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FCC Issues Millions in Fines

T

Tim

Supreme [H]ardness
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I do not expect any of the readers of [H]ard|OCP to not be aware of the digital switch next year. That said, there are people that go and buy a brand new analog TV, only to find out that it will not work without a converter after next February's switch. The FCC is stepping in and doling out fines to retailers that fail to disclose this information at the point of sale.

The FCC requires retailers and manufacturers to notify consumers of plans to switch to digital television signals by marking television sets and receivers that will be obsolete when the transition to digital television takes place.
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Just another act of the government to financially rape the masses.
 
Anyone manufacturing an analog only TV these days should be taken out and shot.

The added cost for digital is around $.50, simply use a dual mode tuner chip instead of the analog only.

Bestbuy etc should have purged thier shelves over a year ago. Now, punish them, punish them like you know they like to be punished!!!! :eek::rolleyes::p
 
SpeedRunner said:
Just another act of the government to financially rape the masses.
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Ahh, yes, so true. That's EXACTLY what the government is doing by fining companies for selling products without warning them that it won't work soon.

A lot of people post without even reading the article. It seems you posted this useless crap without even reading the summary, or even the title, since the FCC doesn't fine anyone but businesses... So why the hell are you even here?
 
1. These fines will be passed on to the customer, so the headline could read "FCC fines Best Buy's customers...". Unplanned expenses that aren't related to the cost of goods such as this sold go straight to the prices.

2. What kind of person goes into an electronics retailer without having done their research? It would be one thing if a retailer lied to the customer (sure, this TV will be good for another 10 years), but failure to hold the customer's hand through every little detail is not, in my opinion, a finable offense.
 
kpedge said:
1. These fines will be passed on to the customer, so the headline could read "FCC fines Best Buy's customers...". Unplanned expenses that aren't related to the cost of goods such as this sold go straight to the prices.

2. What kind of person goes into an electronics retailer without having done their research? It would be one thing if a retailer lied to the customer (sure, this TV will be good for another 10 years), but failure to hold the customer's hand through every little detail is not, in my opinion, a finable offense.
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Who buys a t.v. nowadays to only have it last for 1-2 years?

And no, the fines won't be passed onto customers.
 
The fines to BB are peanuts. From another article that listed who got what:
Sears Holdings Corp., which operates Sears and Kmart retail stores, was fined nearly $1.1 million for the labeling violation, while Wal-Mart was given a $992,000 fine and Circuit City Stores Inc. was handed a $712,000 fine. Target Corp., Best Buy, Fry's Electronics Inc. and CompUSA Inc., which has since been acquired by Systemax Inc., were assessed fines between $168,000 to $384,000.
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That's like not offering one loss leader for one week at worst for BB.
 
Only the OTA signals will become digitized so analog TVs will work just fine with most cable/satellite setups. Personally I don't have a giant antenna outside to get a signal so it won't make a huge difference to me. Other than buying a cheap TV atm I'm not sure why someone would buy a set without a digital tuner included or buy electronics from BB period for that matter, everything is overpriced. Right now I think I'm only picking up around 5-10 digital channels on cable anyways. Not including all the music and other crap that nobody watches with the digital package. Now HD is a whole different topic.
 
SpeedRunner said:
Just another act of the government to financially rape the masses.
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What a freakin' troll...



Good for the FCC though... About time someone keeps these businesses in check about this stuff (And I hope it is ongoing investigations- not "fine you and forget").
 
Yeah, RTFA to those that didn't. That means Read The F*cking Article. Anyway, I agree with the general consensus. Goooooooo FCC! Next time charge 10x More. Rape those companies raw out the yin-yang, we'll just buy from others if they raise prices.
 
Miscommunication said:
Yeah, RTFA to those that didn't. That means Read The F*cking Article. Anyway, I agree with the general consensus. Goooooooo FCC! Next time charge 10x More. Rape those companies raw out the yin-yang, we'll just buy from others if they raise prices.
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Yep. Places like the FCC work well at this stuff. Consumers have TONS of other options.

Oil, on the other hand, has America by the balls... Not much else to choose from, which SUCKS, hence the $4 gas.
 
pxc said:
The fines to BB are peanuts. From another article that listed who got what:
That's like not offering one loss leader for one week at worst for BB.
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Its probably an issue where they forgot the disclaimer in a weekly circular, where as the other companies were not making efforts to properly document their entire line up or something
 
all fines and corporate taxes get passed on to consumers. it's the idea behind 'double taxing' and is why all gov't imposed coprorate taxes dont mean shit to corporations and should be removed entirely.

the FCC shouldnt be able to tell companies what to sell. if there's no demand for an analogue TV, best buy wont sell them. if there IS a demand, you can expect them to stock enough on their shelves to satisfy that demand. that, until the FCC imposes its solcialistic policies on them...

