Comcast overcharges me by $772 on two cancelled accounts, offers support via Twitter - UPDATED

Update: Within two hours, I got a call from a Comcast representative who stated that, since the payments were made by credit card automatically, there is no reason they can’t credit it back to that credit card. She went on to tell me that they’d process the refund tomorrow. Very cool. However, I wonder what the response would have been if we hadn’t been paying by credit card, and instead used ACH transfer from a bank account. In any event, the Comcast folks on Twitter really are listening, and really are aiming to put out fires. Good stuff.

This morning I opened mail from Comcast, which, to my surprise, showed that I was two months late on paying up. I thought that was odd, since I kicked Comcast to the curb for Verizon FiOS two months ago. I called and got it taken care of, to find that I was owed $72 and that it would arrive in 6-8 weeks. Kind of annoying, but no big deal. Then they called me back, to tell me that I had another active account that has been auto-debiting from one of my accounts. That one was to have been cancelled back in May. Once that was straightened out, the damage was that Comcast owes me a cool $772. I asked when I’d receive it, and they said 6-8 weeks. I thought that was fairly crappy, being that when I cancelled the services, I also revoked Comcast’s right to take any money from my private accounts. I threw up a gripe on Twitter, and a few minutes later, Comcast’s Twitter customer service went into full effect. Gotta give them props for that. They asked me to email them the details, so they could look into it. You can read the email I sent them, after the break. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts. We will update with any progress made on this, let’s see how customer service on these Web 2.0 Internets works. [Photo Credit]

Hi there,

ComcastBill on Twitter sent me a note saying I should email in on an issue.

Basically, this morning I received a bill from Comcast, saying I was two months overdue on payment. The thing is, I cancelled two months ago, returned all the equipment, etc. So I called in to complain, and it took a while, but finally they got me “really” cancelled (I guess before, they didn’t cancel me!), and said I had a credit of $72 coming, but it would take 4-6 weeks. Of course, in the current economy, that is a long time to wait.

Then I got a call back about 30 minutes later. The woman (extension 61830 after hitting option 4 on 800-COMCAST) was nice, but had to inform me that the move from across the street at the end of may (5/31 to be exact) where service was to be transferred, that also never stopped getting billed to my bank. So for about 5 months, Comcast had been charging me DOUBLE. And it would have continued, had I not called in.

Poor poor service all around.

So then, she informs me of the damage. Comcast owes me $772 - and for some unknown reason, there is no way for Comcast to get me MY money (that doesn’t belong in Comcast bank accounts, and NEVER belonged there to begin with) any quicker than 6-8 weeks.

That is a car payment. That is almost a mortgage payment. I can go on and on. You’d think that in situations where Comcast wrongfully took money from someone, that there would be a fast track for getting that money back to them. That $700 from the cancelled account, when I cancelled it, I also removed Comcast’s right to take that money from my bank account. Sure errors, happen, whatever. But when it is caught, I want my money back immediately. Comcast has absolutely no right to have it, and had no right to take it in the first place.

What word would you use to describe the act of an entity taking money out of one’s bank account, with no authorization from that person to do so? Theft? Fraud? Am I out of line?

There has to be something that can be done about the extremely long wait on this refund. What can be done?

Thanks for checking in.

Andru Edwards