Adrian Fraim, a graphic and web designer, was a Comcast Business-Internet customer. His home is his office. He was happy with his service. Adrian Fraim decided to move as people so often do.
Not cool, Adrian:
Fraim said he was shocked when he recently moved from Antioch to Clarksville. He received a bill from Comcast for $2,789 to cancel his service.
What happened? According to Mr. Fraim:
Fraim wanted to change his service to his new address in Clarksville. He said a customer service representative told him it would be hooked up at his new house, but Fraim said the technician never showed.
When Fraim called Comcast, he said he was told Comcast doesn't provide service where he lives.
Doh. Comcast's mistake, right? Not in their minds it's not. They promptly sent Fraim the bill for breaking his 3-year Business-Internet contract—it's an early termination fee. Moving can be a pretty difficult process in someone's life. Trying to find a place that is not serviced by Comcast is also pretty difficult. Comcast is a
monopoly by most standards—and they are trying to get larger.
Comcast and Time-Warner's combined market share in the extremely important Internet service market could be 75% or more. Comcast's competitors may have less than 10%, depending on how you define "high-speed" broadband. It doesn't take a mathematician or an antitrust scholar to know that consumers are losing. In sum, a straightforward application of antitrust law says the merger is in a highly concentrated market posing an extraordinary danger to consumers.
Adrian Fraim may be getting his "early termination fee" waived by the benevolent Comcast. All he needed to do was contact the news, pray that they ran his story and it got some traction, and voila! Fee waived.