And 1 more thing:

this entire "digital converter box" BS is just that...BS. Analogue TVs work just fine, and will continue to do so after Feb 09. all you need to do is subscribe to Digital TV. DTV is usually the same price as analogue and is bundled in all those Triple and Quadruple Play bundles with DTV, High Speed Net, and Digital Phone. At least a half dozen ISPs/Cable providers have similar bundles and make it a no brainer. Also, all satellite services use a Digital Converter Box.

So...all ditigal cable, satellite, and FTTH/FIOS services REQUIRE boxes whether you have a digital tuner /QAM-capable TV or not. I fail to see why everyone is up in arms.
 
Somnambulator said:
all fines and corporate taxes get passed on to consumers. it's the idea behind 'double taxing' and is why all gov't imposed coprorate taxes dont mean shit to corporations and should be removed entirely.

the FCC shouldnt be able to tell companies what to sell. if there's no demand for an analogue TV, best buy wont sell them. if there IS a demand, you can expect them to stock enough on their shelves to satisfy that demand. that, until the FCC imposes its solcialistic policies on them...

And 1 more thing:

this entire "digital converter box" BS is just that...BS. Analogue TVs work just fine, and will continue to do so after Feb 09. all you need to do is subscribe to Digital TV. DTV is usually the same price as analogue and is bundled in all those Triple and Quadruple Play bundles with DTV, High Speed Net, and Digital Phone. At least a half dozen ISPs/Cable providers have similar bundles and make it a no brainer. Also, all satellite services use a Digital Converter Box.

So...all ditigal cable, satellite, and FTTH/FIOS services REQUIRE boxes whether you have a digital tuner /QAM-capable TV or not. I fail to see why everyone is up in arms.
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This isn't about the cable companies. It's about the people that get their television signal over the air. There is nothing wrong with the other way.
 
Loki008 said:
Its probably an issue where they forgot the disclaimer in a weekly circular, where as the other companies were not making efforts to properly document their entire line up or something
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The fines were from in-store inspections. BB got caught for instances in 18 stores.
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It's not really malice on BB's part, just some employees' incompetence. If corporate explains that disclaimers are required on analog TVs and capture devices, and most of the work is done, the few cases where it is not is due to an employee not doing his or her job. Or it could be someone else removed the notice from the merchandise.

Fry's was one of the other stores "caught" and they had been putting bright orange stickers on boxes for a long time. Maybe the FCC was being especially picky, but the financial exposure to class action lawsuits from consumers could be much worse. There is an appeal available, but it's probably pointless since the stores had not done what they were required to do.
 
Tim said:
This isn't about the cable companies. It's about the people that get their television signal over the air. There is nothing wrong with the other way.
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who still gets analogue TV OTA? maybe 8 people out in Arkansas?
 
Somnambulator said:
who still gets analogue TV OTA? maybe 8 people out in Arkansas?
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http://www.dtvanswers.com/dtv_affected.html

At least 19.6 million households receive over-the-air signals exclusively in their homes, and 14.9 million households have secondary over-the-air television sets in their bedrooms or kitchens.

Overall, nearly 70 million television sets are at risk of losing their signals on February 17, 2009, if consumers do not make the easy transition to DTV.
 
snowcat said:
http://www.dtvanswers.com/dtv_affected.html

At least 19.6 million households receive over-the-air signals exclusively in their homes, and 14.9 million households have secondary over-the-air television sets in their bedrooms or kitchens.

Overall, nearly 70 million television sets are at risk of losing their signals on February 17, 2009, if consumers do not make the easy transition to DTV.
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So roughly, 20% of America ;) Big chunk.

Over 50% of America is still on dial up, if you want to put that in perspective as well. Yes- we live in a highly technological age, but there are still plenty of people that can't get it or are still on the old stuff.
 
20% may or may not seem like a big chunk of America, but I happen to know a few folks who live in rural areas and are stuck with dial up, can't get satellite, directTV or dsl, let alone cable.

I obviously do have cable, but I have an older (working) TV in my bedroom. Use it mostly with my DVD player if I'm feeling really poorly. No way I'm gonna pay for a new tv or to have the cable company to come out and hook that TV up (it's like $80 for them to just walk in the door!) and pay rent on another box. I applied for one of the coupons to get the box, just in case I want to, say, watch the news in my bedroom.
 
Glad to see some more positive news stories. I'm not a daily reader, but I've been annoyed with all the negativity in media surrounding corporations and their "big evil hand" that somehow grips the general populace and intrudes into all aspects of their life. Unfortunately, these kinds of news stories don't usually make it to the mass media outlet
 
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