same channels, just you won't be able to see the upper level "HD" channels, which are the HD broadcasted and formatted versions of channels already in  your regular line up.  Easiest way to see what it is you're subscribing to is if in the "info" bar you ever see "watch in HD" hit the "Ok/Select" button on your remote, it takes you right to the corresponding HD channel.  But, if you don't care about that feature and want to exchange for a box that you don't need to pay an HD fee on, you can take your equipment to the service center (free), ask comcast to mail you one (shipping charge) or ask for a box swap (service fee).

[Metaljournalist]

Sounds like your account might have an audit flag on it, ie, someone's supervisor might think something was built wrong on your account.  Totally  not your fault.  If you get change of service charges plus other misc fees added, if I were you, I'd ask for an account review, credit, and an escalation to fix this perminantly so it doesn't happen any more.  Good Luck.

[bluueline]

what is the technolgy fee suppose to represent ??

[Metaljournalist]

Even though you rent an HD converter, all that means is that the converter capable of getting HD.  the HD tech fee is added to activate that HD feature, and you are then able to see the HD channels -- only then.  Another example of this.  There are some HD capable converters that can also do 3D.  Just because you have a box that is able to do 3D doesn't mean you automatically have 3D by having that box, they have to add the 3D code, which I think is also a fee as well.  Not sure there, as my box just does standard and HD.  

[FedupWComcst]

I remember clearly that the HD fee was covered by the DVR rental. Now this company tries to extort another $9.98. I'd rather spend that on HULU or Netflix. It's time consumers get some alternatives. I'm sick of those frivolous up-charges.

[Metaljournalist]

Well, maybe so, but a few things to consider.  For one, again, just because the converter box has a hard drive for DVR, it does NOT mean that the DVR is nessecarily active.  Again, comcast would have to add a DVR code into the billing system to provision and activate a DVR.  This probably doesn't show up on your billing statement, but is visable to Comcast tech support and billing when they view your account when speaking to you.  You are not being charged rental on "the DVR" you are being charged rental on the converter box itself.  The HD is activated with the HD code, and that's your added fee.  DVR is activated with a DVR code.  3D is activated with a 3D code and there might be an added fee, plus your TV should be 3D compatible.  These are only activated if you ask for them to be activated.  HOWEVER, this is the part that might seem wrong.  You cannot have an active DVR hard drive unless you subscribe to HD channels, therefore you have to have that HD tech fee.

Next, before you consider dropping your cable package and only watching Internet subscribed TV, I would only do this if you watch very little television or don't plan on watching a lot of movies.  This is true with any Internet company you have.  Comcast does have a bandwidth limit -- albeit it is a nice limit that would probably take someone to run a server out of their house to actually run over it's threshold, it's still a limit, and they are cool enough to give us a meter to see what our usage is every month.  Keep your eye on it if you're planning on watching everything on Netflix.

[FedupWComcst]

I'm already paying $16.95 for DVR service. Are you saying the DVR requires HD subscription, and now I have to pay $26.90 to continue recording any shows?

Interesting how you defend their practices. Are you hired by Comcast?

[Metaljournalist]

No, I'm not defending their practices, just explaining why they do it.  I agree, it's actually not fair to activate HD when you don't need HD, and you just want a DVR.  I was annoyed at this because for a while I had a standard definition television but wanted a DVR.  I got the converter and found out that it had to have the HD activated for the converter to work, so essentially I was being charged for something that I had, didn't want, and wasn't using for about a year until I got my first HD television.  Add up the fees, that's a lot of dough.

No I'm not hired by Comcast, lol, but I do read everything they send me and I have a basic knowledge of how device provisioning works in connection with billing codes.  It's actually very simple to figure out.  I know that's how they do it because they always want to know the serial numbers of the boxes you're talking about when you have an issue. That's a red flag for me that they 1.) are trying do something easy, like a refresh of some kind or 2)  when someone put in the bill codes when the account was built, they messed something up.  I also switched out my Internet modem with them twice.  Once because I wanted telephone too, and again because I wanted wifi and my router died -- they sent me the modem with telephone and wifi.  All those times I did that, I was transferred to a provisioning department as soon as they told me my account was being updated to say I had that equipment.  I had to give them the MAC numbers on the back.  Same occurrence happened when I changed my tv converters.  Point is, all their technology has to come from their billing system like most other companies.  I read a lot of fine print and I know a lot about how technology works.  Reason I stayed with Comcast is regardless of some of their stupid fees, some other companies billing practices as far as contracts and billing rolling periods being more than $50 each time. ..it's a bit scary.  And I don't have too many options where I live.  So no. ..not defending them, just giving the why's and how's. ..never said it was right

[CCCarole]

FYI- All Comcast employees that post in the Help Forums always have their Username in red text.

