Kathleen Cox of Jacksonville, Florida has been a Comcast subscriber for 13 years, and besides getting cable service she also uses a Comcast e-mail address.

But recently, her e-mail address suddenly disappeared. First Coast News reported the story last night:

In April, another Kathleen Cox, who lives in Michigan, signed up for a Comcast account. The company took the Florida's Kathleen Cox's e-mail account and gave it to the woman in Michigan. "It has been crazy," said Cox. "It is frustrating that's what it is." It means all of her e-mail contact information went away, but it also resulted in Cox getting the other woman's bill. "Your bank, your doctor, everybody you know that had your email address for 13 years," said Cox. "All gone."

The problem apparently wasn't fixed until the news station got involved. "Everyone says 'within 24-72 hours,' and nothing happens," Cox told First Coast News. Cox said she spoke to 18 Comcast agents who promised to fix the problem. It took "more than a month" to finally get it solved, according to the report.

"We have apologized to Ms. Cox for the inconvenience and frustration this has caused her. Our customer care has worked with her to resolve the issue," Comcast told the station.

Comcast told Ars today that the e-mail address has been restored to the original Kathleen Cox, but the company did not respond to our question about how the problem occurred and whether Comcast can prevent it from happening again.

Although Comcast has pledged to fix its customer service shortcomings, its rating in the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index report plummeted again.