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Comment by nerdjon | Hacker News Reader

> They didn't require someone to come out to get you signed up for service.

I am struggling a bit to understand how Comcast could not argue that it is required?

I don't fully remember but I don't think I started paying anything for my service until someone came out to install when self install wasn't an option. (I could possibly see them justifying removing self install in the name of retention later, since how many people really have a choice in their ISP and will just not deal with waiting for someone to come?).

If service was unable to start until someone came out, to me that could be argued as part of the sign up process.

I am not necessarily agreeing that it is part of the signup process. But we know that these companies love their shady practices and will have their lawyers finding any loophole they can find.

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They didn't come out as part of sign up, they came out for install, which is a separate phase. You signed up on the phone or online. They don't need to remove hardware from your house to turn it off.

I think you are missing my point here.

Is there a requirement that a signup flow is a single process that you do all at once?

What if they just moved the last contract you had to sign to something that you clicked on the technicians phone after they set everything up?

I get that it is part of the install process and we think of it as a different phase. But in reality how much of a diasctintion is that really?

I am trying to understand what is realistically stopping Comcast from saying that the signup process is not complete until service has been activated? Nothing I am seeing or what is being said here is telling me they could not argue this.

> I am trying to understand what is realistically stopping Comcast from saying that the signup process is not complete until service has been activated? Nothing I am seeing or what is being said here is telling me they could not argue this.

In theory, the economics of this don't work out (Comcast/ISPs might be an exception). It would raise their onboarding costs a lot and raise their offboarding costs too. But if they're a local monopoly the might get away with it.

> What if they just moved the last contract you had to sign to something that you clicked on the technicians phone after they set everything up?

That doesn't side step this - if you sign up in person they have to provide a telephone or online option to cancel that is just as easy as it was to sign up.

Now you'll need to return the hardware if you're using Comcast's hardware. Nothing changes there.

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