Monday, September 29, 2008

How to contact Comcast?

I have already tried: going to the local office (twice), calling (I don't remember how many times but it was multiple times), using the online chat.  None of those mechanisms work.  I would love to mail them a real letter because I've heard advice that this would give me better legal protection than phone calls or online chat.  But guess what: Comcast's Conctact Us web page gives 6 ways to contact Comcast but none of them is a physical mailing address.  The bill that they sent me doesn't include a mailing address than then one for mailing payments (there's also an address of the local office which I guess I could use to send a letter to).  So, my guess is that Comcast also thinks that mail would give their customers a better legal standing and they intentionally do not provide it.

Instead of mailing a letter, I tried something else.  The same Contact Us page has a way to send feedback to Rick Germano.  Who is Rick Germano?  Here's what the Six Ways to Get Help page says:
"Hi, I’m Rick Germano, head of Customer Operations at Comcast."  Here's a picture of Rick:
He looks like a nice fellow, so I thought that it was worth a try.  Here's the letter I wrote to Rick:



My account number with Comcast is XXXXXXXXXX.  On 5/29/2008 I visited the Comcast office at 1400 Terra Bella Ste D, Mountain View, CA 94043.  I returned my equipment and requested to cancel all my services (I would be happy to email or fax a copy of that receipt of the equipment return).  In the following months, Comcast has been billing me for services I no longer receive and for rental of equipment I no longer have.  Whenever I receive a new monthly bill I am contacting the customer service.  I was first calling Comcast and I visited the same office where I originally returned the equipment.  More recently I have been using the online chat on the Comcast web site to have some kind of record of talking to your customer service.  I used the chat on 7/25/2008 with Melinda (chat id 28370746), on 8/25/2008 with Brenda (chat id 29465037), on 9/23/2008 with Marco and on 9/25/2008 with Zhenaida.  Both Melinda and Brenda acknowledged that this a problem with the Comcast records and they both said that they will make sure that I will stop receiving future bills and they both said that I would receive a refund of $142.29 in 4-6 weeks.  Not only I haven't received any refund but I still keep getting bills from you.  The most recent one arrived today and adds false charges for 9/23/2008-10/22/2008 to what it assumes I already owe.  The other two analysts I talked to (Marco and Zhenaida) were not able to help me because "the program we use to access your account information is currently being upgraded to serve you better".

The situation is completely ridiculous.  Please fix this problem immediately and send me a confirmation that this issue has been resolved and send me my refund.  My address is:
XXXXXXXXXXX
Palo Alto, CA 94303

Sincerely,
Michal Cierniak


I sent this letter on the evening of 9/27/2008 and immediately got this automated response:


From: Comcast ECARE
Subject: Thank You for Contacting Rick Germano! Your Message Has Been Received (XXXXXX)
To: cierniakmail-XXXXX@yahoo.com
Date: Saturday, September 27, 2008, 10:32 PM

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback regarding your
experience with Comcast.  Your feedback will assist us in our efforts to
continually improve the Customer experience.   To respond as quickly as
possible, I have asked members of my leadership team to join me in 
addressing all "Ask Rick" messages.

Thank you for being a Comcast Customer.

Regards,

Rick Germano,
Senior Vice President of Customer Operations

This is an auto reply message letting you know that we've received your
e mail, so please do not reply to this message


No response yet but I'm hopeful that Rick or his staff will be able to help me.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Call customer service and ask for the address for there legal department. Tell them you need an address to provide to the process servers. I would mail your letter there attn: office of the general counsel. :)

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Did you ever get your refund? I've been going through this same issue with Comcast since May 2007. Turns out they issued the refund to my old address and someone intercepted and was able to cash it. Even though this is Fraud, Comcast has refused to investigate, refused to give me my refund, even after I filed a police report on the incident. I know that they are thinking I will eventually just give up and drop the issue, but the mere principal of how badly they have treated me throughout this process and how many times I have been lied to makes it impossible for me to drop the issue.

Michał Cierniak said...

Yes, I eventually got my refund! It took a long time, a lot of my effort and some costs (driving to many places, mailing letters and of course the opportunity cost) but I got my money in the end.

Even more than losing money, I was afraid that Comcast would start a collection process and tar my credit history but as far as I can tell, this didn't happen.

Michelle said...

