Comcast Cable Can't Be Trusted

In August 2006, I had been a Comcast cable TV and high-speed Internet customer for three years. I had digital TV, ON DEMAND, a DVR — the works. I had never missed a payment. In other words, I had been a loyal, good, responsible customer who paid this company in excess of $100 a month to transmit pictures through wires.

In late August, I added digital phone service, which brought my monthly bill to something in the neighborhood of $150. Shortly after signing up and installing the phone service, I found that both my phone and Internet frequently failed to work.

Now, so far I was fine with the situation. But that’s when I entered Comcast Hell.

I called the 800 customer dis-service number (the true culprits in this whole story) TWICE in one day to request that a technician come to my house and retrieve the combined phone and Internet modem and bring me a standard Internet modem. I was absolutely assured BOTH times that a standard modem would be brought to me. I emphasized in both calls that I wanted to make absolutely sure that the standard modem be delivered. BOTH times I was told that it DEFINITELY would.

The technician showed up the next morning and, you guessed it, no modem. Not only that, but the technician, in the fashion that has become typical for American corporate behavior these days, said it wasn’t his fault. He even told me that I didn’t pay for his services. When I asked him where he thought Comcast got the money for his paycheck, he actually looked as if the connection between customers and his pay had never dawned on him.

Since the modem I had been promised TWICE was not delivered, I called Comcast and discontinued not only the phone service, but also high-speed Internet. They had promised me something TWICE in one day that they did not deliver. Therefore, they lost that business, which cost them $70 a month or $840 a year.

But it gets worse.

I am graduate student and missed a payment waiting for my student loan. As soon as it came in, I went to the Comcast Web site and made a $300+ payment. The next month, the Web site showed that I owed $349. I thought perhaps something had gone wrong and my payment had not gone through, so I paid the full amount.

Then I got my bank statement. Comcast had collected $649 from my account in a month.

IT GETS WORSE STILL . . .

First, I called the billing department and told them that I had overpaid them because they had failed to update their Web site, which is inexcusable. If they are going to offer paperless billing, the bills on the Web should be accurate. THEY TOLD ME IT WAS MY RESPONSIBILITY TO CALL THEIR USELESS 800 NUMBER AND ASK THEM IF THE BILL WAS CORRECT!!!!! IN WHAT UNIVERSE IS THE CONSUMER RESPONSIBLE FOR BILLING????

I wasn’t happy, but I took no action other than to tell them to return the overpayment. They told me a check would be sent.

Two weeks went by. No check. I called again.

AGAIN I was assured a check would be sent.

That was two weeks ago. Still no check.

I called today AGAIN. AGAIN I was told I would be sent a check. But I’ve had it. I called and downgraded my service to the cheapest cable package I can get for $13 a month. The customer “service” person was so unconcerned about losing my business she didn’t even ask why. When I asked if she wanted to know why, she said she could tell I had an “attitude.” If expecting a company to do what they say constitutes an “attitude,” then yes, I have one.

I will miss the cable channels, but I will get a TiVo to replace the DVR. I can live without Comcast to a large degree.

In two months, they went from getting $160 a month of my business to getting $13 a month of my business. That’s a loss of $1,764 a year AS A DIRECT RESULT OF 800-NUMBER REPRESENTATIVES PROMISING ME SERVICES THAT WERE NOT DELIVERED.

Naturally, these 800 number people would not give me the phone number of the corporate office. But they trade on NASDAQ, so I got it anyway. Monday, they will hear from me.

"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite." -- William Blake, _The Marriage of Heaven and Hell_