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Sunday, March 2, 2008
Billing Fiascos
311 comments:1 – 200 of 311 Newer› Newest»
charges a monthly fee $115 for phone, internet,and tv, but I have been billed $189 pr month requesting a pay ahead for a total of $378 plus taxes. And customer service can never give you an explaination of the charges you're being blled. we should get a discount just for the stress caused by this outfit.
Mass. Cape Cod
- March 6, 2008 at 8:31 AM
If you leave your acct number, I would be happy to look at it and go over it with you. I am not in customer service, or management, but I do have all of the abilities of management. I am also here in Mass and happened to find this site and your post late last night.
- March 8, 2008 at 7:12 AM
- Donna said...
We paid $155.42 for our service through 2/24 (phone, internet,cable). On 2/15, we re-bundled our services. On our next bill, we were charged a "pro-rated" amount ($39.60) for the bundled service for 2/15-2/24. Our contention is that we already paid for those 10 service days at a higher than the bundled rate. Why were we re-billed for those 10 days? Shouldn't we be getting credit for the difference, without being charged the $39.60? We have called and spoken to reps. Together we have made 6 phone calls to comcast!!! Ridiculous! There has been nothing but a lot of hold time and a lot of regurgitated lines about "prorated" charges. The issue STILL has not been explalined to the point of making any remote sense at all. If anything, the reps continue to repeat themselves over and over and click out repeatedly to get coaching from their supervisor. Yet no explaination, just the same line. How can it be that we are not being charged twice for those days when we already paid for those days in the $155.42 payment? During the last call my husband asked for a supervisor, the rep said they would call in 24hrs. Yeah... that has been 4 days! The amount of time, stress and hassle in dealing with this and customer service is beyond reasonable. We contacted them via their online chat and have since learned that is a joke too. We are so fed up with Comcast's lack of reasonable response and action to this issue that we want to change service providers. I have spoken with many bus stop parents(23)and many are suggesting several other service providers that actually respond reasonably to customers. I am speaking at a couple other group meetings and plan to bring up this issue. Prime example of poor customer service. Comcast (if you bother to read this) you may take my $39.60, take several of our valuable hours, make strife for us and continue to ignore us... BUT please remember; two disgruntled customers can spread the word like wildfire of your extremely poor quality billing and the lack of customer service.
Maybe some day you will actually respond and resolve issues like this, but for us, it may be too late. Acct # 8498340130204219
~ Fed up in Seattle
- March 11, 2008 at 12:10 AM
- Mark said...
Account #:05014 332827-04
I find it very interesting that I pay $60.95 (plus fees) a month for service and only get 5Mbps on a good day, while Comcast is willing to offer "new" customers 16Mbps for $52.95 (plus fees) a month. Is there a reason why, as a long standing customer, I have to pay MORE for LESS service? Don't bother calling customer service on that, they'll say you have to call billing. And billing doesn't care, they're just happy to offer to disconnect your service.
So, am I out of line for expecting better? Maybe. But for once, I'd like Comcast to step up and recognize when they are stealing from people.
- March 11, 2008 at 6:01 AM
- Donna said...
Well after husband called Corp today, they said they have "tried" calling us and "lucile" left a message yesterday. Funny this is, before you lie, you should see what our service is. We have caller ID and voicemail. No messages left, and No calls on caller ID. But she said they would call. Low and behold the phone rang, (800#) so when I answered nothing there. dead space. SO waiting for a voice message to be left- None. I called the number back. He said "comcast customer service survey" or the such. I explained the dead call and he said.."Oh, yeah, we tried to call, but we'll have to try again, and now you have to wait two or three days for us to call you back... " Are you kidding me??? add more days to the issue and it doesn't go away, just more frustrated to the point of anger. Why is it so hard for Comcast to respond and do as they say they will do.... service, billing, service calls, and call back! Just one thing after another with them!
- March 11, 2008 at 9:02 PM
Can you open a new account with comcast if you did'nt pay your old balance back in 2003. I want to open a new acount at a different address.If they will know how?
- March 12, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Comcast Phone Account 001 876 1143782016.
On 2/29/08, I transferred my phone service to a different provider. Today, I received a bill for monthly service from 3/8/08 to 4/7/08. When I called Comcast, the CSR stated that I had service during the billing period. She had no clue that Comcast bills for service in advance (like rent). When I asked for a supervisor, she disconnected me. I called back and again asked for a supervisor, the 2nd CSR demanded to know why, I told him due to the poor treatment of the previous CSR, and then he disconnected me.
- March 12, 2008 at 7:49 PM
- Martine said...
Wow. my bill has gone up from $66 a month (which I paid for 2 months) to $170 and they want to pay by direct billing? Apparently after the one year long offer I subscribed to ran out after only two months they suggested that I get the triple service deal including the phone to keep my bill down to $99. I rebundelled as did Donna and got charged the extra pro-rated amount (I'm glad she understood it and explained it because I cant). I was more taken aback by the fact that when they installed my phone they kindly updated my cable and internet packages without telling me, charging a further $20, and then informed me that to remove my additional services that I didn't ask for would cost me $10. So that accounts for the extra $110 of my new bill. Not to worry, they told me taht I can now rest assured that for the remainder of my contract my bills will be $115. I wait with anticipation.
- March 16, 2008 at 3:15 PM
- Donna said...
After a long, mind-numbing battle, we finally have some resolution from Comcast. Spoke to a nice lady at corporate, explained the double billing error, and finally got a Comcast employee to ADMIT that we were indeed double-billed. We received credit for the ten days of "pro-rated" service we had already paid for, as well as a $50 credit for our inconvenience. Two pieces of advice for customers with a grievance. First, this blog works. Comcast does read postings here and respond. The Customer Care Lead, Lucille, who finally resolved our issue quoted from our posting on this blog in her response letter to us. Second, Comcast has a billing glitch in their system. Beware, if you change your service in the middle of a billing cycle, be prepared to look closely at your next bill to make sure you have not been double-billed for any overlapping days, as we were. The CSR's either can't see it or refuse to attempt to see it, even though it was blatantly obvious to us. It took a phone call to a corporate employee to get Comcast to examine our bill more closely. Lucille admitted in her letter a "system glitch in our billing system" and stated that it took a thorough investigation by another department to find the error. The CSR's made no effort to look at the issue using common sense. Instead they just stubbornly repeated the same nonsense, and in some cases insinuated it was our own fault for changing our service. To their credit, Comcast finally got it right with us, but it sure was a long battle.
- March 16, 2008 at 10:07 PM
I just upgraded to HDTV/DVR service with Comcast after both cable cards went bad in my Tivo. When they delivered my new DVR box, they refused to take the two cable cards with them. Now Comcast wants to charge me $13.95/mo for the DVR service (which I am fine with) and $5.99 ea ($11.98)for my two bad Cable cards they refused to take with them when dropping off the box. AT&T is looking more attractive every day. My account is 8220116010965441.
- March 17, 2008 at 6:53 AM
A month before my 'special offer' rate from Comcast came up, I thought I would get ahead of the curve and re-up with Comcast for another year if they would guarantee me the same rate. A young man (in sales I believe) told me after a few minutes that I wouldn't have to 'shop' Comcast's price with Dish or Direct TV, he would give me the same service at the 'same price' for another year, so I said OK. The very next bill was about $40.00 dollars higher. I called customer service and went through my problems with a nice young lady who said she would straighten it out and by next month all would be well. Pay a certain amount and my next bill would be for the aforementioned fixed rate. No way, the only thing about that conversation was the amount she said send in, I did, Comcasts straightening out their billing, nope. Same, unintelligible billing with of course a higher amount.
As I write this I have contacted Direct TV and Dish for rates, what a bunch of bull!
- March 17, 2008 at 8:10 AM
If you want to get a real credit.. tell them that you are going to STOP services imediatley.
NO questions, no back downs… you want to stop their services. Be firm… say no and say quit service often…
They will turn you over to "retention" specialists… and then you just stick to your "I'm going to quit and end services" routine… they will hand you a good package to keep you paying… cheaper or free premium stuff…
And then when it come due…; same routine…
This company is weak and will do anything to keep customers…
- March 17, 2008 at 8:17 PM
We are in an area that had Insight. Comcast has recently taken over the service for Insight. We received a flier in the mail indicating the rate increases that were due to take effect (less than a month after Comcast took over). That same day I read an article in the paper quoting a Comcast employee saying that rates would not go up in the foreseeable future (apparently since these were already in the mail it didn't count). Comcast is not off to a good start. Not to mention they don't carry the Big Ten Network (that is why I have Directv and Comcast is only for broadband)
- March 18, 2008 at 6:55 PM
- Deb said...
I paid my bill over Speedpay in early March. Although they credited my Comcast account, they then charged me a $25.00 fee - when I checked my bank account, the Comcast bill has not gone through. I called the bank and they said they had not had a request from either Speedpay or Comcast. Comcast tells me that the bank refused payment (although they had no problem paying all the other bills I paid on line that day.) My bank was very nice. Comcast representative was not. I faxed him the confirmation from Speedpay, the bank statement and he assured me it would be taken care of. It is still not resolved, and now all of a sudden my internet service charge has tripled - I have been on the phone with Comcast since 9:30 this morning and have yet to get an answer. I have been transferred from one billing representative to another, I have been transferred to the CANADA service center - I'm in Maryland! I have now been on hold with the local Frederick MD office for 32 minutes and counting. I have yet to speak with ANYONE. This is why Comcast has such a horrible reputation. I am cancelling my service. We had Directv up until September and NEVER had any issues. I have had to either go to the Comcast office or call EVRY SINGLE MONTH since I have gotten Comcast for one error or another. I am just fed up. Someone tell me how to get some relief - HELP!!!
- March 19, 2008 at 8:14 AM
- Deb said...
I was so mad that I forgot to leave my account number! 01722068684-02.
My husband is going to the local office today to talk to a supervisor and we have contacted Directv about cable/internet again. I am going to tell my whole neighborhood so we can all switch from Comcast! Everyone is dissatisfied, so why put ourselves through it every month?
- March 19, 2008 at 8:45 AM
I Finally get comcast to give me a decent rate and the next month, its not the price I negotiated with the customer service agent. BIG SURPRISE! Wow this truly is the worst company ever. I left the country and set up an auto pay for the correct negotiated amount and now I'm being hit with a late fee. Add that my cable box has fried its self and wont turn on now.
And what the hell is a franchise fee, or an access fee?
- March 19, 2008 at 7:25 PM
the franchise fee and other fees that you mentioned are fcc mandated fees. all taxes and fees are regulated by state and federal administrations so if you have a problem with them take that up with your local congressman
- March 20, 2008 at 9:43 AM
that retention offer will only work for so long. My call center doesn't have a retention department. the same people that set you up shut you off. Beleave me i have let more than one customer go. I will try to save you, but if I see that you are either a credit hunter or promo hunter I'll say peace and send you on your way. because the reality of it is. After you get done with direct tv or any other company eventually they will quit giving you promotions and you will be back. I've seen it time and time again
- March 20, 2008 at 9:46 AM
Ok, after my post I did receive a phone call from Comcast...at home on my VM. I called back and left a VM for them to call me on my cell and gave them that number. Again, Comcast calls the house and leaves a VM. Again, I call Comcast and leave a VM to call my cell and once again give them my number. Why the adversion to calling my cell phone Comcast?
- March 20, 2008 at 10:01 AM
account #: 09542 154384-05
Last summer, I moved to North Carolina from Tuscaloosa, AL. Of course I cancelled my service and told my address here in NC. To our surprise, I found I owe $46 to Comcast and it was already transfer to a Collection Agency of "844ya00018." I never received a bill for $46, and now it is killing my credit scores.
- March 21, 2008 at 11:47 AM
Account number: 8773 10 227 1191563
Thank for everyones comments and advice. It has made me able to put into writing all the numerous tricks that Comcast has tried in my short 5 months of service. I don't know if it will help or not but I am registering my discontent with the Office of the Attorney General Consumer Complaints and Information in the hope that one day these corporate criminals will be more highly regulated by the govermnent who seem to favor big business profit over consumer rights. I simply do not have the money to pay them the extra $110 obn my bill but I am glad for this if it makes me stand up for my rights. My concern is for other people that do not have the time or knowledge to query Comcast. DPes anyone have an address for customer service? It seems taht they keep that well hidden also.
- March 21, 2008 at 11:55 AM
- Sujan said...
I have been a comcast customer for 6 years. I have a habit of paying bill 2-3 months at a time. Usually when they disable my conencton, I just call or go to web and pay the full amount. The problem happened when I was on vacation, Comcast disabled my connection. I came back from vacation and found out that they disabled my conenction 15 days ago. I paid the minimum due and I refused to pay for those 15 days that I never had connection. I called so many times but each Comcast started giving me different opinion. One lasy said they 'disabled', but did not 'disconnect'. The billing is automatic and unles they 'disconnect', I will have to pay. I strongly disagree. As an end user disconnect and disable means I have no internet connection. Well I called about 10-12 times and when all failed, I dropped comcast. Its been about 6 months and I dislike this company. To me it's un-ethical to bill customers when they disable the connection. Its a bad practice and morally wrong.
- March 25, 2008 at 8:50 PM
I am a comcast employee(csr), I do understand customers fraustrations, they do pay alot of money and its unfortunately for their service to be anything other than working properly, that being said when customers call into comcast just like you want us to appreciate you as a customers, understand that WE the employees DID NOT just turn your service off, if there is an outage or something just went wrong its not the employees fault, we will do our best to assist you but once you scream and call us out our name, you are no longer an a hard working customer who needs help, but then as previously stated your just an account number that i want off my line by any means necessary,
- March 25, 2008 at 8:51 PM
Acct #001 826 1177846016
After transferring to their new digital phone service and rebundling I was billed twice and erroneously paid both. After calling many times (Waiting for as long as half an hour for a CSR I thought it was straightened out. They agree they owe me $33.46 and issue me a credit each month (since December) but never send the check I was promised. A small amount, but the agrevation is emense.
- March 25, 2008 at 8:53 PM
I cannot beleive the way comcast
has treated me, they sent my name
to a credit agency for an address
that I didn't live at, I, in turn,
wrote to the Attorney General and
after Comcast received a letter they immediately removed my name, they
wouldn't have if I didn't write to the Attorney General's office and asked them to help. They are so rude on the phone, that is if you have the patience to wait 30 minutes to wait for them. We don't have a choice for another cable company in our area. How can they
get away with treating people this
way? I tried to get satellite dish
but I live in an apartment, Comcast only cares about the money,
how to make more and treat people
like they are animals. It is disgusting. I just watched a program on TV how others have been
treated by this company, I thought I was alone. I hate giving Comcast my money-I wish we had a
choice, I would drop Comcast in a
- March 25, 2008 at 8:55 PM
Don't be fooled by the $100 or $125 "bait" you'll be offered to sign on. Before it is all said and done you'll have earned it...sitting on hold...trying to get your bill straigthened out. Every bill you receive for the first 3 to 4 months WILL be wrong and WILL be higher than you ever estimated. You will spend countless hours on hold just waiting to talk to an account rep. When you finally do you'll be fed a bunch of bull about what you are being billed for and then when you finally do get credit for what you deserve, they reverse the credits and the process starts all over again. Save yourself the trouble and subscribe to some other service...any other service. When you do call don't settle for the first account rep you get...DEMAND you talk to a supervisor. Go about 3 to 4 rungs up on the ladder and you MIGHT get someone who can help you get satisfaction...and that is a big MAYBE
Comcast...you guys are the best "Cash Flow Masters" I have ever seen.
- March 25, 2008 at 8:57 PM
Acct# 8777 70 147 0169324
I got comcast like three months ago. We paid the 100 dollar deposit required of us but yet the amount showed up on our first bill. We explained it to comcast when they repeatedly told us that what the 100 dollars was that we had already paid it and they kept jumping hoops. The next month when my husband kept refusing to pay the 100 dollars we got threatened with disconnection and then GASP!! it happened! so he ended up having to pay it anyway. We had to pay a whole 100 dollars extra. So instead of paying the 200 hundred we ended up paying 300.. SO UNFAIR! they never fixed it and they were so rude about it i could not believe it.
- March 25, 2008 at 9:06 PM
I cannot pay my comcast bill via telephone. Why? Because when I lived at my previous apartment, the phone number listed on that account is different than the number I have now. However, when I moved I transferred the service. Apparently, they didn't transfer the phone numbers. When I call to pay by phone, it asks you to enter the phone number associated with the account. Obviously I enter my phone number now and it tells me that account doesn't exist--yet, I've been paying on that account for months!!
So I choose the option of talking to a CSR, who tells me that phone number is associated with my old account. You know, the one that was supposed to be transferred to the new house? That's their way of protecting my account they say, so I don't make payments on the wrong one.
How about.....transferring the account like it was supposed to be? comcast will not let me change the phone number, because they can't verify the old account. WTF??
So if I choose to pay the bill via phone, I am charged an additional 4 dollar service fee. Like it's so freaking difficult to take some information over the phone and type it into a computer? I mean really comcast.
Any way you can steal money from people, right?
I can't wait until comcast is not the only service provider in the area.
comcast certainly must be worried about the new Verizon FIOS service, considering the increased number of commercials I see!!
good luck comcast. can't wait til you're out of business.
- March 25, 2008 at 9:09 PM
- Petes_Meats said...
I know this site is for Comcast, but Sprint is just as bad. Please help get the word out!!
Sprint Must Be Nuked
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Sprints CEO needs a bullet in his brain
After 20 BBB complaints; 10 letters to the NYS Attorney Generals Office; 40 emails, phone calls, certified letters; Sprint continues to refuse to cancel my phone; continues to try to screw me with late fees (even though I have demanded the service be cancelled since November 2007); refuses to waive the early termination fees (on top of refusing to terminate my contract), etc., etc.
Sprints only plan is to attempt to make as much money by illegally charging fees for services (like charging people that do not text; people that demand that texting be disabled; people that were promised texting was disabled from day one of the contract); putting people on hold for two hours plus, in an attempt to get said customer so aggravated that they hang up and just pay the unjust over charges; forcing customer to enter their Sprint cell # so that they can disconnect them if they have complained about wishing to terminate the contract (after I repeatedly demanded the contract be terminated, I was prompted to enter my cell # upon calling back, after being hung up on by a phone rep when I demanded that I speak to their bosses bosses boss.
Sprint is as greedy and as crooked as the day is long; as gas is expensive; as Paris Hilton is stupid, etc, etc.
Even though I do not live with my father; he once had Sprints service. Somehow, Sprint got his cell #. Sprint harassed him numerous times DAILY for over three months in an attempt to harass me into paying them a bunch of late fees, etc.; even though I demanded the service be cancelled in November 2007. When I talked to the clowns at Sprint and told them to quit harassing my father; told them that I wanted the service cancelled from November; told them that my father was going to sue them for harassment if they kept waking him up and bothering him; Sprint just called all the more.
To whom it may concern,
From the second I was duped into signing on with Sprint (which happened over the summer), I have had nothing but issues with the service (or lack their of); their cheaply made phones, being overcharged for services that I do not even use, not to mention the time I have had to spend attempting to straighten such issues out on a monthly basis (which usually takes two hours on the phone with a representative that may or may not speak English).
Such issues are as follows:
Thank God my ex-girlfriend (Aviviah Steinberg; 585-317-4306) was a witness to the fact that since day one I had demanded (and every month after that with a telephone representative, once my bill came and it was proven that they tried to charge me for text messaging, when I had the feature disabled) that text messaging be disabled on my phone. I was assured that this was done (by the kid that sold me the phone, and the four other representatives that I had to argue with in the months to come), and there was no way that I could be charged for people texting me, nor could anyone text from my phone. I had over four months of being falsely charged fees for texting, when I had the feature turned off from day one. Two hours of arguing with a phone representative every month was not what I thought I was going to have to deal with just to have a cell phone. I can only imagine how many people that do use texting are being over charged. I hope this will lead to a formal investigation into this injustice.
The next lie was that the original phone that I bought could have the video and photo features (taking video, etc., and being able to transfer the files to my PC without Sprint scamming me $5 to $15 per month) without any extra charges.
I then switched to the 'free phone' (Samsung model SPH-A420) which was a total albatross piece of junk, and has never worked properly from day one. One out of seven attempts to make a phone call, upon pressing 'TALK' the phone would try to prompt me to send a text message! Whenever I would go to the main branch (long after the four to six of the goof off kids they have working there were done flirting with the blond that also works there who also likes to yap a mile a minute about herself and how she uses 3000+ minutes talking her jaw off = usually a 15 minute + wait for any of them to stop talking among themselves) I am told that it must be something that I am doing wrong (which I find amusing, since I am an A+ Certified Computer Technician, not to mention a three time Dean's List student at Monroe Community College). Even when I was within the time to trade the lousy phone in, the manager on duty refused to do anything but take the phone in for service and charge me for it.
Sprint was also sending my bill to a place where I have not lived in over a year and a half. This was well before the time I got sucked into having their service. Then, when the bill came to me over a month late, they once again tried charging me extra fees. It took two complaints to the BBB, a phone call to a manager, and another trip to a branch to get those fees waived. This was when I found out that they gave me an Oswego, NY phone number and were charging me Oswego taxes! I don't even live in Oswego!
If this was not enough, the phone seemed to have a loose (or worn out, since anything made overseas is sure to wear out three days after the warranty) connection, because the phone would not stay in speaker mode, and it also started flaking out during normal calls (much like a land phone would when the cord from the jack to that wall wore out).
Realizing that Sprints lousy customer service is the only consistent thing I can come to expect with them; taking it in for service (and getting charged for a phone that never worked right from day one) was something that I refuse to do. Their representatives are trained to place the blame on the customer so they can find a way to charge them, even if the phone was junk to begin with. I have since tossed the phone in the recycling bin when I hope someday it ends up something useful.
I am requesting the following forms of resolution:
Give me a phone that works properly.
Or; cancel my service without an early termination fee.
If Sprint refuses either option, I would like to know what my legal options are for disputing the early termination fee, etc.
The hours of aggravation that I have had to endure could not possibly be given back to me. I have done nothing to deserve Sprints inexcusably horrific bill over charging, lousy customer service, and a phone that was designed to flake out as soon as the warranty expired.
March 25, 2008 9:15 PM
- March 25, 2008 at 9:19 PM
Where I live all utility companies have closed there payment centers so you go to the local 3rd party payment agents and pay .50 to 1.50 to pay you bill. Not comcast they keep their payment centers open and to hand your payment to a comcast agent cost you 1.99 billed to your next statement.The $130 I pay each month can't cover the wages of that agent for the 2minutes that it takes to process my payment.I just don't understand this
- March 25, 2008 at 10:24 PM
Comcast if you really read this. You should be ashamed of your self as a company. I do understand a rate hike after your promotional time is up but your rate hike is huge. I use to have Comcast but not anymore and our new company did not increase their price much and we are still saving. Wake up and treat your existing customers better and charge them fairly while you still have customers.
- March 25, 2008 at 10:26 PM
When adding or changing services, don't bother the CSR's. They're dealing with frustrated people and obviously aren't in the best frame of mind anyway. I was told things were not possible or would have huge fees associated with having them turned up both with personal and business accounts.
Call sales and talk to people who may not be getting some sort of incentive to add services but don't deal with jerks all day. They're aware of any promotions or packages and don't make you pay for all the morons they've dealt with that day.
- March 26, 2008 at 12:18 AM
Imagin this ... their idiot service folks were sent to disconnet someone's service in my apartment complex, but they terminated my service.
Mistakes happen. But, they billed me $5 to get it reconnected! When I challenged their billing - they basically ignored my challange and I never got my $5 back.
- March 26, 2008 at 6:13 AM
- Gilllian said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- March 26, 2008 at 7:13 AM
In my apartments Comcast was coming around to doors signing new customers up for a deposit $5, me and my husband called and asked if there would be any additional deposit they stated it would not be. I had the bundled services and my bill was to $115 a month. When I received my first bill it was $248. I called customer service to ask why I was being charged so much. She stated that I had a $100 deposit and I told her of my first call and no one could explain anything to me. So I figured Id just work out a payment plan which they would not do. So, I get next months bill its $400 give or take and they stated that I was being prorated for time when I didnt even use the service. I cancelled my service with Comcast and gave them all their equipment back in which they gave me a receipt for. So why did I then receive a bill for $806 stating that I owed them $300 for unrecovered equipment anf then they charged me for an additional month for services. When I called and asked about it I was on hold forever and switched to 3 different departments before I was told to call back because the department I was to speak with was not yet open. I really like Comcast until all of this and I wouldn't wish Comcast service on my worst enemy. Acct#8777701226870506
- March 26, 2008 at 7:26 AM
Conundrum said.......
believe or not we get reasonable services in the tridium of phone, internet,tv. But costs and pricing are like catching a fish bare handed. When I caught Commie Cast overcharging (shame on me)they envoked the 6 month rule to fix their mistake...and the costs just keep going up. Scarry thought--going to another cable company.
- March 26, 2008 at 7:31 AM
Please everyone, READ THIS ARTICLE!
- Frank Eliason
Comcast Executive Offices Wrote:
"The newteevee.com article "Comcast Cameras to Start Watching You" portrayed some assumptions that require correction and clarification"
"The camera-based gesture recognition device is in no way designed to - or capable of - monitoring your living
Sorry Frank. But Comcast and it's management team has LOST ALL CREDIBILITY with subscribers. Why would believe ANYTHING the company says? So many broken promises and OUTRIGHT LIES! I couldn't be happier you now have legitimate competition in areas you serve.
Comcast will experience what so many of us have experienced from you...the cold shoulder, snickering, and laughter as we cancel service and choose a company that might actually care about it's employees AND it's customers! By the way, whatever happened to Rick Germano? Did we wear him out...or did he leave the comapny already?
Verizon's on the phone Frank, gotta run!
- March 26, 2008 at 9:05 AM
Can someone explain to me this logic? I have the basic non digital Comcast package. Since April 2007, they have taken off SIx channels from the lineup. ESPN Classic, Game Show Network, CSPAN2, Noggin, Nick GAS, and Comcast local. You would think they would LOWER my bill? NOPE! Just last month they have the nerve to INCREASE my bill $3. That may not seem much, but how in the world can you increase someone's bill, for LESS channels. That is completely insane. Luckily I'll be changing my service soon, especially when I asked Comcast about their so called logic, all they said was "Just because a couple of channels are taken away, doesn't mean we can lower you bill" But you can INCREASE it? What a crock
- March 26, 2008 at 9:33 AM
Hello, Acct # 09519-652664-02-4
A story of (another ?) false promise of Comcast... this time billing at cancellation. Upon returning the comcast equipment at the local comcast customer center, I paid by credit card a charge of $91 plus change and was told that the account would be cancelled. OK fine I thought. Next thing I know, I'm get numerous bills each for a different amount. I call comcast and am told that I was supposed to be told that I would be charged for the next ten days of service after I returned the equipment and cancelled my account.... but since I was not (and I wasn't by their rep at the counter), they would credit my balance of app. $75. Well, today I get snail mail saying that if I don't pay up, they'll send a collection agency after me. I call them up and and told that they have no record of the conversation about the credit (from app. 2 weeks ago) and that the charge stands.
I told them that THEIR agent would should have billed me correctly at the counter, and that whatever "so called" remaining charges are not my resposibilty (I will not pay for the mistake of their agent) but did not get anywhere.
The reason that I dropped comcast to begin with was because of this type of service... promises made and never kept... being lied to.
- March 26, 2008 at 9:41 AM
Hello again, I was so upset when I first posted that I could not type correctly.. and can't figure out how to edit the original.
Anyway ,
Ref : Acct # 09519-652664-02-4
A story of (another ?) false promise of Comcast... this time billing at cancellation. Upon returning the comcast equipment at the local comcast customer center, I paid by credit card a charge of $91 plus change and was told that the account would be cancelled. OK fine I thought. Next thing I know, I'm get numerous bills each for a different amount. I call comcast and am told that I was supposed to be told at the time of cancellation that I would be charged for the next ten days of service after I returned the equipment and cancelled my account.... but since I was not told this by their rep at the counter, they would credit my balance of app. $75. Well, today I get snail mail saying that if I don't pay up, they'll send a collection agency after me. I call them up and am told that they have no record of the conversation about the credit (from app. 2 weeks ago) and that the charge stands.
I told them that THEIR agent would should have billed me correctly at the counter, and that whatever "so called" remaining charges are not my resposibilty (I will not pay for the mistake of their agent not billing me correctly) but did not get anywhere.
The reason that I dropped comcast to begin with was because of this type of service... promises made and never kept... being lied to by their personnel about doing things that they had no intent at all of doing.
- March 26, 2008 at 9:52 AM
- Dina said...
