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knightmb
Everybody Lies
join:2003-12-01
Franklin, TN
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| reply to dangarion
Re: Theft of service is bad.....
said by dangarion  :I don't. They were knowingly stealing cable and the guy was committing fraud. Just because they were praising him for installing their illegal cable doesn't mean he had better reviews then the legit cable guys. Plus no where in the article does it say their were praising him. If anything they were just happy that he was assisting in the stealing of the service, and upkeep. And yes I work for a cable company. Stealing is illegal, no matter what it is. I had room mates that got cable into my house, when they moved out a year ago, Comcast never disconnected the service. A year later, I switched from Dish to Comcast and they of course saw that the cable was already active when they arrived. The cable guy was nice, and probably did report this to his boss. So I don't blame him for doing his job. Of course, within a few weeks, I got the evil letter demanding back payment. I contacted their attorney office and had the entire staff for lunch (google was my friend as I countered everything they said until they were speechless) in which I followed it up with an angry letter and have never heard from them since.
Stealing is bad, we know. But trying to scare innocent people in paying is illegal as well. So two wrongs don't make a right. If they knew, shame on them. If they didn't, don't let the cable company scare you because these kind of cases have been passed through the legal system many times in which ignorance is always the winner. | |
dangarion
join:2003-05-26
Santa Ana, CA
| I agree with you. But just because one does not know they are doing something illegal does not make it legal. If someone sells me pirated DVDs and claims they are real but only sells them to me for a buck each that doesn't make me free and clear of my actions. It's the consumers responsibility to know what they are purchasing. Ignorance does not make responsibility go away.
In your case it sounds as though Comcast screwed up. If they didn't disco that's their fault. | |
phattieg
join:2001-04-29
Winter Park, FL
 ·Verizon Wireless B..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| reply to knightmb
You are a one in a billion situation though. I myself have never heard of someone getting threatened with legal action as a result of cable theft. It is the cable companies responsibility to do audits for service theft. Unless your address was flagged as being a known theft of service, they will let it slide the first time, and maybe even the second time, but if you keep stealing it, a police report would be filed, and instead of the cable companies lawyers sending you a letter, a nice police officer will knock on your door to summons you to court, or haul you off to jail, either one. Not sure what happened in your case, but you have nothing to worry about if you had a Dish that you were paying for service on. You simply show them proof that you had a dish, and were paying for it legally, and you're off the hook anyway. Google won't save you from the REAL hounds that Comcast hires to make you pay. You have NO IDEA what their lawyers will do to you if your case went to court. But hey, no point in arguing about it, because you got off the hook, just like I said. So "case dismissed". But again, I have never heard of someone being summons into court over a one time offense for cable fraud. | |
Thespis
I'm not an actor, but I play one on TV.
Premium
join:2004-08-03
Keller, TX
| said by phattieg :You are a one in a billion situation though. I myself have never heard of someone getting threatened with legal action as a result of cable theft. I had @home internet but no cable TV. My line was clearly marked with an @home tag. The installer failed to put a filter on my line to block TV. I had Dish at the time and didn't know. I got a letter threatening me with legal action if I didn't pay retroactively for TV from the time my @home service was installed.
It took about a month to sort it out; about two weeks of no internet. | |
phattieg
join:2001-04-29
Winter Park, FL
·Verizon Wireless B..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| Well, once again, you must be a one in a billion. I ain't picking on you, but you did not have 25 other posters saying "me too" when you posted that story. It doesn't mean it hasn't happend before wither. But as I said, I've never heard of that happening. When cable theft occurs, they come to your house with a camera, and take pictures of the illegal connection, and any possible damage to their equipment too. They file it in their records and flag the address in the billing system as having once stole cable, and it is left alone until you steal it again. If you steal it again, they take more pictures, and usually leave a tag on your door saying they know you're stealing it, it's illegal, and if you do it again, you will be federally prosecuted and could face a $10,000 fine, please call this number to setup service, we'll even waive the install, etc... If you do it after that, both incidents and pictures from both incidents are sent to the state attorneys office, and a lawsuit may also follow. It costs the cable company money to do all of these things to begin with, like gas money, paying the tech to take the photo's, wasting his time with a non-subscriber when he could be helping a customer with a real issue, and in most cases the theif has crappy experience hooking the cable up, so their is signal leaks generated, which degrades your neighbors signal, etc, but they usually try to get you to becme legit first, because they'd rather not spend the money taking you to court. Your situation is a unique one, and it sucks you had to deal with all that, but illegal is illegal. Something folks might not know in this forum is this. If you have a HUD home, and you steal cable, you could lose your house, because theft of utilities in general is against HUD's contract, and if they wanted to be evil (which they don't usually resort to this tactic) they can have your house taken from you. I'm not calling YOU a criminal, but anyone else in here who has stolen cable needs to ask yourself, is reruns, and basic cable worth your house? Hell no. So don't steal it, it's not worth it. You'd be better off pirating DishNetworks Nagravision encryption on a FTA box, but even that has its repercussions. My ex's father sold a bunch of FTA satellite boxs, and now he's facing 12 yars in jail, and $35,000 in fines. But it's your life, so play at your own risk. | |
Thespis
I'm not an actor, but I play one on TV.
Premium
join:2004-08-03
Keller, TX | ... at the very least, I'm one of two in a billion.
I bet this happens more than you think. I wasn't stealing cable, so I have no problems posting this story. If I had been stealing cable, I might not have posted out of embarrassment.
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