COMCAST wanting Retail Service Agreement without BULK service in community

Our HOA severed ties with Comcast bulk services and each homeowner is on their own.

COMCAST has sent the Board documents regarding a Retail Service Agreement. States it is NOT a bulk service proposal and no financial obligation.
It is a TEN YEAR agreement and offers the HOA $9300 as incentive.

If ALL residents are on their own, why would Comcast need a LEGAL agreement with the BOD for 10 years?

If someone has already received this bulky 'agreement' would you give some input before we try to decipher exactly what Comcast is up to? Are they demanding 'exclusive rights' so that competitors cannot put THEIR wiring etc?

The red flag was offering the $9300.

Steve, I have the documents. Was trying to avoid spending time trying to understand all their 'cable' talk and paying an attorney.

Was hoping others have received similar documents. One para states that the 'Association desires to provide broadband services to the Premises, including but not limited to, multi-channel video, high speed data, information and voice services and Comcast is willing to install, maintain and operate a broadband communication system for such purposes on the Premises. Sounds like a BULK services to me.
WHAT DOES THIS all mean?

None of us on the BOD are into all the 'technical' mumbo jumbo. The HOA did not ask for anything. Each owner is now able to get whatever company they want. Comcast wants a list of ALL of our homeowners.
The HOA cannot enter into a bulk service agreement with another service provider. So the HOA is going to sign a 10 year agreement with Comcast,get an "incentive" for doing so and then the individual homeowners are all under the Comcast umbrella!

TEN YEARS is a long time in this day and age of technology, so this too is a red flag for us.

ANY help would be appreciated!

John, you have that right! We had Comcast for 14 years and it was a good deal for basic cable, which an antenna can give most channels for FREE. That is another story.
HOWEVER, the BOD opted to decline this year due to all the OTHER options out there and people getting FREE services and NOT paying the HOA fees. Eliminating CC decreased our quarterly fees and made them more affordable.

THIS came out of the blue and as soon as I saw the 'incentive' I knew it wasn't a good sign. As you can well imagine, the documents are quite numerous and none of our BOD has the technical expertise to really understand what they really are wanting to do. Just don't want the BOD members to be DAZZLED by the $9300 coming into our bank account and be blinded by details of what we are binding our HOA to. MONEY, as you know, and Comcast hopes, will be the 'deciding' factor. Not for ME. I am only ONE of 5 which is why I really want to understand what this is all about.

The "no cost to the HOA" and "no obligation" blah blah blah can swing the decision to go with this based on just the windfall. Catch my drift?

THANKS for responding!

Any and all residents can currently get cable-based services from Comcast?
What need could there possibly be for the HOA to enter into a contract? Seems a bit pointless.

There are different programs.

- One program is for the HOA to pay a fixed rate to Comcast for all the homes in the HOA. Then people pay the HOA as part of thier dues for cable. The HOA would receive one big bill and pay it like any other expense.

- Another program is for the HOA to give Comcast exclusive right to be the only cable company in the HOA. So others like Fios, ATT, Time Warner cannot offer competing services. For this right, Comcast is willing to offer this HOA $1,000 year. Likely based on thier size, etc.

- Another option would be to stay out of it and let people decide what they want for themselves. Personally, I would choose this.

I'm still confused as to why ANY HOA would enter into an agreement with Comcast or any other provider of any similar service. What benefit is there to the residents by locking them into anything of the sort?

Comcast offered our association around $20K for a similar agreement. While he'd had several communities that had accepted these offers, our association attorney said it was too new to no how it would go in the long run, and we ultimately rejected the deal.

Our issue was that it was unclear what would be the responsibility of the association and the responsibility of Comcast regarding the cable lines in the community and to and from houses.

If you have questions about it, I can probably go back in my emails and find the attorney's notes on this.

I simply don't understand why an HOA would find it necessary to meddle in such a thing that each owner can do on their own.

