Opt Out of Comcast Arbitration While You Can
Note that you must type your account number EXACTLY as shown on you bill (spaces and dashes included) or it will error with barely any indication of what went wrong (no error message).
This kind of agreement is completely one sided and circumvents the courts and our rights. Fortunately, Public Citizen is working on a bill to remove mandatory binding arbitration for good.
Update: 7/24/07
Here's an article from the Consumerist about how arbitrators can be influenced by credit card companies to rule against consumers.Update: 7/26/07
And another showing that the top ten Arbitrators rule against the consumer 98.4% of the time. I wonder how they became the top ten? Hmm…Update: 8/08/07
And the word is spreading. Public Citizen's blog says it seems to be a very fair provision. I still don't like having it rammed down my throat.Share This
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The only thing I agree with is that consumers ought to learn about arbitration and that class actions need to be allowed within the arbitration context.
Class action lawyers don’t like arbitration clauses, that doesn’t make arbitration bad. I think the problem is procedural with the forums that administer arbitrations, but also that a class action could do just as well in arbitration as outside of it, provided protections are built in.
I’m an arbitrator and former civil rights advocate. I know that most people who go into arbitration “involuntarily” owe a debt that no judge can erase. The might even have decent arguments to alleviate the debt that could be presented by arbitrating, but since they usually don’t bother to participate, yes, they lose.
I fail to see what’s so “wonderful” about having people hauled into court, assessing cost upon fee, court date upon court date, just to be told “Yup, you owe that money, and oh by the way, you ALSO owe all this other stuff in addition to your attorney fee. Thanks for wasting our collective time!!”
Bottom line is that losing your job, your wife left you,–none of those are court defenses! There is no “my life sucks, don’t rule against me” defenses to a contract with Comcast, so what difference does it make whether an arbitrator tells you so or a judge??
Crap service, on the other hand, is something that can be addressed in many ways, not just in response to a bill for service. You can’t keep using a service and then refuse to pay.
Geeze, how hard would it be to require that Comcast log all arbitrations to an on-line monitoring service which could be used to trigger class action status, which could then go to the court an have all the people who could be in the class pre-identified? An enterprising attorney could have a site like this up and running in a week. Were I not a confirmed neutral, I’d do it myself!
There are so many ways to deal with the concerns on a technical level, that mere recitation of anti-arbitration talking points is getting a little tired!
Well said! You obviously know a lot about the topic while I know almost nothing about it. My reason for speaking out against Comcast in this case is that they are removing your choice. If I want to sue Comcast, or settle with them out of court, or go into arbitration, those are all alternatives available to me if I’m not bound by a one-sided agreement that Comcast has decided to without my input.
Thanks for calling attention to this problem, Jeremy.
When Regina Mullen says, “Geeze, how hard would it be to require that Comcast log all arbitrations to an on-line monitoring service which could be used to trigger class action status …”, she doesn’t make clear who is going to do the “requiring”. Which of us has a hammer big enough to force Comcast to log the arbitrations so they could be used as a basis for a class action?
Comcast has already tried to change their subscriber agreement, without notice, but got caught at it. So, instead, they are presenting us with an ultimatum … an ultimatum with a 30-day limit but which is, itself, undated. It asserts that the 30-day period begins with the date Comcast mailed the ultimatum, but does not specify what that date was. In other words, it is impossible for the subscriber to determine whether or not the time period has expired.
Among the things this change to the subscriber agreement will do are:
limit the subscriber’s right of discovery … i.e., the right to get the information from Comcast that the subscriber needs to prosecute a case, a right we are entitled to by law.
reduce the time period during which subscribers’ may seek redress, contrary to existing law.
prohibit class actions, one of the two tools the public has to protect its statutory rights.
prohibit the collection of punitive damages, the other tool the public has to protect itself.
prevent subscribers from obtaining a ruling that Comcast must bear the legal costs that result from its wrongdoing. Even if Comcast is found to have acted wrongly, the subscriber(s) will have to pay the costs of proving it.
Comcast is not seeking these changes for our benefit. If there is anything that screams about this situation it is that Comcast knows it is violating anti-trust laws and is trying to avoid the penalties for their actions.
It is an outrage that Comcast can shove this down our throats with an option to “opt out”. At the very least, it should be done on an “opt in” basis. I will, of course, opt out, but I’m fully aware that, as a result of the sneaky way Comcast is handling this, few people will even realize they are being raped.
Fred