Comcast Cares: Pay Us The $0.00 You Owe, Or We Cut You Off
from the customer-service dept
Years back, I was a Comcast cable modem subscriber. That was until they spent a whole month cutting off my service, every single day, from 10am until about 4:30pm. Each day I would call to ask what was up, and I was told it was "scheduled maintenance." I asked for said "schedule" so I could plan around it, and was told that there was no schedule -- which made for an odd form of "scheduled maintenance." I also asked if it would be happening the next day as well, and was always told that I wouldn't be able to find out until the connection disappeared again. I dropped Comcast and switched to DSL. Even though Comcast is now much faster than my DSL, that experience so soured me that I have no interest in ever going back.While Comcast has received a lot of attention for its "Comcast Cares" initiative (the head of which recently left the company), it certainly looks like they have a few kinks to work out. Phil Anderson points us to the story of Comcast demanding the $0.00 a customer owes and threatening to turn off service if it's not received.
It's not hard to figure out how something like this happens. For whatever reason, the customer didn't owe any money that month -- perhaps a credit, or he had overpaid in a previous month, or something like that. But, Comcast's system is probably set up with the recording of "a payment" separate from the amount, such that not receiving any payment sets off a red flag, with no simple check to see if the reason is that no money is owed. You would think that this is something that Comcast would have caught a lot earlier...
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Filed Under: billing, cable, customer service
Companies: comcast
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rtyhrth
The Worst Auto Crashes You Will Ever See In Your Life!
http://www.autoshortnews.com/category/car-crashes-news/
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Re: rtyhrth
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Re: rtyhrth
"This comment has been flagged by the community. Click to show the comment."
system would be one where all the flagged comments didn't show up anywhere and there is a single link that says, "show flagged comments" that allows you to show flagged comments?
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You would think that this is something that Comcast would have caught a lot earlier....
Yeah, well, you could say that about pretty much anything pertaining to Comcast.
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Old News
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Who builds ...
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Re: Who builds ...
Especially one who's not an accountant...
and who has the typical vague nonsense of user requirements and no input during the software development cycle.
Really, it's a systemic problem. Any programmer could have ended up doing that--but usually these problems start with the customer.
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Re: Re: Who builds ...
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Re: Re: Re: Who builds ...
1. Is balance > zero
2. Is balance due
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Re: Re: Re: Who builds ...
As companies increasingly move to "enterprisey" business solutions though, the environments in which code lives become increasingly abstract, asynchronous networks of event dispatch logic and black boxes in which there is no one place you can look at to just see the requirements for an action and the invocation of the action.
Look at the kind of things you put together with Oracle SOA for example. Suddenly the problem isn't "are my logical checks correct before I invoke the billing function", but rather some amorphous and intractable situation like "did the monthly invoice document get sent into the ESB on time and with the proper header information correctly referencing the particular billing instance so that when the xml invoice document gets parsed and stuffed into the relational db in the ERP on the backend that the nightly billing daemon which has, among other things, the job of interpreting the corrective UBL rules and generating an EDI no-invoice-required message can insert the correct account number in the response before it directs the message to a web service at a trading partner outside the firewall?"
Boneheaded errors of this sort stem more from enterpriseyness than simple coding oversights in my experience.
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Re: Who builds ...
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Re:
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instead pay for it online, they have to pay for the transaction while you pay zero and their system is happy.
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Re: Re:
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Simply pay your bill multiple months in advance.
Say you pay 50$ a month (for round numbers, few people manage to keep their bills so low). Send a check for 300$. Call customer service, they'll tell you that's fine. Now sit back and make and return no contact to Comcast. In two or three months (depending on your internal credit rating), your service will be disconnected. Why? You made no payment that month or the previous month (even though none was due!).
I'd imagine that getting all the relevant statements on tape would be enough to merit a lawsuit over Comcast's "harrassment".
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Explanation
This happens because your bill has sub-cent values in it. What happens is your bill comes out to $90.521, which is printed as $90.52, and you pay $90.52, but your account balance is actually $0.001.
Most companies ignore this (remember the old "fractions of a cent" bank interest?) and just round the bill to the nearest cent. But companies like Comcast and others often collect the total and then put in a line item like "Bill rounding" every so often to keep things "even". Else you'll probably notice your bill every few months goes up by a penny, which happens because the amount due exceeds 0.5 cents so you'll be in a sub-cent credit for a few more months.
And yes, they get to keep the fraction left over because it prints out $0.00.
