Fairfax County is urging residents to beware of proposals from Comcast that require people to quickly respond or forfeit the right to ever sue the company.
Comcast this summer sent notices to customers that give them 30 days to opt out of an arbitration agreement, which would mandate that conflicts over cable service are resolved through one of two independent arbitrators.
Fairfax County this week recommended that its residents not just ignore the letter.
In Montgomery County, officials recently raiseda similar protest after the company sent the same agreements to their residents. The Maryland county registered an even stronger protest, suggesting Comcast was intentionally seeking to lull residents into giving up their legal rights.
Fairfax was content to advise residents of the consequences of ignoring the letter.
“The best thing to do, in this case, is to keep all of your options open,” said Michael Liberman, the new director of the county’s Department of Cable Communications and Consumer Protection.
The county warns that agreeing to arbitration would reduce the time window in which a customer can bring a claim against the company, restrict his or her right to appeal adverse decisions and limit damages.
Comcast spokeswoman Jaye Linnen said those arbitration agreements already are in place, and that the company sent the new notices, in part, to give them a choice to turn arbitration down.
“For the vast majority of Comcast customers, arbitration has been part of the agreement since 2000,” she said. “The notices would have been that we’ve standardized and improved the policy and now have an ‘out’ option.”
It’s unclear exactly when customers received the notices. Liberman said they appear to have been sent out with July bills; Linnen said they went out between May and July.
Comcast is one of three cable franchises operating in Fairfax County, along with Verizon and Cox Communications, and serves only customers in Reston. Neither Fairfax County nor the company could provide an exact number of residents who use Comcast.
Linnen said it has 1.1 million customers in the Potomac region, which includes parts of Maryland, Virginia and the District.