[Cnas122]

So I just received this letter also saying that I have not been charged the HD Technology Fee and I will be charged the $9 going forward.  I looked back at my previous statements....I have 3 boxes....2 regular HD boxes and one HD DVR box.  I am already charged the $9.95 Technology Fee for the 2 regular HD boxes.  Does this mean that I am going to be charged an additional $9.95?????

When is comcast going to realize that there are other TV options out there and if they keep screwing around, more people are going to start migrating to other TV services.

[young14520]

I also got the fee suddenly appearing and it seems that there is no option if you use HD.  Comcast charges for the box to convert digital to HD and then also charges for using the HD.  I still think this is double billing but the only real option is to consider alternative providers or give up the HD.

[Metaljournalist]

They charge one fee for your HD converter RENTAL. All of their TV equipment has a rental fee except I think the little tiny adapters for basic cable, but I think that's if you have more than one of those they don't charge. Maybe it's different in some areas with those little adapters. The HD tech fee activates the HD. Without it, the HD channels wouldn't work. What would be nice is a rental fee that's fair for them and fair for us, and instead of charging us a fee, they should provision the HD with a code that doesn't cost us anything. Thinking about it...we aren't paying for the channels with that fee, we're paying for the provisioning. We already pay for the channels in the cable packages themselves. It would be great if they could provision it with a free code. It's possible to do that, and less people would be angry about it.

[joe15011]

My God .. That is the same thing happened to me .. when I call to let you know that my internet was slow they decided to send a technician to my house, but before making the appointment I asked if he would see a charge for the visit of the technician and he said no, so I told him that was fine. The technician came to my house and all I did was measure the speed of the internet any more and I asked if I did not have to sign any paper and I said no and I am not receiving either. When I check the bill are charging technician's visit. They are what they do is mislead customers and give fake information and I think that's not fair. They say they'll call and do not call.

[marv1959]

this is the S.O.P. as near as I can determine. when you complain to tech support, they may suggest that you require a visit to your home. like you, I asked if there would be a charge. they told me that there was none unless I needed repair to non Comcast equipment/wiring. did not repair anything. told me that the rental Set Top Box was bad and he had none on the truck. I would need to ask Comcast to ship one. both he and the person who I called assured me that it would be foc. naturally I have been charged for everything, some things twice. some things I don't even have. to top it all off, it was a signal issue all along that was fixed about a week later. now my monthly bill went from 107 to 199 just for having the misfortune of a weeklong service interruption.

did not deliver the service I paid for and apparently want to charge twice as much for it

[Metaljournalist]

I'd have a supervisor check that out. No, bring a new stb is not free. It's only free if you go get it yourself. Touching the converters and modems are supposed to be free, but if it's your TV, home network, or computer they will definitely charge. If it's your wiring inside the wall or outside your wall, they will charge because even though they installed it, they don't take it out if you cancel their service, so you technically own it. Outside the house drop line, they should not charge. Request a list of tech fees; maybe they have one? It is up to the tech and how he coded the resolution in thier computer that determines if you're charged. He could have coded it wrong and was sloppy about it. Maybe a supervisor would give you a credit, who knows.

[epassini]

I feel your pain. I cant wait until April 4th and I am taking my business elsewhere. Its sad to see a company monopolize the cable industry and nickle and dime their customers.

[marv1959]

Yes the spiel you give is the same as what the billing department uses to deny credits, however they will not address why their representatives assured us that the replacement would be FOC. Likewise they cannot justify why youget charged not only for the new unit but also for the one they cannot make work which it is replacing, or why now even though there is only one DVR HD setup there are now two HD Tech charges and another prorated charge for all of these units (real or imagined, working or not)

All units are rentals. I only have one Dig Box and no new one was ordered or shipped but it too was charged again for a full month as well as a prorated month.

The previous months bill went covered service from 1/18 -2/17.  This one covers from 2/17 to 3/17

There was no change in service or equipment authorized only the replacement of a single STB which the serviceperson incorrectly diagnosed as the problem.  Why should there be any proration of anything as a charge?

No body can explain.

[Metaljournalist]

They're only supposed to charge rental on a deactivated box if it's been in your possession in a deactivated state for more than three months. I haven't given back an old emta, paid for the shipping box, but it slips my mind, so I started getting charged for it. I'd say the rep that told you that you wouldn't be charged for the tech fees either has limited information, was intimidated by you and was too scared to break it to you, or simply had poor training --- none of which anyone would want to tell you. Crummy customer service. I've been successful remedying situations or at least getting someone with a clue to explain things to me with supervisor callbacks. Sometimes the people on the other end of the phone just don't have access to everything they really should.

[marv1959]

Why would there be charges for tech fees?  I was not being charged previously (Included in the bundle)

I added no new service or equipment, just replaced the one the comcast serviceperson told us was bad.

