Washington State Sues Comcast for $100 Million

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If you mention Comcast to just about anyone, they will tell you how much they hate the company. Complaints about Comcast are common, ranging from slow internet to low-quality cable signals, poor customer service, and being charged for the wrong things. But those complaints aren’t unfounded; the State of Washington has been investigating Comcast and has recently sued them for $100 million.

Following a lengthy investigation, Attorney General Bob Ferguson found that the company had engaged in numerous practices designed to deceive customers. Some 500,000 customers in Washington State have been affected in nearly 1.8 million violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act.

Among the violations was their use of the “Comcast Guarantee” which costs $4.99 a month and covers service calls. It does not, however, cover wiring inside of walls, despite customer service scripts stating that it does.

Comcast also claims that it never charges customers for service calls related to the company’s own mistakes or problems, such as network issues or equipment, but it turns out that most of the time they did charge for these calls.

They also committed thousands of improper credit inquiries on customers, which can negatively impact a person’s credit score. The point of the checks was to determine if customers had to pay an equipment deposit, which was waived for those with high credit scores. More than 6,000 times, though, people with qualifying credit scores were still charged that deposit.

Comcast has denied the charges and claimed that they will fight the suit in court. This is to be expected. Considering the fact that internet service is essentially a utility at this point, the idea that Comcast may be deceiving their customers is disturbing, particularly in light of the fact that Comcast operates without competition in many areas of the country.

I will be curious to see the outcome of the State of Washington’s lawsuit.