Comcast are outright liars $100 rebate hah!

I had signed up for cable tv only on Dec 25. I had mentioned having a comcast internet earlier in the year (different state), and the sales rep on the phone told me they had a deal running. You buy a comcast endorsed modem at bestbuy/walmart/etc. (I got mine at walmart) and get $19.99/month for 6 months plus get a $100 rebate check back in the mail. The salesrep himself told me this was through comcast at the time. No matter what they say, this is the truth. I got the modem at walmart and they printed out the rebate form. I made copies of everything, and underlined the dates purchased along with my first bill from them showing clearly the activation date being within the required time, etc. etc. Everything is clearly valid. On the rebate form itself it clearly says takes 6-8 weeks. The exact words are:

"Receive a $100 rebate check from COMCAST via the mail approximately 6-8 weeks following receipt of all required documentation". I mailed the documentation off in the last week of Dec, so even if they had not gotten it until mid January (doubtful it would even take that long though). I called comcast up and they actually denied they ever had this rebate program. I believe the words more or less were "comcast doesn't do rebates". hah! I signed up because the COMCAST sales rep told me they were offering this. Now they are saying I have to contact walmart or the modem mfg (motorolla) ??? After contacting both of them, they each say I have to either contact the other (walmar t or motorolla), or get back with comcast??! Ugh.. someone is lying here, and it's not me. It's comcast, period. Now I find this website. "checkmyrebate.com". I put in my address, etc. and it shows they DID receive something around 1/14/08 and processed on 1/16/08, and shipped on 3/14/08. By SHIPPED I assume that's supposed to be my check. But would it take over 2 weeks to get here in the mail? I don't think so. I called comcast again, and told them of this. They are still denying they ever had or knew anything about a rebate and that they don't do them. Now someone is lying here. Whoever runs checkmyrebate.com obviously got my information from the rebate forms I mailed in, the timeline is correct and all I did was put in my name, address, etc. So SOMEONE was supposedly supposed to be giving these rebates. But everybody is denying involvement all of a sudden--walmart says it remembers the program, but I have to talk to comcast or motorolla. Motorolla says the opposite (talk to comcast or walmart). lol this is no joke, but it is sad. It's fraud at the very least on one or more parties parts and I tend to think it's either comcast and/or motorolla's because I doubt walmart wants the bad publicity. Can you say class action suit? That's what needs to happen with this one because until it does, rebate scams will just keep happening over and over again. I can honestly say I've done rebates before and gotten every one and had no apprehension, up until this one.

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Why does Comcast make it so complicated to get the rebates that were promised? It is unclear when you are supposed to apply for them. There is no notice sent when these rebates are due for claiming. I have not been able to determine either the date the rebates matured or their expiration date. I had to go back and try to find the original order confirmation e-mail, and since I have several e-mail addresses and I get 100s of

messages, it took forever to find it. Then when I click on the link to claim the rebates, I get a duplicate receipt message? I tried the search function on the site and there is no result after I enter the data that supposedly will bring them up.

I sent a message to the customer service e-mail address, and unless it was filtered out as spam, I received no response. I have tried searching thru my junk mail folder with no success to find a reply that probably never came. I called Comcast and they can�t help me other than to give me a phone number to call for customer service. I tried calling that number and as I am typing this, I have been wasting 15 minutes of my time listening to a very obnoxious jingle and hold voice message repeat endlessly. My rage is building to the point I am ready to drop all of my service and go with other companies to replace this expensive triple-play that I am being overcharged for. When my �special� reduced price

deals run out and it gets more expensive, I am also not notified in advance to switch my plan. That happened to me before. yes, they expect you to remember how long their reduced cost cable offer lasts. Then, you are supposed to ask what other packages they have set up special for the customer to save you money. Well, all the sudden it kicks in and your bill jumps up maybe as much as 50 or 100 dollars. You call in, enraged that they didn�t bother to tell you it is expiring, but, sorry, you owe the money. Then the poor customer service scapegoat, who feels your rage offers you the next special deal that will expire and cost you a ton of money down the line when you forget the verbal expiration date they give you on the phone. Doesn�t that seem like a scam too? Sure it does, but it is all probably totally legal and doesn�t qualify as a deceptive business practice.

