When signing up for any cable, satellite, or phone service make sure you ask ALL the critical questions.

As Richard Selinga of the Unionville section of Farmington discovered, you have to look beyond the advertised price to make sure that what you are buying is what you really expect.

And we are talking about not fly-by-night companies, but reputable firms that are unable to put all the caveats into an ad.

Selinga recently signed up for Comcast's Infinity package of cable TV, Internet and digital phone service for the advertised price of $99 plus tax.

But when he received his first bill, he was charged an additional $8.51 for HD television.

"When I signed the contract, the salesperson did not mention anything about an extra charge for HD television," Selinga told me. "He said that all channels including the HD channels in the package were included. I got no satisfaction from Comcast when I questioned the bill. They said that the HD was extra.

"I questioned why don't they include that in the original price, since the package is not really $99 it is $107.51. They had no answer for that. They just keep saying that the HD is extra. Isn't this false advertising?"

Selinga also discovered the joys of attempting to contact a company today by telephone.

"Trying to reach them is a challenge sometimes. Often I would get a message that all operators were busy and after waiting for a couple of minutes I would get a message that the call could not be complete and to call again. Then I would have to go through all the options again only to have the same thing happen. Other times I was lucky and would be able to get through without a problem. There is probably nothing you can do, but I just want to vent and warn other people about their misleading ads."

Well that email from Selinga did have an impact.

I sent it to my contact at Comcast, Laura Brubaker, a public relations representative who has solved scores of legitimate complaints I asked her to look into.

After looking into Selinga's complaint, Brubaker said they would make amends to him and to stress with company sales people to make clear what options were and were not included in the package they were buying.

"Long story short," Brubaker told me "the reason it's advertised as a $99 bundle is because that's the regular cost when it includes digital cable service (bundled with Comcast Digital Voice and Internet)."

"However, customers w/ HDTVs that want to receive HD content (and an HD box) have the option of getting the HD version of that bundle - which does cost more."

"However -- that is something that should be clearly stated by the representative when the customer is signing up for a bundle and then it is also included in the contract that the customer signs with us (which it is in his case).  But based on his feedback that he wasn't informed of that difference verbally, our Customer Care team is going to credit that extra HD fee for the length of his promotion (12 months) and make sure he's reimbursed for the fee that he paid in the past.  I also told him to keep my contact info. on hand if he runs into any problems."

Now that is the way you deal with a legitimate complaint. Admit that there was a problem and immediately take corrective action.

Brubaker also provided a further explanation of what the state's largest cable service offers:

"I just wanted to clarify something about packages (and HD):  the descriptions of the packages we offer do spell out what's included. For example -- a Starter XFINITY Triple Play package states that it includes Digital Starter video with one digital set-top box and remote control, XFINITY Internet Performance Service and XFINITY Voice Comcast Unlimited. To enjoy HD cable programming, customers must have an HDTV and an HD-enabled digital set-top box from their provider (whether it's us or anyone else).

"We do have a number of HD packages (HD Preferred XFINITY Triple Play, HD Preferred Plus XFINITY Triple Play, HD Premier XFINITY Triple Play) that are specifically HD packages and what is listed is the straight price without any additional costs for HD."

So before accepting any deal, whether it's from Comcast, Charter, Cox, satellite TV, cell phone plans, ask the following questions:

What is included in the package?

What is the TOTAL cost including taxes and other charges?

How long is my commitment? What if I want to break the contract earlier?

Describe exactly what you are looking for and make sure you are getting that.

And make a note of who you spoke to and the time and day of that conversation.

If it's a face to discussion in a kiosk, require all promises made by the salesperson to be in WRITING.

You can reach The Watchdog at George@connecticutwatchdog.com and he will answer as many emails as he can. Please check out his site, www.ctwatchdog.com for comprehensive consumer, health, finance, media, internet, computer, travel and education tips.