This is a FCC (Federal Communications Commission), FTC (Federal Trade Commission), Attorney General, and BBB (Better Business Bureau) issue that everyone needs to be alerted to regarding service and billing issues. The service providers are Comcast Cable and AT&T U-Verse.
I was personally a Comcast Cable customers for over three years and left them because of customer service and billing issues. Comcast Cable failed to properly convert their billing system in the Midwest area from their Southern United States billing system which caused itemization problems and double billing in some cases. Each time I addressed the billing issue with Comcast they refused to credit my bill, which made me file Attorney General and BBB complaints, and these complaints always ended up getting my bill credited eventually. As far as I know there are still open investigations, on a large scale, with the Attorney General's office against Comcast Cable. Comcast also placed services on my account, as well as others, that were not ordered, that had to be cleared up through these consumer protection offices as well.
I finally left Comcast Cable when I was alerted by one of their Customer Service Representatives that they knew about the problem for years, and were attempting to correct it; in other words they didn't want to credit people's accounts because of lost income, in my opinion. I spent numerous hours filing reports and having a headache when they should have taken care of the issue themselves. Since then I have left the company for AT&T U-Verse; I, as well as others in the Olathe Kansas area, am experiencing a lot of service issues when it comes to internet, phone, and cable connections.
On my last service appointment I was advised by an AT&T U-Verse tech that cable companies, specifically in monopoly areas, such as ours, have been following them around and sabotaging service in order to regain market share in certain areas. Considering I have had previous family members that have worked in the telecommunications industry, and have heard horrid stories like this over the years from them, I suspect that this is indeed the truth; I am concerned a lot of customers in monopoly held areas are having problems when they leave their cable service provider and then end up going back to the monopoly (such as Comcast) because they are tired of not receiving adequate service. Comcast Cable is known for their poor service and they have recently changed their name to Xfinity in order to attempt to lose their previous bad service reputation; they are actually rated worse in customer service than the IRS according to American Customer Satisfaction Index in 2004 and 2007; they even made a 75- year-old customer so mad, a few years back (Mona Shaw), that she entered a Comcast office with a hammer and destroyed all their computer equipment.
See the story in the link below:
Http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/10/17/AR2007101702359.html
This link refers to a bill that was addressed to “B*tch Dog” from Comcast customer service.
Http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/11/12/AR2005111200137.html
This link shows a Comcast rep waiting on hold for over an hour and almost falling asleep at the resident's house.
Http://www.youtube.com/watch? V=CvVp7b5gzqU
Comcast Cable, and other telecommunication service providers that pull these stunts need to be held accountable for their actions. The problem is most people just put up with it and do not alert the proper authorities. If you, or anyone you know, have had problems with billing or service issues with any telecommunications provider please file complaints with the following consumer protection agencies:
· Attorney General's office
· BBB
· FCC
· FTC
Please forward this to everyone you know. If the American public does not take action and alert the proper agencies nothing will be resolved.
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