Cable Company Fees Add $450 to Typical Annual Bill

And remember, you have little to no recourse for these hidden fees. Due to mandatory binding arbitration, you are forbidden from courts of law to dispute their fees. You cannot and will not have your "day in court". The companies put a small line item in your contract. You were not required to have a common understanding or meeting of the minds to have been banned from disputing these fees in a court of law.

Instead you must hope your local attorney general defends the public interest.

I can't think of a situation where I would ever want the base price and fees to be disclosed seperately. The advertised price should include everything but sales taxes that vary by region. If I ever care to know why the advertised price is different in state A vs state B, then I would simply look up breakdown of the total price.

> The total amounts to nearly $450 per year in unexpected fees just on TV service alone.

As someone who hasn't every signed up for anything but flat rate internet service (still from Comcast); the only 'fee' I had was a $15 BS charge for a 'self-installation kit' but it was still discolsed before signing up for service. Are the fee amounts unknown until the first bill? Or are they just baried in the 100 page contract?

In rural New York, US, I had the "pleasure" of dealing with Time Warner Cable (now Spectrum) as pretty much our only provider. We wanted basic TV and internet access, each were priced relatively high on their own but cheap as a "triple play" package when phone was included. I think our overall bill was $70/mo for the first year. After the 12 months, our bill went to just shy of $250/mo (promotion ended). We ended up only really using the internet with streaming services so I called them up to cut back exclusively to their internet dropping phone and TV.

This was the most PAINFUL phone call I've had in a long time that literally resulted in me begging them to remove these services after they made at least a dozen or two "what if we do this..." offers. Since that day we've never thought twice to getting TV again (or phone) and have strictly stuck to internet. I'd say weekly I get a new offer mailed to me but it goes straight into the trash.

It's all to apparent they make their promotional packages sweet enough that most people will sign up for them. Once the promotion ends you're stuck with all the "bells and whistles" at an incredibly high price. I believe they intentionally make their downgrade processes as painful as possible so most people just deal with the payment. For example you can easily increase your channel lineup/internet speeds online but you have to call to downgrade anything...

In the US do people really pay hundreds of dollars a month for cable? I could never in a million years justify spending that much for entertainment like that when you can get internet for £30 and Netflix for £6, and we're famously overcharged in the UK I thought!

A bit off-topic, but this used to be discussed often on the consumerist.com web site, which Consumer Reports bought, and then archived. I miss that blog.

I get how fees that appear to be regulatory but are actually from the provider are BS, but we really can't decide if we want flat-fee for everything, a la carte, or packages. The article calls out HD fees and the sports upsell, but Netflix charges extra for 4k, and it's its own sort of package, kinda like HBO or sports, so it's not a solution, it's the same old problem.

I cut my monthly bill from $191 down to $79.99 Gigabit/Fios plus $40 for DirectvNow/AT&TTVNOWVIPASAPPLZ. Plus, I converted my mom, Comcast in this case...can't understand why anybody would settle for cable prices...hurts so bad. Well, I'm also the IT helpdesk of the family and get called A LOT more now that I'm expected to fix issues asap.

You rent your modem and set top box in America?

That's crazy.

It's too bad we can't have laws regulating fraudulent behavior like this. This is just one of many ways that companies continually fuck over American consumers and consumers can't do anything about it other than not using services which isn't always an option. Getting ripped off on an ongoing basis is the norm. How do we expect people to plan financially when they are constantly lied to and screwed out of their money with no recourse? Even if there was a class action suit, it would do nothing for consumers. Voting is completely useless as both parties support this predatory anti regulatory capitalism. It's no wonder so many people turn to violence. One had to think that many of those who do so were probably motivated by getting fucked over by companies, especially since the vast majorities of shooters have no mental health problems. What a fucked up society to live in, where one is helpless and often hopeless.

TIL there are people who still have cable. I assume it's just generational? I don't know anyone (including my parents) who have cable anymore - and that's very much limited to tech folks.

similar shenanigans with satellite tv. cheaper to just subscribe to all streaming options

This is (edited to - regulatory capture. I had mentioned capitalism; I only mean we want consumers to figure out what choices they have and exercise them. But as mentioned below, when there's power, like in a monopoly, that power needs to restricted or removed i.e. by government or if at all possible, meaningful competition.)

Here is your recourse:

Try to become and remain among the educated. If you are in a position to do so, educate others.

Vote with your wallet. This, by itself, is not enough. The masses need to be educated and make this vote meaningful.

When the ones in power play dirty, try to remove that power or restrict their ability to play dirty. Our biggest, most profitable companies seem to increasingly have the ability to influence consumers with underhanded, manipulative means. In that scenario, there isn't enough educated consumer power to effect change.

This morning, I was thinking about Google, and how I personally feel like they have some of the absolute worst customer support in the world for many products. Because they will not fail to profit because a few hundred thousand people are unhappy with one of their services. Likewise, the cable companies can anger customers, but continue to profit, as long as they have some kind of power to reap those profits, such as being the only option in an area, or the only (or most direct) way to see certain content, such as live sports or broadcasts. There's definitely a difference in the analogy above - Google makes most of their money not from consumers, but from businesses wishing to advertise.

Anyway, I think cable companies will get worse as long as they are mixing pipelines and content subscriptions, and certainly as long as they hold the keys to the single wire bringing all of your entertainment into your home.