Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

Comcast Cable has enjoyed a long standing franchise agreement in Oakland, which is why it seems every apartment has the service at the exclusion of any alternative.  That monopolistic setup has led to some very bad behavior on the part of the cable giant.   For example, Comcast has a system where if one is late for a payment, then pays it to get current, they still count a penalty charge for the number of days the payment was late, which is charged on top of what is owed but does not show up until months later.   In other words, you could late pay, think your bill is current, then three months later be informed that you still owe them for past months, even if you thought and they told you that you were current. It's a very weird billing system that does not serve customers well and could cause customers to think Comcast was scamming them.   That's why I stopped Comcast and went to satellite service.  I'm of the view that I should not have to pay to get a communication