Hi, I'm having a problem with Comcast billing too. I also tried phone call and live chat, I talked to 4 persons.. and at the end they only transferred me to the customer service who couldn't stop yelling at me since the first time she picked up, although I didn't yell at her at all and tried my best to stay calm. It was a quite traumatizing experience. I emailed Rick too earlier today, haven't received his response. Did you ever get a response from him? Did he (or his team) really put efforts in resolving your issues? I read other people's post that mentioned they got his response back. So I'm really counting on his "hotline".. because I'm really hurt by the way this customer service was treating me... I really wish around my area there could be other service providers other than Comcast...

Michał Cierniak said...

Michelle,
My experience with Comcast was pretty bad too, so I really feel for you. I hope that someone at Comcast will fix your problem and apologize.

As to your question: I got eventually a response from Rick's office but it was only after I wrote my blog, and I'm not sure how quickly they would have gotten to me if I didn't have a blog.

If you are a twitter user, I recommend contacting @ComcastCares. This seems to be the most responsive part of Comcast's customer service.

Patricia said...

Just so that the world has the info, I am glad to post it here. And shame on them for letting him hide behind the shield of email. I found him after long, long research.

Rick Germano
Senior Vice President Customer Operations
Comcast Corporation
1500 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102-2100

This is DIRECTLY from his own Spoke.com profile and I'm writing a very unfriendly letter today!

http://www.spoke.com/info/p2zk5UD/RickGermano

Glad to be of service!

Anonymous said...

Just thought I'd add some positive. I'm no Comcast fan, far from it.

However, when I had an issue similar to yours, Michael, in the summer of 2008, I contacted Rick's office with my documentation of the issue. Within 7 days of writing, the issue was resolved successfully.

Last month, my son was jumping through hoops with Comcast on an issue and kept being told his request was impossible to grant (he was divorcing and wanted to keep his phone number but since the acct was originally joint, they would not let him have the number on his single account because it was too involved-- you know, like someone had to actually punch in 10 numbers somewhere). I wrote to Rick's office on my son's behalf and in 24 hours he had his number on his single acct.

Comcast is too big and has really cruddy customer service all too often. However, I've spoken with many installers who are just the greatest people and some are even embarrassed to have to say they work for Comcast. The heart of the issue is the customer.... and as long as they have them, they won't have to fret being shoddy in the customer care department.

Dan said...

I think it's time we stopped trying to get billing problems resolved by Comcast and start talking to our state and federal agencies to look into their "billing errors".

Comcast appears to be purposefully over-billin g people in the hope that most won't bother pursuing getting the over-billing corrected. I believe their billing "errors" are intentional. Mine have been ongoing for months.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Dale said...

I'm going through a similar problem now. I canceled back in February, and continue to get billed each month. It's over $500 now. I called the Clark Howard show people and they suggested that I google around and find a VP to email. Ask them to stop this. And also, CC the billing address. I'm also going to send the letters certified.

Dale said...

And I agree with Dan. That will be my next step if this doesn't get resolved. And believe me, everybody i know is hearing about this.

Anonymous said...

It is no surprise that Comcast's Customer Service for the second straight year came in at No. 2 in the Customer Service Hall of Shame maintained by MSN.com

[url]http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/ConsumerActionGuide/the-customer-service-hall-of-shame-2009.aspx[/url]

Anonymous said...

PLEASE HELP!
I live in an area where the only high speed option is Comcast. I have had billing problems and other issues over the years but nothing like this.
My wife and I recently built a new home and called Comcast on June 9th to get service run to the house for high speed internet. I just did the email Rick thing to see if that helps. I have called them consistently since June 9th (18 calls). Some people say it will be handled right away others can't find the account and transfer me around. Long story short it has been nearly 2 months and I still have not had service connected. My last call 20 minutes ago the guy could not find my account all together.

Anonymous said...

I just had my round tonite with comcast I suggest everyone flood the BBB in your area as well as consumer affairs!

Anonymous said...

Please be aware that Comcast has started "slamming" or adding charges to customers bills without their knowledge. I found 2 charges for technician visits that never happened, as well as 5 different charges in the past 6 months for $5.99 - charges that I was told I would be getting billed for, and that were added to my bill because I had called and talked to a person.

That sounds as bad as what the airline industry is trying to do.

