Our Comcast Nightmare – Comcast SUCKS!

Executive Summary: Six months after we moved out of our old office and “transferred” our Comcast internet service to our new office, we were still receiving invoices for the old office… plus those for the new office. Finally they’ve stopped sending those invoices, though we’re still waiting on the refund we were promised. To make things worse, we just got an invoice for Cable TV at the old office. That’s right, we’ve been gone from there for 6 months but somehow we decided to order Cable TV for that office? Unbelieveable.

Detailed Timeline:

Timeline of Comcast’s Ineptitude:

• Left old office in December 2006.
• Received $95.00 bill for internet service from 1/22/07- 2/21/07 (we were not even in the office during any of that time).

• Comcast said we ordered disconnect on 1/26/07 and that we did not need to pay the current invoice and that we were paid through 1/26/07.
• Comcast said that they sent a technician to the old office but they were unable to disconnect the internet service. They said that they would send someone out again and that we would not have to pay the current invoice, rather wait until next month’s statement comes in with a $0.00 balance.

Received $190.00 bill for service from 2/22/07- 3/21/07 with previous balance plus current bill.

• Comcast said that they sent a technician to the old office but they were unable to disconnect the internet service. They said that they would send someone out again and that we would not have to pay the current invoice, rather wait until next month’s statement comes in with a $0.00 balance.

Received $290.00 FINAL NOTICE bill for service from 3/22/07-4/21/07.

• 4/20/07- Comcast said that they had sent a technician to the old office but they were unable to disconnect the internet service. Jon insisted that our account be closed that day- since we had been out of the office for over 4 months.

• The account was closed and we were told that we would be receiving a $166.61 refund in the next invoice.

Received $25.33 invoice for service from 4/21/07- 4/30/07

• “News from Comcast” (bottom of invoice) “We regret losing you as one of our Cable TV subscribers. Our records indicated that the balance shown above is now due. Your prompt payment and return of any Comcast equipment would be greatly appreciated and would prevent further action. We would be glad to re-establish your cable service at any future date. WE NEVER HAD COMCAST CABLE TV AT OUR OLD OFFICE!!!
• 4/26/07- Comcast said do not pay, a refund of $166.61 will be on the next invoice.

Received $25.33 invoice for cable television service that we NEVER had. The refund check was missing……

• May 2007- left several messages for Comcast Business Services explaining the situation, but never received a call back.

May 29, 2007- received ACCOUNT STATUS ALERT! Implying that our January 26, 2007 Comcast services were disconnect and an outstanding balance of $25.33 remains unpaid.

• The letter stated if the payment is not received within 10 days, our account will be referred to a collection agency.
• I called the telephone number that was listed on the invoice, but was told that was the incorrect number. The Comcast representative gave me another number to call. The 2^nd person was unable to help me and gave me a different number to call. The 3^rd person was also unable to help me and gave me a 4^th number to call. I called the 4^th number and got a random voicemail box.

Countless hours on hold, redirecting to different numbers, and 5 months of incorrect invoices has made me livid at Comcast and their incompetence to simply cancel an account for previous location.

All We’re Asking For:

1) Our credit of $166.16 from the months they billed us for service for the old office after we cancelled the account but they were too inept to turn off the service.

2) The removal of the $25.33 fee for cable internet at the old office.

3) Minimum wage for the hours we’ve spent trying to overcome their ineptitude and incompetence. That would work out to approximately $78,443.37. This one I don’t expect to get.

Update:

We’ve basically spent all day today trying to finally resolve this issue. I believe we have it resolved. My wife drove to the Comcast bill payment location (yes, she physically went there in person) and spoke to someone named Linda who in a matter of less than 10 minutes was able to do what 40 customer support phone people and 80 hours of time wasn’t able to do – remove the bogus bill charged to us.

I have been writing this for a while, and was going to use this as a way to stir up some noise and maybe catch a little attention from the CEO Brian Roberts or someone else who could help solve our problem. Finally after 6 months though the in-person route seems to have worked. That all said, I’m not entirely confident we won’t still get another invoice from them for the old office.

Lessons Learned:

1. Never call Comcast Billing Support on the phone.
2. Whenever you need to correspond with Comcast go there in-person, as the phone reps have no authority to do anything to help resolve the issue. They will just transfer you in circles.
3. Unless you are in the 10% of the population like us that lives close enough to drive in to their corporate center or other location, do everything possible to avoid ever dealing with Comcast.