After 3 months of no dial tone and billing issues, I left Comcast for another provider. When we bought our house in was newly built and we were the first to move in. COmcast took it upon themselves to disable the control box in our home and rewire everything w/out our permission or even talking to us about this, now we are having to pay to have everything re-wired and they have nerve enough to keep sending me bills stating I am still active in their systems. I had no dial tone for three months and internet was down for 2, the cable worked sometimes. Why have a bundle pack if you can't use the service.
- March 26, 2008 at 10:35 AM
I lived in Orlando for a year and a half and had Adelphia right as they were being bought out by Comcast, not only was the transition HORRID, (Adelphia telling me to call Comcast, Comcast telling me to call Adelphia) but the rates were different every month for just basic cable, I didn't notice until 3 months in (autopay)
Just recently (a year since service) I received a letter from a debt collector saying I owe Comcast $571.33 for "equipment" ie the cablebox.
I had to be out of my apartment before I could return the box myself, and was leaving soon after for home (Alaska...) so I not only called asking Comcast if it would be alright if I left the box with the complex, but made sure my complex knew that Comcast would come for it.
Both agreed. Comcast started sending letters a few months after I left, I called to settle, they said okay.
Why would they RANDOMLY decide to come back on an issue settled a YEAR ago? almost $600?!?
- March 26, 2008 at 11:00 AM
I moved from Denver, Co to North Carolina and dropped my converter off at the Denver Office. They claim they never received it and have no record of me dropping it off. My account doesn't reflect anything regarding the receipt and I just keep going in circles. They sent me to collections and I'll be damned if I'm paying for something I shouldn't be responsible for.
- March 26, 2008 at 11:08 AM
Comcast are liars and the buisiness is bad
comcast acct#8798520030635011 is a ripoff my bill is suppose to be 104.00 tax included and it's constanly been over 125-130.00 a month . My phone service goes out when it want to as well as the enternet then they put you on hold "passing the buck" they don't try to help you they just want their money I hate comcast they are horrible I wish we had another cable company to choose from.
- March 26, 2008 at 11:19 AM
I would love for comcast to reduce their fees instead of keep raising them higher and higher. Please, consider that your serveces are not a need but a luxury, and if the fees do not go lower, you are about to loose a lot of clients.
- March 26, 2008 at 11:50 AM
Account #: 09547 128471-07-9
I recently moved out of an apartment building that offered free comcast service to its tennants. They provided the cable box for us. I signed up for their internet package as well and purchased my own internet box. I moved and cancelled my account back in December. A few weeks ago I got a bill for $136.00 stating that I did not return my cable box (which the apartment complex owns). I called Comcast and they said that I did not return the box (which they never sent to me b/c the apartment owns all the boxes) and that I returned an internet box instead. I told them that I purchased the box and the customer service rep was very rude to me on the phone. She told me to suck it up and pay the bill or contact my apartment (very rude and unprofessional). Which I did and they said that it was Comcast's fault and I would have to consult them. I called comcast back and was on the phone with them (mainly on hold) for over 3 hours and nothing was solved.
Why in the world would I return an internet box that I purchased?
PLUS Comcast NEVER sent me a cable box. The apartment provided it to me so why am I being charged for this! It was left in my apartment when I left.
Comcast did nothing and just gave me the run around! I saw this website on Dateline last night and thought I should give it a shot. If I don't hear anything back from this I will be contacting the Better Business Bureau. And I will NOT be purchasing from Comcast ever again! WHenI moved I switched to Verizon Triple Play with Direct TV and at least I can talk to someone on the phone when I call and not get the run around!
- March 26, 2008 at 12:12 PM
They would not allow us to access our account we set up at the building we own... which was frustrating because they double billed my business for 6 months. They got our name wrong every month. Ever since they got our name right we have had internet in only 15 second intervals randomly throughout the day. I have had to teach the techs who show up late (if at all) every day how to ping and troubleshoot our internet. They just scratch their heads and leave... no follow ups.
Not a single answer for 2 months.
(but I know the maintinence and line techs are costing them a fortune so I will continue calling every day until they give me answers)
- March 26, 2008 at 12:36 PM
I started with comcast back in july 2007. I choose a plan for cable tv online for $52.99 my self, they show up they connect the reciever in a minute, (that is one cable wich I could of done it my self) they charged me $30.00 only for this and BOOM. Every month I had to pay more than &100.00 So I called. After mumerous times they started to say that it was promotion and this and that. The real problem however is that I have been billed $136.00 twice. They do not admit it. Right now I have no service since February but they do bill me, how about this. Never had such a bad experiance. As of today 03/26/2008 my acc #8495600450411386 is up to $305.09 without me having service at all. Of cource I do not need their service any more.
- March 26, 2008 at 1:50 PM
I have been with Comcast about 7 years. My bill has gone from $99.00 for phone, cable, Internet to $110.00 for cable and Internet only. The phone service was horrible. It was nothing for me to come home from work or in the middle of the night to pickup my phone and have no dial tone. Being a single parent with 3 small children, does not make me feel secure. Finally I had so many service calls until the last tech that came out told me, off the record their phone service stinks. If it were he, he would drop the phone service and go with anyone else. I did drop them the next day. However, you go figure, I am still living on a fixed limited budget with 2 services from them, which cost me more than 3 services. And they have raised their fees w/o any notice. When I call to discuss this, they tell me it is a small increase. If it is so small, how about they pay it, because any increase to my budget, ain't small!
- March 26, 2008 at 2:49 PM
When I heard about this website on a TV program, I realized I'm not the only customer that is disappointed at Comcast. The billing system serves only one purpose: take advantage and 'steal' as much money as possible from customers. I subscribe paperless bill. Received an email on 3/12 telling me the bill of 3/10 is available, don't understand why they hold it for two days, isn't the convenience of internet is 'real time'?? Funny thing is that on the online bill, there is no payment due date and there is a charge of $2.95 late fee dated 3/11 sitting there already. What is going on?!
- March 26, 2008 at 4:32 PM
Spoke last night to Joseph S. from Comcast. He called more likely than not due to an e-mail that I sent the CEO of Comcast. I just wanted to say that Joe was helpful and understanding. HE ACTUALLY LISTENED AND HELPED ! I told him 2 things :
1) It's a shame that many comcast employees give the others a bad rep.
2) That if more employees at Comcast were like him, maybe they would not be losing so many people.
I also e-mailed a "job well done" letter about Joseph to their CEO.
Cheers !
- March 27, 2008 at 4:37 AM
Looks like Communistcast is doing it's best to spread their propaganda on any site that has negative comments.
How about putting that effort into hiring REAL Comcast employees, not outsourcing to call centers in Canada and Mexico? How about hiring competent people and train them well enough to support 'customer first' and 'first call resolution'? How about paying top management less (they're failing horribly!) and your 90,000+ employees a fair living wage that would attract top talent? How about not planting posts trying to disguise how horrific a company this is to work for?
Management, Brown Noser, Union Buster...whatever. You all spew the same rhetoric. Or maybe another lame PR firm Comcast hired to do some "Astroturfing".
- March 27, 2008 at 9:41 AM
Account# 8220 18 680 0385274
Ok so, I ordered Comcast Cable TV back in Aug. 2007 and only wanted the $16 now $19, basic 10-15 channels. So after the technician came and installed it, it turned out to be comcast digital basic at $60, so I promptly called up customer service and inquired about the service and she assured me that it was in fact just the $16 limited basic, and then the bill came for October, they charged me $111.26. So I called customer service to get this straightened out, and they assured me that they would put in a work order to change my cable back to the $16 limited basic. So I waited for next months bill and again they charged me $62 for the digital basic plan, so I called back, and again they assured me that they would put in a work order to get it fix. Just to say my cable box hasn't been working since the day they installed it, and they are still charging me for digital cable. So December's bill this time they are charging me $35 for the digital Starter package, I call customer service and again the same thing "we will get this fixed." January Digital Starter $49.99, again I call, February Digital Starter $52.50 (its gone up $2.51, for some reason, Bastards)And again this month $52.50 Digital Basic. AAAAAAAAAA, I HATE COMCAST.
So each month they set up a day for the technician to come out and fix it and each month no show, so today I worked late on Monday so I could take off today to be home when the technician comes between 2 and 5 (Side note WHAT THE HELL, do people not have jobs, that they can just hangout at home waiting for the technician to stop by whenever it's convenient for them.) So I get home at 1:45 today and there is a note on my door and a message on my phone...the technician came by at 12:20...12:20...again 12:20, WHAT THE HELL. so i call again, another work order, it's now 4:57 no technician.
In all honesty the people I have dealt with in customer service have been nice and pleasant, just not effective, and it seems that the policies of Comcast (read taint lickers) need some revising. I really just want to cancel, but no telling how much money and time that would cost me.
- March 27, 2008 at 2:00 PM
- mcnacho said...
Not even 7 days into my service and Comcast jacked up my billing, charging me twice for my initial installation fee. When I called, they said I had paid the day before I requested service (3/20), and then I paid AGAIN with a check on (3/21). I told them there would be no reason I would pay twice and doing so would be illogical. I asked them if they would ever do such a thing and they said, 'i don't know the exact situation'. They then told me I'd have to wait 30 days for a refund. I saw Mr. Garfield on TV earlier this week and thought, heck, this won't happen to me, but sure enough, not even a week into this Comcast crap and I'm already getting screwed.
- March 27, 2008 at 3:03 PM
Ever since I have been a Comcast customer I have never for once understand reading the bill. I call them practically every month for explanation of the so call bills. They make it so complicated that you just give up interpreting it. You just resort to paying the bill off instead of the headache of the interpretation. Why is this so? Are they hiding under this complicated bill to rip people off? They have a habit of a lot of billing and crediting that you end up getting confused. Do Comcast have problem with just making it so simple for an average human being to read? I implored Comcast to do something about this as I dont see anything complicated in telling me that my internet service is $32.95 instead of there usual way of $42.95 less $10.00 discount. My question is am I paying taxes and charges on $42.95 or on $32.95?. I called there customer service today and after letting him know how I feel, he said "Sorry for the complication" which is an indication that they know it is complicated, if so why havent they do something about it?
My customer number is 09507-518491-05-3 which am sure comcast can use to use to pull my record.
- March 27, 2008 at 3:12 PM
ok so continuing where i left off in an earlier post. Anonymous march 27 2:00 pm. Still no technician, so i called Comcast (nice guy) he tells me there's a free service that they will send packaging to your house so you can mail in you equipment, wow who know, not me and obviously not the umpteen customer service representatives that I have had the pleasure of speaking to the past couple months.
And on another note, I can't believe its come to this but I finally canceled all my comcast services, it was glorious, a huge weight has just been lifted off my shoulders. No more porn, but I guess this means I get to read more books which will be nice.
Comcast is completely a monopoly how can we let this happen.
Fight the Power.
- March 27, 2008 at 3:55 PM
- mike said...
For the past several months comcast cant seem to get my bill right. First off I get a phone call saying I can get Cinemax and Hbo for only 9.99 extra per month. The following month my bill was up $30.00 instead of the 9.99. They fixed that. The next two months however I keep getting billed for a high speed modem. But what is funny is I dont have high internet through Comcast I have DSL through Verizon. Anyway I call the first month about this and it took several calls of being on hold for an average 30 mins to get this resolved. The reason it took several calls was I gave up being on hold and decided to call back. So far I have calculated I have spent about 4 hours on hold for the two billing issues and still they werent resolved. Last 3/26/2008 I tried several times to call up until 12:01 am and the call center due to high number of phone calls we are unable to process your call. That being said I decided to go down to the Harrisonburg, VA local Comcast office. I was unable to take time to eat lunch instead I go down there to resolve the matter as it was getting to be too much hassle with the call center. The lady at the counter fixed my the billing problem and when we were finished my cell phone rings. There were no other customers in the lobby I was the only customer there and we done. Keep in mind I didnt answer the phone. She says sir we dont allow cell phones in here. I was not in the back technical area I was in the lobby and didnt answer till I was out the door but the way she said after all the trouble I have had with them broke the camels back. I didnt say anything other than sorry and left. Now I have wasted 4 hours of my plus didnt have time to eat because of Comcast not providing people that fix the problem the first time. I have had dish netork for 8 years prior to comcast and only had 1 billing problem which was something my wife ordered that I didnt know about. But in 8 years really no problems. I have had Comcast for 2 years and have had problems from day 1!!!!!! If I do get response from Comcast on this site I asking for a month credit when actually it should be 2 to compenstate me for my time. My account number is 01645143075-01-2. Now if you want to here about the other issues. I have had digital cable but it wasnt working properly for about 4 months. It took several visits by the tech and several times they never showed up or called. THe only thing I go out of that was 40 credit to my account but the time they wasted was worth a lot more than that. I even missed a cook out at friends because of them. If I was an attorney I would suggest this would be a good class action lawsuit against Comcast. Keep in mind you can nver get your time back. Money yes but not time with friends or family. I am typing this email because I am left with no option since comcast really doesnt care.
- March 27, 2008 at 4:20 PM
Called them for high-speed Internet in January. The service guy came in, spoke NOT A WORD of English, fumbled around my apartment for two hours, wasn't able to hook me up and left.
I cancelled the "service" immediately, but kept receiving bills for $30.67. Every time I called they said the bill was a mistake and would be rectified. Four times I had to call.
They now sent me to collections, who are harassing me over the phone and with letters.
I am at my wit's end. I called to scream at them twice, wrote letters, but don't know what to do anymore.
This is unacceptable. This company needs to GO DOWN.
- March 27, 2008 at 4:39 PM
At the end of last month, through my banks website, I mistakenly overpaid my Comcast bill - I put an extra 1 in front of the amount to be paid - an extra $1,000. A couple of days later when I am reviewing my checking account I realize the mistake I made. I call Comcast and explain the situation. The customer service rep says he will open a ticket and somebody will call me within 48 hours. Nobody calls, so I call again. The customer service rep says he will open a ticket, submit it to the correct people, and tells me I need to fax my bank statement to a number he gives me. I explain that this is the beginning of the month, I get my bank statement after the end of the month, so I don't have the relevant statement. We talk and I am finally told that I can print out a copy of my recent account activity from the banks website and take it to their local office, which I do. The service rep there says she will take care of this herself and will call me Monday - Wednesday at the latest. She doesn't call by Wednesday, so I call again. The customer rep says I need to fax my bank statement to a different fax number from the one I was given a few days ago. I explain the bank statement thing, he says I can fax in the recent account information from my banks web site and somebody will call. I fax the information in and, surprisingly, somebody calls. She tell me that they need payment verification directly from my bank. I call my bank, they send Comcast routing information, tracking numbers, etc. I call Comcast, they now say they need something called a pipeline processing number. I call my bank. They have never heard of such a thing. I talk to the ACH person in the accounting department at the bank, she has never heard of such a number, she has been doing ACH transactions for 5 years, is a certified ACH something, etc. Comcast has now been giving me the runaround on this for almost a month.
- March 28, 2008 at 6:58 PM
I sent a $150 check that was put into a different account paying that person's bill and it took over 7 months for the 150 to come back to me AWESOME CUSTOMER HELP THEY ARE THE BEST COMPPANY
- March 28, 2008 at 10:07 PM
I joked with my sister who said she posted here that I have not had bad service with Comcast, until I signed up to add the phone and internet that is. After spending 40 minutes on the phone with a nice customer service rep, and had two people show up late to do the install, who did not even know what it was they were supposed to install. I get a bill for installation for $69.95. Not once did anyone mention this to me, I would not have gotten the services. I called to speak with them when I got the bill and they "graciously" offered to remove half of the service charge. The person I spoke to even admited that this sounds like a deceptive practice, their OWN employee. Well, if anyone does monitor these, these can darn well credit my account with the $69.95 and I will happily continue my service. Account number 8495-74-101-6269528
- March 31, 2008 at 1:43 PM
- bjg said...
I ordered Comcast Digital Voice with their "Triple Play" price of $33 for each, voice, cable and internet.
The bill contains an item called "Reg Recovery Fee" for $5.40. So I called Comcast and asked about that fee on 6/21 at 12:07 PM. I spoke with Melissa (empid 23224) who called around and gave me absolute certainty that this "is a government tax." I then asked to speak with her supervisor and spoke with "Mario" (empid 3971) who said he asked the billing department and absolutely confirms that this fee "is a tax to the government."
I pointed out that on the bill it says that "... it is not a tax or govt. fee." Mario assured me that it is in fact a tax.
I tried to call the State BPU, but at 12:20 PM on a Thursday, they had a message up that says they are closed and only opened 9-5 M-F.
I cannot believe that they are allowed to advertize a $38.40 monthly service for $33.00 by simply labelling part of the costs as a "fee" when I am certain that this is simply going into Comcast coffers, and is not a tax in any way.
By the way, I went and searched through all of Comcast's web sites offering the service and they NEVER MENTION that there is a non-tax fee that they add onto the service.
If on the other hand "Reg Recovery Fee" or "Regulatory Recovery Fee" is in fact a government tax, then I will retract this entirely -- except that their bill says it is definitely NOT a tax.
Can someone please sue these bastards?
- April 1, 2008 at 9:00 AM
Account #: 09529 177521-02
I recieved a promotion for $19.99 a month for what was promised to be 12 months back in December. However, this month Comcast decided to arbitrarily end the promotion and stick me with the full bill. Calls to their CSRs resulted in no help, as they said "this promotion has expired" and refused to help me at all. As soon as I can switch to Verizon DSL I will, save for some miraculous intervention by Comcast to save a customer.
- April 1, 2008 at 10:20 AM
"bjg said...
The bill contains an item called "Reg Recovery Fee" for $5.40. So I called Comcast and asked about that fee on 6/21 at 12:07 PM. I spoke with Melissa (emp id 23224) who called around and gave me absolute certainty that this "is a government tax." I then asked to speak with her supervisor and spoke with "Mario" (emp id 3971) who said he asked the billing department and absolutely confirms that this fee "is a tax to the government."
I pointed out that on the bill it says that "... it is not a tax or govt. fee." Mario assured me that it is in fact a tax.
I cannot believe that they are allowed to advertise a $38.40 monthly service for $33.00 by simply labeling part of the costs as a "fee" when I am certain that this is simply going into Comcast coffers, and is not a tax in any way.
By the way, I went and searched through all of Comcast's web sites offering the service and they NEVER MENTION that there is a non-tax fee that they add onto the service.
Can someone please sue these bastards?"
BJG: You are 100% right! It is NOT a TAX. Whether they lied to get you off the phone, or most likely don't know themselves, Comcast does not pay OR train employees well enough to do the job that's required of them. But, you do see your once or twice annual rate increases for LESS service now, don't you?
Here's some information that will clarify the so-called "tax".
An American Fleecing
Rate hikes in sheep's clothing
Dubious Phone Line Fees
While many services in your phone bill are inflated (caller-id, only one example, costs a penny to provide), there are two charges that cement the foundation of what many perceive as a nifty combination of consumer fleecing and abysmal government mismanagement:
The FCC Subscriber Line Charge ($5+ a month depending on lines, state): Sometimes called the End User Common Line Charge. According to the FCC itself, this charge is "not a government charge or tax"; it goes right back to the bells, not the FCC, despite its name. It's estimated that over eight billion is collected annually, and most incumbents support a new effort to significantly raise this as high as $10 a month.
The Universal Service Fund (USF, price & name varies): A well intentioned fee designed to help provide services for the less affluent; many believe it has become a poorly managed slush fund for the bells. While the FCC did create the Universal Service Administrative Company ("USAC") to oversee cash flow, their effectiveness at monitoring financials has long been in serious doubt. 40 percent of USF funds go to the E-Rate program, suspended two months ago after allegations of fraud and abuse.
The New Regulatory Recovery Fees
Enter Regulatory Recovery Fees, the first effort by the bells to migrate sleaziness from your phone bill to your broadband bill. Emerging this year, the new fees range from one to six dollars a month, and are called everything from the "FUSF pass-through fee", to the "Regulatory compliance fee" on your bill. It's tacked on to whatever other USF fees you're already paying, and is added to your cost total on top of the advertised price.
Ported over from a parallel effort in the wireless sector, the incumbents blame USF hikes and FCC regulation as the reason why this new "fee" was added. "Given the dramatic way that it has increased in the last couple of years, we have found it necessary to break it out," recently noted SBC spokesman Joe Izbrand.
Strangely, SBC charges lower or higher recovery fees based on the speed of your connection, despite the fact the back-end USF cost is fixed per circuit. Consumer groups argue that the USF is simply part of the cost of doing business in the United States, and should be included in the overall price of service. They also argue there was no major law change to justify the hike.
"It's a price increase," bluntly notes Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America, who has been fighting such fees for years. In the consumer's mind, the increase is inaccurately seen as a tax, resulting in users placing the blame on Uncle Sam, not their carrier.
We recently asked our users to break out their broadband bills. There's one consistent theme that will likely increase as the industry grows: customers paying more than the advertised rate. Of course if you're a DSL user locked into owning a copper-landline, you're the most heavily hammered, but DSL providers don't have a monopoly on adding charges to their advertised price.
Cable Fees and Taxes
Cable providers would likely charge "regulatory recovery fees" of their own, but they get a pass on heavily contributing to the USF because they've been defined as an "information service" by the FCC - a decision the bells use to justify their own hikes and bill tricks.
The cable industry does issue a franchise fee, which can range from pennies to more than five dollars per month in some states.
The fee is charged by local municipalities in exchange for the "privilege" of using the public right of way, and is usually 5% of the local franchise's cable revenue. The fees were added to bills in 2001 after the cable industry fought for the right to pass said fees on to consumers as an itemized charge, as opposed to including it in the cost of doing business (and advertised price).
If there's been a controversial fee among cable providers, it's the inside wire maintenance fee charged by some carriers. In 2001, two Charter customers sued the company for failing to inform them that the "wire-maintenance service" fee they paid wasn't mandatory. While admitting no wrong, the company settled with affected customers by offering them six months of free high-speed Internet service, service upgrades, or movie channel service.
What's being done about it
The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA), which represents some 43 state agencies, recently urged lawmakers to ban operating costs disguised as "fees" tacked on below the line.
"In the last few years, wireline and wireless carriers have concocted line item charges, fees, and surcharges, purporting to recover all manner of "regulatory," "administrative," or "government-mandated" costs, but which do nothing more than soak consumers for the carriers' ordinary operating costs," the group notes in a recent petition (Word document).
The Missouri state Public Service Commission is considering taking it one step further, banning all extra provider charges and fees not mandated by state or federal regulators. In the end however, the inclusion of business costs in unofficial "fees" is a tactic that works because consumers allow it to work.
More on the Way
If your head doesn't hurt yet, there's plenty of complicated changes being proposed by the Intercarrier Compensation Forum (led by AT&T, MCI, Sprint and SBC) that could drive monthly costs even higher. Alongside a push to significantly increase the already controversial USF and FCC Subscriber Line Charges, several companies are pushing for new broadband taxes, including a new tax on cable modems that could be as high as nine percent (quietly buried in a 2002 FCC proposal).
According to industry analyst Dave Burstein, Verizon and BellSouth are the only major players to back away from the proposal, afraid of a public backlash; as they'd "have to explain why they want to tax nearly every American family over $50/year, with no benefits in return." Apparently even they have their fleecing limits.
When you combine the intentionally misleading mathematics behind "bundling" with bogus fees, it's a wonder customers can compare prices at all. The FCC needs to investigate the structure and spending of the USF, force companies to include all costs of operation in the advertised price above the line (no small print), and start doing its job managing the USF, holding companies accountable, and protecting American consumers from being "serviced" in the George Carlin sense of the word.
- April 1, 2008 at 11:08 AM
BJG: Here's a link to a sample phone bill from 2005.
At that time, the "fee" was .21 cents. When you mouse over the "Additional Charges" the wording is very clear..."IT IS NOT A TAX OR GOVERNMENT-MANDATED LINE ITEM"
- April 1, 2008 at 11:21 AM
Tired of trying to get answers. Former customer #8220 20 412 0917534. Cancelled service in April of last year due to an out of town move, Comcast rep told me that they would come by the apartment and pick up the cable box if I left a key release document at the office, which I did do. They never came, and now are billing me for the cable box even though I did everything they asked me to do. I've talked to the "customer service" department on a monthly basis and was promised they would take care of it, but have gotten a bill from them each month for a one year period. Even stopped by the Alpharetta, GA office and talked with a rep personally, was promised they would get it resolved and give me an answer in three days, but again that was back at the end of last year and they continue to send me a bill! I'm considering this harassment at this point and plan on contacting the GA Attorney General's office and GA BBB. It's only $76, but at this point it's the principle. I did what they asked, they screwed up, and now they want me to pay for their error. I'm tired of their nonsense, no one ever returns the call, no one ever does what they promise ("you'll have an answer in 3 days"), and it's not my error. If I was wrong I would have stopped trying to clear this up months ago, but this is ridiculous. I did exactly what they told me to do and now the harassment needs to stop. Next stop for me is the offices above and US senators and representative from GA. It's sad because I had been a customer for several years, never late with payments, etc. and I'm being jerked around because of their own internal issues.
- April 1, 2008 at 2:42 PM
- CableNazisMustDie said...
I'm glad I've come across this site, only because I can vent a little, and hopefully prevent anyone from ever having to do business with Comcast. I will not provide an account number, as this will only give these guys more ways to use it against me. I am in the process of working with media to get my story out, and hope to have a class action suit ready for filing in court very soon. I surely can't be the only one in this trap!
The following is my horror story, as best I can tell it:
First, it bears mentioning I've never actually been a Comcast customer, yet they have the worst customer service I've had the displeasure of needing!
I was a Time Warner customer, and I was moving right around the switch over to Comcast. I'd begun to get notifications that my service would be switching. I was moving out of my apartment, and thus paid my balance in full and asked where to return the equipment. They advised that I bring it to local Comcast center. I waited for over 3 hours (NO EXAGERATION) during a peak time of Saturday afternoon/evening (only one employee in the store!). A long line of disgruntled customers had me thinking at that moment that I sure was glad I'd never have to deal with Comcast. Boy, was I wrong!!
After receiving zero balance reciepts from both TimeWarner and Comcast (when returning equip.), I assumed my experience with TimeWarner to be over. Yep... wrong again. These two cable nazis are working together. Please read on!
As I had left a forwarding address with TimeWarner (my service provider), Comcast was able to send two guys to knock on my door one evening to get my equipment. This was about 2 months after I'd returned it. I was first confused, as I'd never been a Comcast customer, but then I put 2and2 together. I explained that I'd dropped the equipment off after cancelling my "TWC" account. They apologized, acknowledged a glitch in their system, and said they were unable to determine who did and did not have equipment. They said don't worry about it. I didn't.
Fast forward to about 7 months later, when circumstances required me to move once again (I'd had another provider in this interim). At my new residence now, I called Comcast as they were the only provider in the market. I was informed that I had a bill, and couldn't get service until I paid it. The bill was in the $120-130 range "that time". I explained that I returned the equipment, and described the time the guys came to my door. They assured me that the bill was not for equipment (they had the return in the system), but that this was for 2 months of service while with TimeWarner. I asked who they used for cable, as I've never heard of a cable nazi that didn't disconnect a customer within hours of the bill's due date. How could I possibly owe this amount, which by the way didn't even equal 2 months of service?
To be clear on all of this... I NEVER received a bill from Comcast in the 7-8 month period, and only found out that I'd been turned over to collections when trying to activate new service with them. Of course I was referred over to the collection agency, where I got no assistance either. Since they had a valid address, and a valid SSN, then "obviously" the fault must be mine. Both collections and Comcast insist I must have been billed, otherwise it couldn't be in collections. I responded that had I been billed, I could have responded with the zero balance reciepts (no longer kept them, as it seemed a non-issue; never got bills!).
I won't pay a bill that to this day Comcast cannot or will not produce for me. The amount has changed three times, never with explanation, and again... never a bill! They say I was billed, but then if I wasn't, that too must be my fault since I didn't leave a forwarding address. Not only did I leave a forwarding address, they came to my friggin doorstep and said don't worry about the mistake "they" made!
After numerous calls, I finally broke it down for the monkey answering phones that day: "Look buddy, I realize it's not your fault, but... you work for a multi-billion dollar company. You can recite every bit of info to me, such as date account opened, plan details, payment amounts and dates, etc, etc... but you can't print a bill and drop it in the mail? Apparently, the PrintScreen button doesn't work within this amazing system of theres. After repeatedly being told that I'd recieve a bill within a week, I've yet to receive anything from them. Of course I had to give them my new address (NOT the forwarding address given to TimeWarner) so that I could get this bill. The "customer support specialist" was obviously competent enough to enter the new address. I never received a bill, so you probably wonder how I know of this wonderboy's competence? Somehow, this information I provided to resolve a phantom billing error has somehow made it's way backwards through the system and a week after my last call with them (remember I pointed out no receipt?), I then received a bill from TimeWarner for $800+ for equipment.
