Comcast to pay $1 million in settlement with state
By Keith Reed
GLOBE STAFF
The nation's biggest cable company will pay $1 million in a settlement over its advertising practices, which Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly said misled many local residents about the cost and features of their cable TV service.
Comcast Corp., which has 1.6 million customers in Massachusetts, was accused of deceiving local consumers by advertising expensive packages without mentioning cheaper options and touting 'free' or discounted introductory cable rates that often carried hidden charges, according to the settlement filed in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday. It was also accused of overstating the number of channels it offered in its digital cable packages, charging some subcribers $5 a month to rent cable boxes they didn't need and charging installation fees after customers signed up for service believing those charges had been waived.
The settlement comes after a two-year investigation by Reilly's office that was sparked by hundreds of consumer complaints about Comcast and AT&T Broadband, a former cable provider Comcast bought in 2002. Comcast denied doing anything illegal but agreed to several changes in its advertising practices.
Jesse Caplan, chief attorney for the state's consumer protection and anti-trust division, said his office didn't know exactly how many cable subscribers might have been affected or how much they may have overpaid due to their confusion over Comcast's ads.
“This likely had a significant impact on customers who ended up buying cable packages that they might never have bought if they knew how much it was going to cost," said Caplan, whose office negotiated the settlement.
For its part, Comcast noted that it inherited some problems when it took over the former AT&T system and that some of the complaints against it predated even that company. The company also said it has already implemented many of the changes it agreed to in the settlement.
"We do not agree with the attorney general’s claims,'' Shawn Feddeman, a Comcast spokeswoman, said in a statement. ``However, we have already begun to make several changes to our customer service and advertising practices because we are always looking for ways to build on our successful record in Massachusetts."
