bg774
join:2006-02-26
| Comcast will not remove their modem rental charge.
I'm currently screwed by comcast.
I returned comcasts modem sometime in 2004 and purchased my own modem. They stopped charging my account for the modem rental. Fast forward to JUNE of 2005. Without warning, they start charging me $3.00 for a modem rental, and I find out last month about this.
They will not remove these charges unless I supply a receipt that I returned their modem, or unless I can supply a receipt of purchase for my OWN modem.
At this time, I have neither receipt.
When I asked the rep how on earth I had service before June 2005 without a modem rental fee, she simply didn't know the answer. |
|
satire
join:2002-08-30
Jamestown, ND
| Lol, thats ridiculous. You should call them back and ask them where they put your receipt when you turned in the modem. Seriously though, I'd call comcast and ask to elevate to tier 2 support. You're not talking to the right person on the phone to reason with from the sounds of it. I would think they'd have notes on the account indicating the old modem mac address when it was rented and another showing when you called to have it switched. |
|
MrChupacabra
Premium
join:2003-03-26
Florida
 ·Bright House
| reply to bg774
Rented and Owned modems are entered differently into the system. A rented modem will have been entered in by the local warehouse and generally has the name of the rep who punched in the info. Owned modems do not have that info.
Call back and ask that it be corrected. They may have to have research done on the modem to show this so it could take a few days to do.
Depending on the billing system used in your area and the access/knowledge of the rep, they could verify this in a few minutes themselves.
--
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. --Albert Einstein |
|
ryguys
join:2002-01-23
N. Ont Can | reply to bg774
Where do you live? |
|
JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs:
 ·LINGO
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·surpasshosting
 ·Verizon FIOS
| reply to bg774
This is a common problem (around here anyway) - apparently Comcast loses their inventory data.
Since Comcast was not able to resolve the problem, I suggest you:
1) File a complaint with your franchise authority. See if they can request confirmation from Comcast that your modem is not in their inventory.
2) Write to the manufacturer of your modem. Give them the make, model, serial #, and MAC. Ask them for a letter confirming that your modem was sold as retail.
3) Keep all correspondence - it may help speed up the process the next time this happens.
Good luck! |
|
jbob
Reach Out and Touch Someone
Premium
join:2004-04-26
Little Rock, AR
·Comcast
 ·AT&T Southwest
2 edits | reply to bg774
said by bg774  :They will not remove these charges unless I supply a receipt that I returned their modem, or unless I can supply a receipt of purchase for my OWN modem. At this time, I have neither receipt. Your question after that should have been, can you show me a work order with my signature showing you installed a rental modem or a receipt showing that you "Comcast" ever owned this model modem including the serial number? I see this as their responsibility to prove it is indeed a rental not for you to prove you bought it. They are the business while you are the comsumer. You have certain rights here. While I'm no laywer and certainly might be wrong, it would seem to me the responsiblity is on Comcast here, not you.
I'd just subtract the extra $3.00 on my bill each month when making my payment until something else happens. If they eventually cut you off or affect your credit rating, then get a lawyer and nail them. My $.02 worth. |
|
MrChupacabra
Premium
join:2003-03-26
Florida
·Bright House
1 edit | said by jbob :I'd just subtract the extra $3.00 on my bill each month when making my payment until something else happens. If they eventually cut you off or affect your credit rating, then get a lawyer and nail them. My $.02 worth. Honestly, I would not advise to avoid paying the $3 while you dispute this. Late fee's are typically $5 and two late months in a row generally get a processing fee. So if it does take two or more months to resolve for some strange reason you'll have $20 in late fees and processing fees which they most likely wont credit off, plus the late $6, bad marks on your credit which is hard to get removed, plus your service could get physically disconnected for it. You then have reconnect fees and all that jazz on top of it. That is not worth it over $6.
If you don't have a receipt to show purchase was the modem paid for via check, debit or credit card? If it was then that financial institute should have a record of it. Get a copy of that, black out everything that they do not need to see and wala, enough info for them to easily check their records with.
