Complain about a product or service

Comcast Internet Service

• Bandwidth limits • Installation • Peer-to-peer networks • Pricing • Reliability • Speed • Spam blocking --- News • Comcast Blocks Subscribers From Some Services • Comcast Cuts Off Heavy Internet Users --- •Cable TV •Telephone Service

It's a brave new world, all right -- with cable companies trying to provide cable TV, Internet and telephone service. You have to be pretty brave to actually rely on any of these, as the complaints in this section indicate.

Cable companies have acquired a reputation for being prone to blunders, but for pure disaster it's hard to beat Marc's tale of woe. And Comcast Internet has developed some nasty little habits -- like blocking home networks.

Some more recent complaints ...

Hal of Malvern PA (10/30/08)
My internet service drops in and out. I called comcast who claimed there was no problem. They lied. Days later, after reinstalling all kinds of software etc... and repeatedly calling, they admitted there was a weak signal. three different operators said they couldn't send a tech for 5 days.Molly suggested there was an outage in my area which explained the delay in a techie. She wouldn't say how they defined an outage.

1) they can sure as hell get a tech out to install a new customer.
2) they don't tell the truth.
3) their service is bad. Their lying is horrible.

intermitten loss of email and interet for the better part of 10 days

T.winston of North Fort Myers, FL October 29, 2008

T.winston of North Fort Myers FL (10/29/08)
I am a Comcast customer in North Fort Myers Florida. I have cable tv and internet access. I've been reading where Comcast has been accused of throttling down broadband to limit download speeds and control how much you can download. I believe their comment was that they aren't doing this anymore. Well, let me tell you, they are here in SW Florida. We are supposed to have speeds here of over 5mb/s. I download PDF's from local county and city governments for construction projects in the area. (I'm a retired construction PM). I do this to keep my neighbors and family informed on projects that may impact them. I just this minute tried to down load a PDF file that was 5.2MB in size. Down load time was estimated at 11 minute and it took all of that. THAT IS THROTTLING! This is not right. I don't do all that much. I pay for a certain speed and I ought to get what I pay for. They just don't care what they do and they also don't care a spit about public opinion because they are so big a monopoly.

Laurie of Bedford, NH October 28, 2008

Laurie of Bedford NH (10/28/08)
I have been without email for 10 days. I was supposed to migrate to SmartZone, but somehow my account is not accessible. Filed complaint 72 hours ago, checked back after 48 hours, still nothing. They called today, reset my password. That is not the problem! I just called again and was told my call could not be answered because of high call volume. This is outrageous.

Fortunately I do not run a business through this email account. When I was in software support, I would be fired for this time of support!

Fred of Moss Beach, CA October 27, 2008

Fred of Moss Beach CA (10/27/08)
I have had Comcast Broadband home service since its inception and have been with the company since it bought it fro AT&T and two previous owner before them and I pay 35.95 for what once was the fastest speed and since they began altering and changing the format of their pages, I have gone from lightning fast for years, to a crawl..formerly 22,000 mbps to 1200 mbps.

They do not respond with technical help or offer excuses or reasons and why it is so screwed up. I do stock trading and I have lost a very large sum of money in the past few months because of not being able to put in a buy and sell bids and am really pissed off as are the 30 or local people I know who are having the same problem. It also caused my computer to crash in an attempt to fix it. They are incompetent and have been really rude and hung up on me after keeping me waiting each time 15 minutes on hold.

Stock market losses, missed plane reservations,and financial planning which depended on internet speed.

Rebecca of Houston, TX October 21, 2008

Rebecca of Houston TX (10/21/08)
For almost 2 years I have had trouble with my internet connection. they would send someone out and for a week or so it would seem ok and then it would go out again sometimes for days. I would call again and have to start from scratch. I finally switched to AT&T. I asked Comcast to discontinue my service, but found that they were still charging me. apparently, you get charged the full monthly amount till you turn in the modem.

Comcast refused to refund any amount even though they agreed to refund my account for one month when I cancelled. I live in Houston and have just gone through IKE. I am single, don't make much money and 140. is a lot of money to me.

Matt of Houston, TX October 17, 2008

1) Illegal Slamming of my internet account by switching from Earthlink to Comcast without notification or approval. 2) Arbitrarily changing monthly internet service charges for each of the last 5 months without my knowledge or consent.

I subscribed to Earthlink to provide internet services since 2006 or perhaps before. Earthlink internet services were provided by the local Houston cable franchise, TCI cable which was purchased by Comcast. Earlier this year I was switched from being an Earthlink customer to a Comcast customer without my knowledge or consent. As the monthly bill has always come from the actual service provider, TCI and then Comcast after the buyout, there was no way for me to know this change had occurred as it was normal to receive a bill from Comcast as Comcast is the physical provider for the Earthlink service.