ALSO - Comcast has a franchise agreement with the communities they operate in that allows them to also collect a few dollars each month to support local programming. In my communities case, this allows a local perpetually drunk mother to tape her children cleaning the garage. I "opted out" of this program 5 years ago. Comcast "reset" everyones preferences and arbitrarily started charging ALL customers for this local channel in August 2009 - and said nothing to it's customers. And now refuses to refund the fees, unless I can come up with the now 5 year old piece of paper in which I opted out of the program.

Anonymous said...

Edit: lol - in the first paragraph that should read "charges I was NOT told I would be getting billed for"

Anonymous said...

The fun continues to this day. In their email response, they said, "Thank you for taking the time to reach us. I hope you are doing fine. I understand you need the mailing address where you can send your billing concern."

And promptly sent me to my local office.

danielle.royster said...

Contacting customer support at Comcast is like pulling teeth. I was a long time and loyal customer and I never felt like I was getting the support that I needed. Soon after I became fed up, I began working at DISH which gave me the opportunity to subscribe to their service. I love it and I can't believe that it took me so long to switch over. I haven't had an issue with it and if I do call it, it's definitely not to complain. I invite everyone to come to DISH and explore the endless possibilities!

*Danielle

Anonymous said...

I have just changed my name and been able to change it on every account I have by mail EXCEPT for Comcast. Their lovely customer NO service email told me I had go to the local office. I even replied and said I could not get to their local office during business hours. They replied with their business hours and said they would be happy to help me there during that time. What a pain.

myrabs said...

I am having the most frustrating Comcast issue ever. My inbox just randomly gets wiped. You never know when or why, you just log in and it is gone. This has been going on for over one year, and I have gotten absolutely no response from Comcast. They just write tickets and never respond. Their website is useless, you just go round and round in circles with them and their Regional Operations Center doesn't even respond within their "24" hour time frame. I HATE THIS COMPANY

LightShifter said...

Why not just create a GMAIL or YAHOO account and forward everything there. I never use the Comcast email and haven't since I got it.

Anonymous said...

Why not just create a GMAIL or YAHOO account and forward everything there. I never use the Comcast email and haven't since I got it.

shanna said...

I am so livid with comcast! I paid $458 dollars for 2.5 months of servcice....the reception was so bad, the audio would cut off along with the internet EVERYNIGHT... I would could everyday, and they would reset and say, well everything is okay, turns out that the technician never checked the cables outside and inside our new residence.... there were places that the cable were soo old they had 3 open wounds where you can see the sopper wiring! Insode the house the cable coaxial/adapter prong thingy was all RUSTED out so bad... I HAD TO TAKE PICTURE AND MAKE A VIDEO OF IT..I have called literally everyday to no avail... is there a number at corporate to call? any advice? I am in California....

Michał Cierniak said...

Hi Shanna,
I've had a lot of problems talking to Comcast. I think that the best way at the end was contacting Bill Gerth on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/comcastcares Even if you don't use Twitter, it could be worth signing up to be able to reach out to him.

The Intuitive Diva said...

thank you for sharing this information. they are trying to claim that my spouse owes money from a 2006 account. at the time they said that you could get an account if you moved from what county to another. they are claiming we owe for disconnected service and for non return of equipment. they are ridiculous and i will be filing a BBB complaint.

Anonymous said...

Mike, Thank you for posting the mailing address for Rick Germano. My father passed away in July and my 85 year old mother is trying to switch the billing name from his name to her name. They have told her she needs to come into their office (which is about an hour away from her home) and provide his death certificate as well as bank statements, etc. proof she can pay. This is crazy. No other utility company is making her jump thru hoops just to try and continue to pay her bills. So thanks for the info, I'll be sending Mr. Germano a letter today.

Anonymous said...

I recently found out that Comcast has been billing me for an extra phone line for the past 2 years. I never would have noticed it and I bet there are many many more people that are being overcharged the same way. Here is how they do it! BusClass Voice charge includes 1 phone line. Then there is an charge for each additional line. But then 2 years ago they added a charge for "basic line" charge. They did the same thing to my neighbor but they found out after a year. And Good Luck getting a refund! Nobody has the authority to do that. Go figure!
Sue from MN

nowax said...

Spent 67 minutes on hold with customer service today. Never talked to a live person. They have slammed me with upgrades to an account for the second time. HATE Comcast. Always have.

Anonymous said...

Will someone please post a mailing address for Comcast, we can't find it anywhere, and it seems to be some big secret........I am very unhappy with their lack of customer service..........!!!!