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Re: Explanation
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Re: Re: Explanation
Having said that even if let my 5 year old loose on some code I'd expect him to either handle the rounding in the balance due test, or even better to but a filter in that if the balance due was less than my cost to process the payment then ignore it (ie, it will cost me money to post letter, receive payment, bank it, etc... no point collecting a 0.10c debt if it costs be $10.00 to process it)
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Re: Re: Re: Explanation
If code to send bills is activated when an accounts balance is less than zero it would send a bill but show a balance of $0.00.
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It's not just Comcast
They were most unhappy when I turned up at their payments desk with a cheque for £0.00 and demanded a receipt.
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Re: It's not just Comcast
Peet McKimmie wrote:
You should have waited to see what would happen next. I’d like to see any debt-collection agency treat a request to collect £0.00 seriously...
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I FU*KING HATE COMCAST
Never had this issue with RCN(6 years), or Verizon(2.5 years)It just pushed me to use other pay services to get around them. Best 300 bucks I ever spent. HEAR THAT COMCAST? ITS WORTH 300 BUCKS A YEAR TO ME TO F YOU.
Now I know there will be a couple of bitches that will say oh your not supposed to run mail/web servers it is against their TOS. F you. I WILL do what I want with MY connection, and its my job. Ahh that feels better. :)
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So much for 'real people' - obviously a script can do the job better....
lol
I think - for kicks, I would have let it get turned off and ask them how they wanted me to pay the $0.00
That or write them a check for that amount.
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comcast does care....at all
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@weneedhelp
You can say "F you", but that doesn't change your own level of intelligence.
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Re: @weneedhelp
Thats ok, wait until they block you little file sharing apps, and you cant download your favorite mp3's and movies, or better yet, you get that letter from them, as my co-worker did, letting you know that your internet connection was used to download -insert movie name here- and continuing to do so would result in termination of service. We will see how quickly you find a work around to..."figuring out how to prevent you from doing what they tell you very plainly you can't do on their service"
"you can say "F you", but that doesn't change your own level of intelligence." My own level of intelligence?
Stop trying to sound smart, it FAILED... miserably.
Biatch.
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Re: Re: @weneedhelp
For one, Comcast is far from the only ISP that is fairly heavy handed when it comes to port 25 traffic. If anything, most of them have recently started heavily limiting what comes out of port 25 due to virus activity. If you don't understand the problems that hundreds of pieces of outgoing mail from an infected machine can cause, I don't think you can be helped.
Also, has it ever occurred to you to just change the SMTP server port on your Exchange box? It's really not that hard to do and would allow you to continue violating Comcast's ToS.
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Re: Re: Re: @weneedhelp
Where did I imply that AC?
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I understand why they would block outgoing mail to prevent spambots from operating.
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Re: Re: Re: @weneedhelp
If it listening on 26 then how does the mail ever get there? ERR!
Also, has it ever occurred to you to just change the SMTP..
Yes dumbass, but I know how the internet works and knew that was not an option.
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Re: Re: Re: @weneedhelp
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/274842
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Re: @weneedhelp
http://www.comcast.net/terms/web/2010-02/
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Re: Re: @weneedhelp
http://www.comcast.net/terms/subscriber/
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Re: Re: @weneedhelp
Dude... #1 - I am not a Comcast customer. I switched long, long ago.
#2 - I did not ever say that I followed or condoned their rules.
#3 - You're the one who came here whining that you couldn't make your server work on residential service, not me. All my servers work just as they should.
#4 - Yes, your own level of intelligence - or lack thereof, in this case.
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Re: Re: Re: @weneedhelp
Excuse me ma'am, but there is a high probability that whatever service you use has a similar TOS. FAIL
#2 - I did not ever say that I followed or condoned their rules.
But you wanted to insult me because I didnt as well? fucking hypocrite. FAIL
#3 - You're the one who came here whining that you couldn't make your server work on residential service, not me. All my servers work just as they should.
You reading comprehension skills suck. They work, I had to use another service to do so. FAIL
#4 - Yes, your own level of intelligence - or lack thereof, in this case.
Again, comedy FAIL.
All my servers work just as they should.
Really? With inbound ports blocked? Without another service? Share with us. Tell us oh great one how you got your "servers" to receive/send email with 25 & 110 blocked.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: @weneedhelp
#butthurt
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: @weneedhelp
butthurt#3(first time I saw that)
Getting your feelings hurt, being offended or getting all bent out of shape because of something petty or stupid.
Ehhhhh, ok, I kinda agree LOL.
Hugs and kisses are overrated.
