4 ms·

If they can calculate these costs, why can't they show their work?

tptacek 3y ago
In a price label, at the point of sale? These are surreptitious taxes municipalities are forcing Comcast to collect. Why is Comcast being asked to build new IT infrastructure to warn residents that their local government is screwing them over?
- LocalH 3y ago
  "Municipal Fee: $X" as a sign at the register
- alfanick 3y ago
  Why not? Just make a bill: * cable fee * the actual service fee * local tax * ... * federal tax Nothing wrong about transparency
  - tptacek 3y ago
    There is in this instance, because the "fees" we're talking about here are intrinsically non-transparent --- they're not fees, they're taxes, and local governments force Comcast to call them fees in their franchise contracts. Comcast probably shouldn't play along here, because those taxes harm their users. I'm betting that if I surveyed my town, not one resident in 50 knows they're being charged a Comcast Tax by the local government; they just assume these fees are all Comcast soaking them. That's a problem, not because Comcast is good (they're odious), but because it establishes a precedent that municipalities can raise money from residents without going through the actual transparent levy process that everyone pays attention to. Fuck that! Municipal governments should get in front of their residents and tell them they're doing this, and not sneak it onto Comcast's price label as if it were a decision Comcast had made.
    - crote 3y ago
      Wouldn't Comcast want customers to know, then? Why would Comcast not be jumping in joy at the chance to explicitly state "Hickville Municipal Broadband Tax/Fee" on their bills and get people to complain to the municipality about it?
      - tptacek 3y ago
        Because nobody realizes that these are taxes; most customers just look at the bottom line, then scan up to see all the nickle-and-dime bullshit Comcast is charging them, and municipalities know this and slip into it. It's a dark pattern.
        crote 3y ago
        It sounds like Comcast would not be having this problem if they were being honest - which is exactly what the FCC is trying to do.
        ryandrake 3y ago
        I don't think anyone cares if they are called fees or taxes. The question is: Why can't Comcast calculate/list them at the point of sale? They seem to be able to easily calculate and list them when it's time to bill. Shouldn't there be an API endpoint somewhere called listAllFeesForStreetAddress(address) that both the billing and the marketing system can call? The fact that the billing systems do this but the marketing systems don't must be a deliberate choice by the company.
        tptacek 3y ago
        Why aren't you asking for a legal standard municipalities have to adhere to to publish a machine-readable summary of cable/internet franchise fees given a URL with a zip code embedded in it? It's the municipality behind these fees, not Comcast.
        ryandrake 3y ago
- crote 3y ago
  Sooo, what's the problem? They already know what the customer has to pay, so why are they spending extra effort to show a different fake price instead?

In a price label, at the point of sale? These are surreptitious taxes municipalities are forcing Comcast to collect. Why is Comcast being asked to build new IT infrastructure to warn residents that their local government is screwing them over?

LocalH 3y ago
"Municipal Fee: $X" as a sign at the register
alfanick 3y ago
Why not? Just make a bill: * cable fee * the actual service fee * local tax * ... * federal tax Nothing wrong about transparency
- tptacek 3y ago
  There is in this instance, because the "fees" we're talking about here are intrinsically non-transparent --- they're not fees, they're taxes, and local governments force Comcast to call them fees in their franchise contracts. Comcast probably shouldn't play along here, because those taxes harm their users. I'm betting that if I surveyed my town, not one resident in 50 knows they're being charged a Comcast Tax by the local government; they just assume these fees are all Comcast soaking them. That's a problem, not because Comcast is good (they're odious), but because it establishes a precedent that municipalities can raise money from residents without going through the actual transparent levy process that everyone pays attention to. Fuck that! Municipal governments should get in front of their residents and tell them they're doing this, and not sneak it onto Comcast's price label as if it were a decision Comcast had made.
  - crote 3y ago
    Wouldn't Comcast want customers to know, then? Why would Comcast not be jumping in joy at the chance to explicitly state "Hickville Municipal Broadband Tax/Fee" on their bills and get people to complain to the municipality about it?
    - tptacek 3y ago
      Because nobody realizes that these are taxes; most customers just look at the bottom line, then scan up to see all the nickle-and-dime bullshit Comcast is charging them, and municipalities know this and slip into it. It's a dark pattern.
      - crote 3y ago
        It sounds like Comcast would not be having this problem if they were being honest - which is exactly what the FCC is trying to do.
      - ryandrake 3y ago
        I don't think anyone cares if they are called fees or taxes. The question is: Why can't Comcast calculate/list them at the point of sale? They seem to be able to easily calculate and list them when it's time to bill. Shouldn't there be an API endpoint somewhere called listAllFeesForStreetAddress(address) that both the billing and the marketing system can call? The fact that the billing systems do this but the marketing systems don't must be a deliberate choice by the company.
        tptacek 3y ago
        Why aren't you asking for a legal standard municipalities have to adhere to to publish a machine-readable summary of cable/internet franchise fees given a URL with a zip code embedded in it? It's the municipality behind these fees, not Comcast.
        ryandrake 3y ago
crote 3y ago
Sooo, what's the problem? They already know what the customer has to pay, so why are they spending extra effort to show a different fake price instead?