By the way, I was not even home it was my wife that the serviceperson dealt with and after I placed the order for the new STB a different person told me the same thing ...FOC.  After this I immediately received an emailed invoice which I called back to billing to contest.  They hung up on me after I wated over 20 minutes to speak with them.

I went on Chat.  The Chat person had me cut and paste the invoice into the chat window.  She told me to ignore it that it wasn't real and was something triggered automatically whenever new equipment was ordered but my real bill would not reflect any charges.

So you see, if Comcast employees are intimidated it is a widespread tendency to say the least.  I have a different belief which casts them in a somewhat less favorable light.

[Jim721]

FYI: The tech is the one that decides if you get a service charge or not by the codes he enters when he submits his findings to comcast after the visit to your home. You cant blame the reps for service charges the tech is the one that does it.

[jerryb]

I was lied to also. I got an HD box and they swore to me that my bill would only increase by $9.95 per month. It increased by twice that. For the box itself and an additional $9.95 HD fee! Shouldn't the cost of the HD box include the HD service?

[Metaljournalist]

It should, but it doesn't. Comcast uses the HD tech code to provision the boxes for HD. Box can't run without the code. Really, their billing system needs to make that part of the provisioning group a zero dollar code. That way it would still clear activation, but we wouldn't get charged for it. Buuuut, they aren't going to do that.

[jerryb]

Then why not just say UP FRONT that the actual fee is $19.95 for HD which it is?

[Jim721]

Thats not the whole truth.. There is a HD fee of 9.99 a month but your first HD stb is free you only pay the stb fee for additional boxes after the first one. So if you only had 1 tv you would only pay the 9.99 HD tech fee per month. Note i believe if you have a dvr stb you still may have to pay something extra but the straight hd boxes the first one is included.

[marv1959]

again, I was a customer with service outage which the provider could not restore and they dispatched a tech to my home who decided the problem was a stb which belongs to Comcast and told us to order a replacement because he could not restore service and had no stb on his truck. both the tech and the person at 1800xfinity where we called for the stb indicated that there would be no charge as did the chat when asked them about the invoice I received by email.

I am less concerned about Comcast protocol than why they are ripping people off and why it matters which Comcast employee is doing responsible for the theft. They all are Comcast people who have responsibilities to the customer.

I did not order anything. I asked them to restore the service I was paying for. now I have copious new charges the billing calls upgrades. why? I never ordered or authorized them. likewise they have apparently discontinued several promotions simultaneously.

[jerryb]

Well I was charged an HD technology fee and a fee for the HD box.I have only 1 Hd box.

[Jim721]

---

jerryb wrote:

Well I was charged an HD technology fee and a fee for the HD box.I have only 1 Hd box.

---

Do you have any other boxes SD or HD they still charge for any extra box after the first. If you dont have any other stb is yours a dvr if so that is a charge. Maybe your market is different thats how it workes here were i live.

[jerryb]

I have a regular dig box also. But I'm already paying for that.

[Metaljournalist]

You should be charged the service fee for the cable package, the rental fee for the HD box, the HD tech fee to activate the HD box, and a seperate rental fee for each additional box. If it's any different than that, you've got a billing error. Like a lot of the other companies, they bill using an outlet system.

[jerryb]

Is the HD tech fee a one time fee?

[neee]

You're lucky at least you can see your statemenets online, mine just says an amount to pay with no statement link to see what I'm actually paying and to see how they screwed me over.

[commanguy]

jerryb

The HD Tech Fee will be charged each month.

[Metaljournalist]

I concur; monthly. I should have clarified, it isn't just required to provision the box; like most billing codes, removing it would stop the box from working properly. Technically, your cable package, although it says HD in the bill, is coded as the same price as standard def at the same level of service (price varying from digital economy, preferred, or premier). The promos are nicer in the beginning if you include HD. So I'm guessing that's thier justification as to why the line for the HD tech fee isn't coded as a free code.

[kdskuldeep]

Hi All,

I was using One normal & one HD box since i brought my HD TV in late 2010.since last month nothing was communicated to me and all of sudden 9.95 was added to my account as HD technology fees although i was always paying additional 9.95 for HD box.

When i called customer care they don't have any proof which they can share with that my constent was taken before increasing either they could explain this to me.

I hope someone looks our accounts and help us else i will be looking for alternate options for Cable soon.

This is classic example of monopoly.

[jerryb]

When I got an HD box a few months ago Comcast swore up and down that the cost would be ONLY $.9.95 for the HD box and HD service. I got my bill and there were 2 charges for the HD box. The technology fee and the cost to rent the actual box. So why doesn't Comcast just say $19.99???? Who would purchase an HD box withoput getting the HD channels.What would be the point? I called and the technology fee was dropped from my bill.