Silent Approval of the Comcast Arbitration Agreement

Have you ever opened a cable, telephone or utility bill to find a collection of flyers promoting additional services? What do you usually do with those flyers? Probably the same exact thing I do, throw them out.

Well, two days ago I received my Comcast bill which had a glossy black flyer enclosed. As I walked to the trash to throw out the junk flyer included with my bill, the words "Arbitration Notice" on the front of the flyer caught my eye. Standing next to the kitchen garbage can, I read the flyer and discovered that Comcast is changing the customer subscriber agreement to include mandatory arbitration for any dispute. My mood went from "time to sort the mail," to "you've got to be kidding me."

So what does this actually mean? Any dispute with Comcast must be resolved through arbitration and cannot end up in court. Comcast says that the word dispute, "is to be given the broadest possible meaning that will be enforced." In other words:

"The term 'Dispute' means any dispute, claim or controversy between you and Comcast regarding any aspect of your relationship with Comcast that has accrued or may hereafter accrue, whether based in contract, statute, regulation, ordinance, tort (including, but not limited to, fraud, misrepresentation, fraudulent inducement, negligence or any other intentional tort)."

In essence, Comcast customers wouldn't be able to join class action lawsuits or escalate the dispute by taking the company to court. What ever happened to the sixth amendment or the due process of law? Clearly, Comcast believes more in the bottom line than the American way.

However, it's not the "you can't sue us" part alone that angers me. It's the "you can't sue us and if we don't hear from you in thirty days you agree to these terms." Comcast customers are given thirty days from notification of the service agreement change to opt-out of the arbitration clause. What if the flyer title hadn't caught my eye? I would have been opted-in to the arbitration clause. My silence becomes a binding agreement. How does that make sense?

I was pleased to find out that one town is trying to take a stand against Comcast. Montgomery County, MD is urging all residents to opt-out of the agreement. Read more here.

There are two important things I urge everyone to do: 1) All Comcast customers should visit www.comcast.com/arbitrationoptout and opt-out of this agreement, and 2) Look at the "junk" included with your utility bills before tossing them into the trash.