Comcast Admits Billing Errors, Says Affected Customers Being Credited
By tech editor Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- If you're a Comcast customer, you may be getting some money back -- money that never should have left your wallet in the first place.
For Don from Bella Vista (who asked us not to use his last name), a $9.50 late fee threw him for a loop.
"I called when I saw that the December bill had some unexplained charge on it," he says.
He recalls his question to Comcast customer service: "How could there be a late fee if you're set up for autopay? How could that be possible? He said, 'We apologize for that.' "
Comcast says a billing system upgrade caused the problem for a "small amount" of Pennsylvania customers; by the time the company realized what happened, the bills already had been printed and processed.
Comcast says affected accounts have been credited, which will be reflected on the next statement. The company has also upgraded its billing systems in New Jersey but says customers there should not be affected.
But more than the money, Don notes, is the confusion caused by Comcast changing his account number and due date but skimping on details.
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"It offered no explanation for why this was happening," he told KYW Newsradio today. "It was a case where it said you may need to adjust your payment date, so it raised the possibility that you might have to contact the bank to make a change. Of course, without knowing what the new due date was, it was impossible to make a change or tell your bank what to do if you didn't know what target you were looking at to have it paid by."
He says the Comcast rep was able to tell him the new date after some research. (Comcast says it started telling customers in August about the new due dates.)