If you attack someone, you should expect retaliation, and if you dont, then in my experience, they think they can walk all over you.
Like AC saying:
Also, has it ever occurred to you to just change the SMTP server port on your Exchange box? It's really not that hard to do.
It appears AC has never touched an Exchange server, but he/she thought he/she was going to be slick with a link provided with a quick web search.
It infuriates me when some dumbass tries to make someone else look stupid when they obviously have no clue. Especially coming from EvilAC. I know, its a character flaw I have to deal with. LOL. If your going to insult someone, do it tactfully, like you did. :)
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Yes I forgot.
"Arguing on the internet is like running in the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded."
LOL falling off chair.
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Comcast 'Service'
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Re: Comcast 'Service'
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sincerely,
Tea Partiers
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The problem is the INcorrect treatment of the numbers
The solution is treat them as integers -- with a pseudo-decimal point displayed.
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comcast still owes me
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Comcast...Charter.....
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Can't Hate
Here's why:
40Mbps down, and 4 Mbps up on my DOCSIS 3 modem and the $52 plan. Uptime has been rock solid for my 4 years in this house.
I know, I know, it's faster in Japan. Can't help it. 40 megs just makes me warm and fuzzy all over.
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Re: Can't Hate
Most cable Internet providers have started using PowerBoost, which drastically increases download speeds for the first 10MB, so if you're downloading anything substantial you'll see ridiculously high rates (when I lived in Maryland and had Comcast, my service peaked at about 20-25 Mbps) followed by a sharp decline (mine usually hung around 8 Mbps after that point). Still faster and more solid than my current DSL service, but it took some time to get used to.
The cynic in me believes that they just want to make themselves look better on broadband speed test sites and the optimist in me believes that they do it because most downloads that people do are under 10MB. I'm not sure which one to listen to. :)
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Funny Money
to btr1701, Comment #9:
Well, there's a right way and a wrong way to represent money. The right way is to represent it as a signed integer count of the least significant unit, in this case, cents. You should use a 64-bit integer, which is available even on the old 80387 numeric co-processor. That gives you a range of about plus or minus eight "exa-cents," or eighty "peta-dollars." Since the GNP is in the low trillions of dollars, that should be enough for the time being. You could use 32-bit integers, but that is probably a false economy, as it is only plus or minus twenty million dollars, and it might lead to faults when totaling up the company's gross revenue. It is safer to adopt a consistent practice throughout, and avoid special cases.
Floating-point numbers are properly used for things which have measurement error, and are inherently imprecise, for example, in scientific programming. You really don't want to use floating-point in accounting, where sums are supposed to balance.
The old IBM mainframes had special Binary Coded Decimal hardware instructions, but that is another story.
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That pretty much characterizes my experience with Comcast as well. I cursed their name on a daily basis for their shoddy service and nonexistent tech support.
Of course, no other broadband alternatives were available. It wasn't until I moved clear across the country to the east coast that I was able to get away from them.
It seems to me that if there were actual competition in the broadband marketplace, a company as bad as Comcast could never survive.
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Just Got off the Phone with Time-Warner Customer Service
While we were fiddling around, I was reminded that the remote control is "disabled" when you are on a premium channel. With the "free" channels, when you press "exit" (search mode), you actually exit and return to your program. With the premium channels the "exit" key only returns you to the search mode. If you actually want to return to watching your programs, you have to find a "free" channel and then exit. I guess the hope is that you will hit the "select" key by accident and then be charged. Seems to be an endless "supply" of marketing dirty tricks.
That's it for now, have to check my blood pressure.
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On the other hand I had this happen with a credit card company a few years ago. After a few months of 5% penalties, I finally wrote them a check for $0.00 (with an annotation in the Memo field, telling my bank why) and everything got sorted out. From what I could determine, in my case the programmer forgot there might be both a +0 and a -0 and most people pay down their debt to a zero balance owing, whereas I had overpayed and was spending down their debt to me.
There might also be a non-printing fraction of a penny owing.
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Six weeks later: $3.98 to feed the estate account kitty!
I've never had a problem with installers or techs at my house (I've felt for them, one sat in my house for 3 hours waiting for someone to pick up the phone at the dispatching office!), but getting things actually done and working properly with Comcast has been an exercise in complete frustration time after time.
BRING ON THE COMPETITORS...PLEEEEASE!
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Why I call it...
These are only my opinions. Others may have had better experience with them than I have had, but honestly, I won't hold my breath to find out...
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Comcast doesn't have the broadband bad service market cornered
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Comcast Support
*Danielle
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