It was only in April that I learned I was a Comcast customer when my mail server was not working and both Earthlink and Comcast told me I was not their customer, even though I was on automatic payment and had always paid my bill on time. Eventually Comcast told me I was now their customer even though I did not want this switch. I was told I had no choice in the matter.

After being told I had been switched to a Comcast customer, against my will, the next 2 monthly billing statements (ending 6/4/08 and 7/4/08) were the same monthly fee of 41.95/month plus 1.40 for taxes, surcharges and fees as they had been prior to the unauthorized switch of provider. The next bill dated 7/5/08 for the period of 7/5/08 – 8/4/08 increased the monthly service charge by 52% to 63.81, added 1.99 for a one-time change of service and increased taxes and fees to 3.50. There was absolutely no notice of the change, no conversation, no approval, nothing - simply a dramatically increased bill.

On 7/17/08 I called Comcast and spoke with Beverly about the situation. She told me when I swapped modems (due to extremely inconsistent service) on 6/24/08 Comcast changed my plan. I was never told of any changes when I swapped the modem and had no reason to believe anything would be any different as I had swapped modems several times before at the exact same TCI/Comcast location when Earthlink was my provider. I told Beverly about my normal rate of 41.95 per month and that was the only acceptable plan I would agree to. She told me they would make adjustment for the bill of 7/5/-8/4/08 in the next billing cycle and that my monthly rate going forward would be 41.95--exactly as it had been for years.

When I received the next bill (for 8/5 - 9/4/08) there was an adjustment that was quite confusing as the unpaid balance still showed as 26.28, but the bill showed a low monthly charge and a one time credit that put the total somewhere in the ballpark of reason. The weird monthly charge, credit, and remaining previous balance on the bill made absolutely no sense to me, but again the total was somewhere where it should be.

On 9/30/08 I spoke with Comcast to request credit for the 17 days of no service due to the hurricane and no electricity. I had not opened the bill dated 9/5/08 until AFTER the bill dated 10/5/08 as my mail had stacked up to several feet before and especially during the period after the hurricane where I had no electricity for 17 days. (I did open some mail during that time, but bills that are on automatic payment, such as the Comcast bill, are not a priority for me to review since I know they are automatically paid each month.)

I opened the bill dated 10/5/08 on 10/11/08 and noticed the monthly charge of 48.30 and was upset as it was supposed to be 41.95 as per my telephone conversation and agreement with Comcast made on 7/17/08. Some credit was on the 10/5/08 bill, however considering the monthly charges was 48 and 17 days is OVER ½ of a month, I was not happy a credit of 18.68 had been applied as this was less than half of 41.95 let alone Comcast’s new charge of 48.30. I was also not happy about the monthly charge being 48.30 as it was not 41.95 as had been agreed on 7/17/08.

At that point I opened the bill dated 9/5/08 and saw yet another amount billed for monthly service: 32.99. In reviewing 5 consecutive months bill the Comcast High Speed Internet charge went from 41.95, to 63.81, to 17.70, to 32.99 and finally to 48.30. Apparently Comcast seems to pick and choose which base charges it wants to charge and from which ones it wants to deduct each and every month.

When I called and spoke to Mario at Comcast on 10/13/08 I was told I had been switched on 7/17/08 to a three month plan rate of 29.99. At no time was there any discussion on 7/17/08 of switching the plan from anything than a straight 41.95/month each and every month. I told Mario of my discussion with Beverly and we had both agreed that the initial plan, which was the only plan to which I had EVER agreed, was what the bill should be. Mario put me on hold several times and stated his supervisor said there was nothing he could do as he told me I had accepted the changes since I hadn't complained earlier.

I called again on 10/15/08 and spoke with Alana after reviewing the documents and noting that I had called on a timely basis as it was with 48 hours of when I discovered the problem. I told Alana I could not be expected to be a fortune teller to understand the changes in the bill as the total amount shown on the front of the bill for the Comcast High Speed Internet amount had changed SIGNIFICANTLY up and down each and every month for 5 consecutive months. When Alana became aware the only thing that would make me happy was to put me back at the 41.95 to which we had agreed on 7/17/08, she transferred me to the retention department.

After being on hold, I was disconnected, but Alana did call back and eventually got Randal in the retention department. I spoke one sentence ("I'm tired of the [lies] from the billing department by getting billed different amounts 5 months in a row.") and Randal hung up. I sincerely doubt the disconnect was accidental.

I sent an email complaint on 10/16/08 which recommended calling a local 713 number, rather than the 800 number. I called and spoke to Denise, then to Claudia in retention and they refused to fix the problem only offering different promotional rates....the monthly charge just keeps on changing 5 months in a row. I believe this is purposeful manipulation to confuse the customer with the long range goal of billing a consistently higher fee than agreed.

Back to the top |