DirecTV False Advertising Says FTC
For years, everyone involved in the TV or phone business has boosted their profits using increasingly dishonest tactics, all made legitimate by a few paragraphs of fine print on ever advertisement. For example, the advertised rate doesn’t actually include all of the costs necessary to use the package you are buying. There are plenty of add-on fees, plus modem rental, DVR rental, and so on, which I noticed not long ago when comparing Comcast to CenturyLink here in Denver, one of many articles about cable bill scams I’ve written over the years. And, then of course, there is the gold standard of trickery, the limited-time offer, where your cable or satellite provider starts by offering you a reasonable competitive rate for a limited time. Then, your rate goes up, automatically, and all those great offers are for “new customers only.” FTC Claims DirecTV False Advertising Since all the TV and phone companies use this low-priced trial offer, it was somewhat surprising today to see that the FTC is charging DirectTV with false advertising regarding it’s introductory trial offer of service. Or, as the FTC blog says, “there’s DIRECTV — and then there’s Deceptively Advertised DIRECTV.” – Ouch. The key to …