Recently Comcast
CEO Brian Roberts concluded that subscribers hate his company, because they don’t
want to pay for content. http://bgr.com/2015/12/14/comcast-ceo-brian-roberts-interview/. Simple, glib conclusion, but quite
wrong.
Subscribers
do not mind paying for content if they feel they receive fair value. How many times have you heard someone
complain about the cost of Netflix service?
People do pay for content and gladly so.
Just ask the millions of subscribers to Hulu, SiriusXM, etc.
People
don’t like getting ripped off. People
don’t like paying for something they don’t want, but can’t seem to avoid like
the dozens of cable channels they never watch.
People
don’t like getting nickeled and dimed, or inconvenienced. Comcast has done both to me in the last few
weeks. First a company technician
refused to repair a set top box claiming my service tier did not qualify for
access to one. The technician seemed not
to know that even lowly basic tier subscribers are entitled to a “free” set top
box now needed even for viewing certain basic tier channels.
After
repeated calls and a second day waiting for a technician, the company issued a
$20 credit, but of course there’s a catch.
I had to pay the full billed amount after which a credit would accrue in
a subsequent bill. So the company issues
a credit only after receiving an overpayment.
Clever; too clever.
To
compound the confusion, Comcast or the U.S. Postal Service managed not to get a
bill delivered. Of course Comcast never
informed me of an overdue payment, by email.
Instead they issued a $9.50 late payment fee and implied dark and
negative consequences should they have to refer my debt to a collection agency.
Mr.
Roberts just about everyone hates your company, because of its obsession with
squeezing every last dime it possibly can, regardless of the value
proposition. What else could explain the
creation of a new line item called Broadcast TV Fee for local carriage, already
paid for in the basic tier charge? What
else could explain the 65% increase in that fee summarily announced in the bill
I never received?
1 comment:
So, other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play? Professor Frieden's critique can be amplified by the recording of the Comcast representative who refused to cut the cord of a subscriber who was moving out of area! Here in SoCal, the Time-Warner attempt to saddle all subscribers with Dodger baseball fees backfired. We are so close to cutting the cord!
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