Comcast - Fraud And Double Billing

[darkpsy 0]

This is going to be a long post, so bear with me.A little background about our Comcast history: We became Comcast customers after our local cable company filed bankruptcy. We were merged into Comcast's system, and that is where the problem starts.In September 2006, we officially become Comcast customers. Almost immediately, many services wouldn't work or were not as expected. On Demand failed to work, cable internet was very slow, and the cable box rebooted constantly. In the first month, we went through 17 trouble calls and 8 cable boxes. After this amount of trouble calls, you would think the issue would be resolved? No! Not even close!In November 06, we got a letter stating the On Demand service had technical problems with Comcast's system, and will be operational in December. December came and went, and guess what? NO ON DEMAND! So I called support. They apologized and issued a credit. For the moment, I was satisfied. They said it would be January.It wasn't until March that On Demand was finally working, partially. We would be browsing the menu, and a message stating "TIMEOUT" would appear. Comcast said this was a problem they were working on.Skip forward to September 2008. We were on a payment arrangement for an unspecified amount of time. I called to get the balance and payment due date. They stated we were removed from the payment arrangement due to it exceeding 6 months and 4 missed payments. This was ridiculous, so I asked to speak with a supervisor. They said policy was to have them call me back within 24 hours. I said that's fine.A supervisor did call me back that same day, and I explained the problem. She kept repeating herself, so I asked to speak with her manager. At first she said no, but I persisted and was eventually connected.This manager was even worse than a regular call center rep. She explained their billing policies to me, and said (I'm not kidding here), "You better pay what you owe us, or else". I said I was tired of her attitude and demanded to be escalated. I was called back by another manager, this time from the local office. He seemed willing to help me, and asked for my bank statements. I faxed my bank statements to him, and he said he would get back to me the next day. The next day came and no phone call by 7PM, so I called him. He apologized and said he didn't hear from the department who was investigating this.He did call me the day after that, and told me they couldn't find the payments as I described. He transfered me to another department who would be able to tell me more. The person I spoke to was very nice, and said I would have to be on the phone with them while they contact the bank. I agreed. The person they were trying to call was not available so they left a message. At no time did my bank get any confirmation from me to give them account information. The message went, "Hi. My name is Pat from the Comcast Cash Management Department. I am calling to verify some payments that were made from your bank. I have the customer on the line currently. Please call me back and I will call her so you can get permission to discuss the account with me.". A few days later, Comcast asked for the credit card number, expiration, and CVV code so they can look the payment up. The next day I got a phone call that stated, "We have heard from your bank that no payments were made. Your account is now under investigation for fraud.". So I called my bank. They said no one other than me talked to them about the account. Hmm, fishy no?I called them and they said that the statements I send them were false, and my account could be terminated without notice. They also said that no notification was necessary when they make changes to the account.I have since filed complaints with the BBB, Federal Trade Commission, FCC, and Pennsylvania Attorney General. I am waiting to hear back from them, and I will update this post.Anyone else have similar experiences with Comcast?PS: I should add that they were only billing us every other month. When a company does that, it normally means you are caught up with payments. This is how they were able to say we missed payments.

[1ngame 0]

When I saw this I wasn't even surprised. Yes, something similar has happened to me. Luckily my company accountant is a good friend of mine and settled all of my problems, and got comcast to get off my back. It's not just comcast, though, and it's not their fault. I know we'd like to say it is, but it's not. Now, these guys are big companies (comcast, verizon, etc.). They don't have time to be dealing with EVERY one, even if they have hundreds of people on support. I know because I run a business and I know how it feels. No matter how much support I try to give or how personalized I try to make it (and yes, I do have employese, it's not a one man show) it never works out. My employes make mistakes, I make mistakes, and bad things happen. And who's to blame? My company of course. No one else. The same thing with comcast.I definitely feel your pain, though. That post was just something... that might make you feel better? Probably not. lol. Good luck with your new provider after comcast. (hehe).

[darkpsy 0]

My husband owns a web hosting business in which I am CFO of. I did call the bank today again to see if there were any notes from their security department, and again there were none! Our sales rep from our new provider is currently having the same problem, and also many of his co-workers. We are going to start a class-action lawsuit against Comcast.