--
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction. --Albert Einstein |
|
jbob
Reach Out and Touch Someone
Premium
join:2004-04-26
Little Rock, AR
·Comcast
·AT&T Southwest
2 edits | LOL It's not a fee, let alone a late fee, if it's an invalid charge to begin with. It's easier to not pay now as opposed to trying to get your money back. That is why many consumer advocates suggest to not allow businesses to auto debit your banking account to pay your bills. If the billing company makes a mistake, now you have to go through the hoops to correct the error.
Consumers have certain rights and one is to NOT pay a bill which you do not owe. What you suggest is like getting a $500.00 phone bill, paying it while knowing it is a mistake expecting to get your money back when it is finally corrected. Who would do that? Not this gentleman! Sure it's only $3.00 but that is not the point. Like I mentioned earlier it is Comcast's responsibilty to prove this with a receipt not the customers.
As a business Comcast should flag this as a disputed item instead of heaping charge upon charge to their customer. In the end if it is proven that the customer did indeed have a rental then he might be charged fully.
And in defense of the customer how do we know this isn't a scam being perpetrated by some schemeing Comcast employees to try and make some extra bucks?  Obviously this is a stretch but always a possibly.
If this happened to me I wouldn't pay. I do have my receipt for my modem. I simply wouldn't go out of my way to prove it. If they sent someone to my house I would show them the receipt but I wouldn't lift a finger to simply prove it was my modem. They are the business and the proof it on them.
Either way this is still my opinion! fwiw The OP has to decide what options to take on his own. It is a shame that Comcast cannot easily determine this after a simple phone call. It appears that in this case the customer is being treated less than they should be. I remember the old slogan we used in the Nuclear verification stuff. "Trust, but verify!" That is how Comcast needs to treat it's customers. Trust them when they say they own the modem but verify with their own records. If they cannot verify it then shame on Comcast and they need to suck it up.
I gotta say MrChupacabra that you seem to be confusing "Customer Service" with "Customer Disservice." |
|
QZ1
join:2005-03-24
| reply to jbob
I totally agree, since he had service first with a rented modem, and then without, and modem rental fee was stopped, he obviously returned the modem. The only way he should be charged a modem rental fee, is if he started renting a modem again, and he says he isn't, so Comcast needs to show a signed work order with the modem listed there; if they can't, they need to remove the fee.
A similar thing happens to people who never rented a modem, and suddenly they are charged a fee, again Comcast needs to show that these people signed a work order for a modem.
The only time I see a person needing to show they returned the modem is, if Comcast never stopped billing for it or service was discontinued, and they claimed the modem was never returned; then you need to show your return receipt or at least a purchase receipt.
This nonsense of them saying people have to prove they bought the modem should stop, it is not valid. Nevertheless, I kept my modem's receipt with MAC ID on it.  |
|
cablejoe
join:2002-01-15
Las Vegas, NV
| reply to bg774
You might also ask them to pull up the rest of the info for the rental modem, and get that modem's MAC address. (The serial # and MAC address are recorded when the modem is entered into their system.) When you returned the modem, there's a good chance that it went back into inventory, and eventually went back into circulation...which means it may now be on someone else's account. They can check to see whether that modem's MAC address is online, and whether that modem is attached to anyone else's account. Then you can ask them to explain exactly how they could have assigned that modem to another customer if you had not returned it. |
|
Steely
Dumped Comcast for FiOS
Premium
join:2000-10-15
Princeton Junction, NJ | reply to bg774
If I were you I'd grab my modem, a bunch of cable bills, and drive over to the local Comcast office where I'd remain until I could get someone with authority to resolve the matter in person. |
|
dodgetech2
join:2002-01-01
Gouldsboro, PA
·ProLog
·Vonage
| Re: Comcast will not remove their modem rental charge.
