Is Comcast Service Plan a Scam?

The Washington state Attorney General’s office has filed suit against Comcast, asking the court to declare a Comcast service plan a scam.

The controversy is over a repair service plan offered by Comcast known as its Service Protection Plan.

For a cost of $4.99 per month, Comcast offered a bundle of helpful-sounding services including unlimited covered service calls, troubleshooting and diagnosis of various XFINITY services, service calls to deal with customer-owned equipment connected to XFINITY service, and replacement and repair of certain system components – including “inside wiring.”

Washington AG Says Comcast Service Plan a Scam, Violates State Laws

In its claim against the company, the Washington Attorney General’s Office says Comcast “grossly misrepresented” the Service Protection Plan to consumers to induce them to buy it.

Part of what makes the Comcast service plan a scam, according to the Attorney General, is its use of the term “inside wiring.”

Consumers allegedly lured into purchasing the plan based on Comcast’s representations of “comprehensive” coverage for all “inside wiring” were apparently surprised to find out later that the Service Protection Plan does not cover wiring inside the walls of the customer’s house.

In seeming contrast to Comcast’s promotional materials, the fine print of the plan’s Terms and Conditions, “inside wiring” is expressly defined as “wiring within the point just on your side of the terminating equipment or box located at or about twelve (12) inches outside of your unit or residence and extending to the individual phone jacks and cable and internet outlets and extensions in your home.”

Similarly, the promise of unlimited “service calls” for customer-owned equipment also appears to have been illusory, according to the Comcast lawsuit, because the plan does not cover any actual repair work on those calls.

The plan “simply covers the technician visiting the customer’s house and declaring that the customer’s equipment is broken.”

The Attorney General alleges the plan contains deceptive wording that makes the Comcast service plan a scam.

The alleged deception has supposedly reaped substantial results for Comcast.

According to the Comcast lawsuit, about 500,000 Comcast customers in Washington signed up for the Service Protection Plan over the past five years, yielding revenues to Comcast of at least $73 million.

The Attorney General’s office goes on to raise allegations related to other aspects of Comcast’s business.

For example, the company purportedly guarantees customers they will not be charged for any service call that results from a problem with Comcast’s own equipment or network.

Comcast allegedly broke that promise thousands of times, charging Washington customers for service calls related to non-functional Comcast equipment.

The company allegedly gave its technicians a service call fix code that expressly allowed them “to add service charges to a normally not charged fix code.”

In the same Comcast lawsuit, the Attorney General’s office is also holding Comcast accountable for unlawful practices related to customer deposits and credit checks.

The company allegedly took deposits from customers who should have qualified not to pay a deposit and ran checks on customers who had already paid a deposit to avoid that very credit check.

All these alleged acts violate the Washington state Consumer Protection Act, according to the Attorney General’s office.

They seek an injunction barring Comcast from continuing to engage in the same conduct, civil penalties of up to $2,000 per violation, and orders of restitution as needed to return money paid by consumers because of the allegedly unlawful practices.

Join a Free Comcast Service Plan Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you purchased the Comcast Service Protection Plan expecting that it would cover wiring repairs or service calls that weren’t actually covered by the program, you may be entitled to compensation. It’s absolutely free to participate, so act now!

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