I hate cable service providers.

[Altitude]

I recently dropped the television portion of my cable service and kept just the internet service which is listed at 42.95 a month on Comcasts website. So I get my bill and there is this $12.00 monthly charge listed as "Performance Tier WOC."

So I called and asked what that was all about and it was explained that WOC means With-Out-Cable and that I have to pay that extra $12.00 because I don't have any television service. WTF? Not that 12 bucks is a big deal, but why the frig don't they just list it as $54.95 instead of listing the $12.00 as a "Performance Tier" making one believe they are getting something extra when it's clearly a penalty for not having basic television cable service?

Worst part is that Comcast has a monopoly in my area and I don't have any recourse other than to go DSL which by the way also requires basic phone service to get whatever pricing they list on their site ( I dropped my land line some time ago as well in favor of cell phone service only.)

Why can't companies just be straight up with their customers? I'm far more inclined to cancel a service after I find out about these sorts of duplicitous tactics than I would be inclined to not purchase in the first place if they'd just tell me the actual cost up front and not try to bullshit me by listing a penalty fee as a "Performance Tier."

*sigh*