Be very careful with this contract. We are in the 3rd of 10 year contract. Our Master Board (I was not on the Master at that time) negotiated the deal, we also got bonus money. They contract says they can increase rates by 4% per year. They told the Master Board that they rarely raise rates....haha, what a joke that was. Not only have they raised the rates the max each year but they can raise the fees and taxes as much as they want and they have. The bonus money is not nearly enough. We have hired a consultant to help us, not sure what he can do but he is working on something. At our recent annual meeting, all homeowners requested we opt out completely on the next contract. I do not think we need to amend our documents either because they say the amount for cable must be included in the budget each year, and if that number is zero then so be it. Please give the bulk contracts serious thought. We regret it so.

SMART!!!

When anyone goes above and beyond to convince you it smells like roses … it usually is dung in the long run.

While the OP admits to not having read the proposed contract nor having the ability to comprehend the details it is difficult for me to determine just what COMCAST is proposing. Are they in fact asking to be the exclusive service provider? Or is this an assumption.

Also, here the cable service has upgraded their system and has remained a viable option to FIOS not been eliminated by the presence of FIOS.
In fact the cable provider still services the majority of property owners here.

I would suggest you determine what the proposal actually says and requires. That would represent " due diligence" to me. That allows an informed decision rather than assumptions and misunderstandings.

Good Luck.

When we signed up to have FIOS installed we had a small group of residents whine and complain because they thought it did not benefit the property.
In the end they were wrong.

Please HELP. I am on the board however the other board members voted to give Comcast a service agreement for 10 years. It has not been signed yet so I have a little time. Does the board have this right to give right of entry etc.? Our assoseation a CIC and has been wired science 70s. Every one has the provider of their choice Comcast, dish etc. Any info to stop the board from signing this contract???

My hoa is looking at this Comcast contract right now. I suspect that they think that Verizon will be bringing Fios to our area soon. Does anyone know how to verify that? I have looked for info from Verizon but have hit dead ends. The posts on this topic are years old. Have any of the posters signed the contract? Can you provide any updates?

Hi, Diann. It's probably better to start a new thread because the bulk of this one is very old, especially since technology, the cable companies, the high speed internet providers.... all of those change significantly over time.

Having said that, I was under the impression that Verizon was "done" with FIOS and that whatever was built out will stay that way but they were no longer going to expand the service to new areas. They can make more money with wireless technology (3G, 4G, 5G etc) than they can with fiber.

Thanks Gino, I wasn't aware. Now I have homework to do to see who's coming with what wireless technologies. I appreciate your input!

sounds like comcast wants a monopoly!!! but it would not stop me from calling other content providers aka dish or directv. it's don't pay to be loyal to any company anymore and people will always flock to who gives them the best deal and goodies. for me it's quality over price and directv blows cable away with there channel lineup and PQ. cable is slowly a dying product thank god the PQ was always horrible anyways. just like where i am now i have the verizon's 5G whole home broadband. let me tell you it's worth every penny and i will never go back to a cable co again. for 50.00 a month i get high speed internets that in the gigs and i do mean that's in the gigs faster than what verizon says and latency that's no more than a milisecond. with all this new tech coming out i would not sign a contract with a fiber provider. i see streaming and 5G will be the way everything will be going. and BTW verizon will give new customers a free install free modem free router and free hardware upgrades for the first year free plus the first three months free!!! free apple t.v. or 4k chromecast 3 free months of you tube t.v. and after the free 3 months it's only 50.00 for verizon subs and 70.00 for non verizon subs. my average DL speeds are between 7-8 GBS so why whould i even look at cable as there speeds suck poor latency horrible upload speeds

oh yea i had spectrum and they nickle and dime you to death you want there 500 mbps that's a 90.00 a month plus a 50.00 buck upgrade fee for them to push a few buttons and if you wanted there gigabit service then theres a 200.00 upgrade fee!!! i pick verizon hands down