These nazis are actually using the information I've provided in good faith (assuming I was being helped), then sharing it with their business partner (TimeWarner) and using it to come after me. Don't tell me they are competitors, and not partners... I get that. But this is too obvious to me that they are working in cahoots to rig markets to their advantage. I would assume that in one market, TW gives customers to Comcast, and then in other markets Comcast gives them back. On both ends, they are fraudulently billing customers with no recourse to dispute their claims! How can Comcast turn me over to collections when I never had a contract with them, didn't owe on my TimeWarner account, and neither has EVER billed me for the "unpaid" services???? The only bill I've received has come in recent weeks, and that is for the equipment that all have acknowledged was returned!! No further communications will occur with either company other than from my attorney, and I'll NEVER be a customer of either one. I'd rather become a puppateer and entertain my family myself before I'll pay these crooks another cent.
This story might seem odd but they've given their hand away with this latest event as TimeWarner had no way to know of my new address, and 9 months had passed having never heard from them at the forwarding address I'd provided them! I'm 99% certain that I had a zero balance for service, but without a bill, I can't even show them that I've paid everything. If I was wrong and owed the $75 (this was latest amount I was given), I'd contritely apologize and pay it on the spot. They won't send me a bill, and I won't give them financial records just so that they can alter their records! I guess I should have been the typical schmuck from the beginning and paid a bill that wasn't mine. Now, I'm being billed for equipment that was returned, and don't have the receipt as so much time elapsed before it came back on me. That is my big fault here... didn't keep a reciept (though Comcast always acknowledged I'd returned equipment, and even gave me the date and time) and I was honest with them; these were my faults. I'm still without service for a couple of months at new address, as there's no other providers in the area. I'm unable to get satellite service due to apartment location and obstacles to point the receiver in proper direction. I'll be moving to another apartment soon, as I'm stuck in a cable-nazi dilema and my whole family is going nuts. Well, at least Blockbuster online is getting some good use.
I guess I'll either be moving forward with a class action suit against these tyrants, or I'll fail in my pursuit of justice. Either way, I'd go to jail before they get money for this equipment! When this all started, I remember telling the guy the money was insignicant... I'd gladly put down a $500-1000 deposit if that is what it took to get service, but I'd not pay some amount that they can't even provide a bill for!
- April 1, 2008 at 3:01 PM
In your most recent bill (or at least in mine and I'm assuming yours), Comcast recently included their "Comcast Agreement for Residential Services" pamphlet. It is basically the agreement between us and Comcast. This agreement has a mandatory arbitration section (in section 13), which basically means that we agree not to file suit in court and submit to binding arbitration. IF YOU DISAGREE, the agreement states that customers may OPT OUT by mail or at: www.comcast.com/arbitrationoptout and the agreement goes on to assure customers that their decision to opt out will not adversely affect their provision of services. I for one will be opting out, because if I decide to sue, I would prefer to sue and not be forced into arbitration. FYI, the agreement states that you have only THIRTY DAYS to opt out.
- April 1, 2008 at 6:48 PM
- brain said...
I CONTINUE to struggle with the NUMEROUS DIFFICULTIES from COMCAST. I posted my story, and I was contacted by Comcast; HOWEVER, THEY HAVE NOT FOLLOWED THROUGH WITH ANY ASSISTANCE.
I have REPEATEDLY paid my bills and additional bills for nonexistent accounts, denied credit for unnecessary charges even when Comcast deposited my checks, my service was disconnected for cable television and internet access, and I was never credited for the days without service due to Comcast's incompetence, exerted over 20 hours communicating and waiting for Comcast, and utilized my vacation time to wait for technicians that NEVER arrived at my residence. They sent me to collections, even though I have paid my bills. I immediately paid the collection's agent, AND I canceled my service.
The Comcast Agent from the ESCALATIONS DEPARTMENT told me that he would look into getting me a check for the money I WAS OWED, and A LETTER for the credit agencies INDICATING that I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN IN GOOD STANDING as I paid each bill. However, I have NOT HEARD BACK IN over a month, and I have called several times. Although he seemed empathic to my situation, I now assume that he was disingenuous and patronizing as he has neglected to follow through in rectifying the situation. The Escalations Department seems to be treating me in the same horrible manner. This is outrageous! I feel like I live in a third world country! We should be able to get service as we pay our bills, we should not be over charged for services that are not ordered, we should be able to get our money back for a credit on our account, and we should not be treated in this horrible manner
My Situation:
For the past 12 months that I have used Comcast's cable and internet service, I have repeatedly had numerous problems with the service and service representatives. I have spent over twenty hours on the phone repeatedly explaining the lack of internet and cable television service, dealing with incompetent trouble shooters, waiting for technicians to come to my residence who never show up. When I have called, representatives created new account numbers, billed me for service that I have never utilized, required me to make payments for nonexistent service, and canceled my current service that I had requested. I have called Comcast every week for 4 months to check and see if the error has been rectified and to ensure that my account was credited for over $250.00. The duration of each of these weekly calls lasted 30-45 minutes as the representative did not understand the situation and I had to explain the problematic issues. After I was repeatedly guaranteed that I would obtain credit, it NEVER occurred and I received LATE CHARGES and THREATS to cancel my service. Furthermore, I called Comcast and was guaranteed that my service would not be disconnected, BUT MY SERVICE was TURNED OFF!
When I called to schedule a service technician to come to my residence, I was guaranteed a time frame of 11-2 PM, and I utilized my vacation days from work to wait for the technician. However, a technician never arrived, and Comcast claimed that the request was open but canceled in the system.
FINALLY, I CANCELLED MY SERVICE AND THE EQUIPMENT WAS PICKED UP BY A COMCAST REPRESENTATIVE. FURTHERMORE, I WAS TOLD THAT I WOULD RECEIVE A CHECK IN THE MAIL FOR THE REMAINING FEW WEEKS OF SERVICE THAT WERE PAID FOR IN ADVANCE, but were not utilized due to early termination of service. INSTEAD OF RECEIVING A CHECK, I RECEIVED ANOTHER BILL FOR OVER $200.
WHEN I CALLED COMCAST, THEY ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THEY HAVE MY EQUIPMENT, I AM NOT USING THEIR SERVICES, AND INDICATED THAT I AM BEING BILLED AS A RESULT OF THEIR OMISSION TO PHYSICALLY DISCONNECT MY SERVICE WITHIN THE SYSTEM. THEY STATED THAT I WILL CONTINUE TO RECEIVE BILLS FOR THE NEXT 8 WEEKS. THE representative told me to "IGNORE" any delinquent notifications and bills. COMCAST OWES ME MONEY, AND I DON'T THINK I WILL EVER RECEIVE IT!
There needs to be Compensation and Restitution for all of the problematic issues I listed above,the aggravation, and the quantity of time that I have devoted to dealing with the issues that were caused by Comcast. THIS HAS BEEN A SIGNIFICANT BURDEN!
I want the MONEY that is owed to me and A LETTER for the credit agencies INDICATING that I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN IN GOOD STANDING as I paid each bill!
My account number is 8220-18-890-3684082.
- April 2, 2008 at 10:37 AM
- brain said...
I CONTINUE to struggle with the NUMEROUS DIFFICULTIES from COMCAST. I posted my story, and I was contacted by Comcast; HOWEVER, THEY HAVE NOT FOLLOWED THROUGH WITH ANY ASSISTANCE.
I have REPEATEDLY paid my bills and additional bills for nonexistent accounts, denied credit for unnecessary charges even when Comcast deposited my checks, my service was disconnected for cable television and internet access, and I was never credited for the days without service due to Comcast's incompetence, exerted over 20 hours communicating and waiting for Comcast, and utilized my vacation time to wait for technicians that NEVER arrived at my residence. They sent me to collections, even though I have paid my bills. I immediately paid the collection's agent, AND I canceled my service.
The Comcast Agent from the ESCALATIONS DEPARTMENT told me that he would look into getting me a check for the money I WAS OWED, and A LETTER for the credit agencies INDICATING that I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN IN GOOD STANDING as I paid each bill. However, I have NOT HEARD BACK IN over a month, and I have called several times. Although he seemed empathic to my situation, I now assume that he was disingenuous and patronizing as he has neglected to follow through in rectifying the situation. The Escalations Department seems to be treating me in the same horrible manner. This is outrageous! I feel like I live in a third world country! We should be able to get service as we pay our bills, we should not be over charged for services that are not ordered, we should be able to get our money back for a credit on our account, and we should not be treated in this horrible manner
My Situation:
For the past 12 months that I have used Comcast's cable and internet service, I have repeatedly had numerous problems with the service and service representatives. I have spent over twenty hours on the phone repeatedly explaining the lack of internet and cable television service, dealing with incompetent trouble shooters, waiting for technicians to come to my residence who never show up. When I have called, representatives created new account numbers, billed me for service that I have never utilized, required me to make payments for nonexistent service, and canceled my current service that I had requested. I have called Comcast every week for 4 months to check and see if the error has been rectified and to ensure that my account was credited for over $250.00. The duration of each of these weekly calls lasted 30-45 minutes as the representative did not understand the situation and I had to explain the problematic issues. After I was repeatedly guaranteed that I would obtain credit, it NEVER occurred and I received LATE CHARGES and THREATS to cancel my service. Furthermore, I called Comcast and was guaranteed that my service would not be disconnected, BUT MY SERVICE was TURNED OFF!
When I called to schedule a service technician to come to my residence, I was guaranteed a time frame of 11-2 PM, and I utilized my vacation days from work to wait for the technician. However, a technician never arrived, and Comcast claimed that the request was open but canceled in the system.
FINALLY, I CANCELLED MY SERVICE AND THE EQUIPMENT WAS PICKED UP BY A COMCAST REPRESENTATIVE. FURTHERMORE, I WAS TOLD THAT I WOULD RECEIVE A CHECK IN THE MAIL FOR THE REMAINING FEW WEEKS OF SERVICE THAT WERE PAID FOR IN ADVANCE, but were not utilized due to early termination of service. INSTEAD OF RECEIVING A CHECK, I RECEIVED ANOTHER BILL FOR OVER $200.
WHEN I CALLED COMCAST, THEY ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THEY HAVE MY EQUIPMENT, I AM NOT USING THEIR SERVICES, AND INDICATED THAT I AM BEING BILLED AS A RESULT OF THEIR OMISSION TO PHYSICALLY DISCONNECT MY SERVICE WITHIN THE SYSTEM. THEY STATED THAT I WILL CONTINUE TO RECEIVE BILLS FOR THE NEXT 8 WEEKS. THE representative told me to "IGNORE" any delinquent notifications and bills. COMCAST OWES ME MONEY, AND I DON'T THINK I WILL EVER RECEIVE IT!
There needs to be Compensation and Restitution for all of the problematic issues I listed above,the aggravation, and the quantity of time that I have devoted to dealing with the issues that were caused by Comcast. THIS HAS BEEN A SIGNIFICANT BURDEN!
I want the MONEY that is owed to me and A LETTER for the credit agencies INDICATING that I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN IN GOOD STANDING as I paid each bill!
My account number is 8220-18-890-3684082.
- April 2, 2008 at 10:46 AM
- Ameelya said...
I CONTINUE to struggle with the NUMEROUS DIFFICULTIES from COMCAST. I posted my story, and I was contacted by Comcast; HOWEVER, THEY HAVE NOT FOLLOWED THROUGH WITH ANY ASSISTANCE.
I have REPEATEDLY paid my bills and additional bills for nonexistent accounts, denied credit for unnecessary charges even when Comcast deposited my checks, my service was disconnected for cable television and internet access, and I was never credited for the days without service due to Comcast's incompetence, exerted over 20 hours communicating and waiting for Comcast, and utilized my vacation time to wait for technicians that NEVER arrived at my residence. They sent me to collections, even though I have paid my bills. I immediately paid the collection's agent, AND I canceled my service.
The Comcast Agent from the ESCALATIONS DEPARTMENT told me that he would look into getting me a check for the money I WAS OWED, and A LETTER for the credit agencies INDICATING that I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN IN GOOD STANDING as I paid each bill. However, I have NOT HEARD BACK IN over a month, and I have called several times. Although he seemed empathic to my situation, I now assume that he was disingenuous and patronizing as he has neglected to follow through in rectifying the situation. The Escalations Department seems to be treating me in the same horrible manner. This is outrageous! I feel like I live in a third world country! We should be able to get service as we pay our bills, we should not be over charged for services that are not ordered, we should be able to get our money back for a credit on our account, and we should not be treated in this horrible manner
My Situation:
For the past 12 months that I have used Comcast's cable and internet service, I have repeatedly had numerous problems with the service and service representatives. I have spent over twenty hours on the phone repeatedly explaining the lack of internet and cable television service, dealing with incompetent trouble shooters, waiting for technicians to come to my residence who never show up. When I have called, representatives created new account numbers, billed me for service that I have never utilized, required me to make payments for nonexistent service, and canceled my current service that I had requested. I have called Comcast every week for 4 months to check and see if the error has been rectified and to ensure that my account was credited for over $250.00. The duration of each of these weekly calls lasted 30-45 minutes as the representative did not understand the situation and I had to explain the problematic issues. After I was repeatedly guaranteed that I would obtain credit, it NEVER occurred and I received LATE CHARGES and THREATS to cancel my service. Furthermore, I called Comcast and was guaranteed that my service would not be disconnected, BUT MY SERVICE was TURNED OFF!
When I called to schedule a service technician to come to my residence, I was guaranteed a time frame of 11-2 PM, and I utilized my vacation days from work to wait for the technician. However, a technician never arrived, and Comcast claimed that the request was open but canceled in the system.
FINALLY, I CANCELLED MY SERVICE AND THE EQUIPMENT WAS PICKED UP BY A COMCAST REPRESENTATIVE. FURTHERMORE, I WAS TOLD THAT I WOULD RECEIVE A CHECK IN THE MAIL FOR THE REMAINING FEW WEEKS OF SERVICE THAT WERE PAID FOR IN ADVANCE, but were not utilized due to early termination of service. INSTEAD OF RECEIVING A CHECK, I RECEIVED ANOTHER BILL FOR OVER $200.
WHEN I CALLED COMCAST, THEY ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THEY HAVE MY EQUIPMENT, I AM NOT USING THEIR SERVICES, AND INDICATED THAT I AM BEING BILLED AS A RESULT OF THEIR OMISSION TO PHYSICALLY DISCONNECT MY SERVICE WITHIN THE SYSTEM. THEY STATED THAT I WILL CONTINUE TO RECEIVE BILLS FOR THE NEXT 8 WEEKS. THE representative told me to "IGNORE" any delinquent notifications and bills. COMCAST OWES ME MONEY, AND I DON'T THINK I WILL EVER RECEIVE IT!
There needs to be Compensation and Restitution for all of the problematic issues I listed above,the aggravation, and the quantity of time that I have devoted to dealing with the issues that were caused by Comcast. THIS HAS BEEN A SIGNIFICANT BURDEN!
I want the MONEY that is owed to me and A LETTER for the credit agencies INDICATING that I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN IN GOOD STANDING as I paid each bill!
My account number is 8220-18-890-3684082.
- April 2, 2008 at 10:50 AM
- DK47 said...
I ran into some financial hardships and Comcast DISABLED my connection for non payment of 62.00. This was on Nov.14. I decided to just drop the service, pay the final balance of 62.00, turn in the modem (Internet) and go with a cheap dial up until I could afford Comcast internet again. Since afterall up until now I loved their service and they were always fair with me. I turned in the modem expecting to pay a final 62.00. They said I had to pay 128.89 since they only DISABLED my service and didnt physically come out to DISCONNECT it. My service was DISABLED in mid Nov. and their computers still charged me for DEC. even though I had no service??? So basically I was charged another month because THEY didnt get off their butts and come out to DISCNNECT the box outside. Thats not right, I refuse to pay for an entire month of service that I did not and could not recieve. I have since gotten better finances and can easily afford them again, and would like to again become a loyal customer. If they could find a way to meet me half way Id love to become a Comcast customer again Customer no: 727417-1
- April 2, 2008 at 6:04 PM
i know this will sound kinda odd but....i drive 15 miles to pay my cable bill when im out paying my other bills.....cable requires me to pay 2.00 every time i pay in person....i stand in line for the ten mins im there with approx 20 to 30 people...all paying 2.00 each...that adds up to 40 to 60 dollars that cable makes aprox every ten mins...people think about this...add it up...8 hours a day they take payments...5 days a week....x's 2.00 per person....this is highway robbery....all because they want you to use a credit card over the phone...which i might add carries a 5.00 charge for useing their credit services....with the cost of gas nearing 4.00 a gallon...i think its very unfair to charge us the 2 dollars for comming in and paying in person...so heres another question for ya....where does all the money go....employee parties?...oh maybe its for the gas in their trucks?
- April 5, 2008 at 2:35 AM
Canceled phone service back in Dec. and was due a $51.92 credit. Called to get a refund check. Was told it would be to me by the next month. Waited a month. No check. Called again and was told I would need to wait 4-6 weeks for the check. waited 6 weeks .No check. called again and was told they needed 4-6 for them to " look into it". waited again. Nothing.Called back and was told check was cut but.......wait for it.......had to wait another 4-6 weeks for it to process. What does that mean anyway ? Let's bet I am calling in another 6 weeks to get another line of complete crap. Yes, 51.92 to some is nothing but I am a singel mother of three little girls & 51.92 can buy my daughter the new Softball glove & shoes she needed to play this spring.I sent a mail to Rich Germans the SVP of customer service. I am sure it will take him 4-6 weeks to even find my e-mail. Maybe 4-6 weeks to even read it. Then 4-6 weeks for him think about it. And then maybe 4-6 weeks compose it, Then 4-6 weeks to proof read it ........
If your reading THIS ComCast ,get me my refund .And oh ya, thanks for all of the hang ups & no call backs over the past 3 months too!
Karen Lindquist
- April 5, 2008 at 8:32 AM
I gave up, and cancelled ComCast. I now have Verizon DSL and put an antenna up on the roof of my house and I receive HDTV via the antenna. Free. My bill was once over $100 for cable and Internet. It is now $20 for Internet and nothing for TV. Gotta love it.
- April 5, 2008 at 7:13 PM
I got a mailing from Comcast in Dec telling me they were going to give me a $20/mo discount just "for being a valued customer." SInce then, the bill has stayed exactly the same, no discount. I've called once a month since then to explain the issue to the CSR, and been told politely that they will change it. One rep even managed to changed it once, but only as a one-time thing. I've done this for 4 months, but every month, the bill is the same. Why even bother to offer me the discount if it's not going to be honored?
- April 6, 2008 at 2:22 AM
I wish I had as much time to type my problems with Comcast as they have time to be on the phone with me. Without going into my specific problem I have spent 3-4 hours on the phone over the last three month every time with one problem fixed or lip-service that the charges will be removed and that I am right with my grievances, and every month a problem anew exist, a manager that I thought I had an Eye to eye with even spoke of how he has offered things to customers and his offer was kicked out of the system, well if a their computer system is that good then why do I have a different bill every month. with the three months of constant calling and man hours spent going over my triple play bill with first a cust. service agent and then a manager every time whom all said they have never seen this type of problem before. Being in one of the most difficult customer service business myself ( new furniture delivery business). I would prefer to take care of a problem once! spending the time and money for a satisfied customer to return to my services with a reassurance that if something goes wrong I will take care of it in the future also. To service a problem (which we all know this is the real world and they do occur)over and over again must cost Comcast considerable monies thus keeping its cost and prices high causing more problems down the road with already dissatisfied customers. times are tough and everyone is watching their pennies that is why more people are scrutinizing their bills, many finding problems that they did not catch before. Comcast to my knowledge training is crucial not just with lip service (which your agents seem very apt at)fix the problem the first time if someone is unreasonable then let them go to verizon but why loose customers to Verizon, and or direct tv. over something simple as proper billing and proper answers. As i sit i was told over an hour ago that a supervisor would call me, still no call. your loss! my bill to you for my time will be forwarded by my lawyer. I will miss comcast's one bill Idea but I will pay less by splitting my services.
- April 6, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Acct #8777702060937567
I am so angry and dissatisfied with your company's billing department. I have repeatedly had problems with Comcast since you bought out Time Warner and I am in Houston, Texas. I cancelled two of the three bundle services in 02/12/08, and I am STILL being charged for those services. Currently your department is telling me I owe Comcast $541.27 which IS NOT correct. Someone needs to get me a correct bill, and I would be happy to pay for only my cable services. Also, I was charged a trouble ticket fee of $24.95 that no one even told me that I would be charged. What is wrong with you folks??? I want that fee wavied and I want my bill reduced to the current amount owed IMMEDIATELY!!!!! If this can't happen, then I will cancel my cable at once!!!!
Fed up in Houston, Texas
Acct #8777702060937567
- April 7, 2008 at 10:33 AM
It's tax time and I'm going through the bills, when I notice the fine print on my internet bill noting that I'm being charge a single fee for both HS Internet AND a "moden lease."
Problem is: I returned the modem in September of 2005. I'm staring at the reciept right now. The customer service gal on the phone was nice. She informed me that I would have to go back to the service office with my return receipt to get a credit for the mis-billed months.
Minor iritation, but here's my bigger point: since Comcast doesn't break out the seperate charge for the modem (like they used to) it's really super easy to overlook that you're being nicked... when you shouldn't.
More as it develops.
- April 8, 2008 at 12:33 PM
I have a huge obvious error on my comcast bill! I paid for the last two months, which it shows on my bill but then when they added up my bill for the month they also added the amount I paid already making my bill over $256!!! So I was thinking something would get straightened out by itself with the systems.. but no! I get another thing in the mail saying I owe this huge amount by the 10th! ALSO they are charging me a service charge for reporting my neighbors stealing cable! What kind of sense does that make??? I am reporting someone that is stealing off of me and therefore stealing off of you! This has NO right to be charged to me! My druggy loser neighbors and Comcast have pretty much been equal headaches this WHOLE year!!! My account number is 09547 340378-08-7. Please reach me on my cell, not my home phone.
- April 8, 2008 at 2:14 PM
- Ms.Jamma said...
I feel everyone's pain about comcast. Here in Chicago they are billing a month in advance. I am on a limited income so paying for 2 months is not going to happen. I am tried of these nickel sick company's trying to take us for our money.
- April 9, 2008 at 2:56 PM
I signed up for the Comcast Triple Play in January via the website in order to get 1 year of free HD service. The first time I signed up, the representative in the chat room did not place the order. I waited all day for an installation tech, who never showed up. The second time, I finally got someone to come here, but the installation tech couldn't find the cable that goes from our condo unit to the junction box. He left, and 10 minutes later, when I went to look myself, I FOUND THE CABLE RIGHT WHERE HE WAS LOOKING. Finally, after signing up for a THIRD TIME, someone came and finally installed the phone, TV and internet systems. Unfortunately, they brought a HD-DVR box, which I did not request. We only signed up for a HD box. Now I am getting charged for DVR service I did not request and for the HD service I am supposed to get free for 12 months. On top of that, the people in Customer Service (both online and on the phone) keep giving me the runaround and say it will cost ME $15 to swap out the DVR for a regular HD box, even though it wasn't my fault. I would like the HD charges removed from my bill (for 1 year, as per the online offer available when I signed up), the DVR box replaced with a regular HD box, and the DVR charges removed from my bill. I'm very inclined to cancel the whole thing just out of principle. My account number is 8770 34 009 4253581.
- April 9, 2008 at 11:26 PM
Account number: 8772156003139036
A very strange billing mystery involving bank routing numbers.
I'm wondering if this has happened to more people than just me. I recently paid $100 toward my bill using Comcast's voicemail system. I was given a confirmation number for this. Several days later I realized that I should have paid more on the bill, and called them to take care of it. I talked to a representative who told me that my first payment had bounced and I now owed an extra $30 to take care of the bounced payment. This didn't seem right as I had gotten no notification from my bank of any insufficient funds. I called them again several days later and talked to another rep. She told me it was because the bank routing number was wrong and that my confirmation number meant nothing. (she also said that she would never trust their automated system as she has seen too many errors happen.)
Anyway, I let her convince me that I had somehow entered the number wrong and paid the extra $30. But after the phone call I started thinking more about it, and I swear the machine said last time you used this system, you used an account ending in XXXX, do you wish to use the same account this time, to which I answered yes. I thought I'd check my theory out by phoning back, but now there is a very involved explaination as to where the routing number is.
Anyway, has anyone else had any similar weirdnesses involving their bank routing numbers?
Other payment centers usually verify and say something like, you have entered xxxx, for xxxx bank.
It's a small amount in the big scheme of things, but it's really pissing me off as I don't believe I'm at fault.
- April 10, 2008 at 11:21 AM
i signed up for triple play. I also signed up to have credit card charged. I don't understand why it takes two months plus to get credit card approval. Well anyhow someone in the meantime used my credit card number so I had to send Comcast another credit card number. They sent me a past due notice. I sent them a check. They claimed they never got it and yet here I sit looking at a copy of the check that has cleared my bank account. I can't get into my account on line because they never sent me a pin number. I have tried sending e-mails and making phone calls. They also have the wrong security answer in my file.
Another thing is when I switched my phone service to Comcast, they have me listed as a business so I have been getting tons of calls offering me free bank machines for my business. Just what I needed.
I would like to see a bill so I could tell if the drones have finally gotten it right before I switch to some other method for phone, TV, and computer.
Account #8993210390019146
- April 10, 2008 at 11:21 AM
Customer # 09520 236366-07-7
This is my third day in a row trying to resolve this billing issue that I have. I sat on hold for 75 minutes on 4/9/08, On 4/10/08 I was hung up on after I asked to speak to a supervisor and waited on hold for 20 minutes, I called back and waited on hold for 65 minutes before I decided to just give up and use this method.
I have high speed internet access through Comcast. When I signed up for it I received the "introductory" rate of $32.99 for six months but after having a tech not show up twice to install it I called and complained and received a $25 credit on my account and six more months (12 total) at $32.99, which I only received after arguing with the CSR that a $25 credit wasn't enough for the trouble I had to go through. What do you know after only six months my bill goes up to $60.95! This is outrageous that after I was promised 12 months @ $32.99 my bill goes up after only six. I pay my bill early ever month and what do I receive in return for being a paying customer? Being hung up on, waiting on hold for 160 minutes total and still haven't talked to the right person to resolve the issue! Yet on the day I received my bill for $60.95 a Comcast sales person is at my door asking if I want to bundle cable with my internet for ONLY $60.95! What a coincident! When Comcast wants to sell me something they manage to show up when you don't need them but when you need something hooked up or some error on their part fixed then get ready for one hell of an effort!
I just want my bill corrected back to the rate that I was promised for 12 months, that's all! I like the service but trying to get anything corrected is impossible! I don't want to cancel my service but if I can't get this resolved then I have no choice.
Good luck everybody with all of your troubles!
- April 11, 2008 at 11:38 AM
just got off the phone with comcast CSR...i signed up with comcast on febuary 6th...however i did my homework before i got service...i went online to comcast.com and looked at there premotions and to see what they had to offer....after i seen what i liked i called the number to sign up for service...comcast service is much higher than brighthouse service...and i had everything with brighthouse....cable phone, dvr for t.v and 7mbps for internet....i told the CSR this and she gave me an offer i couldn't refuse ...108 dollars a month but, that didn't include cable phone cuz they don't offer it in my area...so, i said alright...sounds good..signed up....after a couple weeks i noticed that every day my internet would go out every once in awhile...go off for 30 minutes or so and come back on....then last week of febuary i recieved my first bill...(so, i had thought)..couple days later i recieved a 2nd bill...saying i owed 260 or 280 some dollars....and it was all due right now on the spot...i was like what...i can't pay this all right now...so, i called and spoke with a CSR....they explained the bill to me...and gave me till the 15th of march to make a payment....i made a payment...i asked why the bill was so high...cuz it didn't add up to what i was quoted when i first signed up....after 2 weeks of being on the phone with a CSR they finally straightened it out ...now here's my problem....i just recieved a letter in the mail april 11, 2008 saying that i had to make a payment right now to avoid service interuption....i immediately called comcast customer service....explained to them i get paid bi weekly and would make my payment on thursday april 17th, 2008....i was told that comcast doesn't do payment arrangements and that they can't do anything about it....and if i get shut off i have to pay a reconnect fee too of 40 dollars...i do have other options i can go with ....DSL does run in this area....but, i would prefer to stay with comcast ...i do like comcasts cable and internet service...i'm just asking for a week extension actually less than that....without being shutoff....i spoke with 3 different CSR's and all basically told me nothing can be done...it's up to the system....i was gonna escaluate and speak to a manager and i did speak about that with the last rep...but, he said not even a manager could do anything about it....here's my acct number and i would greatly appreciate if i could get an extension till thurday april 17, 2008....that's 6 days from now...
