Owen wrote to me with some grave concerns about a notice he received from Comcast regarding changes to the Comcast Agreement for Residential Services.
[ Follow the Gripe Line's earlier issues with Comcast in "Follow your cable company on Twitter" and "Hacking the customer service game" ]
The first thing that got Owen's attention was this passage, which he thought might be there to cover Comcast as the company moves more analog channels to the digital tier.
You agree that by using the Services, you are enabling and authorizing Comcast, its authorized agents and equipment manufacturers to send code updates to the Comcast Equipment and Customer Equipment. Such code updates may change, add or remove features or functionality of any such equipment or the Services.
Frank Eliason, director of digital care, confirms that that phrase was added primarily to address two-way technologies, including Tru 2 Way. "This section allows us to change the programming on our cable boxes, cable modems, or cable cards (including Tru2Way cards)," explains Eliason. "This does not access the customer's equipment with the exception of customer-owned cable modems. At times we may need to change the bootfile on a modem for new speed tiers or other changes to improve performance. This is all done remotely."
The passage in the agreement that got Owen thinking it was time to move to another cable carrier was this one:
CUSTOMER EQUIPMENT MAY BE DAMAGED OR SUFFER SERVICE OUTAGES AS A RESULT OF THE INSTALLATION, SELF-INSTALLATION, USE, INSPECTION, MAINTENANCE, UPDATING, REPAIR, AND REMOVAL OF COMCAST EQUIPMENT, CUSTOMER EQUIPMENT AND/OR THE SERVICES. EXCEPT FOR GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT, NEITHER COMCAST NOR ANY OF ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OR CONTRACTORS SHALL HAVE ANY LIABILITY WHATSOEVER FOR ANY DAMAGE, LOSS, OR DESTRUCTION TO THE CUSTOMER EQUIPMENT. IN THE EVENT OF GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT BY COMCAST, SUPPLIERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OR CONTRACTORS, WE SHALL PAY AT OUR SOLE DISCRETION FOR THE REPAIR OR REPLACEMENT OF THE DAMAGED CUSTOMER EQUIPMENT UP TO A MAXIMUM OF $500. THIS SHALL BE YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY RELATING TO SUCH ACTIVITY.
"I am not a lawyer," says Owen, "but it sure looks like Comcast is saying they may sometimes need to open a customer's computer. If so and they break something, too bad -- it's not their problem. Even if it is [Comcast's fault], we are limited to recovering $500."
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