Ah yes, Comcast at its finest.....I was still getting billed and was starting to get collection notices 5 months after we moved out of state.....but alas, I knew it would happen so I still had all my reciepts from when I turned in my rental Modem and TV boxes.....Even with that info it still took another 2 months and probably 25 phone calls to get fixed.....If by some freak accident, I ever end up in a Comcast area again, I will NOT get any sevice with them..its sattelite and DSL for me.... |
|
JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs:
·LINGO
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·surpasshosting
·Verizon FIOS
| Ah yes, that reminds me...
bg774 , I'm not sure if you plan to cancel anytime soon, but if so, you definitely need to get this resolved first. If you don't, since Comcast thinks they own your modem, they'll charge you an "unreturned equipment" fee. Here, an unreturned modem costs $50. |
|
MrBentor
join:2003-02-18
Seattle, WA
·Comcast
| I would simply say F* to Comca$t and tell them you are going to terminate all services with them. Tell them that you are going to switch to DSL and satellite. They either drop it to keep you as a customer or just let you go.
If they try still charge you for the disconnection and the modem, refuse to pay it. They may or may try to collect, let it go to collections because if it does you can demand that the collections service provide proof of debt and a valid contract, usually they can't and will drop the matter. Also it is your right to refuse to talk to a collection agency and you can force the issue back to Comca$t. It is a bit of a pain but it can be fun to screw with them.
Just the threat of loosing all your cable tv and modem business will most likely make them blink first. |
|
Kaltes
Premium
join:2002-12-04
Los Angeles, CA
1 edit | reply to bg774
Happened to me 3 times
I started with AT&T originally in los angeles, and purchased my own modem. I NEVER AT ANY TIME used one fo their modems. I started with my own from the beginning. I was saving $10/month this way. Then about 4-5 months into service, the bastards pulled their bait and switch, raising service $7 for everyone, then discounting modem rental $7, resulting in a $7 price hike for people with customer owned modems. Bear in mind the whole reason they offered $35/mo service with a $10/mo modem rental was because they didn't have enough modems to go around so they priced that way as an incentive to buy your own modem. Then a few months later when they had plenty of modems, they screwed everyone who went with them instead of going with DSL, AND they KNEW they had us because we had already paid our OWN MONEY for our modems.
But the insults didn't end there. Comcast, which had bought AT&T's cable operations in Los Angeles, tried to steal my modem not once, but THREE times. Why do I say steal? Because that is what this is. They are taking MY PROPERTY and saying it belongs to THEM. Then they claim that if you don't PROVE them wrong, they now own your modem. They do this by suddenly charging you modem rental on a customer-owned modem, then telling you they won't stop unless you prove them wrong.
My position on this was to give them hell on the phone, point out that I wasn't being charged until recently, and accusing them of purposely plotting to steal customer modems. My girlfriend, however, would fax them the receipt because she was afraid they'd screw with her credit.
On many, many other occasions, when I called technical support because my internet connection was screwed up, they'd try to blame my modem, even though any idiot with common sense could see that my modem was not at fault. It was always a problem with their network, never with my hardware. They were constantly trying to get me to change to one of their modems.
Comcast is a bunch of crooks, thieves, and liars. I won't even get into the fact that I was forced to buy cable television service against my will or face paying a large price hike on my cable internet service. I was forced to endure their terrible service because it was my only broadband option. After I moved to orange county, I had a choice between Cox Cable and SBC DSL.
I went with SBC, and have had the joy of discovering that they are bastards as well. After taking their 1.5mbps down offer, they capped me at 384kbps down. When I called, they had the audacity to tell me they didn't guarantee 1.5mbps. It took me 2 weeks of calling and complaints to get capped up at 1.5mbps. The service worked fine most of the time then, but I would have the occasional outage. When I called tech support during an outage, it resulted in my modem getting re-capped at lower speeds. I then had to go through all that again. At one point they capped my UPLOAD at 128kbps. SBC also has not paid my $100 rebate now 5 months after I sent it in. I'm now fed up with SBC, but at least they didn't try to steal my modem.