Acct # 01105 143804-12-6
Chris in Ocala, Florida
- April 12, 2008 at 3:00 AM
In August 2007 I signed up for Comcast Service and shortly thereafter received my initial billing. I made the payment through my bank electronically as I have done in the past. My bank deducted the funds and provided a transaction number. A month later I received a second bill reflecting a past due balance. I paid, electronically the current balance and received a confirmation from my bank. We received a call from comcast collections indicating that we had a past due balance at which time we forwarded to them the bank confirmations. No response. We continued to receive billings however since they were not properly crediting the payments that we had made, we advised them that we would not make any more payments until the issue was resolved. Throughout this period, they would cancel the service, turn it back on after we complained and finally billed for the cable box. At that point we told them to come get the box, which they did, although that did not stop them from calling about the box on several additional occasions. They then turned the account over to a collection agency for $117.00. It has always been our contention that the account was paid and that they had misapplied the payments. No one would acknowledge that fact and all we received were collection letters. The accuracy of our position was borne out when, after they placed the account with a collection agency, we received a check from Comcast for approximately $140.00, which is in excess of the amount they claimed was unpaid. We have called this fact to their attantion and requested that their representative contact us to resolve this matter. Instead, we received another letter for a collection agency and I have learned that they have made a negative report to the national credit bureaus.
Anyone have a suggestion?
- April 12, 2008 at 7:01 AM
I posted with an issue on April 9, 2008, 11:26 P.M. regarding the excess charges I was receiving from Comcast for what was supposed to be free HD service. Cynthia from the regional coporate office called within 48 hours of my post and had my issue resolved very quickly. She was very courteous and apologized for the problems I was having. Just giving credit where credit is due, though it is unfortunate that Comcast has to rely on this website to solve their customers' problems.
- April 14, 2008 at 8:34 AM
Looking back in the last 6 years i have been with comcast my bill has DOUBLED! When i moved in to my home my bill was $42 a month. This months bill was for $92 a month. I have 2 tvs in my home, only one with digital cable on it. No extra channels at all not even one. $92 a month is obscene for this. the kicker is that in the last 6 months they have slowly crept up the price adding just a few dollars here and there. Its gone up $12 in 6 months withone knowlege. When i questioned it they attributed it to taxes and fees. They get away with it because they have a monopoly in my area. We are not wired for verizon and face the wrong direction for both satellite companys. And they are slowly taking away channels we used to get for free and adding them to packages that they want you to pay for. When i looked into other companys i can get every channel and all the premiums for the same price i pay for NOTHING here at comcast but they know i cant leave. Im ready to give up on TV. Time to hit the library for entertainment. Stop ripping off the little people comcast!!!!
- April 14, 2008 at 2:16 PM
When my cable was out for 3 days and after 2 missed appointments by tech people to check it out i finally had someone come out to fix my cable. I was then told there was an outage in the area. I was told i would get a credit for the 2 missed tech visits and a credit for each day of no cable. Well to my surpise when i got my bill that month not only were there no credits...they CHARGED ME for the tech visit. When i called they lied and said there were no missed tech visits and that they would not be crediting peoples accounts because it was not an individual problem for a regional problem. Mind you the service was out for an entire week! After speaking to several supervisors they agreeed to take the charge for the service call off my bill. But next month...There it was again! When i called they insisted it was taken care of. On the 3rd month it appeared again, and after much stress and arguing i was told it was taken off and it was...for good. It should not have been there in the first place and should not have taken 3 months to be taken care of.
- April 14, 2008 at 2:25 PM
- Ed said...
acct #09508-783741-01-4
as we all know we pay a month in advance.My bill for 1/27-2/27 was 81.94 which I paid on 1/26.Next bill was for 200.78!!
charged me from 2/4-2/27 87.06 since my "promotion" was ended and then wanted to start charging $113.72 for 2/27-3/27..had no idea promotion had an expiration..and advised I had already paid for Feb and shouldn't be charged after the fact!
i called and After 45 min "Brian agreed to waive the 87.06 and placed me on a new promotion which allowed me to drop some features and channels and resulted in amt of $49.65 plus fees.I paid $43.71 on 3/10 which was the amt I was told would bring me paid till 3/27
next month $87.06 still on bill..called again spoke with Ryan..after 30 min..got supervisor Cory who agreed again to waive the 87.06 got tracking # and was advised 3-5 days acct would be adjusted..
called 2weeks later 4/14..and spoke with Warren..after 23 mins of explaining again was told it was never approved..after 17 minutea on hold was speaking with supervisor Elizabeth when I heard 3 beeps and was disconnected!!
CALLED BACK AND WHILE ON HOLD FOR 4MIN DISCONNECTED AGAIN..MY NEXT MISSIVE WILL BE TO THE PBU ,then probably to Direct tv or Verizon
- April 14, 2008 at 3:57 PM
Customer number: 09569 593022-04
Can anyone please explain to me why, when I downgrade my service from the $62 per month basic cable/internet combo to simply internet, I only save $00.75 per month, even though the "Comcast Package Services" are listed as costing $17.75? I only discovered this whopping $00.75 savings after a ten minute wait and I asked, "Can I confirm the monthly savings I'll get by downgrading?" The reps need to be up front about things like this.
After downgrading the service I called back after thinking, "Hey, based on their reputation and my experience they will no doubt try to charge me for downgrading." Lo-and-behold, I was told, "Normally we charge $16.95 for a technician to come out, but in this special case the representative was able to change the service in-office. We'll only be charging you $1.99." Why, that's several months worth of $00.75 savings!
I should point out that the first rep I spoke with at no time informed me that I would be charged $16.95 for the change. This does not seem kosher. Something is very wrong with Comcast. Don't even get me started on previous technician visits (a little preview: the "technician" thought that since I had a wireless router that the cable signal was coming through the air).
With no other company have I ever felt so over-a-barrel.
- April 15, 2008 at 11:28 AM
From Yahoo Finance Message Boards For Comcast...
ConCRAP Gets Religious On Death Row
Looks like they've learned a new trick. Isn't that what happens when you go to 'College'...OOPS, I MEANT TO SAY PRISON?
First...They LIE and THREATEN TO FIRE EMPLOYEES IF THEY TALK ABOUT THROTTLING (which of course they don't do ;-).
Second...They BULLY, THREATEN TO SUE AND POSTURE TO THE FCC THEY ARE POWERLESS TO STOP THEM.
Third...They PROMISE TO BE GOOD and NEVER MURDER, RAPE, LIE, STEAL, ROB, PILLAGE, or EVER RAISE RATES AGAIN. It's a MIRACLE, THEY'VE SEEN THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS AND WILL NEVER TRANSGRESS AGAIN. Why, WE'RE PART of THE SOLUTION and NEVER were PART OF THE PROBLEM!
Comcast to spearhead creation of P2P Bill of Rights
By Nate Anderson | Published: April 15, 2008 - 01:34PM CT
Comcast has just announced its plan to lead an industry partnership in the creation of a "P2P Bill of Rights and Responsibilities" that would apply both to users and to ISPs. Comcast spokesperson Charlie Douglas tells Ars that the cable giant is already prepared to argue for a protocol agnostic approach to network management, an increase in upstream capacity to help alleviate congestion, and more transparency about its network management practices. If Comcast can get the ISP community on board with such proposals, more power to them, but we'll refrain from judgment until we see who's invited to sit around the table.
Comcast has already partnered with Pando, a company that speeds P2P transfers on ISP networks, and hopes to round up a gaggle of "industry experts, other ISPs and P2P companies, content providers and others" to help draft the document later this year. That list notably leaves out consumer advocacy groups like Free Press, Public Knowledge, and the EFF, so we asked Comcast whether they would be invited.
Why wouldn't consumer groups with the relevant experience in these matters be consulted, we asked. "I don't know," Douglas said after a long pause, but added that Comcast hasn't ruled anything out at this point.
Possible ideas for the "rights" section of the document include the ability to uninstall P2P applications, along with "clarifying usages" (that is, describing bandwidth limits, which would be welcome). Douglas also noted that P2P apps might be able to "identify lawful content versus not lawful."
Between this announcement and the recent deal with BitTorrent, Comcast has reversed its tough stance on the issue of network management. As recently as this February, Comcast told the FCC that its practices were totally appropriate and that P2P couldn't be accommodated by building out more infrastructure. In only two months, it has decided that traffic shaping can work on a protocol agnostic basis and that partnering with P2P firms like Pando and BitTorrent to reduce P2P loads on the network might be a better idea than putting limits on a promising technology.
With the FCC set to hold the second of its public hearings on the Comcast/P2P throttling issue later this week at Stanford University, though, we suspect that the threat of a regulatory beatdown had something to do with Comcast's Damascus Road conversion. As Comcast notes in today's press release announcing the Bill of Rights, "The arrangement is yet another example of how these technical issues can be worked out through private business discussions and without the need for government intervention."
In other words: Move along, FCC, there's nothing to see here. But, as this entire case shows, the existence and interest of a regulator like the FCC can function as a helpful curb on market power when that power threatens to take companies in directions that might not best serve the public good.
- April 15, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Let management know what YOU think about the company policies and working conditions.
- April 15, 2008 at 12:51 PM
- justsayin said...
My mom was going to move, so she called Comcast and set up for them to transfer her service over to her new address. She gets to the new house, the service is set up, but then a few days later she goes to pay her bill for that month only to find there are two accounts listed there: one showing money due for the old address and another one for the new address, same amount of fees for service plus a an additional $60 on time fee tacked on for new customer set up. She's not a new customer, she just moved, but Comcast can't seem to get it right and she's been fighting with them for 2 weeks now trying to get it cleared up. It makes us both long for the days when Time Warner here, they could be bad but not nearly as difficult and frustrating as Comcast has been.
- April 15, 2008 at 3:06 PM
Comcast Wants to Be the Net's Judge, Jury and Executioner
Timothy Karr Posted April 16, 2008
Comcast has just rolled out plans to draft a "bill of rights and responsibilities" for ISPs and Internet users. But the cable giant has forgotten one thing: to invite Internet users, policymakers and advocates to the table.
The move comes as the cable giant is scrambling to preempt a Federal Communications Commission ruling against its blocking of legal file-sharing programs.
In response to a complaint filed last fall by Free Press and members of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition, the FCC has launched an official inquiry into the matter, and has hinted that action against Comcast is imminent.
An FCC hearing schedule for Thursday at Stanford University will focus on whether ISPs can shape, filter and even block content that travels over their networks. (The public -- more than 1.5 million of whom have spoken out against such violations -- has a rare opportunity to testify before the commission during the hearing.)
Comcast Wants to Play by Its Rules Only
In advance of Stanford, Comcast announced that it has partnered with Web traffic company Pando to put together a group of industry experts to play legislators and draft their own "bill."
Not surprisingly the list of prospective authors leaves out consumer advocacy groups like Free Press, Consumers Union, Public Knowledge, and EFF -- or anyone who might question Comcast's desire to play content cop over its network.
"Comcast has declared itself an arbiter of consumers' rights, says Marvin Ammori," Free Press General Counsel. "But Comcast's past behavior tells us everything we really need to know."
The cable giant's blocking of peer-to-peer applications continues to this day with no indication from the company of when or if they plan to stop. The move to convene their own panel is Comcast's effort to demonstrate that the private sector can solve all of the Internet's problems.
Paper Tiger
It all boils down to a simple question: Can we trust Comcast to protect our online freedoms without enforceable, independent consumer safeguards?
Their track record clearly indicates that a Comcast-drafted bill of rights would be worth no more than the paper it's printed on.
After all, Comcast routinely finishes at or near the bottom of customer service surveys. This is the same company that still refuses to admit that it was secretly blocking its users' file-sharing applications, even after several independent investigations found the opposite to be true.
It's the same company that then tried to block public debate on the issue by hiring seat-fillers to deny people entry to an FCC hearing in Boston.
A Real Bill
"Comcast has thumbed its nose at the existing consumer bill of rights," Ammori says. "Now facing unprecedented public, government and media scrutiny, Comcast is desperately trying to change the subject."
The need for Net Neutrality remains urgent. The FCC should do its job to uphold a real and enforceable bill of rights for consumers and not to trust the industry to police itself.
The road to a more open Internet leads through Stanford, and not through Comcast's latest ploy to skirt the rules.
- April 16, 2008 at 8:50 AM
Just wanted to note that after I left comments on this blog, Amber from customer services was in contact almost immediately and the matter has been straightened out to my satisfaction and recommendations will be made based on our conversation. Thank you blog! Thank you Amber!
- April 16, 2008 at 1:35 PM
I am a basic cable and Internet customer. After 11 years with DirecTV, I decided to explore my other TV options. I contacted Comcast and they offered me their top "premier" package (all channels) with four HD boxes and the higher speed Internet service (15MB) for $97.84 a month plus tax (includes a $55.04 discount per month) for one year. I went to the local Comcast office the next day and verified the deal in person. I signed up, had the HD boxes installed and all was well. After two correct billing cycles, I received a bill over the weekend that no longer included my discount. Yes, everything was now full price. I contacted customer service and was told that my account was audited and Comcast Finance determined I should not have been given the deal and it was removed with no notification. I requested a supervisor call me and one did the next day. He said there was nothing he could do. The rate was a promotion that was no longer available in the system and I was never eligible for it. I told him I would not have switched to them if I had not been offered that promotion (and I even verified it in person). I reminded him that this was a classic "bait and switch" tactic, that it was illegal and that the Attorney General of my state would be contacted if this was not resolved. It is not my fault they were able to add a package to my account that I "supposedly" was not eligible for. I got their service solely because of that offer. Two months later they rescinded the offer with no notice and I now have their most expensive TV and Internet package at full price. If Comcast can make an offer, add it to my account and then rescind it before the promotion period ends, how can anyone trust any offer they receive? This practice is illegal and I plan on pursuing it further unless it is resolved to my satisfaction. The only thing I was given was a small discount on Internet service for 6 months, nothing compared to the $55.04 x 10 = $550 I should be receiving. I want my $55.04 discount added back for the remaining 10 months of the promotion. My account number is 15011 350131-02-6.
- April 17, 2008 at 4:50 AM
That sounds like classic "bait and switch". I am an attorney and I would be happy to help you with this problem if you do not get a quick resoluation from Comcast.
- April 17, 2008 at 5:23 AM
Mr Attorney,
How about I send you my cashed Money Order that clearly states it is the initial payment of a 12 month fixed fee agreement for both internet and tv @ $53/mo, right there on the face of the money order? They cashed it. Three months later they were charging me $120/mo. More over how about you turn it over and see for yourself that Comcast took this payment and deposited it into an AT&T acount!
Is this not at least suspect? Isn't Comcast committing some form of consumer fraud here? Why would Comcast deposit funds into a competitors bank account, if in fact they are competitors.What's going on here? Who owns Comcast? Who owns AT&T?
Where's my whistle?
I want to blow it.
You can reach me through my mailing address: FA
446 N Wells St
Chicago, Il 60610
- April 17, 2008 at 7:22 AM
Customer number: 09569 593022-04
I just wanted to post an update to my complaint above:
Michael from Comcast customer service called the same day I posted the comment. I wasn't around, so he left a message with my wife. Not being that eager to once again initiate contact, I decided to wait and see if they would call again. To my pleasant surprise, Michael did just call again and I was able to answer.
I explained my current concerns and past bad experiences with technicians and front-line customer service folks, which he listened to with patience. He apologized for the bad experiences and the fact that the reps weren't forthcoming with charges that I would incur and then said I should be offered some kind of promotional pricing.
I accepted one of the offers (6 months of ~60% off 16Mbps service) and thanked him for calling me again. He said he'd call to confirm when the service changes takes place later today. Fingers crossed...
At the end of the day, in 6 months I'll be paying Comcast more than I currently am, but that's fine. My problems with Comcast haven't been the prices, it's been the angry and unapologetic attitude, lack of technical knowledge, downright malicious behavior (e.g. destruction of personal property), and sleight-of-hand billing practices.
It was refreshing to finally encounter someone at the company who seems willing and able to treat me like a proper customer. Just too bad it took so long.
As I was just typing that sentence, Michael called back to let me know the service has been upgraded. All I can say is, thanks, and we need more of this kind of interaction!
- April 17, 2008 at 7:54 AM
Billing fiascos....
I had to just laugh at this...
Listen up, pay your dues and cut the cable. I did just that, and found out what I was really missing. Comcast and thier so called digital service and HD service is nothing more that, a joke. Get a dish system and you will see true quality TV brodcast, in true digital content.
- April 19, 2008 at 6:11 PM
The less responsive the customer service is, the more cash there is in Ralph, Suzanne, and Brian Roberts' pockets.
- April 20, 2008 at 7:03 AM
Comcast if you read this i am very disappointed adout how you treat you customers! I have been fighting a problem about my bill now for 3 weeks! They took money out of my account and they dont know where it went and i have gave them all the information that they want and still no results! When i try to talk to a supervisor all they do is hang up on me! If this is the way you treat your customers i am supprized that your still in business! They even hjad the nerve to call and cancel my services numerous of times! I am just about ready to switch servers!!!!!!!
- April 21, 2008 at 2:51 PM
we signed up for comcast phone service when they were having their deal. The service was so bad, static on line, crossed lines, etc... The tech said it was the sun that was affecting our phone. So we cancelled and went back to Verizon. We were billed for the phone service for two months following the cancellation. Then we switched internet to Verizon as well. Although I returned the modem, Comcast charged me $80 for unreturned equipiment. Then they continued to charge me for internet for three months. When I called to complain, they said I must still have the service. I proved i returned the modem and asked how I would have the service without a modem. To straighten the situation out took two hours. Unreasonable.
- April 21, 2008 at 6:07 PM
This is an update to my post from last Thursday. I had my $55 discount removed after two months into a 12 month promotion. I received a call the same day from Sanaa in Comcast Executive support. She said she would look into it and either reinstate the discount if she could or come up with something else comparable. We spoke again yesterday. She said I should not have been offered the promotion but it was Comcast's fault that I was. She used current promotions to come up with something else comparable. I am satisfied with it. Thanks to Bob for creating this blog and thanks to Sanaa and Comcast for doing the right thing. I wish others luck in resolving their issues.
- April 22, 2008 at 6:17 AM
- ritzy160 said...
When I was a customer of comcase (which I am now NOT...and have never looked back), they would bill me incorrectly all the time! I signed up for their internet service (I only HAVE one computer), and was billed $120.00 for the networking of 3 computers. I called...they promised to remove the charges, they DIDN'T remove the charges, I called, they promised to remove the charges, they DIDN'T remove the charges, and so on until I finally paid the money that they overcharged, and cancelled my service with them. They offered me wonderful packages in order to keep my business, but at that point, they couldn't have PAID ME to continue their service and deal with their crap anymore. This is a very stressful company to deal with and I really hope that they start doing better by their customers.
- April 22, 2008 at 6:36 AM
Account #: 09565289539023 (November 2002 – November 2007)
Account #: 09565281621034 (Current)
Here is the prelude to my unresolved, frustrating, ongoing story….
I am writing to the public and Comcast Corp. from the epicenter of Comcast Country. I currently reside with my brother in an apartment building several blocks from the headquarters of Comcast Corp. in Philadelphia, PA. Prior to moving into my current apartment in December 2007, I lived by myself for five years from November 2002 until November 2007 in another Philadelphia apartment building that was located about three blocks from the headquarters of Comcast Corp.
From November 2002 until November 2007, when I lived by myself for five years, I subscribed to Comcast's Cable and DSL services. I had two cable boxes and I paid all of my bills on time (except once when the bill was lost in paperwork on my desk and then it was paid in full when found the following month). During this entire time period I ordered and paid for two pay per view programs. My account was always in good standing. Additionally, I have excellent credit.
In December 2007, upon moving into my new apartment where my brother previously resided for two years with a roommate, I cancelled my old Comcast Service. At the time I kept one of the two cable boxes from my old apartment to use in my new apartment (because I wanted to retain the programs that were stored on my DVR system). As a result, I returned one of the cable boxes from my old apartment and my brother's old roommates cable box to Comcast. I have documentation of these returns and exchanges from Comcast.
Fast forward to the end of March/Beginning of April 2008:
After arriving home from work one evening, I was confused when I opened my Comcast Bill to find a pay per view "Porn" movie ordered for about $15.00. After asking my brother if he ordered this movie and finding out that neither of us did, my brother called Comcast to have this movie removed and our account credited.
This is what we found out:
Not only was our account charged $15.00 for a movie that we did not order, but there were an additional 44 pay per view programs that were charged to our account including mostly "Porn" movies and "Wrestling" events. These charges totaled over $500! $500!!!
After trying to explain to many, many, many Comcast supervisors/executives that we did not order these programs, Comcast to date has not credited our account. Obviously someone has hacked into our account and has been purchasing pay per view programs that we have never ordered. Dealing with Comcast has been very difficult. There seems to be a communication break down. The office of the President has tried to help, but the Corporate Escalation Department has been totally ineffective and blindly adhering to the notion that these charges can only be ours.
Comcast does not find it odd in anyway that the following facts and events occurred:
(1) That 45 pay per view "Porn" and "Wrestling" programs were ordered in a 2 week time period. The fact is that we have ordered only a handful of pay per view programs over the years - let alone 45 pay per view programs in a two week period! Additionally, these 45 pay per view programs are a totally different viewing preference from what we have ordered in the past.
(2) That the majority of these programs were purchased during the business day when both my brother and I are at work. We have clients, co-workers, etc. to confirm our whereabouts.
(3) Many "Porn" movies were purchased at the same time and within minutes of each other. Give me a break!!
(4) A "Wrestle Mania" program was ordered in my bedroom on my small 19'' screen TV when I have a 52''screen TV that sits in our living room.
So during our original conversation with Comcast a couple of weeks ago, we told Comcast we could not trust what was going on and we put a pin number on the account that required a phone call from us to for any future purchases.
So as of this writing today, I found out that there was an additional $300 purchased this week! Hello!! Anyone home? How could this happen?
Comcast's response/defense is that these pay per view programs could only be ordered directly on the actual cable box in our apartment. The cable box in question is the same cable box each time, which so happens to be the cable box from my old apartment. Since I know that my brother and I have never ordered pay per view programs through this box, shouldn't Comcast be able to figure out the solution? However Comcast is not even trying to address this problem nor are they offering any suggestions to correct this from happening again. No one has contacted us to check our system.
After spending multiple days/hours on the phone/hold, Comcast still has not credited our account and reimbursed us for these unauthorized purchases. Originally, Comcast said that they would split the costs of $500 to settle this situation. $250 and all of this hassle for programming that we have not ordered…I am insulted and enraged. Why won't Comcast make us whole? Now the bill is over $800!!
Unfortunately, my current residence does not accept programming from Verizon Fios TV or Direct TV. I am forced to use Comcast if I want TV viewing. They know it and use it as leverage against all consumers.
Does anybody have any suggestions before I hire a lawyer to battle these unauthorized charges?
To be continued…
- April 22, 2008 at 7:10 AM
I recently moved from Decatur, GA to Florida. I followed all of Comcast's requirements to close out my account. I turned in all of the Comcast equipment and retained the receipt. The next thing I know is that I get a bill for over $600 for the equipment and a final charge of $20.86 on my account. I have contacted Comcast more than 5 times, asked to speak with a manager twice (I don't think I have spoked with one yet, someone who was suppose to be a manager called me and promised to call me the next day with the results of his "looking into the situation" but that was over two weeks ago). Now Comcast has turned my account over to a collections agency. I was never, never late paying my bill to Comcast and am more than willing to pay what I honestly owe ($20.86). I even did their work for them in faxing a copy of the work order where the Comcast equipment was picked up on the day I moved to Florida . . . one of the Reps told me they would have to look through 8,000 copies of work orders to fine mine (now that's just sad and horrible customer service) . . . so I faxed them a copy but still nothing. Now I seriously considering legal action against Comcast if I don't hear anything soon.
Acct #8220 20 210 3783584
- April 24, 2008 at 11:35 AM
- Ameelya said...
I HAVE NOT received any type of resolution. Not only did I request a check for my credit on my account, I also asked Comcast for a letter stating that I was ALWAYS in good standing and paid ALL of my bills to provide the credit agencies. Comcast HAS FAILED TO PROVIDE me with this simple letter and a check for the money they owe me. I have called the Comcast Representative from the Escalations Department at least 3 times each week for the past 4 weeks, but the representative from the Escalations Department has not returned any of my 12 messages. They receptionist regularly tells me that this employee is on the telephone, but he will get my message immediately. Comcast owes me almost $400 and they refuse to provide me with a check. In addition to wanting my money returned to me, I want a letter indicating that they falsely and incorrectly made he mistake of sending me to a collections company, so that I can provide this documentation to my credit agency. This is EASY to rectify, but they REFUSE! These people have been disingenuous and patronizing as they have neglected to follow through in rectifying the situation. The Escalations Department seems to be treating me in the same horrible manner. This is outrageous!
~ Amielya
My account number is 8220-18-890-3684082.
2nd POSTING & Explanation of MY SITUATION on 3/30/08
I CONTINUE to struggle with the NUMEROUS DIFFICULTIES from COMCAST. I posted my story, and I was contacted by Comcast; however, they have not followed through with any assistance. I have REPEATEDLY paid my bills and additional bills for nonexistent accounts, denied credit for unnecessary charges even when Comcast deposited my checks, my service was disconnected for cable television and internet access, and I was never credited for the days without service due to Comcast's incompetence, exerted over 20 hours communicating and waiting for Comcast, and utilized my vacation time to wait for technicians that NEVER arrived at my residence. They sent me to collections, even though I have paid my bills. I immediately paid the collection's agent, and she told me to cancel my service after she was provided the details of my situation. The Comcast Agent from the Escalations Department told me that he would look into getting me a check for the money I overpaid, and a letter that I can provide to the credit agencies proving that I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN IN GOOD STANDING as I paid each bill. However, I have NOT HEARD BACK IN over a month, and I have called several times. Although he seemed empathic to my situation, I now assume that he was disingenuous and patronizing as he has neglected to follow through in rectifying the situation. The Escalations Department seems to be treating me in the same horrible manner. This is outrageous! I feel like I live in a third world country! We should be able to get service as we pay our bills, we should not be over charged for services that are not ordered, we should be able to get our money back for a credit on our account, and we should not be treated in this horrible manner
1st POSTING & Explanation of MY SITUATION POSTED 02/16/08
For the past 12 months that I have used Comcast's cable and internet service, I have repeatedly had numerous problems with the service and service representatives. I have spent over twenty hours on the phone repeatedly explaining the lack of internet and cable television service, dealing with incompetent trouble shooters, waiting for technicians to come to my residence who never show up. When I have called, representatives created new account numbers, billed me for service that I have never utilized, required me to make payments for nonexistent service, and canceled my current service that I had requested. I have called Comcast every week for 4 months to check and see if the error has been rectified and to ensure that my account was credited for over $250.00. The duration of each of these weekly calls lasted 30-45 minutes as the representative did not understand the situation and I had to explain the problematic issues. After I was repeatedly guaranteed that I would obtain credit, it NEVER occurred and I received LATE CHARGES and THREATS to cancel my service. Furthermore, I called Comcast and was guaranteed that my service would not be disconnected, BUT MY SERVICE was TURNED OFF!
When I called to schedule a service technician to come to my residence, I was guaranteed a time frame of 11-2 PM, and I utilized my vacation days from work to wait for the technician. However, a technician never arrived, and Comcast claimed that the request was open but canceled in the system.
FINALLY, I CANCELLED MY SERVICE AND THE EQUIPMENT WAS PICKED UP BY A COMCAST REPRESENTATIVE. FURTHERMORE, I WAS TOLD THAT I WOULD RECEIVE A CHECK IN THE MAIL FOR THE REMAINING FEW WEEKS OF SERVICE THAT WERE PAID FOR IN ADVANCE, but were not utilized due to early termination of service. INSTEAD OF RECEIVING A CHECK, I RECEIVED ANOTHER BILL FOR OVER $200. WHEN I CALLED COMCAST, THEY ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THEY HAVE MY EQUIPMENT, I AM NOT USING THEIR SERVICES, AND INDICATED THAT I AM BEING BILLED AS A RESULT OF THEIR OMISSION TO PHYSICALLY DISCONNECT MY SERVICE WITHIN THE SYSTEM. THEY STATED THAT I WILL CONTINUE TO RECEIVE BILLS FOR THE NEXT 8 WEEKS. THE representative told me to "IGNORE" any delinquent notifications and bills. COMCAST OWES ME MONEY, AND I DON'T THINK I WILL EVER RECEIVE IT!
