FOLLOWUP: What the city says are your rights in case of cable (TV) outages

| Utilities | West Seattle news

While most of the CenturyLink outage reports we covered here recently involved fiber internet access, some involved TV – and that caught the attention of a city division you might not have heard of: The Office of Cable Communications, part of the Information Technology department. We heard today from Jim Loter, a spokesperson for that division, which he explains “is responsible for regulating the cable television providers that offer services in Seattle.” He had seen the WSB reports and wanted to make sure you know about “customer rights during cable TV outages,” and pointed us to a new item on the city website Tech Talk which details those rights, including a pointer to the webpage for the Cable Customer Bill of Rights. Again, this is just for TV, not internet, but if you’ve had trouble with an unresponsive provider – it might help.

Be mAma August 16, 2016 (10:16 pm)

So we need an updated rule about internet service. Not having internet for a few hours -days is highly impactful for those of us who work from home.

Diane August 16, 2016 (10:33 pm)

is it really possible that people don’t know about this information? I’ve contacted this office a million times in 10+ yrs; this is also the office to contact to get senior discount (kinda pathetic ~$5) on limited basic cable

Mike August 17, 2016 (1:41 am)

Sadly these same companies, lobbying politicians, were able to block expansion of Internet service which would have made it a utility and regulated as such, drastically lowering cost and lawfully making uptime required.

TheKing August 17, 2016 (3:43 am)

@diane, I’ve lived here for 25+ years and have never heard of this office. It’s good to know now :)

Andy August 17, 2016 (4:45 am)

Obviously, Obama needs to appoint a Cable Communications Czar. Inslee, Murray and the City Council will then hop on board and make everything all right.

anonyme August 17, 2016 (7:29 am)

Mike, excellent point. We desperately need internet options and consumer protection from monopolies like CL.

Eddie August 17, 2016 (7:45 am)

Does anyone else regularly have digital dropouts or pixelation occur while watching comcast channel 105 (local KING)? Seems to happen with a high regularity and only on that channel for us.

Trickycoolj August 17, 2016 (7:54 am)

Open your bills they send you a copy of the cable bill of rights as required by the city every year.

Westside45 August 17, 2016 (8:03 am)

Diane,

A million times in 10 years? That’s about 294 contacts every day! How are we to believe you when your second sentence is a blatant fabrication?

Get your figures correct!

Ivan August 17, 2016 (8:32 am)

When I was a Comcast customer (now thankfully in the past), every time I experienced an outage, for any length of time, for any reason, that Comcast acknowledged was their problem and not mine, I would call billing and ask that my next bill be pro-rated to give me credit for a day’s worth of service — longer if the outage persisted for more than a day. This was for cable only; I have never been an Internet customer.
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I never failed to get credit. I don’t know if there is any law that requires them to give me credit, but I always got it. I was always very polite, explained the problem to them, told them politely that they had agreed to provide me with the service and that for whatever reason, they weren’t doing it. I reminded them that my monthly bill was paid up in full and on time, and that I was holding up my end of our business agreement. I always closed with the question: “Do you think my request is unreasonable?” The answer was always no, and I always got my credit.
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Everyone should do at least this much every time there is an outage.

Corvonn August 17, 2016 (9:30 am)

I find it interesting that cable and internet are separate on this issue since the two are so intertwined. I’m curious how this would apply to those customers who have Centurylink Prism, which is completely run on their Fiber Optic network. So if there’s an internet outage, we lose all of our TV programming. Would the Cable Customer Bill of Rights still apply, even though technically it’s an internet outage? I suppose I could contact this office if I’m effected in the future, but just curious if anyone here knows the answer to that.

Maggie August 17, 2016 (10:30 am)

If the city really cared about protecting consumers, city leaders would work to create a municipal solution for broadband rather than leaving us to be exploited by ruthless monopolies. I pay almost $100 per month for wi-fi, when their ad promised $35. cable, and what can I do about it? Absolutely nothing because there are not other choices. What about those in the city that can’t afford these prices, even the discounted price? The tremendous social and economic benefit that internet access brings to communities has been proven many times over but instead of trying to raise neighborhoods up with accessible service, the city is building the most expensive police station in the country. Shame on the mayor and Seattle City Council for their lack of vision for this so-called high tech city.

Justin August 17, 2016 (3:02 pm)

If you’re really paying $100 per month for internet service alone, you need to call Comcast and tell them you’d like to cancel your service. Seriously. They’ll very quickly offer to cut your monthly fee in half to keep you a paying customer. If you don’t make any progress, and you do feel like you were misled into signing up for their service at a higher rate than advertised, contact the Office of Cable Communications.

rpo August 17, 2016 (12:27 pm)

I received a $40 credit from CenturyLink due to the internet outages.

Randi August 18, 2016 (12:43 am)

Did the city of Seattle just create this “office of cable communications” after eliminating the cable districts?

If so, I have to wonder: wouldn’t that $90-$160k in taxpayer dollars spent on salary alone for this new administrative position be better spent in actually granting internet and free computers to low income households, or towards building our own gigabit network to “compete” with the existing monopolies, as other commenters have mentioned?

If the bar being met for “enough” low income households being given access to Internet is not being specifically or even arbitrarily defined, how can the city hold any of the cable companies accountable for meeting any standard?

Win: Comcast, Century Link Loss: taxpayers of Seattle (again)

WSB August 18, 2016 (1:28 am)

The Office of Cable Communications predates the cable-district elimination. The latter happened last year; I so far haven’t found a reference to when the Office of CC was created, but have found a mention at least three years prior.

Sorry, comment time is over.