Cox Customers Fight Back

It's no secret we all hate cable companies. They are deceitful, money-hungry monopolies that have no interest in serving their customers. So it's no wonder that every time they try to get away with something, there is tons of blowback. Cue Jon Brodkin's reporting about how a massive amount of Cox customers are forcing arbitration cases because of undisclosed fees.

Cable TV provider Cox is facing hundreds of arbitration demands alleging that it failed to adequately disclose its "Broadcast Surcharge" and "Regional Sports Surcharge" and that it used these fees to raise prices on customers who were promised fixed rates.

The Hattis & Lukacs law firm last night "filed 295 individual consumer arbitrations against Cox with the American Arbitration Association," representing clients in 17 of the 19 states Cox operates in, attorney Daniel Hattis told Ars. Hattis said he aims to file thousands more arbitration cases against Cox, which has an estimated 3.4 million TV customers. The arbitration filings describe claimants as "victim[s] of Cox's bait-and-switch scheme whereby the Company charges customers more for its Cable TV service plans than Cox advertised and promised."

Ars Technica

Here in NY we have a provider called Altice that charges a "network enhancement fee" that does who-knows-what. I'm not sure what network that fee is enhancing, but what I do know is that and other fees are not included in an offering they heavily advertised called "Price For Life". This "PFL" offering meant your price would never increase. Of course, the catch is Altice could tack on as many fees as they want because the price of the actual service wouldn't change. "Network enhancement" and "broadcast surcharge" and all these other BS fees are yet another reason ISPs are the worst.

Once again it begs the question: how is it 2022 and after a global pandemic that showed our reliance on broadband and we still have not reclassified internet as a utility?