Olympia – Washington State’s attorney general Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit against mass media conglomerate Comcast on Monday. Ferguson claims the corporation lured customers into paying extra fees, and that is a clear violation of the state’s consumer protection act.
It refers to a service protection plan he says it’s deliberately incomplete, causing users to overpay fees, and the attorney seeks to retribute by suing the cable company for $100 million.
The conglomerate made clear in its statement that is willing to defend vigorously in court.
According to Bob Ferguson, Comcast is scamming its users
According to credit screenings presented by Mr. Ferguson, Comcast offered a $4.99 fee per month for a protection plan to its consumers that would allegedly ensure they didn’t have to pay to a technician when an issue covered by such plan occurred.
However, he said some problems started to surface when in 75% of the cases, the protection didn’t cover wiring inside walls, even when it says it does. If true, it could be considered a misleading situation and a potential violation of Washington law.
The investigation on Comcast’s possible scam began as gossip
It all started when a co-worker approached the attorney and told him about the possible scam. This event led to an investigation that could bring a world of trouble to Comcast.
Mr. Ferguson said that, in addition to the subscriber`s protection plan issue, there’s a considerable number of flaws and misleading limitations in customer service fees, such as service calls for equipment-related topics and cable jumpers, splitters and connectors repairments. The whole situation is an open offense under the state’s consumer protection act.
Announcing a $100M+ consumer protection lawsuit against #Comcast https://t.co/PPx6556Mgh pic.twitter.com/b7BB3034KQ
— WA Attorney General (@AGOWA) August 1, 2016
Comcast is willing to take on Ferguson in the courtroom
About 500.000 of the 1.2 million Comcast users in Washington were affected by the situation. According to Mr. Ferguson, $100 million would retribute the allegedly $73 million of the protection plan flaw to the subscribers.
Starting with a $1 million restitution from wrong-handled service calls, and the removal of credit check payments to 6.000 more individuals whose credit screening showed overcharge by the corporation.
On the other side, Comcast released a statement clarifying and defending its policies.
“We worked with the attorney general’s office to address every issue they raised,” he continued “we are surprised and disappointed that they have instead chosen litigation”, said Beth Hester, vice president of external affairs for Comcast in Washington.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
