Consumers protest Comcast rates, service, shutdown of Detroit public access

By Diane Bukowski
October 15, 2008
The Michigan Citizen
http://www.michigancitizen.com/...

DETROIT — Over the last two months, protesters have descended on Comcast offices in Southfield, Michigan and Chicago, Illinois to demand lower rates and improved service.

Additionally, Detroit’s Cable Communications Commission reports that they have an ongoing dispute with the nation’s largest broadband company. Earlier this year, Comcast shut down its public access facility in Detroit and refused to pay the city its state-mandated two percent Public, Educational and Government (PEG) fee.

“What do we have? Bad cable! What do we want? Low rates!” demonstrators chanted on Aug. 19 at Chicago’s North Avenue Comcast office and on Sept. 30 at the Detroit area customer office in Southfield. They presented a total of over 55,000 petition signatures and cards from consumers to Comcast, which has 44.6 million customers nationally, and $30.9 billion in revenue.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts made $20.8 million last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. Comcast is committed to paying his salary and bonuses for five years after his death in office. His heirs will receive $223 million from his company-funded life insurance plan.

Comcast rates skyrocket

A new coalition known as www.badcable.org, composed of the Ministerial Alliance Against the Digital Divide (MAADD), Michigan ACORN, Michigan and Illinois Citizen Action, and Action Now, organized the angry customers.

“Consumers are just fed up with Comcast’s excessive annual rate hikes and its pitiful customer service,” said Rev. James L. Demus III, founder and co-director of MAADD. “Comcast must immediately implement a sweeping customer service improvement plan and stop its habit of hitting consumers with unnecessary rate hikes.”

Comcast has raised its rates as much as 81 percent in communities across Michigan, says www.badcable.org.

In Detroit, the poorest city in the country, the company’s standard rates have skyrocketed from $39.90 a month to $51.58 per month since 2002, while Chicago residents have seen their rates increase from $39.07 per month to $54.59 per month.

According to Phillip Swann, president of TVPredictions.com, Comcast just sent out notices to markets across the country that it will again raise rates Nov. 1, for services including digital and basic programming packages, premium movie channel subscriptions and DVR service.

Poor service also an issue

Along with Comcast’s high rates, www.badcable.org says it is also protesting abysmal service. One metro Detroiter said she chose the company because she wanted to monitor Detroit City Council sessions.

“I discovered that every Detroit customer is provided only with used cable boxes,” she said angrily. “My cable box kept recording the previous customer’s programming. It took me twelve hours to get it re-programmed. The installer told me that the technicians have to sort through the used equipment to find a box that works.”

The Washington Post reported that a recent national customer satisfaction survey conducted by the University of Michigan showed that Comcast was tied for last among cable, satellite and television providers and was last in fixed-line telephone service.

Comcast responds

Patrick Paterno, Director of Communications for Comcast’s Michigan region, responded to the allegations.

“Comcast is fundamentally changing the way we do business in an effort to improve the customer experience,” said Paterno.

“We’ve invested in hiring, training and new technologies more than at any other time in our 45-year history and introduced a wide variety of bundled packages, including economy options, to provide the most choice and value to our customers. This improvement effort may take some time, but we are committed to making investments across the company to enhance the experience our customers have with us.”

Regarding cable boxes for Detroiters, he said, “Comcast and our employees ensure every piece of equipment that leaves our facilities meet our technology standards. We have a variety of HD, Digital Boxes and Digital Video Recorders that are available to customers based upon their requests and individual package requirements.”

Comcast not worker or Detroit-friendly, says union

Gerald Wynn, President of Communications Workers of America Local 4100, countered that Comcast is not worker, union, or Detroit-friendly.

“According to our studies, their rates have traditionally been higher in Detroit than the suburbs,” Wynn said. “They are the only provider that won’t allow me in their buildings to talk to our members. They have strategically moved jobs out of Detroit because our city and Port Huron are the only unionized Comcast locations, and actively fought our organizing drives in other areas.”

The company has also hired contractors to install services. Wynn said he has only 50 Comcast workers left in his local, who do repair work and have to re-do much of the contractors’ work. He said a study done for the union by the same firm Comcast uses to assess its facilities showed numerous violations, including health and safety issues, and damage to customers’ residences.

Paterno said, “Pricing in Detroit is the same as many suburban communities. In fact, we recently launched a Basic Tier of service in Detroit for roughly $15 per month which offers about 25 channels. Customers can also sign up for Economy Cable for $39.95.”

Paterno refused to provide the number of Detroit Comcast subscribers.

Comcast refuses to pay PEG fee, shuts down public access facility

But Jeffrey Hunt of the Detroit Cable Communications Commission (DCCC) said Comcast has approximately 100,000 subscribers in Detroit proper, down from around 150,000 earlier. The DCCC has long had a franchise with Comcast, which was the only broadcaster of daily Detroit City Council sessions along with other programs such as “For My People.”

Pursuant to recent state legislation, the DCCC has also franchised AT&T U-verse. In protest, said Hunt, Comcast has refused to pay its PEG fee to the city, claiming the fee is not required by the Federal Communications Commission. They have also shut down their public access facility.

“Under the franchise agreement, they were required to maintain the facility, provide grants to producers, conduct public access classes, and train and certify public access providers,” said Hunt. “Now, the city council sessions and shows like ‘For My People’ will no longer be carried by Comcast unless the producers provide their own studio space and equipment.”

Hunt said the city is getting its own equipment together for continued broadcasting of council sessions, and is also planning to start streaming them on the internet.

He said that neither Comcast nor AT&T provide sufficient access for Detroiters, because both have not wired significant portions of the city, predominantly low-income areas.

“We would like to see the entire city wired,” he said.

Former City Auditor General Joe Harris recommended in a 2002 study that the city establish its own cable service.

He said cable laid for the Public Lighting Department, which was originally intended to service every home in Detroit as well as street lighting and public buildings, is sufficient for the city to go into the cable business after upgrading the network. Financially-strapped Detroit could make money, charge lower rates to its citizens, and provide better service, the report claimed.

The Detroit suburb of Wyandotte operates its own cable system, as do dozens of other cities across the country.