So the moral of this story is that monopolies suck. |
|
oliphant
I Have 8 Boobies
Premium
join:2004-11-26
Corona, CA
2 edits | reply to bg774
Re: Comcast will not remove their modem rental charge.
said by bg774 :I'm currently screwed by comcast. I returned comcasts modem sometime in 2004 and purchased my own modem. They stopped charging my account for the modem rental. Fast forward to JUNE of 2005. Without warning, they start charging me $3.00 for a modem rental, and I find out last month about this. They will not remove these charges unless I supply a receipt that I returned their modem, or unless I can supply a receipt of purchase for my OWN modem. At this time, I have neither receipt. When I asked the rep how on earth I had service before June 2005 without a modem rental fee, she simply didn't know the answer. They did the same thing to me...demanded a receipt. Luckily Compuplus.com where I bought mine was able to provide me a copy a year after the fact and Comcast removed the charges.
Mind you on their own work order, the installer wrote out "customer owned modem" but they didn't accept it. Comcast stinks, which would explain why I'm no longer a customer of theirs.
--
WAR HAS NEVER SOLVED ANYTHING, except ending slavery, facism, communism, Nazism.... |
|
bobc2112
join:2004-01-04
Middletown, NJ
·Verizon FIOS Digit..
·Verizon FIOS
·Vonage
| reply to bg774
Been there done that. I don't even want to get into the pain I had to go through to get them to remove the charge. They couldn't even identify the equipment I was "renting" (sn/mac address anything). And this was a new self install with equipment from Best Buy... UGH... Stick to them they'll remove it, but you'll jump through hoops to find a competent CSR. |
|
Primis
join:2004-03-21
Coldwater, MI
| reply to Kaltes
Re: Happened to me 3 times
Kaltes -
AT&T did what they did at least partially because they had all kinds of problems around California (and Minnesota I think was the other bad area with all kinds of messed-up proprietary networks mixed in with DOCSIS-compliant ones) where some areas were DOCSIS-compliant, and some still weren't, and people were going out and buying the wrong kind of modem and then trying to sue AT&T and all sorts of crazy stuff, all because the users didn't do their homework before buying. Thus, AT&T was trying to strongly discourage buying modems and using them because people weren't smart enough to do their own homework before dropping $150 or so on a modem (they'd dropped from $300 originally but were still up around $150 if you got the newest ones).
The other problem AT&T ran into was this -- modem MAC addresses were NOT unique like they were supposed to be. Motorola (RCA actually at the time I guess, before Motorola bought their modems) and some other cablemodem manufacturers were repeating MAC addresses on the modems, which was causing conflicts when trying to provision them on a network they already existed on. So AT&T knew they could better-monitor their own inventory and avoid the repeats - because there was nothing they could do about a MAC address if it was already on the network... so it was up to the customer to return it then, and they always became irate over it and blamed AT&T.
I don't know if since they've resolved the Repeating MAC address issues... one would assume so, since the number of users has exploded and I can't imagine it still goes on like that. I'd assume a few older repeats are still floating out there though and it could crop up again from time to time though.
The Comcast bit doesn't surprise me though. When you sign on with them, you're basically agreeing to be guilty until proven innocent, in terms of billing problems and such. |
|
gtdawg
Premium
join:2002-03-17
Los Angeles, CA
1 edit | reply to Kaltes
said by Kaltes :I went with SBC, and have had the joy of discovering that they are bastards as well. After taking their 1.5mbps down offer, they capped me at 384kbps down. When I called, they had the audacity to tell me they didn't guarantee 1.5mbps. It took me 2 weeks of calling and complaints to get capped up at 1.5mbps. The service worked fine most of the time then, but I would have the occasional outage. When I called tech support during an outage, it resulted in my modem getting re-capped at lower speeds. I then had to go through all that again. At one point they capped my UPLOAD at 128kbps. SBC also has not paid my $100 rebate now 5 months after I sent it in. I'm now fed up with SBC, but at least they didn't try to steal my modem. SBC's systems automatically start your cap out at the lowest speed when you sign up and then gradually increase it if your line can handle the increased caps. This is to prevent frequent loss of sync/customer outages and other DSL issues.
You went ahead and called them and manually circumvented this feature and had them put you on a cap that left your line unstable, which then resulted in your "outages".
Then you call in again and complain about outages, so they cap you to a speed that works for your line, and you start complaining again. A Win/Win situation for SBC eh? |
|
