I am a current Comcast subscriber. I live in San Francisco, where Comcast reigns supreme as the only high speed internet access and cable television provider. There are some alternate DSL providers like Sonic.net, Monkeybrains and AT&T but they do not provide speeds above 18mbps. As a San Francisco resident, I live with 3 other people to keep rent down, so our need for higher bandwidth is real and justified.

Our service was an Xfinity Triple Play X1 which included 50mbps Internet, Cable, and Phone. The service included a DVR, along with 2 other cable boxes for 2 other rooms. It also included a mandatory Modem / Wireless Gateway. We had service for the phone, but we never actually installed a phone. All of this service was priced at $200 / month plus tax.

In the Summer of 2014, Comcast increased our internet speed from 50mbps to 100mbps at no extra cost. (When speed testing to compare, I showed that we never achieved speeds above 54mbps.) That “no cost” turned out to be a bit misleading. In August of 2014, our bill went from $200 / month to $240 / month. As a group, we decided not to continue with such a high rate, and called into Comcast to see if we could downgrade.

In September 2014, we called in to downgrade our service. Over the phone, we were told that we would be able to downgrade to the “Xfinity Double Play” which would include 50mbps Internet and Television service. The total cost for this would be $99.99 / month for 12 months.

“Great!” we thought. We had successfully cut our bill in half, and kept the services that we actually wanted. And that would be the end of it… or so we thought.

In October, we received our first bill since downgrading. the bill came to $108, which seemed fine considering taxes and franchise fees. We continued enjoying our service, which was fine.

This is where the fun started…

In November, Suddenly our bill was $157.96. How can our bill have jumped over 45% in just a single month? We just signed up for a new service, so there should not be any expiring offers.

As we inspected our November Bill, we noticed that we were suddenly being charged an additional $48 in equipment fees. How could we have accumulated an additional $48 in equipment fees without receiving any additional equipment? Why weren’t we notified that our equipment would be billed above the rate that we had agreed upon?

I don’t think we were out of line to expect that when the agent told us that our new rate for service was $99.99 / month, that our bill would be something close to that.

We called into Comcast, but sat on hold for over an hour before giving up. Annoyed, we decided to file a complaint with the FCC regarding our bill instead.

The FCC responded to our inquiry on January 5, 2015. Comcast would have 30 days from this date to respond to us directly.

On January 28, 2015, a woman from Comcast, Ms. Charlotte Gachupin, Executive Customer Relations for the Comcast West Division, responded to our inquiry.

Fuzzy math it seems. How could $108.99–$45.78 = $99.99? After inspecting our October bill, it appears that the equipment charges had actually started in October with our first bill. Then they applied a prorated refund since we changed our service mid-cycle.

So let’s go through how it looked before October:

September Bill:

Wireless Gateway Device $ 0.00

AnyRoom DVR Service $0.00

HD Technology Fee $0.00

TN Package $ 0.00

Caller ID TV $ 0.00

Univ. Connectivity Chg. -Recurring $0.80

And Here’s what our bill looked like from October forward:

October Forward Bill:

Wireless Gateway Device $0.00

Additional Outlet Svc $19.90

X1 DVR Service $9.95

HBO $19.99

$0 x 24 Premium $-19.99

Streampix $4.99

$0 x 24 Premium $-4.99

HD Technology Fee $10.00

D3 Voice Equipment $8.00

Kind of a big jump… A little distraught, and looking to have Comcast’s own reps explain this to me, I looked for answers with Ms. Gachupin.

She responded back the next day.

Not much more information there than the first email. I’m not entirely sure that she read my entire email, as she did not address some of my concerns.

Long winded, I know, but I felt that a full breakdown of our charges would ensure that I am taken seriously. It certainly feels like we are the victims of “Bill Cramming.” Our service was going to be cut in half, so to make up for that loss of revenue, Comcast tacked on equipment charges for things they did not charge our account for previously.

You can learn more about cramming here.

…

It is at this point that I am beginning to wonder if Ms. Gachupin is intentionally not reading my entire emails, or if she is just skimming them too fast.

Now all of the sudden there is a contract on file? I had never seen anything resembling this alleged contract before. But upon inspection, I don’t see anything detailing that there would be additional charges for additional equipment.

I decided to take a look and see if I did in fact receive this email on 9/21/2014. I did.

Here is the email in question that states that we agree to our new service plan. There is still no indication of any additional billing for additional equipment.

And here is what you see when you click on the Electronic Letter of Authorization. As you can see, there is still no indication of any additional billing for additional equipment.

Rather than go through and click next, I decided to write an email back to Ms. Gachupin asking where it explicitly states that we would be billed for additional equipment.

At this point in time, she has not responded. And the ability to reverse these charges is apparently outside of her authority. This is the level of insanity that one must go through to even get this far.

If you’re keeping track at home, at this point we have:

Been misled by Comcast’s sales team (either intentionally, or unintentionally).

Been over-billed by $50 for the past 3 months through Bill Cramming.

Been given the run-around by Comcast’s Executive Customer Relations for the Comcast West Division, Ms. Charlotte Gachupin, 5 times.

Been directed towards a misleading “contract” that does not include any agreement by us (the customer) nor any notice or breakdown of the additional charges that we now have.

Been directed to find an email which does not include any of the details it is purported to include about said contract.

Not received any support from the FCC beyond issue tracking through their consumer complaint ticketing system.

So what am I to do?

What is a reasonable person supposed to do to have a billing dispute such as this corrected? I cannot choose a new Internet and TV provider as there is no other high-speed option available to me. The FCC has not provided much assistance, or support.

That is why I write this today. Without knowledge of these tactics, I fear that others will have the same issue. How many agreed to a service with Comcast only to find that the rate they agreed to was not what they were being billed? And most importantly, what can someone truly do to get something like this fixed?

Thank you for reading.