[darkpsy 0]

I just got a call from a Comcast Manager today. Apparently they found 1 other account in my husband's name. The problem is that we never had Comcast under his name, only mine. The Manager was supposed to send a 'Fraud Packet' which contains a form to fill out so he will no longer be responsible for the bill on the other account. Until that is filled out, our account is under investigation for fraud, and no amount of payment will stop the suspension scheduled for the 10th of this month. To date, we have filed complaints with the FCC, FTC, Attorney General, and BBB. We are waiting to hear from the FTC and Attorney General.I'll keep you all up-to-date on the latest developments!

[csc2ya 0]

Sounds a bit like Virgin Media (formerly NTL) over here...although fortunately without the double charging/non payment claims bit. They upgraded 4MB customers to 10MB about 3 years ago. We were on 1MB at the time.While they were doing the upgrade for the 4MB customers, we had near constant dropouts on our connection, and had to reboot both the cable box and our router to get it working again.One of our boxes died due to a lightning strike once (along with our router and a USB to ethernet adaptor for our main computer). Perfectly easy to sort out you would think...just send someone out to replace the box. Wrong.....they sent out an engineer who replaced the box and adaptor (router was our own so we had to replace that ourselves). When he left, he'd left the box in the engineers menu. I rebooted it.....'you are not subscribed to this channel'. Rebooted it again and went back into the engineers menu.Went through the screens until I found the one displaying the signal levels. 'Network Lock Status: Unlocked' (not a good sign). We phoned them again...turns out the engineer had forgotten to pair the new box and our existing card. Could they do that over the phone? Nope....had to send out another engineer...with ANOTHER replacement box, who then replaced it, paired the card and box and checked it was all working before he left.Every time we contacted their support about problems, they would always try and blame our router/computers (anything but their own network).Fortunately, we've been free of them for nearly 3 years now (moved to an area of the country that hasn't got cable yet so we've now got ADSL with BT, and SKY for TV.I thnk i'll stop rambling about NT(hell) now.....I could probably fill a book with their incompetence.

[iGuest 3]

COMCAST FRAUDULENT BILLSComcast - Fraud And Double Billing

So I had a bill for $501.00 from Comcast and I called to see how it could be that high after missing 2 payments ( I wont go into why).  Apparently my promoional pack had expired AND when my husband added the hunting channel they told him it was $5 but charged us $35 for a sports package.  So I told them to come pick up their equpiment since there's no way I was going for that deal. We had put a $100 deposit on the HD cable box, so after they picked it up I called to discuss the bill.  The rep said he took off the next month bill since I was cancelling and took off the late fee for it which brought the bill to $391.00.  His system showed the deposit was on hold and would be released.  I asked if I should pay some now and he said he would send me a bill reflecting the credits and a refund of the deposit.  Instead I got a bill from ER Solutions (collections) for $391.00.  I paid $291.00 so it wouldnt go on my credit report and disputed the other $100.  Comcast is now refusing to call ER Solutions and tell them they have already received that $100. Er Solutions is now reporting this PAID account to the 3 credit bureaus.  Thanks Comcast.

-reply by JULIE K

[iGuest 3]

I typed in "claims agains Comcast" because I have solid proof of double billing and was suprised at the huge list of proven wrongs and strongarms that Comcast has done and is still doing after they monopolized the major cable system.  After Hurricane Wilma hit South Florida they billed hundreds or possibly a few thousands of Comcast subscribers for a full month of service when their system was down for 10 to 12 days (mine for 10 days) when I got the next month bill I called them to raise hell and the response was that "unless people call to tell them there was no service for one third of the month they simply got billed for a full month" That was my first hint that they are cheating their subscribers because they know precisely who's service is up or not running. I want to know if there is a class action suit against Comcast that I can climb on board with because I want to break them to their knees and bankrupt them with no possible chance of a government bail out because we all know that then the very people who brought them to court will be paying for their re-construction.

-reply by Tim (Naples Fla)

[iGuest 3]

Comcast Over Billing and Equipment I donComcast - Fraud And Double Billing

I have been charged for equipment I did not have. For years they charged me for seven boxes I had 2. I have been charged for equipment over 700.00 dollars. I did not have but one router and one modem. Comcast was constantly coming to my home because services would go down on a regular basis. My bills have doubled. When I call 404 comcast I get an illiterate tech wanting to "axe" me a question. I believe the over charges are deliberate and I have spent hours on the phone with Comcast getting false charges removed. The FCC will be contacted.

Dawn Bechtold

4321 Highborne Dr

Marietta GA 30066 

-reply by Dawn Bechtold