When you look at a price you generally assume that aside from taxes, that's what you will actually pay for whatever you might be buying. That's why we have price tags – to let people know what an item costs.
Some industries, however, advertise one price but charge another. That has become common in the hotel space where resort fees, which are not optional, often don't get shown until final checkout.
DON'T MISS: Walmart shares a warning for customers
It's one thing if there's a small fee and the cost of the item or service goes up a little. In some cases, for example, phone carriers have small city or regional charges that are passed on to customers.
A few dollars here or there probably won't enrage anyone, but imagine if you buy a service where the hidden fees are an add-on that's equal to more than half of the advertised price.
That seems outrageous and most people would feel justified being angry and that's exactly what (CMCSA) -) is doing to its customers.
Image source: Shutterstock
Comcast passes on charges to customers
Comcast advertises a number of different cable packages under its Xfinity brand. When you visit its website, you see monthly prices for those packages. But, if you actually buy one of those packages, your bill will be surprising.
"Now in some areas, including where I live, Comcast has raised the price of its Broadcast TV fee to $31.25 a month on top of the advertised price. Not only that, but you will also find in many areas a $9.10 RSN fee," Cord Cutting News' Luke Bouma wrote. "...This means Comcast is adding $40.31 to many of its TV packages on top of the advertised price. So that $70 Popular TV package that offers 125+ channels will now cost you over $110 a month once they add in the RSN and broadcast TV fee."
Comcast has been charging the higher broadcast TV fee in some of its markets for months. The broadcast TV fee covers the cost of networks including ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, while the RSN fee covers the cost of regional sports networks.
In theory, Comcast wants customers to see how their bills break down, but it could easily do that without obscuring the actual monthly price. Broadcast channels and sports networks are a pretty major part of the cable bundle, and customers could rightly assume that those television channels are included in the price of the package of television channels the cable giant is selling them.
"TV networks and other video programmers continue to raise their prices, with broadcast television and sports being the biggest drivers of increases in customers’ bills," the company shared in a statement to the website.
Biden goes after hidden fees
While Comcast wants to blame its television network partners, the reality is that it's purposefully advertising prices that aren't real. That's exactly what President Joe Biden addressed in an October 2022 speech on hidden and junk fees.
"Some sellers publish a low price and then add mandatory fees later, at the “back-end” of the buying process or when a consumer tries to terminate the service. As the research shows, by hiding the full price, this practice can lead consumers to pay more than they would otherwise, and it also makes it hard for consumers to comparison shop,' Biden said.
Cable hidden fees are not a small matter, according to the president. They cost Americans $28 billion in 2019, according to Consumer Reports data cited by the White House.
The issue here is not Comcast charging fees for the service it's providing, it's the company obscuring the real price. Comcast wants people to sign on thinking that they will pay one price, knowing they probably won't leave (or be allowed to leave in many cases) once they see that the actual cost is much higher.
