- Comcast advertises one price while leaving out key fees.
- The company charges a fee that sounds a lot like what you're paying for in the first place.
- Comcast Xfinity has been in trouble for using misleading terms before.
Comcast's Xfinity does not exactly have a great reputation when it comes to telling the truth. For years, the company marketed something called 10G Internet that has no relationship to 4G or 5G.
Basically, the company created a misleading name and used it to try to trick the public. In many ways, it’s like calling a product the fastest Internet ever, but having those words in quotes and having the quote be from the company CEO.
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We hope to someday have “the fastest Internet ever.”
That's a wish, not a name, which is exactly why the National Advertising Review Board (NARB) ruled in 2024 that Comcast should discontinue the term “10G” both when describing the Xfinity network and within the name of its Xfinity 10G Network service itself.
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The industry watchdog stepped in after T-Mobile and AT& cried foul. 5G, you see, actually means the fifth generation of the technology used to move data over smartphones. Xfinity's 10G implied it was five either twice as fast or five times as fast, but the name was just a name.
Just like you don't want football legend Lawyer Malloy representing you in court, you can't trust Comcast (CMCSA) when it comes to product names or pricing.
Image source: Shutterstock
Comcast's Xfinity price is never the price
Comcast has a long-term shady history when it comes to pricing. For cable services, it’s famous for advertising a price that does not include extras you actually have to pay for.
This isn’t simply a company that leaves taxes out of its advertised price. Comcast XFinity takes it much farther.
My wife and I have Comcast Xfinity service at our Florida condo. Our main home has cable and internet included in our homeowner's association (HOA) charges, but our secondary place includes neither.
We use Sling TV for most of our cable needs, but that does not cover the broadcast networks, and as an NBA and NFL fan, I wanted a basic cable package that lets me have NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox,.
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Comcast advertises a 10-channel package for $30 and, in year one, that's sort of the cost. But once the promotional period expires, the cost essentially doubles.
It's not exactly a bait and switch, as it's not overly hidden, but the company is certainly not upfront about its pricing.
What my Comcast Xfinity bill actually comes to
Currently, I pay $30 for 10 channels. ABC, CBS, FOX, and CBS are the core channels as part of the deal, and by any standards, those are the broadcast TV channels — the big networks that broadcast over free airwaves.
I'm also charged a $29.50 monthly “Broadcast TV Fee.” That seems a bit off, because the product I'm buying is the broadcast channels. It's a bit like paying $5 for a cheeseburger, then being charged a $6 “cheeseburger purchase fee.”
The Broadcast Fee makes a little more sense when it comes as part of a much larger package of channels. But in a package where I'm essentially paying $3 per channel (and really more, since most of the other six stations aren't very useful), it seems like an obvious double charge.
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In year one. however, I got a $29 promotional discount which offsets that fee (and lets me ignore the bill on autopay). When my year expires with my next bill, I will pay $29 more per month.
That's 10 channels, four of which (the major broadcast networks) I actually want, for a price of $59 per month.
Comcast isn't passing on a fee (as it often claims) — it's charging an outrageous fee for a basic service to make me want to upgrade my cable package.
