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autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Five lobby groups representing cable companies, fiber and DSL providers, and mobile operators have repeatedly urged the Federal Communications Commission to eliminate the requirement before new broadband labeling rules take effect.

The filing was submitted by NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, which represents Comcast, Charter, Cox, and other cable companies.

The trade groups met on Wednesday with the legal advisors to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Brendan Carr, according to the filing.

The FCC rules aren’t in force yet because they are subject to a federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review under the US Paperwork Reduction Act.

The five trade groups complain that this would require ISPs “to display the pass-through of fees imposed by federal, state, or local government agencies on the consumer broadband label.”

ISPs could instead include all costs in their advertised rates to give potential customers a clearer idea of how much they would have to pay each month.

I’m a bot and I’m open source!

there1snospoon ,

Why would it be easier for the consumer to get one line item “ALL FEES” on their bill, instead of a more granular, itemized bill that explains the reasons I’m paying for something?

It isn’t easier. It’s just more obfuscating.

Spacemanspliff ,

Because then they don’t have to come up with technobabble to disguise what the fees are, can you imagine if they actually listed “yatcht fee” the peasents would revolt.

TauriWarrior ,

“The labels must be displayed to consumers at the point of sale and include monthly price, additional charges, speeds, data caps, additional charges for data, and other information.”

Its talking about point of sale not bills

there1snospoon ,

Alrighty, why would I prefer everything be condensed at the point of sale instead of spelled out for me?

TauriWarrior ,

The point of it is that they have to show the max cost, not say it cost $59 then once you’ve signed up start charging $74 because of undisclosed ‘hidden’ costs. We don’t deal with that bullshit in Australia, my ISP tells me it’ll cost $99 a month for my chosen speed and unlimited data, thats what I pay no extra charges unless i select a package that gives me extra.

there1snospoon ,

I imagine that would take a very, very specific law here in America. Corporations screwing over customers is our new national pastime. But honestly as long as I saw the total bill with no change from what was advertised to me that would be fine too.

McBinary ,
@McBinary@kbin.social avatar

How about we just scrap the ISP instead and start over with a company that can list what they are charging for? This isn't hard. Either it's a legitimate fee or it's not. I have a feeling they just don't want to disclose that they have been ripping people off for a few extra bucks every bill for the last decade.

rambaroo , (edited )

That’s exactly what this is. They obviously have software that calculates the fees, so claiming they can’t tell us why is bullshit when they clearly know why already.

billiam0202 ,

They don’t want customers to know how much of the fees are “non-mandatory,” i.e. what is imposed by the ISP but not required by law.

FlyingSquid OP ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

That’s what it is. They don’t want people to know what extra fees they’re tacking on. Of course they can list what they’re charging for. Is their accounting so bad they don’t know who they’re charging for what? I seriously doubt it. This is as easy as a spreadsheet output.

valkyre09 ,

If they’re so unsure what they’re charging people, perhaps it might be worth looking into their reported earnings and tax paid.

Chriszz ,

It’s too hard can you pwease make it easier for us corporations 🥺 👉👈

Dasnap ,
@Dasnap@lemmy.world avatar

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/002/192/415/fe9.jpg

FoxBJK ,
@FoxBJK@midwest.social avatar

Why am I paying all this money then? I mean, assuming we wanna believe this bullshit premise. Your computers can’t itemize a bill!?

phorq ,

Seriously, if you couldn’t even be bothered to write it down then it couldn’t have been something worth being billed for

BradleyUffner ,

And yet they still manage to list them perfectly fine on my bill.

devious ,

This article has serious “not the onion” vibes!

AttackBunny ,

I have to itemize every invoice, for ever customer. Sometimes 100+ items long, and it’s rarely the same, customer to customer. I’m pretty sure they can figure out how to do it too.

Saryn ,
@Saryn@kbin.social avatar

They just don't want people to look at their bills and see:

C-Suite 3rd Yacht Fund: $2.39
Monopoly Maintenence Fee: $5.25
Lobby/Bribe Fee: $3.16

Im14abeer ,

Well, I see an opportunity for consolation right here!

