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New Contributor
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"To keep you better informed... a $6.00 surcharge"... what?!?!
So in the billing messaging explaining the increase in pricing, this is in there...
"To keep you better informed of the costs associated with the delivery of regional sports programming, a new Regional Sports Surcharge in the amount of $6.00 will be listed on your bill under the "Other fees and Surcharges" section of your TV service."
What exactly is that supposed to mean?... if you're trying to find a "nice way" of finding a way to charge us for local sports costs (whether we watch them or not), don't insult us and come up with some ridiculous statement like this. I want some explanation of what this really is, is it monthly, what if I don't watch local sports??
BrendaH
Former Moderator
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We can look into this for you. Please email us a cox.help@cox.com.
Brenda
Cox Support Forums Moderator
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Danaw
New Contributor
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I had the same thing on my bill and my broadcasting fee went up? Makes no sense when you literally don't change a thing on your bill and there was no notification that I was going to be charged for something I don't use?
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Jeff123
New Contributor
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Tecknowhelp
Valued Contributor II
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My guess is ESPN or one of the other sports channel raised prices, and instead of raising the price of the service that include those channels, they tax everyone who has the service. This is similar to the Broadcast Surcharge mentioned here.
The Broadcast Surcharge reflects increasing costs associated with the delivery of broadcast TV stations to our Customers. These costs may include, but are not limited to, portions of retransmission costs, network costs, copyright costs, and others.
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Mark_K
New Contributor III
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I don't see this on my bill (Orange County, CA). Is it a regional thing or maybe my billing cycle is later?
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Becky
+2 more
Moderator
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In the past, all Cox television programming costs and fees were simply rolled together in our charges for Advanced TV service or the specific Tier of service. Over the years, Cox has had to raise service rates due to rising video programming costs and network retransmission fees. In an effort to meet the demand for more transparent billing practices, we introduced surcharges as a way to highlight the different costs associated with the delivery of broadcast TV networks. The separate line items simply allow customers to better track how these costs impact their total TV charge.
Regional Sports Networks are available to Cox customers who subscribe to Essential TV or above. To maximize their revenue, Regional Sports Broadcasters often require service providers like Cox to include their sports channels in the most popular programming packages. This means that Cox must include the Regional Sports channels in our most widely distributed level of service, or we aren’t allowed to carry the channels at all. We introduced the Regional Sports Surcharge to more clearly reflect how the increasing costs associated with providing regional sports channels impact a customer's bill.
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AllenP
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Valued Contributor
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Thanks for the explanation, Becky ... but ... how does this effect promos and price lock contracts? Are surcharges a way to get around price locks and raise rates within the contract period? Will price lock customers be exempt until the end of their contract? Thanks.
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Tecknowhelp
Valued Contributor II
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Becky
+2 more
Moderator
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For customers who subscribe to Essential TV (or higher) and have a Service Agreement or a PLG in place before 8/1/16, their bill will reflect the Regional Sports Surchage with a corresponding credit for the term of their service agreement.
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socal_transplan
Contributor III
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becky, we are not stupid..
tacking on "fees" and "surcharges" and any other costs that "don't change rates" keep the costs from having to be approved by the fcc.
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Tecknowhelp
Valued Contributor II
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To be fair, she gave a very good explanation within the confines of what she could say. It's not like a employee of Cox is going to come out on a public forum saying their employer is being sneaky. Need to read between the lines.
Plus, if you think this is bad, just wait. It' is about to get SO much worse.
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Scottie1001
New Contributor
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I'm in a 24 month "price locked" contract. When I entered the agreement I was locked in for specified services at a specific price for the entire 24 month period. Now if I want to keep the same service, I have to pay more money.
I don't care what semantics Cox uses, this is a violation of the spirit of the agreement I entered into, just 4 months ago.
Here's how some Comcast customers are dealing with this type of abuse: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/10/comcast-accused-of-falsely-promising-low-prices-hiding-bogus-fees/
I understand that negotiated content costs money, but Cox should be eating those increases. The intent (and indeed the marketing and promotion) of "locking in" a service only to have those rate increases be passed on to the customers as a "surcharge" is abusive.
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larrysil
New Contributor
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You still have not told us what the "Regional Sports Networks" covers? We don't care for BYU tv or the PAC, so exactly who is, if anyone, blackmailing COX for this additional charge? Without knowing how many subscribers are being hit with this questionable charge, I also wonder how much total money per month is being collected!
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nr1620
New Contributor
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