There needs to be Compensation and Restitution for all of the problematic issues I listed above,the aggravation, and the quantity of time that I have devoted to dealing with the issues that were caused by Comcast. THIS HAS BEEN A SIGNIFICANT BURDEN! My account number is 8220-18-890-3684082.
- April 24, 2008 at 1:02 PM
account # 09508 171909-01-1
I have been trying for almost a month now to get my bill straightened out. I have the bundled service promotion (internet, phone, & digital preferred plus with HBO, etc.) @ 130/mo. I also have a DVR and an HD converter. The digital package includes a converter and the dvr is listed separately on the bill. What I cannot get anyone to answer is the additional charges of $6 incremental for the HD converter and $26.85 per month for an additional outlet. My last attempt to straighten this out resulted in speaking to a supervisor (Roy) who was going to give the bill to his supervisor because he couldn't explain it and I would get a call back that night. This lie has been told to me so many times I just don't know where to turn. I have gone back over my bills since 12/06 and these erroneous charges are on all the bills (my husband just wrote the checks and never questioned the billing). The line I am given most often is that these charges are for the converter boxes I have--but I only have 3 boxes and 2 of them are accounted for in other parts of the bill. What do I have to do to get someone to correct this obvious error?
- April 25, 2008 at 3:24 PM
Well, now, not only do I have access through a friend to a Money Order made out to and cashed by Comcast then deposited in AT&T's bank account but apparently they do read the complaints on the site because I just received a letter from Comcast dated Apr 16th, mailed on Apr 23rd extending concern and a willingness to resolve my problems unless they do not hear from me by Apr 12th!!! So says:
Wil Rosa, Executive Relations, Oak Brook, IL. Priceless, ain't it? Where ARE the Consumer Advocates? Where's Ralph? Oh, yeah! He's spoilin' for President.
- April 27, 2008 at 12:12 AM
I called Comcast on Feb 15 to set up services at my home. I was going to self install my internet that night and the following Wed Comcast would send a cable man out to install the cable. Feb 15 evening I went to Best Buy to purchase a Comcast Modem and Self Install Kit. The Self Install Kit did not work when I got home and I contaced Comcast and they said I would not have service because the cable box had no power. Once I was able to get cable I could install the internet myself. When I asked to confirm my date of installation he informed me that it was on Thursday. He had no explanation what so ever why my date was moved from it's orgianl time on Wed to Thursday. So on Thursday the cable man installs the cable, of course after bring the wrong DVR box which is more expensive to rent from them, I install the internet myself. Everything is fine until I get my first bill, I have been billed for a full month of service for HSI from Feb 15/Mar14, which I had no internet then and I was also billed for a proparted HSI for 2/21 when internet actually did start to 03/14. After talking to Comcast we resolved this problem right away and was given credits toward my account. Next billing statement. The bill shows I still have an outstanding balance (the internet services for the time I had no internet, the time I was charged for the same period of HSI and for a Self Install Kit Purchase for 30.00 which I had already bought at Best Buy) Nobody at Comcast I talked to for those six hours could explain my bill to be. I talked to a lady who explain to me that the credits I received for my Cable were to apply for my Internet and that the first time I talked to Comcast did not have to give me any credits. I am in entry level accounting and I have noticed that Comcast will screw you in any way possible. If my bill can not be itemized next period and somebody can not explain charges to me I will be more then happy to take my services to Qwest.
- April 27, 2008 at 10:59 AM
I agree with Mark ,I have been with comcast since they started in our town and all they do is raise rates and then take away channels.They took 5 good ones just recently and put them on pay for packages and didnt replace them with anything else .I pay about 130 dollars for there triple pack and no digital while new subscribers get it for under 100 dollars .
- April 27, 2008 at 1:59 PM
- icemann said...
Great website!!!
We have had at least three billing issues where Comcast has blatenly overbilled us. Pretty sure this would be illeagle if you were not a 33 billion dollar company. On all three ocassions we had to wait on their phone system for around an hour to get there mistake corrected(stratagy being that you will hang up and either pay the amount or not pay, either way they win)had to resort to calling in on the cancelling busines line which is piced up very propmtly.
This type of business ethics is both imoral and down right sleezy. think about that next time you see an ad about being comcastic...there are alternatives to cable use them!!! Good thing there is Dish and echostar, better picture, better service(a little anyway). think I will go back to dish, alot less poblems and they never tried to dilebratly rip me off (a corparate "stick up" that we amaericans have more and more becume prevy to)
Ron Vesterby
'victim' of comcast
email me at gmail...my comcast email is sparatic at best!
- April 28, 2008 at 7:56 AM
- icemann said...
Great website!!!
We have had at least three billing issues where Comcast has blatenly overbilled us. Pretty sure this would be illeagle if you were not a 33 billion dollar company. On all three ocassions we had to wait on their phone system for around an hour to get there mistake corrected(stratagy being that you will hang up and either pay the amount or not pay, either way they win)had to resort to calling in on the cancelling busines line which is piced up very propmtly.
This type of business ethics is both imoral and down right sleezy. think about that next time you see an ad about being comcastic...there are alternatives to cable use them!!! Good thing there is Dish and echostar, better picture, better service(a little anyway). think I will go back to dish, alot less poblems and they never tried to dilebratly rip me off (a corparate "stick up" that we amaericans have more and more becume prevy to)
Ron Vesterby
'victim' of comcast
email me at gmail...my comcast email is sparatic at best!
- April 28, 2008 at 7:56 AM
A few years ago I rented a mother-in-law house for a summer. I had Comcast come out and install the cable. everything was fine and I paid the bills as usual. At the end of the summer I moved into the main house and another renter moved into my old place. I called to have my service transferred. They said they did that. My cable went out the next day. I found out that installer simply ran the cable from theold house to the new one. My neighbor tried to get cable in my old house and was told there was an active account at that address. She told them I no longer lived there and they cancelled my service. So what happened to the service I moved?
She had Comcast turn on basic service and suddenly I had cable again... Hmmm... I had basic cable. I called Comcast and reported that I did not have the movie channels I ordered. They tried to reset my box but could not do it. The repair crew came back out and said the cable was not hooked up correctly. A new line was installed but was routed the same as the old one. I still had basic cable so I cancelled my account. It turns out they were getting the cable signal from my old place and it was on the neighbors new account. My neighbor brought over some bills from Comcast for me. I changed my address with them as well. Anyway, the bills added up to $450.00 (inculding cable box charge). Again, I called Comcast and stated I changed addresses verified that they had a record of it. I called and reported the cable install issues with the theft department to try and resolve the issue after multiple calls to Comcast. I physically dropped off the cable box at the local Comcast office. Comcast launched an "investigation" into the cable theft. I called Comcast back to get a status on that and said I was not going to pay for the service I did not get. I asked that they please return my call with the results of the investigation.
A few months later I get a call from a collection company stating I owe $450.00 for Comcast service! I call Comcast back again and go through another round of explaining tehe issue and launcing another investigation and again... No response. I now have a $450.00 collection on my credit and get frequent calls from a collection agency about it. The rest of my credit is great. I launched a credit dispute about this and everything. Nothing helps. I am beside myself. I would pay for service I never received but paying now would do no good as my credit is screwed. I can't stand Comcast. I must have called and tried to resolve this twenty times!
- April 28, 2008 at 9:22 AM
i work for an outsourcer for comcast and we spend just as much time fighting comcast as you the minite we find a way to fix an issue comcast takes it away so it's not just you we are a helpless sheild put in place to protect comcast from having to talk to their customers
- April 28, 2008 at 9:56 PM
I don't blame the installers. I am not sure why they ran a cable from the old hosue to the new one instead of running another. Where I lived, they had to tie into a cable on a pole as opposed to something underground. That went from the pole to the old house. I don't know if they were trying to split the signal at the old house or ? Anyway, I had her cable service and not the service I ordered. Comcast didn't listen to me at all. They just threatened to charge me if the installer came out and found no problems. They always found problems. Their investigation did nothing. They did not try to contact me or my old landlord. They just apparently said "legit bill". Now I have a ding on my credit and I am treated like a nuisance when I try to work out the issue. That is no way to do business.
- April 29, 2008 at 6:47 AM
- April 29, 2008 at 8:22 AM
In Indiana, we were Insight and Comcast took over. From Day One, my bill with Insight/Comcast has been wrong. I got the bundle package for $99 and did some upgrading (digital choice, etc). My bill was suppose to be 135 (before taxes) and I have been charged over $200 a month. Every time that I contact Comcast, they tell me that I have to talk with the sales representative as the campaign code was not enter. I have left numerous (and I do mean numerous) calls to sales representative, supervisors, etc. to no avail. I have filed a formal complaint with the FCC. I figured that if Comcast does not want to take care of the issue, then they can deal with the a potential investigation into their "switch and bait" pricing.
- April 29, 2008 at 8:57 AM
We switched from Directv to Comcast about 1 1/2 years ago because we were dumb and thought we could save a little bit of money! We've had nothing but issues (and saved only a couple of dollars - so not worth it). We had to have our dvr box switched out three times now and still get the same problems - You press the buttons on the remote and sometimes it will take about 30 seconds for a response and sometimes, you've pushed buttons several times so the box does all sorts of crazy stuff when it starts working again. (That's the least of my problems though.) About a year ago, I got charged a $25 fee for insufficient funds in my bank account. I checked my account and it was nowhere near a low balance and it didn't even show a charge from Comcast even on there. So we called Comcast (was on the phone forever!) and they reversed the charges (yay!) saying that I must put in the wrong account information when I paid online. Maybe but doubtful since I always double check before submitting. Anyway, ever since then, now I triple check before submitting my payment. Guess what? The same thing happened again! I know 100% sure that my account information was correct! We called Comcast again and this time they had to send our account to "research" and that someone would call us in 24-72 hours. That was 6 days ago and we haven't received a call yet. Now my question is this, I get a confirmation that a payment was made as soon as I submit my payment. If in fact for some reason, my payment doesn't go through, why can't they send a courtesy email saying that so I can resend my payment? I already told my husband that if I don't get my $25 back then we are switching to Directv. In fact, we'll probably switch in a few months anyway. I never once had a problem with Direct. Even during a hurricane, Directv was working. Comcast goes out for no reason at all. My acct# 8495 75 269 0431656
- April 30, 2008 at 7:51 AM
Reader Matthew just cut his Comcast bill in half with a single phone call. He received a flier from one of Comcast's competitors that boasted a much better price than the $175 per month he was paying. When he called Comcast and told them about the better rate, he was swiftly transferred to "customer retention" which must be a place of magical wonderment because by the time he got off the phone his Comcast bill had been reduced by $90. How did he do it? His letter, inside...
While we all love to hate Comcast (and boy have I had my issues with them), I'd like to give them kudos for having a responsive and effective customer retention department (at least for Chicagoland).
I came home today, and found a RCN cable flier hanging on my door. Long and short of it was that they're offering my Comcast-equivalent level of digital cable for $35/month and high-speed internet for $35/month for new customers for the first 12 months.
I called up Comcast's 1-800 number and explained the flier and I was thinking of switching to the guy I got on the phone. He told me that Comcast definitely wants to keep me as a customer, and could I please hold while he transfers me to "Customer Retention."
After about 30 seconds, an extremely polite woman named Shelia comes on the line. We reviewed my account (I have their digital silver package, with 3 DVRs/outlets, and basic high-speed residential internet). Prior to tonight my monthly bill was touching $175/month after taxes.
After about 5 minutes of playing around with the computer she got me a 12 month deal for my current services and boxes for about $86.44/month AFTER tax for cable, internet, and DVRs. No contract extension, no hassle, just an honest attempt at giving a good customer a fair deal.
When I called I expected to have to fight and bitch and moan to get to about $125/month after taxes; imagine my complete surprise when I didn't have to fight, the CSR actively worked WITH me to get to a number I could live with, and did it while treating me with respect, courtesy, and acknowledging that they were asking for my money, and I had a right to get the best deal I could. At the end of the call, I asked to speak to her supervisor to tell him what a great job she had done, and that she had easily kept me and my wife as customers...and he seemed genuinely happy to hear it.
God knows Comcast has their problems, but every once in a while I interact with a person there that really does get it, and makes sure that I, as their customer, gets a fair shake. Even beyond saving me almost $100/month, the way she treated me has earned them a great deal of good-will from me.
Comcast should look to CSRs like Shirley, because it's the Shirley's of their workforce that will help turn them around.
Congrats, Matthew. It's nice, albeit strange, to hear something good about Comcast. We believe that if Comcast can make someone happy then anything must be possible. Maybe there can be peace in the Middle East and maybe that Manson guy just needed a hug. It's amazing how saving $90 per month can turn your frown upside down. Hopefully when your bill actually arrives it still reflects Shirley's magic. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
- April 30, 2008 at 8:24 AM
I see in some earlier posts that people got some help after calling "corporate" at Comcast. What is that number? I live in MD and have wasted way too much time on hold or talking to CSRs who are polite but useless.
- May 2, 2008 at 12:57 PM
Former Account # 01721 209232-01-7
We're just past the one year anniversary of my Comcrap billing fiasco (still unresolved) Between the billing fiasco and the fact I had to go to the local coffee shop to check my e-mail at least 3 times a week because my internet service was down, I fired Comcast in August, 2007. Since switching to ATT DSL and Dish Network, I've had no service interruptions, no billing problems and in general a more peaceful existence in the world. I am including the letter I sent to Comcast and the collection agency to which I received no response other than continued dunning letters. I had to do an internet search to find a phone number for the collection agency that allowed me to talk to a real person before I finally got the letters to stop. I am including the text of the letter (I'm sure you will be able to sense my frustration.
I should note, due to a "billing system change" Not account information prior to March, 2007 is available online.
Lansing, MI 48911
December 26, 2007
Re: Attempted collection of a fraudulent charge
I do not owe the amount you are attempting to collect. This dispute has been ongoing since March, 2007. I have repeatedly requested documentation supporting Comcast's contention I owe the money, and Comcast refuses to provide it.
Until Comcast provides this information I will not pay Comcast a fu**ing dime!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My requests have been reasonable and I have repeatedly told Comcast representatives if they would send me a detailed account history dating back to June, 2006 and that history supported your contention, I would write the check. As it is, there's a better chance of me sending my financial information or life savings to a "Nigerian Prince" wishing to deposit millions in my bank account. Right now Comcast has less credibility than an obvious e-mail scam.
It is obvious to me you are in error when you took an automatic payment from my Visa account January 18, 2007, sent me a letter , February 2007, stating I was 2 months overdue, informed me when I called the February letter was an error, and then billed me for 3 months, March 2007. I have paid each month the entire amount except for the disputed amount until I fired your asses August, 2007.
Until Comcast sends me the detailed account history dating June 2006 to August, 2007, there is no point in any further communication
Cc: Credit Protection Association L.P.
- May 2, 2008 at 3:50 PM
I became a new Jersey Comcast customer in November of 2006. In November 2007 I woke up one Morning to find my service not working (no cable, no internet).I spent the rest of the day running out to pay phones to call Comcast, as my phone service is through my internet.Finally by 8pm that evening i spoke with a rep who said Comcast had mistakenly had down that I was moving, she apologized and said my service was now restored. End of problem? Not by a long shot. In April 2008 I received a letter from a collection agency with the creditor listed as Comcast in the amount of $100.00. This has been reported to the credit bureau. I immediately contacted Comcast to be told that in November my account was closed and a new account was created. They sent the old account, without my knowledge, to collections. Blissfully unaware,I have been paying the New account ever since. All this was done without my knowledge. I receive a bill every month which never mentioned the $100.00 charge. In addition I have been paying over $70.00 a month for High-Speed internet service that I have not had since December 2007. I have had about 10 linemen, engineers, supervisors to my home over the past 5 months, yet the problem is still unresolved. I was told Comcast has 1,000 customers on a node made for 400 customers and they need to dig. That was in March. I have pings ranging from 90-800. Usually around 300. Basically I have dial-up.They promised to adjust my bill, then suspended my service for non-payment. When I called they said once I paid they would then adjust my bill for the 4 months of non-service. I paid, and surprise, surprise they still have not credited my account the $280+ dollars. With each passing month they charge me and do not fix the problem, that amount will go up. I have been given the run around, constant transfers, etc. Their resolution for my credit bureau issue is for me to pay it, then call again and ask for it to be removed from my credit report!! Their solution for the internet issue is to call my apartment complex and tel them to allow Comcast to dig so they can fix their mistake, until then I will be charged for the service they are not providing, and if I don't pay my service will be suspended!! So it is now the customers responsibility to negotiate for Comcast with the Landholders. I believe my only recourse is to retain an attorney to deal with both issues, due to defamation of character, and libel for the the collections, and breach of contract for the charging of services not provided. This is all absurd, but I will notstand for this treatment any longer. Comcast is the only "high-speed" internet service provider in our area or else I would have switched long ago.
- May 5, 2008 at 9:09 AM
Account #09568562587-03-2
I became a New Jersey Comcast customer in November of 2006. In November 2007 I woke up one Morning to find my service not working (no cable, no internet).I spent the rest of the day running out to pay phones to call Comcast, as my phone service is through my internet.Finally by 8pm that evening i spoke with a rep who said Comcast had mistakenly had down that I was moving, she apologized and said my service was now restored. End of problem? Not by a long shot. In April 2008 I received a letter from a collection agency with the creditor listed as Comcast in the amount of $100.00. This has been reported to the credit bureau. I immediately contacted Comcast to be told that in November my original account account was closed and a new account was created. They sent the old account, without my knowledge, to collections. Blissfully unaware,I have been paying the New account ever since. All this was done without my knowledge. I receive a bill every month which never mentioned the $100.00 charge. In addition I have been paying over $70.00 a month for High-Speed internet service that I have not had since December 2007. I have had about 10 linemen, engineers, supervisors to my home over the past 5 months, yet the problem is still unresolved. I was told Comcast has 1,000 customers on a node made for 400 customers and they need to dig. That was in March. I have pings ranging from 90-800. Usually around 300. Basically I have dial-up.They promised to adjust my bill, then suspended my service for non-payment. When I called they said once I paid they would then adjust my bill for the 4 months of non-service. I paid, and surprise, surprise they still have not credited my account the $280+ dollars. With each passing month they charge me and do not fix the problem, that amount will go up. I have been given the run around, constant transfers, etc. Their resolution for my credit bureau issue is for me to pay it, then call again and ask for it to be removed from my credit report!! Their solution for the internet issue is to call my apartment complex and tel them to allow Comcast to dig so they can fix their mistake, until then I will be charged for the service they are not providing, and if I don't pay my service will be suspended!! So it is now the customers responsibility to negotiate for Comcast with the Landholders. I believe my only recourse is to retain an attorney to deal with both issues, due to defamation of character, and libel for the the collections, and breach of contract for the charging of services not provided. This is all absurd, but I will notstand for this treatment any longer. Comcast is the only "high-speed" internet service provider in our area or else I would have switched long ago.
- May 5, 2008 at 9:20 AM
I work for comcast and I see them change the billing all the time.I really believe it is to keep people from understanding what they are suppose to pay.
I also have seen things like late fees show up on the bill for no reason and really small fees for the phone and internet when a customer doesnt have those services.This is done in New Jersey markets and also in delmarva
- May 6, 2008 at 8:26 PM
Account Number: 10728 125039163
I am currently a Purdue Student also working part time and do not have much money in my account. When Comcast took over Insight I lost access to pay online and got behind a month, when I paid it was over the phone. I was double charged (to the tune of $247.58), which overdrew my account to the tune of -$395 dollars.
Lucky, I check my banking often and caught this just a day after it happened. The problem is 1) Comcast, after two calls will not call me back or give any refund, and
2) I told them when I called them both times my bank charges $33 a day when your overdrafted + $33 per transaction AND I WAS BROKE. I already had at least two pending transactions + overnight late fees when Comcast charged me and another two before I found out. Good thing that $15 ihop trip was now $48.
Thankfully I was able to borrow that kind of money from a NICE friend money to cover Comcast's mistake as they said only one lady in the district could give money back and she was not in that day and then never returned the file to customer service once back in so they could call me (or so I was told by them).
I told them this, and if I didn't have such a nice friend Comcast would have cost me over $700 in overdraw fee's from my bank and still not gotten back to me.
Have them pay for that, because the Bank will turn me in to creditors ruining my credit.
Lucky I was able to stop it as $132 in late fees. Who is going to pay for that? I'll even take credit on my bill for it.
I explained this both times I called, and have had NO money the last few weeks and I'm getting married in 9 days with no money paying back the friend who lent me $500.
The $247 on 4/14 is the first payment to Comcast. This jpeg is further proof.
- May 7, 2008 at 9:11 AM
Comcast billing choices are horrible! They are the only service provider that does not save my information so I have to retype in my account numbers each time. The one time I entered the number in incorrectly they charged me $25.00. How about an email saying that it was not a valid account number first??? Or even a pop up warning like some sites have??? and now I find myself on hold AGAIN. I'm always on the phone with this company. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PROVIDING THE SERVICE to make my life easier... Not taking up my time and my energy and my happiness. I absolutely hate comcast.
- May 8, 2008 at 1:13 PM
Account # 09527116119-020-1
After a bill of $333.00 my wife called customer service to see what was up and and spent over 2 hours on the phone. No resolution occured other than the lack of customer service rep telling her that our promotion period was over and the increase was due to us adding Cinemax....the funny thing is that this was the first time we ever called comcast other than initiating service and this "promotion pricing" she was talking about should have expried 8 months prior. My wife was incensed that we were never informed of this signifigant increase in rates. We tried to cancel at the time and in order to as they say earn our business, we were promised a $90 credit and an "all in" price 3 product bundle with all premium stations for $131 before taxes. Much to our surprise our next bill came in at $238. My wife once again called comcast "lack of" customer service and was talking to someone in India this time who could not keep up with the converstation. Mind you , this conversation started at 9:40pm and we finially got off the phone at 1:10 am. Everytime my wife asked about the billing the "lack of" customer service rep from india could not get anything to add up and then said, "It must be taxes"....so, what Comcast is telling me is that we are taxed $100 for using their services? My wife what then asked for everything to be cancelled and that we were going to Verizon. Well all of the sudden like magic they transferred us back to the US and we were talking to an american who was going to do everything to earn our business...now that is a laugh. The american lack of customer service rep then said she would issue us the inital $90 credit for the bill two months back and issue another $90 credit for the most recent month, but as it always goes with comcast, the systems were slow and after 10 minutes the lady came back and said, it is still processing, we waited another 20 and she came back and apoligized for the delay and that they were still having systems issues and would be mind holding some more....then poof...at 1:10 am, we were hung up on. Well this next bill from comcast better have two $90 credits on it. The charges better add up to the $131 before taxes for 3 product bundle with the premiums. Not only will I cancel the service I will also conatct the PA attonrey gerneral. The funny thing is, I live 7 miles away from Comcast's $200 million headquarters in Philadelphia. They cant even get it righ in their own backyard. I hope that you read this Frank Eliason and do something for us. Your service is so bad that the Philly inqurier had to do a peice on it. Lets see if what you said in the "Comcast's big push to repair its image" atricle is legit or lip service.
- May 9, 2008 at 8:16 PM
Account # 09527116119-020-1
After a bill of $333.00 my wife called customer service to see what was up and and spent over 2 hours on the phone. No resolution occured other than the lack of customer service rep telling her that our promotion period was over and the increase was due to us adding Cinemax....the funny thing is that this was the first time we ever called comcast other than initiating service and this "promotion pricing" she was talking about should have expried 8 months prior. My wife was incensed that we were never informed of this signifigant increase in rates. We tried to cancel at the time and in order to as they say earn our business, we were promised a $90 credit and an "all in" price 3 product bundle with all premium stations for $131 before taxes. Much to our surprise our next bill came in at $238. My wife once again called comcast "lack of" customer service and was talking to someone in India this time who could not keep up with the converstation. Mind you , this conversation started at 9:40pm and we finially got off the phone at 1:10 am. Everytime my wife asked about the billing the "lack of" customer service rep from india could not get anything to add up and then said, "It must be taxes"....so, what Comcast is telling me is that we are taxed $100 for using their services? My wife what then asked for everything to be cancelled and that we were going to Verizon. Well all of the sudden like magic they transferred us back to the US and we were talking to an american who was going to do everything to earn our business...now that is a laugh. The american lack of customer service rep then said she would issue us the inital $90 credit for the bill two months back and issue another $90 credit for the most recent month, but as it always goes with comcast, the systems were slow and after 10 minutes the lady came back and said, it is still processing, we waited another 20 and she came back and apoligized for the delay and that they were still having systems issues and would be mind holding some more....then poof...at 1:10 am, we were hung up on. Well this next bill from comcast better have two $90 credits on it. The charges better add up to the $131 before taxes for 3 product bundle with the premiums. Not only will I cancel the service I will also conatct the PA attonrey gerneral. The funny thing is, I live 7 miles away from Comcast's $200 million headquarters in Philadelphia. They cant even get it righ in their own backyard. I hope that you read this Frank Eliason and do something for us. Your service is so bad that the Philly inqurier had to do a peice on it. Lets see if what you said in the "Comcast's big push to repair its image" atricle is legit or lip service.
- May 9, 2008 at 8:17 PM
My acct.#: 09525 114099 01-3
I have been talking to Comcast since 2/25/08 (over 2.5 months now) trying to get them to fix a billing error, but have had no success. Here's the gist of it:
2/25/08: Inv. arrived showing that the base portion of our cable tv bill jumped from $42.90/mo. to $52.90/mo. Called and spoke w/Willie. Long story short: He snf hid boss don't know why this happened, although they think it is due to a "glitch" in the system.
Said that effective today for one year, we will get a credit of $13.95/mo. Not sure how it will be reflected on our monthly bill (the $52.90 may change to $38.95). Also, told me to deduct $13.95 from our current bill of $183.35, making it $169.40 (which I did).
3/26/08: Concerning the above. Next invoice did not reflect a credit of $13.95 and also billed me for the $13.95 I was told to deduct from last month's bill. The total on the most recent bill is $197.30. Called and spoke w/Jason. He could not find any notes in my file from my 2/25 conversation w/Willie. He could not do anything for me, so he gave me a phone # (888.270.6445) to reach what he called the "provisioning dept", which he said has ability to change pricing. Marlene answered; said she had authority to increase pricing only; not decrease pricing. She transferred me to Broderick in another dept. He adjusted my current bill to reflect a credit of $27.90 (2x$13.95). Told me to pay $169.40, not $177.30 (which I did). Also, he backdated the $13.95 credit to 2/25/08. Said it would appear every month until 3/6/09. His # is 888.266.2678, x7302.
3/28/08: Rec'd. a call from Comcast (301.568.4442) in reference to my "unpaid balance from my previous statement". She said "this is a courtesy call to see if you want to pay your unpaid balance today". Unfortunately, I couldn't reach thru the phone and grab her by the throat, so I had to settle for explaining that there is no "unpaid balance"; Comcast screwed up the billing two months in a row, etc., etc.
4/17/08: Rec'd a new 24 month contract (same contract # as existing contract) with new pricing. I never had a conversation with anyone at Comcast about a new contract. I tried to reach Broderick, the last agent I spoke with, but it was impossible to access an option to dial his ext.(above) and no one could or would transfer me to him. I called 800.266.2278. Spoke w/April (ext.: 8382). Explained basics of the situation to date and that I had received a new contract. She told me to ignore it. Said "it was automatically issued due to corrections made to my current contract; you can throw it out". Original contract still in place.
4/25/08: Rec'd latest statement. There are still a couple of errors: (1)although I was credited for $27.90 on previous statement (as Broderick said), I am now billed for it on this statement even though it doesn't specifically show separately; (2)although I am credited for $13.95 (as Broderick said), it has been added back in (see $35.85 charge, which used to be $21.90). I called Joe Sergotick 3 times (4/28, 5/2, 5/5) to try to get his help with this, but he never called back. He helped me with a problem last fall, and told me his job was to make sure customers are happy. Why he refused to call me or forward my call to someone else is not acceptable.
5/5/08: Haveing lost a week wating for Sergotick to get back to me, I called an 800 # and spoke w/Andrew in Ontario. After explaining everthing above to him, he said that the rate codes were wrong for the $42.90 charge (increased to $52.90). Also, there is an extra $13.95 included in the $35.85 charge (should revert back to $21.90). Told me he made changes to the rate codes, backdated to 5/8. He said I should be paying $159.65 + tax monthly. The current invoice has been corrected to $160.28, and I should pay this amount (which I did). Don't know yet if Andrew's actions will fix the problem.