So, back to the rebate issue. For what purpose is Comcast farming out these offers to rebate companies? The only reason I can come up with is to try to avoid paying them out to the customers! It is convoluted, confusing, deceptive, and seems to be a deliberate way to make it so inconvenient that people give up or forget they even have them coming and when they are supposed to be paid. Why aren�t the rebates just credited to people�s Comcast bills? Wouldn�t that save them the fees they have to pay out to Bridgevine to administer the rebates for them? I don�t know. Does Bridgevine pay for itself with the money saved from customers like me who didn�t know when they matured or expired?

and why is this so maddeningly difficult and time-consuming? So they can just not have to pay and further overcharge customers and to blame the non-payment of promised rebates on the customer�s failure to claim? As I write this I am still on hold with a company I am not even sure what the name is. I think it is Bridgevine, as the message it took me forever to find states, but the Comcast customer service person said something about going online to rebates.com or something similar before I insisted that I need to have a phone number and talk to a rep from the rebate company. The only thing I can figure is this is a scam to avoid paying the promised rebates to the customers that deserve them. Is Bridgevine hired to prevent money going out from Comcast to their customers and therefore earn their fees by saving Comcast this money never paid out?

After 40 minutes an operator finally has picked up and it is Comcast again and not Bridgevine. Then they put me on hold again. It is now 40 minutes and counting of my evening spare time, which I have little of. I am infuriated. After more time on hold I was finally connected with a person representing Bridgevine. This person told me the rebate was expired. I tried asking why Comcast does not credit the rebate directly to the customer and was told Comcast has nothing to do with administering the rebates and that the money for the rebates does not even come from Comcast. That threw me and I was unable to understand the explanation. If it is a rebate for Comcast services, how is that money generated and paid out to the customers of Comcast? I got some kind of convoluted information about many types of offers and services that Bridgevine offers which generates the monies paid in the rebates.

Why does none of that make any sense? I give up. Without shouting in anger to this poor person in India or somewhere, who was trying to explain why I will get no rebate, I said something to the effect that Comcast should directly pay the rebate, because the system as it is so confusing and complex that people are going to just lose it and never get paid, like me. I hung up, proud at my restraint from screaming and cursing from my enormous frustration and anger. She was just the messenger, and I didn�t want to shoot the messenger here, but I am so infuriated that I was totally screwed out of the promised rebate and basically blamed for this loss, rather than blaming the absurdly inept system in place. Is this a deliberate practice designed to prevent payouts? Is the money really not coming from Comcast when the person getting them jumps thru the hoops at the correct window of opportunity and fills out the forms that I will not be able to fill out because the rebate offer expired before I could claim it? I just wasted an hour of time, finding out I had been robbed of the rebate, because I didn�t jump thru these hoops? Does Comcast, as a business entity care about individual customer�s rage about this issue? Is there any possible redress of my grievance? I lose my stinking $150 bucks and an hour of my time spent stressing out in anger. Does Comcast have high customer satisfaction ratings? No. Is it deserved? Yes.

What can I do about this latest example of infuriating business practices by this corporate giant, which has angered me for the umpteenth time about my bill(s) for their services? I have had many problems with their practices and customer service before, but this one is so unbelievably aggravating that it is off the scale. I wish it was easy to replace them with their competitors, but that is costly and if I use another company (or three) to replace this triple play, am I wasting time trading one set of aggravating circumstances for another? I have had my share of problems over the years with Cavtel and Verizon for phone and internet. Verizon, despite offering me its triple play by mail numerous times, has no fios in my neighborhood, so I can�t get the triple play from them that they keep offering me.

Do I want a satellite TV service? Can I just get Cable TV thru a website yet? Where is the IP TV that I want? It is just one big annoying, expensive joke of a mess, and I have decided there is no satisfaction from these things. I will have trouble with Comcast or Verizon or whoever, but my limited choices and the inconvenience of switching from one insensitive greedy corporate giant to another make this an exercise in guaranteed frustration and anger. I�ve wasted time and energy again and all I get is the same old nightmare. It never ends. I must get used to it. It will never go away. Oh well. F**k me.

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I dont know of that rebate, but i do know i have had so many problems and arguements with comcast that i would never use them ever again. i was out of service for along time, i told them they needed to credit my account because im not paying for something i dont have and they basically told me oh well i guess your SOL. So im guessing it was probably Comcast because they really do suck, very rude too.