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By Dustin Slaughter
The Federal Communications Commission has released 185 pages of consumer complaints lodged against corporate giants Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
The documents were obtained through a FOIA request submitted by MuckRock News contributor Donald Triplett. The agency’s response letter indicates that over 16,000 complaints were filed against the two companies over a five-year period. Triplett apparently agreed to trim down the request’s scope, however, in order to avoid a hefty copying fee that would have totaled $1,600.
The batch of complaints, some laced with profanity, involve “Deceptive or Unlawful Advertising” and “Billing, Privacy, and Service” issues, as well as concerns about the state of Net Neutrality should the merger go through.
One complaint filed from a Lancaster, PA resident in September of this year stated:
“I was sold a package of cable, internet service. I was told I would pay $89 a month. Today I found out that Comcast took $110.60 out of my account. When I called, they said an auditor looked at my account and saw that I wasn’t paying enough, so they billed me without telling me.”
Shareholders for both Comcast and Time Warner Cable resoundingly approved a controversial merger earlier this month.
The FCC has received the highest amount of public comments, with the vast majority opposing the deal, since the regulating agency’s inception. The Commission is expected to make its decision to approve or deny the merger in early 2015.
Comcast and Time Warner have tasked a number of ex-FCC officials to push the Commission to approve the merger, according to a recent report.
Read the documents in full at MuckRock News.
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