Adelphia Cable, West Palm Beach, FL - fraudulent billing for pay-per-view movies

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on January 6, 2003:

From: Email User

RE: Adelphia Cable, West Palm Beach, FL - fraudulent billing for pay-per-view movies

I am absolutely furious with Adelphia Cable. I live in West Palm Beach, Florida and have been a subscriber since Adelphia took over Comcast Cable about a year ago. In that time period I have ordered approximately two movies from the digital pay-per-view service.

On my last billing statement appeared four pornographic movies, three of which were ordered while my husband and I were out of town and no one else had access to our home. We did not, I repeat not, order any of these movies.

When I called Adelphia to complain, I was told by a supervisor named Melanie that those were simply their records and there was nothing they could do to help me. She further went on to say that they would have to do an investigation with our local phone service provider, BellSouth, and that she had no idea how long it would take and also that it would cost me $60 to order these records.

I called BellSouth and was told by their customer service representative that it was impossible for them to pull up those records and she had never heard of such a thing and that it was most likely a scare tactic used by Adelphia.

I called Adelphia once again and spoke to another supervisor, whose name I neglected to get. He told me that Melanie was mistaken and that they did not obtain these records from BellSouth, but relied upon their own internal computer records. He also said that, once again, there was nothing they could do for me.

I am absolutely furious!!! Not only did they essentially call me a liar, but they were rude as well.

I immediately cancelled not only my Adelphia cable service, but my Adelphia long distance as well. As far as I know, I have absolutely no recourse except to pay the bill, because they will report me to all the credit agencies if I don't.