Monopoly maintenance/lobbying (bribes): $8.41

I bet those business geniuses can find all kinds of ways to “reduce fees”. That is the number of fees, not the total dollar amount of fees.

BrianTheeBiscuiteer ,

I just wish they’d crack down on introductory pricing and the whole “threaten cancellation to get a discount” model. Of all the other services I can think of they’re the only ones (I’m including cable TV since ISPs usually do both) that explicitly give new customers a better deal. I’ve actually known other companies to lower your bill the longer you have their service.

Im14abeer ,

Sirius/XM would like a little recognition in this regard.

CmdrShepard ,

I spent 30 minutes in a chat with Comcast support trying to get the introductory rate after explicitly asking at the beginning if they could do that for me as an existing customer and the rep stating “yes.” 30 minutes later they told me those rates are only for new customers. I then stated that I could go down to the store and cancel my service then sign up under my wife’s name to get the discount and the rep told me that’d be the only way to get the lower pricing.

Tygr ,

As a mortgage lender, welcome to the full transparency world. The only people that complain about it are the people that have a lot to hide.

When they say “too hard” I hear “will cut into our profits.”

alex ,

Lol. I hope you don’t genuinely feel that a 200 page contract presented to you in a time sensitive environment during one of the most stressful times of your life is an actual fix the convoluted process of home buying.

It presents no real options. You just have to sign 50 random pages of shit you don’t understand and nobody explains or walk away from the purchase often with sizable financial losses at that point.

MisterChief ,

I agree with the sentiment of your concern as it is a shit load of info. Only part I would disagree with is that nobody explains it. Depends on your realtor of course but mid-pandemic lockdowns my realtor sat down with my wife and I and went page by page, all printed out, and explained everything. Stopped periodically to see what questions we had, and even light heartily quizzed us. He showed us where he was making money, where the bank makes money, what was likely to happen the moment we signed with the mortgage (sold to a different lender), and where our risks were.

It was a lot. And I don’t look forward to it. But in a day and age where anything can be searched online at your fingertips due diligence is expected by both parties and I felt comfortable going into the closing feeling we had covered most everything.

alex ,

You can search online for years. Some knowledge only comes from experience. My second time was 1000% better because I knew what to expect and roughly knew where I’ll get fucked and how much it will cost me.

Even with the best realtor, the whole experience is still one of “let’s just get this shit over with”. Been at this for likely months at this point. A bunch of people breathing down your neck between realtors, escrow company, loan broker, sellers, other buyers, etc.

What will happen if you discover you’re getting screwed by ~$4-7K in today’s market with properties going well over asking, ~$50k in escrow account and a day left on your fourth extension that seller begrudgingly accepted. Nothing - you’ll sign the paperwork like a good boy and shell out the extra money. No alternatives at this point.

beebarfbadger ,

Fun fact: one of the big plusses of the EU was a unified consumer protection law that gives customers extensive rights to fight back against malicious hidden clauses they didn’t have to expect if they weren’t explained to them explicitly. Was a surprisingly pro-consumer legislation, that.

beebarfbadger ,

All I hear is “we´d lose too many our costumers if we had to tell them how we´re fleecing them.”

Semi-Hemi-Demigod ,
@Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social avatar

Most of them are regional monopolies. How many customers could they possibly lose?

sturmblast ,

perhaps stop fucking bending us over with all your bullshit fees

smitty ,
@smitty@lemmy.world avatar

coming soon: Fee Listing fee

Unaware7013 ,

I say boohoo to the industry that stole hundreds of billions of dollars from the government by taking money to build out a nationwide fibre network and doing fuck all with it.

The Book Of Broken Promises: $400 Billion Broadband Scandal And Free The Net - that's from fucking 2014. Just imagine how much money we've shoveled away on subpar service while we also get fleeced for a new build out.

lolcatnip ,

That’s some real chutzpah to tell the FCC they’re charging so many bullshit fees they can’t even keep track of them.

Zima ,

I have a better solution. If it’s too much work to list it then it’s not worth charging it.

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