5/9/08: To top it all off, I rec'd. letter from Comcast about the above-mentioned new contract. It tells me if I don't sign and return the contract by 5/26/08 I will be billed at Comcast's standard prices.
I don't have the energy to make yet another call to Comcast, and have no confidence that if I did, it would result in resolution of this nonsense. If my original discount pricing (assuming it ever gets corrected) is discontined and replaced by "standard" pricing, I'll be on the phone to Verizon in a New York minute.
- May 11, 2008 at 11:32 AM
Account: 8770470015388933
After 3 months of promotional offer, Comcast just changed my monthly fee for High Speed Internet to $58.95. The point is that during my ordering process with a sales rep online, we agreed on a $42.95 monthly fee internet only for a 6mbps (I still have a log of it and it's perfectly clear). And I've made my decision based on this price (other providers in my area offer internet acces for much lower than $60). It turns out that I only have 4 mbps (it seems that Comcast don't like customer with Internet only) and will have to pay more than agreed upon. 1 800 COMCAST has been of poor help in helping out: they told me to call their claim department and gave me a number that turned out to be a fax number!
- May 12, 2008 at 1:52 PM
Account: 05627187722087
So I sign up for a 2 year agreement to pay 129 a month for the triple play package. This was suppose to include everything, services, boxes all of it. Everything went fine for the first 2 months. Then for some reason in Sept my price of high speed Internet went up from 19.95 to 47.95. So I call and ask why it went up. I was told that some change was just randomly made. So they lowered it and credited my the difference. Well the problem is they only lowered it to 38.00 and not the original 19.95. I just never really paid attention to my bill after that. Then one day I look it over and I'm paying about 148 a month now. So I call them up and try and figure out what is going. So after 3hours on the phone with 2 different customer service reps. I get told that I still am paying 129 for the 3 services. And the extra charges are for the boxes and taxes. I try and explain that my package is suppose to include all of it. I ask why the price of the HSI was not changed to 19.95 the first time. The rep tells me that it was only a 2 months promo. I ask how can I only get a 2 month promo for a 2 year price agreement. I went back and forth on this for over an hour. Them telling me that all my services added up and its all the extra stuff that is making my bill that high. I ask why wasn't I charged the same price back when I signed up. I got told it was the 2 month promotion. No one every said anything about a 2 month promo price when I signed up. I was feed a line of crap by the rep to try and get me off the phone. So after the hour or so I get told that they can't do anything and a supervisor will call me today to straighten this out. Well here I sit at 8 pm and as expected no call. Must be nice to change a agreed upon price when every you feel like it.
- May 13, 2008 at 5:37 PM
The following is an update of my 5/11/08 posting. My patience in trying to deal with Comcast employees who are not only unprofessional and inept, but who promise to do something and not only don't do it, but ignore repeated entreaties to do so. What arrogance!
I emailled the following to a list of 75 Comcast execs available on The Consumerist website, and got failure notifications from about 35 of them. Hopefully, someone among those who remain care about customer service and can be helpful.
To Anyone Who May be Concerned:
I am hoping one of the above addressees has some responsibility for and interest in resolving my Comcast billing and contract term error (summarized below), both errors caused by Comcast, and which I have been unable to resolve despite almost three months of trying to do so.
I know your time is valuable, as is mine, so if you read only the brief highlighted section at the end of this summary, you will probably know all you want or need to know.
My request is simple: Forward this email to someone(s) in authority in your Howard County, MD office for prompt resolution.
This summary is also being posted on the Comcast Must Die website
Comcast in Howard County, MD is my "servicing" office. My acct.# is 09525 114099 01-3
I have been talking to Comcast since 2/25/08 (over 2.5 months now) trying to get them to fix this billing error, but have had no success. Here's the gist of it:
2/25/08: Inv. arrived showing that the base portion of our cable TV bill jumped from $42.90/mo. to $52.90/mo. Called and spoke w/Willie. Long story short: He and his boss don't know why this happened, although they think it is due to a "glitch" in the system. He said that effective today for one year, we will get a credit of $13.95/mo. Not sure how it will be reflected on our monthly bill (the $52.90 may change to $38.95). Also, told me to deduct $13.95 from our current bill of $183.35, making it $169.40 (which I did).
3/26/08: Concerning the above. Next invoice did not reflect a credit of $13.95 and also billed me for the $13.95 I was told to deduct from last month's bill. The total on the most recent bill is $197.30. Called and spoke w/Jason. He could not find any notes in my file from my 2/25 conversation w/Willie. He could not do anything for me, so he gave me a phone # (888.270.6445) to reach what he called the "provisioning dept", which he said has ability to change pricing. Marlene answered; said she had authority to increase pricing only; not decrease pricing. She transferred me to Broderick in another dept. He adjusted my current bill to reflect a credit of $27.90 (2x$13.95). He told me to pay $169.40, not $177.30 (which I did). Also, he backdated the $13.95 credit to 2/25/08. Said it would appear every month until 3/6/09. His # is 888.266.2678, x7302.
3/28/08: Rec'd. a call from Comcast (301.568.4442) in reference to my "unpaid balance from my previous statement". She said "this is a courtesy call to see if you want to pay your unpaid balance today". Unfortunately, I couldn't reach thru the phone and grab her by the throat, so I had to settle for explaining that there is no "unpaid balance"; Comcast screwed up the billing two months in a row, etc., etc.
4/17/08: Rec'd a new 24 month contract (same contract # as existing contract) with new pricing. I never had a conversation with anyone at Comcast about a new contract. I tried to reach Broderick, the last agent I spoke with, but it was impossible to access an option to dial his ext.(above) and no one could or would transfer me to him. I called 800.266.2278. Spoke w/April (ext.: 8382). Explained basics of the situation to date and that I had received a new contract. She told me to ignore it. She said "it was automatically issued due to corrections made to my current contract; you can throw it out. The original contract is still in place".
4/25/08: Rec'd latest statement. There are still a couple of errors: (1) although I was credited for $27.90 on previous statement (as Broderick said), I am now billed for it on this statement even though it doesn't specifically show separately; (2) although I am credited for $13.95 (as Broderick said), it has been added back in (see $35.85 charge, which used to be $21.90). I called Joe Sergotick 3 times (4/28,
5/2, 5/5) to try to get his help with this, but he never called back. He helped me with a problem last fall, and told me his job was to make sure customers are happy. I left three messages for him over eight days all but begging him to give me some direction on this issue, but never heard from him. Poor and incompetent service is bad enough; ignoring a customer's plea for help (especially by someone in a customer service position) is entirely another.
5/5/08: Having lost a week waiting for a call from Sergotick that I never got, I called an 800 # and spoke w/Andrew in Ontario. After explaining everything above to him, he said that the rate codes were wrong for the $42.90 charge (increased to $52.90). Also, there is an extra $13.95 included in the $35.85 charge (should revert back to $21.90). Told me he made changes to the rate codes, backdated to 5/8. He said I should be paying $159.65 + tax monthly. The current invoice has been corrected to $160.28, and I should pay this amount (which I did). Don't know yet if Andrew's actions will fix the problem.
5/9/08: To top it all off, I rec'd. a letter from Comcast about the above-mentioned new contract. It tells me if I don't sign and return the contract by 5/26/08 I will be billed at Comcast's standard prices.
5/11/08: I posted the above summary of this fiasco on Comcast Must Die. The very next day, Joe Sergotick called saying he never got my first two messages and just got my message from 5/5. Coincidence? I had also emailed the summary to Douglas Ruch on 5/12/08, the Comcast sales guy who originally sold me the program, since his is the only local email address I have. He emailed me back saying the "problem was solved". I told him that's not good enough (which problem?), and that I need to speak to super in billing and get something in writing about the contract issue. Later that same day (5/12/08), I received a call from Shanna (410.931.8502). Initially, although she had read my email, she didn't understand the contract error issue. I had to walk her through it. Finally, she confirmed that (1) my monthly bill should be $159.65 and (2) the contract issued on or about 4/5/08 was issued in error. My original contract is still in place and runs from 1/4/07 to 1/6/09. I told her I wanted this in writing; she agreed to fax a letter to me that day. It didn't arrive.
5/13/08: I called Shanna twice to find out where the letter was. She did not return my phone calls.
5/14/8: Called her and left a message that I would be forwarding the summary of this fiasco to 75 Comcast executives if I didn't hear from her and/or receive the promised letter by close of business today. It is worth repeating the comment I made (above) concerning your employee, Joseph Sergotick: Poor and incompetent service is bad enough; ignoring a customer's plea for help (especially by someone in a customer service position) is entirely another.
My patience and energy in trying to get Comcast to fix these errors are exhausted. I have no confidence that if I called Comcast yet again, it would result in resolution of this debacle. If my original discount pricing (assuming it ever gets corrected) is discontinued and replaced by "standard" pricing, I'll be on the phone to Verizon in a New York minute.
Bottom line: Considering all of the above I want and deserve (1) verification that the billing errors have finally been corrected, and identifying exactly what my cable TV charges are; and (2) a letter confirming the validity of my original contract period. These can me either faxed to me at 410.461.8959 or emailed to me at email@example.com. If these things don't happen, and quickly, I will be moving my TV, phone and internet business to Verizon.
- May 14, 2008 at 2:58 PM
Account Number 19204 633468-02-8
I recently got behind on my comcast bill. My cable was shut off today and I called to make the past due payment. I was told I could make the payment, but would also have to pay $45+ to get the cable reconnected and a $100 deposit! I explained that I was unable to pay that amount and offered again to pay the balance on my account and have my cable again. I was told no...that is the policy. I asked to speak to a manager and was told that they would just tell me the same thing and that I would get Jay 1376124 in trouble for speaking to the supervisor. Does he really think I care if he gets in trouble? If he would take my money and turn on my I wouldn't need to speak to a supervisor. Please help!
- May 15, 2008 at 4:16 PM
This is an update to my 5/11 post about an ongoing billing and contract problems caused by Comcast. After posting on this website and emailing about 75 Comcast executives (using list available on The Consumerist), I immediately received a phone call from a customer service manager for my area. He resolved and/or confirmed the resolution of both problems. Additionally, he sent me an email confirmation for my records. That, coupled with having his contact information in case I have future issues that cannot be resolved via normal channels is a real plus.
- May 16, 2008 at 4:32 AM
I have had long and arduous battles with Comcast over many things including extremely poor reception, dropped service, biulling problems as well as a toxic chemical spill their installers left in my front yard and still have never cleaned up after 6 months and numerous calls.
Keeping on point in this blog - billing.
As a "give away" to help assuage my temper Comcast partially rewired my house with new cable (at no cost) which helped to clear some of my reception problems. I added a DVR and as part of their attempts to make me happy, the manager gave me a 2nd DVR 'for free".
Since December of 2007 I have been billed for this free DVR along with my paid for DVR. We are now at $83 and counting.
customer # 09566107950028
- May 19, 2008 at 12:09 PM
- Steve said...
We moved in late October of last year. It was a local move, so when I contacted Comcast to transfer service, I was informed that I had to turn in all of the equipment that we had before they could set up service in our new home. They informed me that I had to do this despite me requesting the exact same service. Since I was moving, I had to close that account number with its associated equipment (cable box and modem)and they would set up a new account number with the new address. I followed their ill-conceived orders and received "new" equipment at the new house. Everything was fine until a few months passed and we started getting billed for an additional outlet and an additional DVR service. The first time I called, the "service" person looked over the records and told me I was right. She saw no calls on record to order the additional box or DVR. The next bill came without the credit that I was promised. On the next call, I was told that the first person had no authority to give me a credit and they had to initiate an investigation as to where the box was located. Because of THEIR POOR record keeping, and being unable to find the box, they decided that they should bill me months after the equipment was turned in. The "investigation" must still be going on, because I received yet another bill with the additional charges for something that I DO NOT HAVE. We have now reached $80 in unsubstanciated charges. I believe that they can "ping" the system and see if I have the box.
Acct No. 8220202104246383
- May 19, 2008 at 6:03 PM
Four years ago, I was paying somewhere between $62 and $75 a month for the digital cable with Starz and Showtime. I have made no changes to the service since signing up for it with AT&T Broadband before Comcrap bought the service. Ever since then, my bill has been getting higher year after year, and now it's 2008 and I still have the same service. Only difference now is, I'm paying $100 a month. Where's the money going?? Maybe this is one reason... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovxvfy9uv3c
- May 19, 2008 at 6:16 PM
The following will give you an idea just how inconsistent and mis- managed Comcast is. I compared my paper statement with the one published on comcast's website. They were completely different. I promptly called customer support. After waiting 26 minutes, a customer support rep gave me yet another different bill amount. Unbelievable.
As a result, I now only subscribe to their basic service.
Also, check your bill every month. They love to sneak in charges, especially when you prorate service (up)downgrades. Comcast is the epidemy of corporate greed and indignity.
- May 21, 2008 at 5:38 AM
8798100440275854 -acct. #
What I want to know is why my bill is sometimes due in the middle of the month and sometimes its due at the beginning. And sometimes its 250, and sometimes its 150- I read some of the past blogs, and I found out the answer is the double billing. In the beginning I believe I was paying double, but after a couple of outrageous bills and of course waiting countless minutes on hold to not get my questions answered, I found this website! I am always sure to pay what I KNOW we owe, which is 100 for the cable, 50 for the internet. I have decided to switch to AT &T for the internet, much cheaper and hopefully no more disruptions in service--my wireless connection is constantly changing ranges, going from excellent to low to disconnected in a matter of seconds and on a clear day???
- May 21, 2008 at 11:20 AM
- Steve said...
Update--A representative from Comcast called one day after this post to get more information. Unfortunately I was not home and we played phone tag for a few days. A rep from Philly eventually called when I was home and we managed to work everything out along with the local Atlanta rep. I just received my next bill with the credit. And the charges seem to be correct. I hope everything will continue to be event free like it was in my old house for years.
- June 1, 2008 at 5:27 AM
- Anthony "The Barbarian" said...
Comcast is HORRIBLE! I will never, never, NEVER do business with them again.
I apparently signed up for automatic payments out of my checking account. A month and a half later, Comcast drafted about $550 from my account. My bill was $304. The VERY NEXT DAY, they drafted another $550 payment. I went to the store and yelled a while. They kept saying it was only drafted once and that is it. I showed them a copy of my bank statement where it said it was drafted twice. They made a copy of that. CSR told me it would be 48 hours, then they would cut me a check for roughly $830 and that I can pick it up by today..
I called Comcast and now I have to wait until June 10.
Funny, they steal my money and have it the day they steal it. I have to wait 14 days to have access to MY MONEY THEY STOLE. FOURTEEN DAYS!!!
I'm going back up there TODAY in about 30 minutes and I AM NOT LEAVING WITHOUT MY MONEY!!!!
- June 3, 2008 at 8:29 AM
I have been a Comcast "subscriber" for just over 6 months. To date, I have made 31 calls to them and have not yet received a bill that is even within $100 of where it should be. Of course there's nothing wrong with charging me more than double what it should be, hoping I just blindly pay it. That's totally legal, I'm sure.
- June 3, 2008 at 11:22 AM
Comcast is the worst company I have ever dealt with in my life. They have a complete and total disregard for customer service.
I moved to Tennessee four months ago from Tampa, FL where I had a pretty good cable service, Bright House in St. Petersburg. I never called them once in my three years living there.
I signed up for Comcast and got a decent deal for preferred digital cable with HBO (of course, at a special). I was paying about $44 a month. Despite the numerous cable outages, I was happy with the bill.
Then about a month later, I decided to sign up for Internet because I need it for work. When I called the guy, he said no problem, but if you add the phone service too it is actually cheaper to get the Triple Play for $99.95. I thought that was great.
Well, it took the the tech almost 3 hours to install the services. Meanwhile, I told my boss I might be an hour late for work. I missed half a day. And the tech had to call a second guy in for help to finish up. Everything was installed. OK, Fine.
Then two days later, some of the cable channels had been turned off. I called and they told me someone had switched my service to a lesser package, a request I NEVER made. So, I changed back to the preferred digital.
Then in May, I got a $357.95 bill. I was charged like three times for cable. I was charged separately for all the services, cable, internet, and phone (NO triple play deal). Plus, I was charged for the prorated rates for the cable package changes (which I never asked for to begin with.) The only legit charges were for the taxes and a one time install fee of $49.
I called Comcast at 7:39 p.m. on Monday, June 2. The woman I spoke could only take off one of the cable charges for $66 to bring the bill to still almost $300.
I asked her, "How do I go from a $44 a month bill to a $300 a month bill? That doesn't make any sense."
SILENCE. She couldn't explain any of the charges, or when I asked her to break down some of the charges, she said she couldn't "Thats just what they are." I asked for a supervisor. She said someone would call me, and took my best contact number.
Here I am FOUR DAYS later, and I still have not heard from anyone! Any good customer service should come within at least 24 hours after the initial call.
Even when I get my bill worked out, I have made the vow that as soon as AT&T's cable comes to my area, I am SWITCHING. Tennessee's legislature just approved AT&T to come into the state to offer cable.
I am tired of my cable, internet and phone going out of service. I have a 10-month-old son. What if I needed the phone in an emergency and it didn't work?
I am disgusted. Everyone at my work has had similar problems. This is why the cable industry needs competition.
Nashville, TN
Acct# 05705 482867-13-6
- June 6, 2008 at 8:36 AM
I bet nobody will call you and if you call them back they will say that they have no recollection of you ever calling or that anyone was supposed to look into the issue.
Standard Comcast style, they just hope that the customer will give up and they could call in a collection agency.
- June 6, 2008 at 10:00 AM
I had--
* Higher-Speed Tier Internet
* Voice
* TV w/ DVR & HBO
All told my monthly cost was about $168.
I canceled service in May at a local office, at which time I returned my equipment.
As we know, Comcast bills forward, meaning the money you send them on (for example) June 1st is paying for service AFTER June 1st.
They had already charged my credit card for the entire month, so at the end of the month I expected a pro-rated refund, which the lady at the local service center had told me would be $95.
Imagine my surprise when at the first of the next month (June) I received a charge on my credit card for yet another full month (rather then my refund).
After calling their service center I was told that they do not stop billing you for service until a "truck roll" has come out to physically disconnect the cable, until this is done I will continue to be billed.
The first thing I said was, turn off automatic billing--if they're going to keep sending bills at the very least I'm not going to autopay them!!
The second thing I said was, when will the truck roll occur the CSR estimated that it would occur before the end of the month w/ no exact ETA
The third thing I said was, OK, WHY are you billing me for equipment that I no longer have? I can *almost* understand being billed for the analog TV service, but clearly I am not using the voice, internet, HBO, digital channels or DVR. I got no good response, just that no billing cancellations could be made until the truck roll.
Next month (July) I receive a paper bill, once again asking for another $168, I still don't have the refund of the original $95, or the $168 they stole from me. I'm told that a truck roll is imminent, but no actual ETA.
Next month (August) I receive a paper bill that now reflects late charges for not paying the previous month. Another call, another "truck roll imminent"
Next month (September) I receive yet another bill, at this point well in excess of $500 w/ their late charges--still no refund of my ~$268. I'm told the truck roll will be "Friday"...
Friday comes and goes, I call the following Monday and insist that someone with authority get me answers and a refund... Finally, after 4-5 months of calls, I get someone who actually admits "This is not right" when they are speaking to me. One week later I had my refund, and I received a paper bill that zero'd out what I owed including late fees.
I've had the local alternative, RCN, since then (nearly a year) and I've been happy with their service and bill policies.
Unfortunately this September I'll be moving into an area that they do no service, nor does Verizon's FIOS, so I will be back to Comcast again. :(
- June 6, 2008 at 1:33 PM
I took the name of the woman I spoke to about my bill, a thing I suggest all people do. She told me her name was Karen. Of course, when I asked her if she had an employee ID number or a more identifiable trait other than "Karen," she just paused and said I am the only Karen here. SURE!!! I will not rest. I am determined. There should be some civil suit against comcast for all the pain they cause consumers. The suit could also claim false advertising and fraud, as was the such in my case when they told me all I was getting was the $99 value. RIGHT!!
- June 6, 2008 at 10:09 PM
- kwm said...
Here is a letter I sent to Rick Germano, and the DC office of Cable Television:
June 6, 2008
Rick Germano - SVP Customer Operations
Comcast Corp.
One Comcast Center
Philadelphia, PA 19103
cc: Government of the District of Columbia
Office of Cable Television
3007 Tilden Street, NW POD-P
Washington DC 20008
RE: Termination of account no. 09529-141994-03-0 at [ADDRESS REDACTED]
Dear. Mr. Germano:
The purpose of this letter is to advise you of the significant issues I have had with the termination of my account with Comcast.
I resided [ADDRESS REDACTED] and enjoyed Comcast cable television service there for around 4 years. I didn't even lose service during Hurricane Isabelle. The service was generally reliable, and a good value to me.
In return, I was a good customer for you: all of my bills were paid in a timely manner – in the last couple years via EFT transfer from my American Express card. The only reason I didn't take my Comcast service with me to my new home in Fairfax County is that Comcast does not cover my new area.
The original account was opened in my maiden name, [NAME REDACTED]. I've since married and my name is now [NAME REDACTED]. The account number is referenced above.
On February 22, 2008, my husband and I purchased a new home in Fairfax County, Virginia. I arranged to terminate my Comcast Cable service effective February 29, 2008.
Below is a time-line of the issues I've had with this still-unresolved request.
Date: Spoke with Ext. Notes and Comments
2/5 Received bill for period 2/1 – 3/8. Service not yet terminated. Termination date set for 2/29, within the service period covered by this bill.
Around 2/11 Sorry – no exact date available, but this is around the time that the offer on our house was accepted and I terminated all of my utilities at this time. I called Comcast to arrange for termination of service effective 2/29.
2/26 I turned in our cable box and remote at the Comcast customer service center on Michigan Ave, NE. I was given receipt number 550055, a copy of which is available upon request.
3/5 I received a bill for period 3/9 to 4/8. I attempted to log on online to view my account and confirm service was terminated, but account log-in was no longer operational. I assumed that Comcast's billing dept. hadn't caught up with the disconnect request and that this was par for the course. I was not initially concerned. Bill automatically paid by EFT transfer to my American Express, but as I had no access to the online account, I couldn't stop the payment. I decided to pursue if and when the charge hit my credit card.
4/5 Received another bill from Comcast after termination, again with the note that the bill would be paid via EFT.
4/7 Laura (ext. 7018) Called Comcast re last two bills. Was told to expect a refund of around $170, Laura confirmed request to terminate service, but said that lines were not yet cut. Once cut, the refund request would be initiated. She advised me to "just stop paying the bills".
4/25 Antonio (ext. 7053) As I had heard from no one, I called Comcast again
for the status. Antonio confirmed the comments of Laura above, but said nothing had been done to my account yet. I once again requested termination of the EFT payments and was given ticket no. 769-299, I requested a call from Comcast to confirm that the service was terminated and that I would receive a refund. Antonio entered that request and gave me another ticket no. 769-302. This is the first and only time I was ever given ticket numbers by your customer service staff.
4/25 Yvette Yvette called back the same day at around 7:30PM.
Said she wanted to look into this personally, and would call me on the following Tuesday of the next week to confirm resolution of the problems I'd had with terminating service. She never called me back.
5/2 Sharon (ext. 7323) Having never heard back from Yvette or anyone
else from Comcast, I called Comcast yet again and spoke to Sharon. Sharon confirmed that an appointment was set to cut the lines at 17 3rd St, NE on 5/7. She said that I should call back on or after 5/9 and that Comcast should be able to confirm that a refund was due and in process at that time.
5/5 Received another bill from Comcast for the period 5/9 thru 6/8. It appears that this one was not paid via EFT, FINALLY! But clearly the service had not yet been terminated.
5/15 Leila Called Comcast yet again. Leila stated that the 5/7
disconnect appointment was not kept by Comcast and that Comcast technicians have a full week to full fill their appointments (first I'd heard of this). Leila confirmed that the refund would be initiated by "the system" automatically once the disconnect was confirmed. She transferred me to the disconnect department.
5/15 Amena Amena (disconnect dept.), was extremely rude and
flat out refused to help me, listen to me, or transfer me to someone who could help. She interrupted and talked over me every time I tried to explain my situation. I asked to be transferred to a supervisor. She claimed that she had no ability to transfer calls from her phone (really?). I asked for the name of her supervisor. She provided me with the name Rich Mahar and the number (301) 731-7260 ext. 7015. This number was not operational.
5/15 Shawntele (ext.7751) I called Comcast's main customer service
number again. By this time, I was highly upset and in all honesty, Shawntele was very patient did her best to help me. I was actually in tears! She assured me that the disconnect would happen within the week, and that she would call me when it was complete. I asked her what else I possibly could have done to make this happen the way it should have, she assured me that I had done everything that I was supposed to do.
5/17 Shawntele Received a call from Shawntele on Saturday 5/17 to
confirm the disconnect and let me know that the refund is being processed.
As of today, June 4, 2008, I still have not received a refund for service that should have been terminated months ago and never billed to me in the first place.
I carbon coped the Washington D.C. office of Cable Television on the electronic version of this letter on June 4, 2008. A representative of that office, Marcella Hicks, has been extremely helpful in resolving this issue and has accomplished more in a phone call or two to Comcast than I've been able to in 4 months. It should not be necessary to involve a government agency in matters such as these. Further, you should be horrified that any government agency's response and resolution time exceeds your own!
Ms. Hicks also informed me that she was told by her Comcast contact that the delay in the disconnection was due to lack of accessibility to the service location (i.e., my old apartment). This is the first I'd heard of this. It would have been a small matter for me to contact my landlord and arrange for access had I been advised of this problem. Of course, I'm not sure how my landlord would have felt about your standard 3-hour window for service calls.
In addition, Ms. Hicks informed me that her Comcast contact acknowledged that they owe me a refund of only $139.73. This is roughly $30 less than I feel I'm due (Charges billed to my card after the cancellation date are from the bill for period 03-09-08 – 04-08-08 for $85.17 plus bill for period 04-09-08 – 05-08-08 for $84.04 equals $169.21). And so we move on to a new phase of battle.
Please note that with the exception of Amena (5/15), all of the Comcast customer service personnel I dealt with were courteous and tried their best to help me. Unfortunately, they might just as well have been working for a different company for all of the impact any of their efforts made.
This is simply appalling. Comcast spends a lot of money employing customer service agents who, although nice people, are either completely impotent in Comcast's culture or lack the knowledge, training, or empowerment to navigate the labyrinth of departments and approvals and bureaucracy. Either way, your customer is the ultimate loser in this. No one should have to endure what I have for such a simple request.
Mr. Germano, it's really very simple: Comcast is offering more than it can deliver. In my research, I've found that there is literally no end to customer complaint and consumer vigil-ante websites dedicated solely to the demise of your company. My situation is just one relatively small example, but has had a big impact on my life. Are you aware of what $170 means to me as a brand new home-owner in this economy?
It's very nice of you to appear on television or the radio, wring your hands, make polite noises when people lay out the issues they've had with your company – issues that have cost your customers hundreds or even thousands of dollars, not to mention a high degree of anxiety – and talk about your new customer service initiatives. Clearly it's quite another to actually deliver even the most basic of services your broken company purports to offer.
Heard from the DC office of CT almost immediately, she contacted Comcast, and one of their representives called me with assurances, promises, etc.
2 days later, I received YET ANOTHER BILL! This time complete with a late charge.
- June 9, 2008 at 7:13 AM
We switched our phone service from comcast to vonage in March. We also transfered our phone number.. When you call that number the phone connected to the vonage line rings, the comcast line doesn't. However comcast won't stop billing us. When we tell them our phone number has been on vonage since march, they say impossible because they would have had to receive a letter authorizing the release of the phone number. Since they have not record of such a letter, the phone number is clearly still active with comcast... Ok.. Them why does the vonage phone ring when you call my phone number?? Idiots. It seems that the citizens of this country have little legal writes these days and the big companies have discovered that it is profitable to test those legal boundaries. my advice is sue! The more often the better. Sue and bad mouth the company to friends and family. Eventually they will understand this tactic costs them money.
- June 13, 2008 at 7:01 PM
- SB said...
We have been having issues with Comcast billing too. We signed up for special student discount. When we got the bill, it was for a regular account. We have called almost once every two weeks in the last 3 months. Each time we talk to a rep, we get assurances that it'll be fixed but it hasn't been fixed yet. We have not been able to pay the bill 'cause we don't know how much to pay exactly. They sent us a notice to inform us that our service will be disconnected within 15 days. We have called several times since then to resolve the issue but hasn't been resolved yet.
