Stop us if you've heard this one before: Comcast has done something wrong to one of its customers and didn't make it right until he contacted a reporter.

A story in Consumerist yesterday tells the tale of Robert, who was incorrectly charged $1,775.44 and couldn't get it back for more than 18 months.

"Comcast even admits the money shouldn’t have been debited from Robert’s bank account, but now says it’s his responsibility to sort the mess out with his bank," the story said.

Robert signed up for Comcast business service for his small business in early 2011 and downgraded to a cheaper service in 2014, well after his two-year contract expired. Despite that, Comcast debited a $1,775 "early termination fee" from his checking account that was tied to his Comcast service.

Comcast promised to repay the money to Robert, but it didn't. Various Comcast customer service representatives told him over the months that the error would soon be fixed and he'd receive a check, but eventually someone at Comcast decided that Robert should have to dispute the payment with his bank. An e-mail to Robert from Comcast "Executive Customer Relations" confirmed that the early termination fee was applied "in error" but said, "We generally only issue a refund check for a disconnected account with a credit balance leftover. For your situation, you would have to dispute the payment with your bank.”

"Robert even replied to the Comcast rep, asking him how long Comcast would allow a customer to owe $1,775 without being sent to collections. A response to that question is presumably not forthcoming," Consumerist wrote.

After Robert contacted Consumerist and Consumerist contacted Comcast, the nation's biggest cable company was apparently able to sort it out. A Comcast spokesperson confirmed to Ars that the details in the Consumerist story are accurate. It's "unfortunately true, but we got it resolved very quickly today and a check is in process," Comcast told Ars last night. "[The] customer should not have had to go through this and we have apologized for it."

Robert will supposedly receive the refund within seven to 10 business days.