- June 15, 2008 at 5:02 PM
Acct #8495 29 004 0960587
I have been a customer of comcast off and on for more than 5 years, and whenever an alternative service is available, I will make sure to use it. Once again I find myself in the position of being forced to use comcast due to lack of alternatives, and one year later my promotion rate has expired. Well, last month I contacted comcast, and signed up for the 3 play package, and was promised my rate would be $113.99 per month, with a $25 installation fee. I just got my first bill, and like almost all the other people on this blog, it was for more than what I was promised. The bill is for $181.62 which is roughly $42.62more than what it should be. I contacted the customer service department at comcast, and despite spending over an hour on the phone, they couldn't give me ANY reason why the bill should be that high. There is no mention of prorated charges on the bill, and I was up to date and current with all payments. After trying again to get some clarification on the bill, I've given up and decided to post on this site for some resolution. I don't think that asking to pay what I was promised and nothing more is too much to ask of any business.
- June 19, 2008 at 12:15 AM
Re Acct #8495 29 004 0960587
Well, I must applaud comcast for reading this website. Within 24 hours of my first post, I was contacted by a gentleman from their customer relations department in my area, and he went over the billing issue in great detail with me. I'm still upset as to why I'm in this situation, and he was unable to resolve it to my satisfaction, but at least it made more sense than the bill they sent me. The funny thing is they could have avoided all of these problems just by not "Billing Ahead". This system is just an excuse for customer relation problems, and mine is no different. See my post in customer service fiasco's for continued follow up. After speaking with the Customer Relations specialist, he advised me to contact my local comcast office to change my service plan. Like many other people have complained, I was placed on hold for 20 minutes, then disconnected. She had all my information, but did I get a courtesy call back? No.
- June 19, 2008 at 6:59 PM
- KentButabi said...
COMCAST cable service sent me an advertisement through their television cable box which read as follows:
"Summer Savings: Get Geared Up! COMCAST wants to get you geared up for summer with Phone, Internet, of both for only $19.95 per service, per month through 2009! Hurray, this offer ends soon!"
I was very excited about this promotion and promptly called COMCAST on 06/19/08. I was told by CSR Michael, CSR Kenneth, and Supervisor Floyd Holland that the ad was a miss-print. The promotion is only 'until 2009', not 'through'. Supervisor Floyd said that he needed to get with the COMCAST marketing and sales department and correct this mistake soon, but that he was unable to honor their ad.
I next called the COMCAST Executive Escalation line at 888-610-0995 and spoke with a 'Ms. Brantley'. After reviewing the ad, Ms. Brantly told me that 'through' does NOT mean 'through', but rather 'until'. She said that I was mistaken and that she would honor the $19.95 price until 2009 only. She also said that she was the decision maker, and that there was no one else for me to talk to.
My position is this: businesses should honor their ads. I only called COMCAST because of what their ad said, not because I wanted to simply take whatever they felt like offering me. I've discussed this with several people, and everyone (including myself) thinks this is some sort of false advertising, bait and switch, etc... If you go to Publix, for example, and show them a miss-printed price in their ad, they honor it. My mother does it all the time. They know her by name. Bottom line - this is illegal.
And I cannot help but think about all the other customers that, like me, called in thinking they were getting 'through 2009', but did not ask for a confirmation like I did. How many other customers are in for a surprise come January 2009?
I would like to say that, besides CSR Michael (the first rep. I spoke with), everyone was very courteous and respectful. Nonetheless, I have contacted the Atlanta Better Business Buereau and Clark Howard - Consumer Advocate.
- June 20, 2008 at 8:30 AM
- Hope said...
I just got off the phone with a customer 'service' rep and am really frustrated. Since January I have been billed (tv, cable, and internet) for $845 and have made $1,004 in payments since they said I was late, yet even with making the payment to bring my account current, I have overpaid by $159 which Comcast is not showing as a credit on my account. I'm ready to cancel my account and search for other options.
- June 20, 2008 at 12:05 PM
Ok I work for Comcast and like anything man made it may not work but to be honest I noticed while working with the company alot of people are angry about the service going out and complain about this and complain about that. I agree with you, sorry we are not perfect but I would like to have all those who have a problem with Comcast, do you pay your bill on time? Sounds like a fair trade to me, if your services were not working. Maybe we should act more like a cell phone company and turn off your service after being one day late instead of allow your services to be on 48 days after being past due on your account. Something to think about right????
- June 22, 2008 at 10:41 PM
- kwm said...
I love how Comcast employees log on to this website and do the whole "It's not my fault I just work here" routine. Look, your customers are NOT THE PROBLEM! And, the issues we're having ARE ABSOLUTELY YOUR FAULT! How is it possible that you are really so stupid that you don't get that simple fact? There is no one else to blame! Comcast doesn't have some evil man behind a curtain pulling levers and blowing smoke. Comcast runs the way it does -- or more to the point, doesn't run -- because of YOU. You should EXPECT to get screamed at when you're the 4th, 5th 6th,... 17th, incompetent LOSER we've dealt with to resolve what likely should have been a simple issue. You should EXPECT that your customers are going to take it out on you when you are just one more of a long line uneducated, hack, uncaring, and irrelevant peons we've had to deal who just ignored us, blew us off, didn't do what was promised, never returned a call, or didn't follow instructions, and -- bottom line --just didn't provide the service YOU are paid good money to provide. I personally hold every employee of Comcast, every customer service rep, technician, accountant, and janitor, every stock holder, and every executive personally responsible for the CRAPPY, sub-par, miserable time I've had with this company. Stop blaming your customers and start doing your jobs! If I did my job the way most of you appear to do yours, I would have been fired years ago, escorted from the building and flung into the street! And by the way, YES I PAY MY BILLS ON TIME!
- June 23, 2008 at 5:16 AM
- June 23, 2008 at 10:55 AM
Not a nightmare...yet! I switched from another provider to Comcast on March 25, 2008, prepaying the installation and 1st month's charge for cable, internet, and phone service. The installation was scheduled for between 1 and 5pm. The installer didn't show until 4:59 pm and left after 1 minute, but did come back an hour later after I called and said if he didn't come to forget about it and refund what I had paid. The installation was a disaster. It took 3 trips over a 3-day period and the only thing that worked was the high-speed internet connection. For the next 2 months, I averaged calling twice a week to get a problem resolved. After 2 months I finally gave up and went back to the other provider. In the meantime, I was billed for and paid for another month's service. I was only 2 days into the new billing cycle when I had the service disconnected, but they billed me for another full month. I called and was told to disregard that bill, that they were in the process of producing a final bill which would be adjusted accordingly. A month later I got the supposedly "final" bill which was more than the bill I had been told to disregard. Another phone call and about 30 minutes on the phone with the service rep revealed I had been billed for approximately 5 times what I owed. I asked them to send me a final bill with the correct amount owing and I would pay it upon receipt. The service rep said that I would need to pay the bill in person, which I did today. My daughter is a lawyer and she advised me to have them give me a receipt showing the account was paid in full. Needless to say, they wouldn't do this. They would only show that I had made a payment. I requested to speak to a manager and have him (or her) indicate the bill was paid in full. After about a 10 minute wait I was told the manager was unavailable but the desk rep would write on the receipt that my balance was zero, which she did and then signed the receipt. As I went out the door I commented that this was the reason I cancelled my Comcast service...now I am waiting for a "final final bill" which I have been assured will show a zero balance. I'm not going to hold my breath.
- June 23, 2008 at 4:32 PM
- kwm said...
A follow-up to my post on June 9, 2008 7:13 AM (acct # 09529-141994):
RESOLUTION AT LAST! I finally received refund check for $190.65, and a statement with a $0 balance FOUR MONTHS LATER! This was only possible because of the hard work of Marcella Hicks in the Washington D.C. Office of Cable Television. The moment I got them involved, things started to happen. If you area DC resident, you should call or e-mail these folks. If you can't get the folks at Comcast to do their jobs after a reasonable number of phone calls and requests, don't put yourself through this stress and anxiety! Once you get a governing body involved, things will start to happen. This office clearly has some leverage with this rediculous company. I slogged away on my own for 3 and a half months -- but less than 3 weeks after involving this office I have resolution to the issue and a check in hand. Website is http://octt.dc.gov.
YAHOO! And bon chance to you all, fellow jihadists!
- June 24, 2008 at 6:14 AM
Account #04418-953361-08-9
I was forced to get Comcast when the trees grew too thick behind my apartment so direct tv wouldn't work anymore and I have had nothing but problems since I switched a few years ago. I'm curious to see if anyone has had the type of problems that I've had...
Battle #1: First, the installer never noticed that the cable lines in my apartment had went dead and set up my cable and DVR service anyway. He said, oh I'm not getting a signal but it usually takes a few minutes for it to come up...i gotta go - See ya. After a few days on the phone with many CSR's testing my signal, arguing about having to pay for technician to come check it out, driving 25 miles to switch out my DVR myself...they finally sent a very nice technician who figured it out in 5 seconds. Battle #1 down.
Battle #2 starts. A few years ago, I want to set up EFT payments through my checking account. I try and try, but the website won't accept my routing number, so EFT cannot be set up online. I send a form via snail mail, but weeks and months go by and I never hear anything back. So I continue to pay via one time payments (which, interestingly enough will accept that same routing number that the EFT setup denied...hmmm). No biggie. Battle #2 put on hold for the time being.
Battle #3. The first rate increase sends me through the roof. Only a small notice packed in my bill that tells me the rates went up. I argue with the Comcast rep about having to have a minumun $60 package just to have a DVR...he says it is because of the type of digital signal. ok, but it doesn't work this way with direct tv, dish network, and TIVO. After a *free* Dish network consulation tells me that I still can't get satellite, it looked like I would have to stick it out with Comcast. Okay. Battle #3 done I guess - begrudingly.
Back to Battle #2. Fast forward to January of this year. I decide to try the EFT thing again. It still won't accept my routing number to my checking account. I notice that they accept savings accounts through EFT as well, so i try that. denied again. i have verified all routing numbers multiple times with my banks. so, i'm curious to see if the one time payment option will also be accepted for my savings, like it was for my checking, so i try it. it seems to have went through. success! however, on my next bill, i notice that i have a late charge, an NSF charge, and a mysterious 7.00 charge that i still can't figure out to this day.
so i call comcast to see what's going on. evidently, it didn't take my savings payment, but the website didn't tell me that when i made the payment, so i have to get charged an NSF fee??? (but interesting enough, it *would* tell me when it was denied during the EFT tries!) the CSR is not even aware that Comcast offers savings accounts as an option for the EFT payments. She promises to take the fees off and begins a trouble ticket to see why my savings and checking routing numbers keep getting denied. she says i should recieve a call in a few days about that. ok.
i never receive a call from anyone at comcast. a month later, the NSF fees have not been removed, which sends me into a tizzy. i call comcast again to see whats up and have to explain everything again (which by this point is becoming cumbersome). the CSR says, oh well i wonder why the EFT isn't going through for you...she tries it, and is denied. then she says i bet the savings account will work through a one time payment. let me try. i say, well if you try it will most likely give me another NSF fee and i don't want to deal with that again...i'd rather not. and she said, no i'll put a note your account so you won't get charged that fee. lets try it. so she tries. yay, it goes through she says...and i'm thinking no, it probably didn't, but it won't tell you that until i get charged and NSF fee in one month. again, she promises to remove the *original* NSF fees for the trouble and also re-submits another trouble ticket to see why the EFT keeps getting denied...and to top it off, she says not to worry about paying my bill this month because she is positive the EFT thing would get resolved in the next few days and i could begin paying that way soon.
days go by and still no call from comcast to resolve anything. so i call back a week or two later and the next CSR checks on the trouble ticket...its still in progress, but she will put a rush on it. i ask if i should go ahead and pay my bill...no she says...it will get taken care of soon and they'll understand why your bill hasn't been paid.
a few weeks go by, nothing. but my service gets turned off. after i explain my story one more time and luckily the last CSR had made good notes on my account about the situation, so they turn my service back on with apologies. meanwhile, i get a new bill and i have yet another late charge, NSF fee and mysterious $7.00 fee - due to the CSR performing her little test on my savings account even though she promised i wouldn't get another NSF fee!!!! so i call back again. this time the CSR says the trouble ticket has been resolved. what?!?! since when? no one called me. she says there is no chance of my EFT going through and there isn't a specific reason as to why. then i inquire as to why the original late fee and NSF fee was never removed and also ask to remove the new late fee and NSF fee...i again explain the whole situation which by now is ridiculously cumbersome. the new CSR says there is no record on my account of anyone saying they would refund the orignial late fee and NSF fee. grrrr. she can only refund the last NSF as a favor, although she says my story sounds a little fishy. trust me, i can't make this up. i demand to talk to a manager so she gives me to one. i have to go through the whole story again, top to bottom, and the manager - after 30 minutes, a few arguments, and threats to discontinue service, agrees to refund the entire amount - both NSF fees and late fees. Battle #2 finally finished. I think.
this is the main reason i hate comcast. i don't like being treated like my story is "fishy" and that i'm trying to worm my way out of NSF fees. that is the furthest from the truth and it makes me feel awful when they don't believe me. the first time i paid via my savings to test it out and I got an NSF, i was the first to admit it was my fault..but the first CSR should have never offered to refund my first NSF fees then.
Skip to battle #4. the rates go up AGAIN this winter! what's up with that? the dvr service goes up and now my digital package (digital preferred) is almost $70 bucks. but, whew, i find that there is now a digital package that is 52 bucks, so i call to downgrade to that package. i can't do it the CSR says...i still have to have the $70 package for DVR because of the type of signal. i really, really think this is unfair and a complete rip-off. all the satellite companies and TIVO can figure out a way to still have DVR service available no matter what your package is.
i think i'm just going to call it a day with comcast...i can't believe the rate hikes, bad customer service, and awful bill payment services. I'm curious to see if anyone has had this type of problem with routing numbers during their EFT set up? i was eventually told it was because my checking and savings are out of state, but that doesn't make sense to me, since I live in a college town that would have tons of students paying for their service with out of state bank accounts. something just doesn't add up...its like they want me to forget to pay my bill so they can tack a late fee on every time...or even later have my service turned off so i have to pay to reconnnect. i jsut never felt like this during my direct tv days...comcast can offer up as many promotions as they want to shut me up and make me feel better, but it always always always comes back around to something like this. its just not worth it.
- June 28, 2008 at 10:32 PM
We moved our service nearly a year ago now. We weren't told that we needed to change our account number. We've paid every bill on time. Back in February they refused to acknowledge that we paid our bill and sent us notices and even disconnected our service a couple of months later (even after still paying them).
When talking to customer service they realized that the funds were going to the wrong account and said that they would have the funds transferred over. We started paying to the new account number. A week later they turned off the service again. After contacting customer service they stated that the transfer was rejected because of some equipment that they wanted returned. From the transfer... that they haven't asked for, in nearly 6 months. We figured out what they wanted, in this case our secondary cable box (which we had asked for because we wanted 2 boxes for the new apartment) and we returned it. Now they stated that they sent us a check for the "overpaid amount on the old account" instead of transferring it like they said they were going to do in the first place. This never happened, no check came, we even paid an additional amount on the account to offset the fact that they were sending us a check... so we're overpaid, and now they're calling at night to state that we're still underpaid by $15 and they're going to shut off our service again. Every time we contact customer service we get the same run-around about how much we owe, they even have the audacity to tack on late payment charges onto our account.
#8770 21 028 1509535
- June 30, 2008 at 2:10 PM
I have had comcast digital cable for 15 years. I have recently added internet to my bundle package and i have nothing but troble from them! My internet never works and now i paid my bill yesterday of $200 dollars and they shut off my service! They said I owe a new bill of $800 dollars!!!! It took me 4 hours to get the problem resovled after calling the help center! I may have comcast now but now planning to get satilite! Thanks for 15 crappy years comcast!
- June 30, 2008 at 3:42 PM
I never agreed to purchase the phone service on a promotional basis.
I specifically asked upon signing up if the rate I was quoted was promotional.
I was told no.
Allow me to repeat:
I never agreed to purchase the phone service on a promotional basis.
I have spoken to five people in the last 24 hours and they ADAMANTLY refuse to address this.
Their response :
"I understand you would like a credit applied to your account for the
Comcast Digital Voice phone service for the time it was not on
promotional pricing. I am sorry for the inconvenience with this. I
have carefully considered your request, however I am not able to apply
the credit you requested.
The rate that you were on of $19.99 per month for the phone service was
a promotional rate only as indicated on your billing statement by the
service being under "CDV Blitz $19.99x6." After any promotional rate on
services ends, you are billed the regular rate for services.
Also, when a promotional rate ends on a service, the customer is not
eligible for another promotional rate on that same service until 6
months from the ending date of the promotion. Because of this, we are
unable to backdate the promotional rate as you were not eligible for a
new promotion immediately after the first one ended."
Well that is very interesting information, although entirely irrelevant due to the fact
The representative openly lied to me, and not a single individual even acknoledges this.
This is called GAMING THE SYSTEM by the employee.
The fact that no one even addresses this is so insulting. I have never been so enraged but such outrageous service.
If you are an employee of Comcast, I sincerely urge you to help me. This is absolutely terrible business practice and the word of mouth damage is significant.
Not to mention completely unethical.
Is there no regard for honesty???????
- July 1, 2008 at 12:03 PM
Try sending a note to this person:
Frank read my blog where I lamented about the poor service I was having with Comcast a few months ago and the problems were fixed. He works in Philadelphia and is an executive with Comcast. Well, he was a few months ago. Drop him a note and see if he is still under their employ.
- July 1, 2008 at 6:57 PM
I have the granddaddy of them all! My services were suspended 9/21 for non-payment because we could not work out my billing issues. So I said, ok - what do I owe you today? I will pay and be DONE. Cable still off and I called DirectTv. I paid that amount that day online - on their billing site. 10/1, someone knocks on my door and comes to pick up my digital boxes. We turned them in, he and I signed the work order. I receive bills Oct, Nov, Dec. I call Oct, Nov, Dec - I was told - disregard, disregard, disregard. In Jan of this year - guess who calls. A collection agency. I now owe $199 for months of cable I didn't receive. So, I fax my work order from Oct, the first DirectTv bill from 9/26 and my last bill from Comcast showing where I paid the balance owed AT THAT TIME - you know - WHEN SERVICE WAS SUSPENDED. But, even with months of fighting both Comcast on Tidwell and the collection agency. This is now on my credit. Sure, it's only $199 and it does not sound like much. BUT the point is I don't owe the money and my credit has now been affected. If you are out there and you have experienced something along the same lines - PLEASE reply to this blog. Their actions have violated the fair credit reporting act not to mention the months of being billed for services not received. They cut it off, not me and every time I call their offices to squawk for 30 minutes, the recording says "this call may be monitored or recorded for quality purposes" so where are their proper disconnection notices and where are those damned recorded tapes I keep hearing about every time I call?!?!? Someone has to have records - where are they. I have mine IN WRITING, but no one will listen. I'm tired of it and have decided to contact all three credit agencies to report their violations due to lack of concern to fix this issue. I mean come on, this has been going on since OCT of 2007 I think I've been more than patient and fair!
- July 3, 2008 at 2:33 PM
My $99 triple play expired and rather than pay inflated prices for such historically crappy internet/phone/cable service I called Comcast and asked to have the $99 price reinstated. I was told by the rep they could not do that (not surprising), and naturally I countered with "I've been a customer for 10 years, have an excellent billpaying record, and FIOS is now available in my neighborhood". Again the rep said no.
I expected that so went to my next step and asked to speak with a supervisor. Rep put me on hold and then came back saying no one was available. It this point I'm getting a little irritated as attitude from the rep is starting to seep through.
I tell the rep fine, I'll hold until one is avaialable and she tells me "no, you can't do that". Okay, at this point my blood begins to boil. I explain to her that "yes, I can wait and will wait until someone becomes available". She replies "there are no supervisors on the floor".
At this point, I firmly tell her I am not hanging up waiting for a callback that I know will never happen. She proceeds to then go ballistic on me, screaming at me at the top of her lungs how I'm stressing her out. Seriously, I'm in the car driving to the Cape, my wife is driving, and she can hear this women screeching at me. The Comcast rep goes through a 30 second tirade and proceeds to hang up on me.
I run a large technical support call center in Massachusetts and have many ex-Comcast reps working for me. Why? Because of the terrible work conditions, the pressure to upsell to customers who basically hate your guts, and the draconian management procedures they employ. Their customer support organization is pitifully inconsistent, woefully inept, and doomed to a lifetime of bashing from customers through website like these.
Based on the terrible experience I had, I should get $99 for life! But instead, I get to have another wonderful interaction with Comcast like this again in 12 months. I can hardly wait!
Larry Streeter
- July 7, 2008 at 9:11 AM
- Boney Joanie said...
Where do I begin, to tell the story of how long a wait can be? I feel like I am being punished for moving, I have never encountered such incompetence and lack of communication within a company! Acct# 8773102700619564. It becomes increasingly obvious with every phone call I am forced to make to Comcast how bad it is. I bought a condo in Hyannis. I called to make arrangements to move service and had a 4/5/08 appt. to move/install service for broadband/cable. The condo assoc. pays for our expanded basic cable, which I informed everyone I talked to, so I should only get billed for the broadband line. On 4/5 the tech comes and I'm told the cable line is no good, not enough juice coming in to support a box, never mind broadband line. They were able to hook directly into TV for cable, but I had no ABC (?)and analog only. Tech: not sure, since this is a condo, who is responsible for the cable, he will tell his supervisor and someone will call me to advise. I get billing for 96.68, which is wrong. On with the install story... No one calls by mid-week, I call again, holding and holding until I GET a person. (Now you have to keep in mind that since I don't have broadband I don't have my home phone so I am chewing up cell minutes on hold, etc.) I get shoveled around again ending up in sales and they are rescheduling me again. I try to explain the saga to them again. I KNOW the cable is bad-it needs to be replaced and who does it!!!! They say "We;ll send someone right out. Another Saturday is spent with another tech, who says same as last: Can't help you, the cable is no good. I finally had a younger tech come and although he, too, could not help me as the cable was no good, he at least got my TV to get ABC, he was stunned that the tech's previous left me without it. I wrote to Chelmsford to complain about the matters and a Mr. Corcoran responded w/letter 5/6/08 stating unable to contact me (I did get a msg. at work on 5/6 when I came back from lunch and I returned the call leaving a voicemail but never had another call back) BUT all of the sudden a cable company called me on behalf of Comcast and made a move to get me at least a temp. line...I was without a home phone and my part time job (internet dependent) until May 12 when I was called out of work for four hours so a 'temporary' cable could be installed by the subcontractor for Comcast....I finally had broadband! I finally had real cable with ABC and everything! Then I get a bill for $168.... for.....? For their lack of service? More calls. Then the cable box died,, more calls and had to go exchange it-more aggravation. Now my billing is reflecting $153 and change when I look online. Ugh! What is one to do? They bill for modems that I own and have told them that as well. Then they had the bajeebers to leave a msg on my cell "we are not sure if you lease our modem or own your own, please call us". I refuse to call. I wrote again to Mr. Corcoran June 13 and to date 7/9/08 no response, FYI, his title is Executive Customer Care...well that to me says it all, that obviously no one gives a crap about the consumer and obviously no one communicates within the company. I do not know of any other ways to get through to them about the billing, I am so sick of calling and I had to pay out a tidy sum in cell overages in addition to having to leave work for 4 hours to get the temporary line which I still have(they must still be rewiring I guess). I have spoken to Tom's, Steve's John's, Danny's, Debbie's, Derek's and numerous others. Can anyone help?! I am not paying an incorrect bill.
Hyannis, MA
- July 9, 2008 at 6:44 PM
- Andrew said...
What kind of company punishes existing customers? I'll tell you what kind, the Comcast kind. I moved into my first apartment last year in August (2007) and found out that Comcast was the only option for my building. I work in tech support and Comcast has a call center a few towns from where I work, so we get a lot of employees that come over from there. The horror stories that i heard were ridiculous, so I was a bit nervous about having to get Comcast service for the first time in my life. Much to my surprise it was a positive experience. The techs showed up within the 2 hour window that they said they would, set everything up for me, and left me completely satisfied. I had Internet and Phone service set up in my apartment, not the triple play because (a) I don't need a home phone and (b) I have heard a number of horror stories about the billing associated with the plan. My bill started off being around $115 per month on average, but I was receiving some kind of promotion in regards to internet service for the first six months. After the first 6 months my bill went up to approximately $130 per month, but has steadily increased by a very small amount every month. My last bill for the month of June was for $138.
I decided that I wanted to go online and see if there were any deals, or any plans that were a little bit cheaper for me. I went to their website and looked at the package plans and noticed that there was a package available that included Internet service and Cable service for $66.00 per month. I currently have DVR service and would want to keep it at $12.95 per month on top of the $66.00 plan which would bring my new bill to approximately $80. I got extremely excited and was completely willing to commit to Comcast in order to receive this new plan. I called the Customer Service department to find out what I needed to do to switch my plan. I was immediately kicked into a queue and waited approximately 25 min before being connected with a representative. Ok thats fine I understand the way that a call center works, and I know what it's like when it's busy. I then get on the phone with a representative and explain that I saw a promotion on their website listing the same services I currently have, minus the DVR service, for $66.00 per month and that I would like to make the switch. She told me that she would look into it and asked to put me on hold. I held for a few minutes and when she came back she informed me that only new customers, not existing ones could take part is this pricing ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! I am an existing customer, and apparently my business doesn't matter to you. I would absolutely sign a contract to lock in that price if they would let me but apparently scamming new people into their service is what they are all about, and screw you if your an existing customer because they don't care about you. I then asked what would happen if I canceled my service and signed up for this promotion that I saw. The agent proceeded to tell me that I could try that, but that I WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR INSTALLATION FEES! INSTALLATION FEES? I ALREADY HAVE EVERYTHING I NEED IN MY APARTMENT, WHY DO I NEED TO GET ANYTHING INSTALLED?!?! The agent told me that I would be without service during the wait for a tech to come out to install everything that is already working properly in my apartment and then pay for that installation which is approximately $100. I was a completely satisfied customer until now. I've already contacted Verizon in regards to FIOS, and they are currently wiring up my section of town and will be contacting me as soon as they are available. Once they are I will be done with Comcast for good. I work for a marketing company and I know how important it is to retain existing customers, and I can guarantee that if what has happened to me is happening to others, that the word of mouth will eventually bring down the evil empire we all know as Comcast. I hope that this post has enlightened others. My account # is 8773100760210506.
- July 10, 2008 at 11:32 AM
My condo assoc. mgr. called me today to inform me that I will be having a permanent cable installed on Monday. I do not know if this is a result of my blog. No one has contacted me from Comcast on this billing nightmare yet.....going to theconsumerist.com now.
Good luck to all of us, looks like we sure need it, wish I had FIOS here.
- July 10, 2008 at 2:22 PM
I called COMCAST today because I was concerned that I had not received a statement from them and wanted to find out how much I owed them and was told that I owed for two months. I asked them how much it was and I would just pay them then. In addition to the two months and the late charge which I can truly understand, I was told I owed for a pay-per-view movie (I have never ordered a pay-per-view movie ion my life) and that I owed a service charge because one morning I was watching Channel 38 and all of a sudden I could no longer get the channel, so I called Comcast to report this and was told that they had failed to disconnect some of Time Warner's codes, even though I have had Comcast since they took over -so they did something that took a second and I again I had Channel 38 (for which I was charged a service charge for their failure to change Time Warner codes). In addition, I was told I would owe another $4.00 charge for paying my bill over the phone. The purpose of the phone call was to find out why I had no been receiving my statements, only to find out about the other charges.
- July 16, 2008 at 2:46 PM
I am happy to report that a customer care associate from the exec. offices contacted me today and is correcting my billing appropriately. THANK YOU!!
- July 16, 2008 at 2:47 PM
- Lisa said...
I cancelled the cable TV portion of my Comcast service on May 9, 2008. A week later, after receiving a bill that did not show a credit, I had this illustrious conversation with a rep in India:
Problem : I cancelled cable service last week or the week before, but my newest bill is still showing a charge for cable.
Lisa > I cancelled cable service last week or the week before, but my newest bill is still showing a charge for cable.
Alve > Hello Lisa_, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Alve . Please give me one moment to review your information.
Alve > I am happy to help you today.
Alve > For account identification can you please provide your account number?
Lisa_ > hold on, i need to look it up.
Alve > Alright.
Lisa_ > 8798300018158124
Alve > Thank you for that information.
Alve > I will need to verify the last four digits of your Social Security Number.
Lisa_ > You guys have either 8989 or 8383. Someone on your end entered it wrong when I signed up originally.
Alve > Thank you for confirming that information.
Alve > While I am looking up your information, can you please tell me more about your issue today?
Lisa_ > I cancelled cable service last week or the week before, but my newest bill is still showing a charge for cable.
Alve > As I am checking on your account, the charges that you have right now are from your last billing cycle.
Lisa_ > I was always told that it was billed one month in advance.
Lisa_ > And my statement says "Billed from 05/24/2008 to 06/23/2008". so that is one month in advance.
Alve > Yes.
Lisa_ > And since I cancelled my cable, and it is being billed one month in advance, it would appear that I am being billed for the use of cable from May 24th through June 23rd.
Alve > There will be an adjustment on your next billing cycle.
Alve > You will receive partial credit on your next billing statement for your cable service.
Alve > Is there anything else I may help you with?
Lisa_ > Since I cancelled my cable service before May 24th, how is it that I will only receive a partial credit? And why on the next cycle? So even though, one or two weeks ago, I cancelled my cable, I still have to pay for it for NEXT month, even though I don't have cable service?
Alve > I may advise Liza, to wait for the next billing statement. We will credit you on the time that you already do not have cable service.
Lisa_ > Well I believe that I should not have to pay for service that I am not using. Please give me the phone number to your supervisor so that I can call and have this dealt with appropriately.
Lisa_ > And the name is Lisa, not Liza.
Alve > Alright.
Alve > I would be delighted to get this information for you.
Alve > I am getting the information of the nearest local office in your area.
Alve > Please give me one moment, Lisa.
Alve > May I please place you on hold for two minutes to check on your account?
Lisa_ > Check on my account for what?
Alve > For the telephone number that you contact.
Lisa_ > Of course.
Lisa_ > Hello?
Alve > Thank you for patiently waiting.
Alve > Center Name: Woodcrest Shopping Center
Address: 1490 Berlin Rd
Cherry Hill NJ 08003
Phone Number: 800-266-2278
Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 8:30am to 5:00pm Wednesday and Friday 8:30am to 8:00pm
Alve > Is there anything else I may help you with?
Lisa_ > You're aware that I am in Chicago, Illinois, correct? Are you sure I'm supposed to call New Jersey?
Alve > I am searching it by your zip code.
Lisa_ > Okay. Is that a regional office?
Alve > Yes.
Alve > For directions and the contact information of the local office in your area please visit: https://www.comcast.com/Localization/Localize.ashx?Referer=/customers/contactus/paymentcenter/locatePaymentCenter.ashx&area=0
Lisa_ > So then am I supposed to call my local office or the office in New Jersey?
Alve > You may check the link that I gave and you can input your complete address to get the local office in your area.
Alve > Have I answered all your questions today?
Lisa_ > So then I'm not supposed to call the regional office in New Jersey that you gave me? I'm confused. If you looked up my zip code, how did you get an office in New Jersey when I'm in Illinois?
Alve > Alright.
Alve > Give me more minutes to search all over again the contact number of your local office.
Lisa_ > I can look in the stupid phone book for the local office number! What I'm looking for is YOUR SUPERVISOR'S NUMBER - someone higher up than you that I can talk to about my bill.
Lisa_ > I don't want some general number to my local office.
Alve > You can contact them at 866-594-1234.
Alve > Have I answered all your questions today?
Lisa_ > No, as a matter of fact, you have answered none of my questions today. And this is why I will never recommend anyone get Comcast.
Alve > We assure you that we do in fact recognize and acknowledge that we have room for improvement in our customer service, and that we are working diligently to ensure we can deliver a great experience to every customer, every time. We are continuously working to increase customer satisfaction and are putting a tremendous amount of resources into improving our customers' experiences with us. We handle more than 225 million customer interactions a year and, again, our goal is to deliver a positive experience to every customer, every time.
Alve > We very much appreciate your business and I hope that you will allow us to work to restore your confidence in Comcast.
Alve > I see that you have closed the chat room. I apologize but I am unable to open this. If you need to contact us again, feel free to chat back or call 1-800-COMCAST.
Alve > Analyst has closed chat and left the room
Since then, I have received two additional bills, and both of them still have cable tv on them. Today, they turned off my service because of nonpayment - but I cannot get any of their CSR's to correct the bill and tell me exactly what it is I owe.
I have a friend who works for Comcast and has emailed Michael Tate, Jan Thompson and Helen Bell, asking them to help resolve my billing issue and I have yet to receive an email or a phone call in response.
So now, since we use Vonage as our home phone service, we have no phone since we have no cable.
I have very little faith in this being resolved.
- July 21, 2008 at 2:21 PM
They are so ridiculous. I sent them a letter of complaint and also filed one with the Attorney General's Office. I have since had a phone call from them everyday which I do not answer based on the fact that everytime I communicate with them verbally there is a huge misunderstanding based on either their dishonesty or my stupidity. They then sent me a letter saying that if I didn't answer their telephone calls then they would consider the matter resolved. If they have nothing to hide then why don't they exlpain this in writing instead of getting one of their shameless office lowlifes, who would most likely sell their whole family for an easy but dishonest job, to call me?
- July 21, 2008 at 7:42 PM
This IS YOUR CHANCE to VOTE COMCAST 'The WORST Company In America'!
Click on the link and VOTE today!
- July 22, 2008 at 9:29 AM
I called Comcast and ordered the bundle package of cable internet, phone and TV and was quoted a price of $78.92 per month with no service charge for installation or service activation. After the 6-month promotional deal expired, the services would go up to $94 a month, according to the Comcast service rep. When I got my first bill, there was a $30 charge for installation and the monthly fee was to go up to $168 a month after the 6-month promotional package and not the $94 a month that was promised. I tried to resolve the issue over the phone, but they refused to review the phone logs to verify the prices quoted to me and even if they did verify the quoted prices, they would not honor them. The only action they would take was to fire the employee who incorrectly quoted these prices to me. I asked if they had reviewed the phone logs to determine if the employee had actually quoted me the wrong prices and they said 'no', but they would fire him nonetheless.
I then went to the local Comcast office and requested the original work order which I thought may contain the prices quoted to me. They said they would get it for me, but after repeated visits, it's clear they will not provide me with any documents which would prove them wrong.
- July 24, 2008 at 2:27 PM
I had an account at school in my dorm room. I cancelled it in May, and it was disconnected by Comcast representatives that set up shop in the dorm lobby when everyone was moving out after finals. I was billed for June, and after calling found out that I was also due to be billed in July. I had to call customer service a few times, and finally they agreed to pay me back the $70 they owed for a service that was disconnected and that I had never asked for. Ridiculous.
- July 24, 2008 at 8:18 PM
I was a Comcast custmer for few years. I paid all my bills online and on time. A year after I close my account I paid by mistake my cable bill to them. After realizing that I have apid to the worng company I called my bank and they said that I needed to talk to Comcast. Less than 24 hours I call Comcast to ask for my money, they promise that the check would be refund within 2 weeks. 2 weeks later I followed up...they gave me anothe date. After 6 months I moved and I continue calling Comcast trying to get my $120 back. After a while I reach out to the BBB and wrote a letter expalining everything and giving dates and people I have talked to. Comcast response was that I was not living in the state anymore and they were not responsible. For a year I tried to get my money back and I couldn't. I would never have Comcast for any of my services, and I would advise that you should avoid dealing with them...they are a horrible company and like me I bet they have stole money from other customers.
- July 25, 2008 at 6:00 AM
- Arthur said...
The only reason I have comcast is for the fast internet. If ATT or some other company comes close to the comcast speed I would ditch comcast in a minute too.
- July 25, 2008 at 10:21 AM
I subscribed to comcast cable and I was charged in advance like comcast always does. Then when I disconnected they sent me another bill and when I called they said it was for a previous month which I already paid in advance. Comcast steal money from people and their billing does not know anything about how stuff works. They need to fix their system and fix this billing issue. They still send me the bill which I do not owe and I have decided not to pay since they didn't get my social when I subcribed to cable tv and I am so happy I didn't give them that information. But that does make me switched to verizon and although the speed is just slightly slower (you can't notice it much unless you download 600/700 MB) but it is much cheaper and a peace of mind. Comcast because of their unreliable and deceptive approach will hopefully go down pretty soon.
- July 25, 2008 at 11:31 AM
I live in a rural, mountainous part of California and Comcast is the only option for both cable and high-speed internet. Unfortunately they know they are the only option and they act like it.
I really can't complain about their service which, for the most part, has been good. It is their pricing which infuriates me.
First they get you in with the "come on" price which is more than reasonable. Then - BAM - your bill suddenly doubles or more. $162per month for cable TV and internet is pure, unbridled greed. If I used their phone service (which is plagued with problems) they'd be raping me for another $43per month after the $19.95 "come on".
Incidentally, for phone service, I use another voice-over-IP service that is completely dependable and locked at $19.95 a month for everything Comcast promises but can't deliver for their inflated price.
The only answer I can see for relief for those of us in California is to watch our ever-rising bills carefully for the small notice Comcast hopes is buried in the marketing materials about their intent to raise rates as required by the CA PUC. We should then attend the PUC hearing en mass so that Comcast clearly understands that the rape, pillage and plunder of its customers won't be tolerated further.
- July 26, 2008 at 9:44 AM
I had Comcast cable and internet in Washington, DC. While I could go on and on about their terrible repeated failed installations... my most pressing and infuriating problem is with the monthly continuation of bills AFTER I cancelled my service. I cancelled my service in May in person at the Comcast office in DC. I returned all of the equipment and have a reciept that shows it's cancelled. When I call and, after waiting on hold, I talk to someone, they say they see that the account is "cancelled" but that a service person has not yet gone out to the apt to "turn off" the service. They say, just throw away the bills... the computer will eventually sort it out when the technician disconnects the service. Now, it's almost August and I continue to receive bills for service I cancelled (and they acknowledge I cancelled) 3 months ago!!! And, the charges keep increasing as if I still have service... with late fees!!!. IF ANYONE IS OUT THERE, PLEASE SEND ME THE $8 FINAL PRO-RATED BILL I ACTUALLY OWE instead of sending ever increasing bills (up to $250 now) on service that Comcast acknowledges was cancelled months ago. Unbelievable. I now live in the SF Bay Area and although Comcast is the only provider, I would rather go w/o service than go through this again.
acct #: 09529380429046
- July 26, 2008 at 6:37 PM
- kwm said...
To the post from:
acct #: 09529380429046 on July 26, 2008 6:37 PM
This is EXACTLY what happened to me. I have an early post about my experience. Contact the DC office of Cable Television (http://octt.dc.gov). I'm serious! These people are GREAT (I realize describing any section of the DC government as "great" sounds a bit contradictory, but seriously...) These gals know how to maneuver with Comcast. I dealth with Marcella Hicks. I was going through EXACTLY the same scenario when I moved, and after months of my slogging through Comcast bureaucracy, Ms. Hicks's office had me squared away with a refund check in hand within 3 weeks from first contact with them to the day the check arrived in the mail(Comcast was refusing to stop withdrawing payments via EFT after I closed my account).
Good luck!
- July 27, 2008 at 4:34 AM
I can't believe that I was billed $260 for my bundled package and the reason given was there were a large amount of "Adult Movies" rented. As a widow of a certain age with no one in the house but me I questioned this and was told there was nothing I could do. I am really upset because why would I want that crud (I know all I need to know). How do you fix this problem.
- July 28, 2008 at 8:43 AM
RE: Comcast Account # 8777-70-203-0699008
I was a Comcast customer in Florida for about 3 years. Everything was fine in Florida with the service but due to my move to Texas I closed the account in good standing with a credit on my favor. Comcast sent me a refund check for the account in Florida.
My problems with Comcast begun in Texas; when I requested service at my new address. Installation of the cable and Internet was scheduled for June 02/2008.
The technician came on that day to install the service requested by me. He ran a cable from the Comcast box in my backyard, to the side of the house. After working for about an hour, he found out there was no signal at the Comcast box. After calling his supervisor to report the problem, he told me he needed to leave and that someone else would call me to advise when they were going to finish the installation.
After not hearing from Comcast for two days, I called to find out what was happening. To my surprise, the person at Comcast informed me that the installation was completed and the billing process had already started. I told her that the installation was not done and the only thing I have was a cable hanging on the side of my house. She told me I needed to reschedule a new installation. I asked why a new installation if the original was not completed. According to her, the original installation was completed on June 2, 2008 and billing was in place already. I asked her to tell me the name of technician who completed installation and serial numbers of equipment installed. She told me she did not have this information. Of course, she did not have it, because there was no such installation. I told her that if I did not get somebody to finish the installation within 2 days, I was cancelling the order. She gave me a new installation date and also told me somebody will call me to let me know they were coming to make sure there was someone at my home to let them in to finish the installation.
Well, on that day no technician showed up for installation. Finally, at around 8:00 pm a technician called me to let me know he was coming to do the installation. I told him I had waited for him all day, and it was already too late. I agreed for him to come to do the installation that evening as long as he would be able to finish everything that day. I told him that, according to last technician who came to do installation before him, there was no signal coming from the Comcast box in the backyard. He asked me to bring a TV set to the garage so he could run a cable directly from the Comcast box to the TV set. He plugged in the cable to the TV set, and determined there was no signal.
It was almost 9:00pm and I told him to forget the install and go home, because I was cancelling installation, since 2 weeks had already gone by without a solution to this problem.
Next day, I called Comcast to inform them I was cancelling the order since they did not perform as promised.
To my surprise, at the end of the month, I received a bill from Comcast in the amount of $129.40. I called Comcast and asked why I was billed for something I did not have or services I did not receive. The Comcast person told me somebody would call me back. Since no one from Comcast called me, I called back after 2 days to dispute the bill. The person at Comcast told me everything was taken care of, and I was not going to receive more bills from Comcast.
Again, today July 28, 2008, I received a bill from a collection company on behalf of Comcast for $27.49,Why this amount and not the whole bill amount, if they were so sure I had the service installed??
As far as I am concerned, this is a bogus charge since Comcast never installed any service at my home. I demand from Comcast to prove the time the service was connected to the system and the amount of time that it was connected; the serial #s of equipment installed and completed work order, signed by technician doing the installation.
Based on all these facts, I expect not to receive any more bills from Comcast or any collection agencies on Comcast's behalf because I consider this matter closed long time ago. I have an impeccable credit record, and I always pay my bills on time. I expect from Comcast not to tarnish my credit record without any reason, because there will be serious consequences. Fortunately I had other choices since the competition in my area is good and I was able to get prompt service from one of their competitors. I have put Comcast out of my life for good and I will never recommend their services to my family or friends. Their customer service treated me disrespectfully and every time I called they acted like I was not telling the truth or I wanted something for free.
- July 28, 2008 at 1:29 PM
- Dana said...
Of the 8 months that I have had Comcast, I have had to call for a billing error 6 times. This is not including the many hours I spent on the phone with them with installation errors, missed appointments, a faulty box and then the wrong box during the first month.
Now it is over-billing. Every month it's a new incorrect charge. Each time I spend at least an hour either on hold or on the "Live Chat" feature addressing the problem which they say they will correct on the next bill, forcing me to overpay on my present bill or else I will get a late fee if I don't pay the overcharged amount that month.
Except that the next month there is usually a new overcharge.
One more month of this and I'm switching to Satellite.
The one "compensation" I got from this was 6 months of HBO/Starz but that's about to expire and you know what? I'm still getting over charged every month so I might as well be paying for it all this time!
I have kept a record of every Live Chat transcript and itemized my bills each month to see if the charges change and each month, sure enough, they overcharge me something in the range of $15-$20.
I can be reached at email@example.com if there is any possible resolution to this issue.
- July 28, 2008 at 4:12 PM
Acct # 05659 122137-03
I called Comcast in April to see what I could do about lowering my rates and possibly adding the voice service. I was assured that I had the lowest rates possible for cable and internet. We looked into adding the phone service but my number was not going to be able to be moved because of some sort of location issue. I live in White Plains but the number I have is considered an Oxon Hill or DC number. (I have been told this afternoon by a couple of legal eagles that this breaks the # portablilty legislation but I am not sure which end I need to pursue that on, Comcast or Verizon) Since we woulnd't be saving any money to make the switch and we would have to change our number we did not make the change.
I pay my bill automatically so I did not catch it until this week that my rates went up almost 50%!! I called them immediately yesterday and spent over an hour on the phone getting absolutely NO WHERE! They said my 'deal' ended and they would not offer anything unless I changed my phone service to them. You see as she so kindly explained to me as if I was a two year old and had a hard time understanding simple budgeting and math - If I changed my phone service then I wouldn't have a verizon bill and that would make it all work out perfectly to what I happened to be paying previously. All nice and tidy with comcast monopolizing another thing in my life. End of discussion. I explained again that I had tried to do that a few months ago and I was NOT informed that my package would be expiring very soon and that they were not able to provide me with my phone number so I was not willing to change service. She then said she was transfering me to someone else that might be able to help since they couldn't move my number but the extension she switched me to was not valid. I spent another hour trying to get someone on the phone. Never did happen.
Today I started all over again. This time the woman was not helpful and I started with my frustation level a the red level. We obviously got nowhere fast. I formally requested to speak with a supervisor. She said she could put in a request for a call back but it would be 24 to 48 hours. I would not accept this. I wanted a formal note to be put on the account that this was my day 2 of dealing with this situation and I wanted a call back today. She said if she did that then she would have to also put the note that I was told it would take 24 to 48. I told her that was fine but I wanted my complaint and request to be on file exactly as I stated it. She basically kept trying to get to say nevermind. I instead mentioned that I am sure a lawyer would be more that happy to see it and that I will make sure the stonewalling would be included if I decided to file suit. Well this shut her down and she refused to do anything but repeat the contact information for the legal department and make sure I knew that no one would be returning my call because I said lawyer.
The kicker is that I still think there are extras on my account that I requested be taken off from the gitgo yesterday.
- July 29, 2008 at 1:17 PM
Its so simple, but got so complicated...
I moved to a new address in June. Called Comcast to transfer my internet to the new address, and set up a disconnect for mid-June (the soonest disconnect date available).
In July, received an automated message saying my account was past due. I was still getting charged for the previous address! Even though a new resident lived there, and got new service in their name. Told I would be credited for the charges from the previous address, and told to disregard future billing messages. Also set up a new disconnection date for August (2 months after I've moved).
Now, my internet has been turned off due to a billing discrepancy. I have no idea why. You see, I don't get paper bills for my new account (I get my previous address' bills forwarded to me), and I can't access my current account on Comcast.com (I can only view/pay my previous account).
I called to straighten it out, but Comcast's billing department is spitting out busy signals 2 nights in a row. So... I can't talk to anybody to straighten this out on the phone, and I can't even access my account online to see what's going on.
This keeps up, I'm switching to DSL.
Current Acct #: 8798300057963244
Previous Acct #: 8798300057508353
- July 30, 2008 at 4:18 PM
I have been trying for 2months to get a final bill that will detail how credits were calculated, etc. I was paying $178 per month for bundled services. We cancelled 11 days prior to end of billing cycle that had of course been paid for in advance. I expected to get a refund somewhere in the area of $63 but got only $9.45. I was promised I'd get a final bill but only got the check. I have talked to 4 CSR's who each promised they were sending the bill out. The 4th guy promised he'd fax it to me and I actually did get a fax but it was someone else's bill. When I tried to call him back I was told that I needed his extension #, there were way too many CSRs named David at that location to know which one I talked to. If this is the way they treat me when I'm requesting paperwork I should have gotten in the first place, I shudder to think of what I'll have to go through to get additional refund $$ if they did make a mistake. I'm not likely to ever become a Comcast customer again.
My account #: 09592-749425
- July 31, 2008 at 6:08 AM
After paying $19.99 for Internet service every month since March 08 (partial month), my July bill had a retroactive charge of $95.44 for the same thing. Two calls to Comcast led to promises of a credit to my account, to no avail. However, a third call produced the desired result within minutes (I checked my account on line, and there it was at last.) Obviously, the competence and diligence of service representatives is not uniform. Judging from other posts, I got off easy this time.
- August 1, 2008 at 12:28 PM
My best friend is a single mom of a 13 year old who racked up close to $400.00 in adult movie charges last month. I told her to call them to have the charges removed since they were not authorized and were charged by a minor. She said they told her that the movies "had been watched" and there was nothing she could do about it. She also has a 3 yr old and is about to give birth to another child in 2 weeks. She is not in a financial position to pay these charges, nor do I feel she should have to. I have since advised her to use the parental lock capabilities, but how should she go about rectifying the current situation? I don't know her account #.
- August 4, 2008 at 3:54 PM
Wow, I work for a contractor that does underground trenching (the guys that come mess up your yard) thats right its me, anyhoo I actually learned of this site from a unhappy customer today which tickles me pink. I myself have comcast and have suffered the same problems that many of these fed up consumers have. And, even know I pretty much work for comcast, I do entirely agree that this company is the most unorganized, rude, poorly run monopoly ever created. You know why they suck so bad? Picture this, I'll put cable tv in perspective for you. Comcast, probably owned by some rich fat white guy, (i'm white too, its not a race thing its just a fact) and his million other shareholders, bought the literaly millions of miles of cable that connect the whole freakin east coast. This spider web of what used to be like 50 other companies is now a 40 year old abortion mashed together. These systems weren't rebuilt, its not like comcast just replaced it all. They now have to spend most of their time fixing problems and trying to keep the system up. Its like when you buy an old car, lots of upkeep, well now you've got a billion old cars to upkeep, get the picture? As far as customer service goes, let me ask you this, who works at Mcdonalds? you might think I'm a jerk but lets face it, unless your a sixteen year old your probably a loser. Just like a big company like mcdonalds, comcast hires cheap ingnorant labor to take care of customer service, because frankly they have to fork over most of their cash to guys like me to keep their service going. I went through this same crap that I've read here, from billing to service. I've worked for other companys and I got to tell you if your in an area that has Alantic Broadband, switch, I've never worked or dealt with a better company. You know why? they are not a giant dead whale trying to stay afloat. Sorry if I offended anyone. PS Dish sucks too.
- August 4, 2008 at 5:22 PM
Comcast never admitted that I was double billed after transferring my service due to a move, even though I questioned them on multiple occasions by phone and customer service reps told me that any overpayment would be reconciled and applied to my current account. A month after these calls I was issued an invoice for a negative balance(ie, a credit) for my former address. So, I get home from vacation and service at my new address is disconnected because of a balance due even though Comcast owes me money. So, after a 45 minute wait and a call to get my service reconnected (which includes reconnection fees for all three services) and a $4 fee to pay over the phone(my cell phone- because my comcast phone has been disconnected!). So here I am, paying penalties for their incompetence and waiting. They tell me their check is in the mail. -Somerville, MA
- August 5, 2008 at 5:49 PM
Worst. Customer Service. Ever.
I have been trying for the better part of a year to get my bill straightened out. I started out calling and emailing several times a month. Now I am down to calling every month after the bill arrives and it is still wrong.
You can forget emailing – I figured that out pretty quickly. I would receive auto response emails sating that customer support would get back with me in a few hours. No one has EVER gotten back with me via phone or email.
Calling yields an array of results:
Telling me that someone would get back with me (at least 10 times) and no one ever has
Telling me they fixed the problem (they never did, or only partially fixed the problem, or added a new problem)
Tell me I have to talk to a supervisor and none are available right now and they will leave a message for them to contact me – HAH! That's a joke, too. Never happens.
Putting me on hold then cutting off my phone connection (at least 5 times)
(My account # is 8777 70 206 0002917)
Prior to 9/07 I had two Time Warner (now Comcast) DVRs and a HD Digital box without a DVR. In September, I a bought a HD TIVO and returned one of our cable company DVRs. On our October bill I was still being charged for two DVRs @$7.49 each and one DVR service @ $9.95 plus the $12.49 for the HD box. This continues through our December bill. (at this point we were overcharged by $22.47).
On Dec. 27, we bought another HD TIVO (the Scientific Atlanta DVR is a piece of *%^*) and returned our last remaining Comcast DVR. They were out of cable cards so we went back and got some a few days later. Our 1/16 bill continued to charge us for the DVR box ($7.49) and Service ($9.95). This continues through our 5/16 bill. This adds an additional $87.20 to the overcharges for a running total at this point of $109.67.
On May 28, I actually got someone to help me (Karen, Operator # T7-) who removed the erroneous code from the system – FINALLY. ON our 6/16 bill, we were no longer charged for the DVR and service, and received a credit of $22.47 – not the entire amount, leaving $87.80 still owed me. More phone calls and idiotic customer service reps later, I finally got Jason on 6/30 (Operator Q36) who said he understood the problem and would fix it. He said he would also make sure we were credited for the 3 weeks when we did not have cable television and only spotty internet service that month (none of the first three technicians who came could or wanted to solve the problem so they left before service was restored – until the last guy finally stayed here for many hours and fixed the problems).
My 7/16 bill gave us $44.94 credit toward DVR box rentals – so $42.86 still owed. What's more, I wasn't credited for cable downtime, I was instead charged an additional $6.07 for partial month service – where the HELL did that come from??? AND…. On this bill I am no longer billed $12.49 for the HD (non-DVR) box that I DO have – that's off the bill. Instead it is replaced with $12.95 monthly charge for – you guessed it – "HD DVR service!!!!!" Unreal.
I got on the phone – AGAIN, this time talking to Scott – (Operator number 4562JSL). During this 45-minute phone call (actually shorter than most) he spent half that time INSISTING that I had a Comcast DVR instead of a HD cable box while I INSISTED that I did not. He eventually checked with a supervisor, looked up the serial number and finally agreed with me. (He said the serial number looked like a DVR serial number – Pleeeeeeeze!) Anyway, he told me is supervisor was at a meeting – they ALL were and she would call me back. I told him that I had heard that one at least a million times before.
So, this is my last attempt before going to the BBB. Comcast customer service simply doesn't care. COMCAST - Refund me the money you owe and fix my bill so that I am paying for the actual equipment and services I get from you.
- August 6, 2008 at 10:03 AM
I am furious and plan to drop com-rip-me-off-cast's so called service immediately! I fell for the triple play (play being the only truth in that promotion) bs and have yet to receive the promised rate. Can you say BAIT & SWITCH?!
I will not call the so called CSR ever again. My blood pressure cannot take it. Clueless, bad attitudes and not planning to help is what you get when you call com-rip-me-off-cast.
I will wait until tomorrow to file a complaint with the AG. Not holding out much hope for resolution but here's your chance com-rip-me-off-cast.
My acct # is 8498320012986828
- August 6, 2008 at 4:05 PM
I was contacted by collection agency indicating that I owed $500 to Comcast. The thing is that Comcast had messed up so badly, i.e., it took 3 different installers, on 3 different occasions to get our cable, and internet service hooked up correctly, that we had a $200 credit on our account. When I called Comcast to try and get an explanation, NOBODY could tell me anything! When calling the collection agency they told me to contact Comcast for details, and ran me in circles. What a nightmare Comcast has been! When installing the cable, they didn't even bury the line, I have a cable line now draped over my back yard to the cable box. I can't wait until this credit is finished, I will certainly go with another company who is more competent the Comcast. Comcast you suck!
- August 7, 2008 at 11:35 AM
- Jennifer said...
I went to make a payment online. I signed in and selected the "Pay my bill". The amount due was $280.27, or so that's what the website said. I had forgotten I had made a partial payment already and the amount was already taken out of my account weeks before this. And the website didn't reflect the payment I had made weeks ago. I submitted my payment thinking that that was for the remaining partial balance and the new balance for this month. It turns out that they didn't update the account info. So my amount owed was only $140. I immediately called comcast after submitting my payment online. Thinking they should be able to cancel the pending payment or have some way to "edit" the amount for the correct balance owed. I got in touch with a Customer Service Rep and they said they could not do anything until the payment was already processed and the money was taken from my account. Well they failed to tell me that it would take 3-4 weeks for the money to be refunded properly. I am living paycheck to paycheck and needed that money to pay other bills this month. Thanks craptastic for screwing up my life this month!!! Acct# 8498340010114322
Also the rep I spoke with said this is a regular occurance and that nothing can be done about the 3-4 week wait. Don't you think that there should be some ability to edit your live payment information before the payment has been processed? Seems like a logical solution to me and would make many people happy customers to save them a hassle such as this!!!
Disgruntled in Seattle
- August 7, 2008 at 3:47 PM
Comcast makes some pretty juicy rebate offers via comcastoffers.com and broadbandoffers.com, but a lot of people are saying online that they companies aren't following through. I made a youtube video where I documented the rebate process in excruciatingly boring detail, to see if the companies are going to hold up their end of the bargain, or trot out the lies that rebate companies are so apt to fall back on .
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3 is either me showing my rebate checks, or me showing how to fill out a small claims court form.
- August 9, 2008 at 12:48 AM