TL;DR: The company has a multitude of contact methods for me that were entered when I created the service account, but will only contact me to provide account access via methods that I can cannot access unless I already have account access. And they are charging me overage fees in the meantime.
A roommate, under whose name the old cable account was under, moved out. We began paying with a different card.
Comcast enacted a new limit on the amount of data we can use per month, which we hit in the first couple weeks. They charge some additional fees for overages or you can, allegedly, pay a $50 flat rate fee to go back to the old unlimited. In order to add that $50 add-on, it required changing the account, which can only be done by the primary account holder, the roommate who moved out.
So, we call up the roommate, he flies back to San Francisco from Los Angeles for a day to go in-store with me (the only way to make this change, apparently). They close his account, open a new one in my name under a new, alledgedly better, plan. This new plan is part of a bundle that includes telephone service (which we will never use) and I’ve explicitly asked for this unlimited data add-on to be applied (and told it has been). I am sent home with a modem to set up, and I leave the store content.
Fast forward a couple weeks. Housemates begin receiving pop-up warnings that their data usage has hit the limit. That’s surprising as, we’ve added the unlimited data add-on. I head over to Comcast’s website to create my web account to log in, and find that I already have a web account “configured” for my service. I don’t have the password.
After entering in appropriate identifying information associated with the account, the password reset link actually leads to a live-chat. Live chat asks me some more identifying information before sending me an email verification email (which I’ve yet to receive but it’s only been about an hour so far). That email verification email is not, I am told actually my password reset email.
In order to reset my password, I am told, I will need to provide my PIN. After providing one I am informed that in fact my PIN has not been configured. Reminder that at this point they have my name, address, last 4 of social, telephone number and email address already on file from when I created the service account. They say they will need to call me to give me a PIN and have me create a security question.
They proceed to call… the landline they added to my account that is not in use and has no phone plugged into it. When pointing out that they have my primary phone number already in their account they claim there is an FCC rule that prevents them from using it. They never had any issue using my cell phone before when the account was just internet. They’ve also called me on that number 5+ times to get me to take a survey about my instore visit since then.
The other two options for getting a PIN, which, reminder, I would have been able to set up if I had been allowed to create my own web account instead of having it sneakily done for me in-store, are via email at this comcast email account that was setup without my knowledge in store that can only be accessed by logging in with a password I do not have that can only be reset by using the PIN. Or by US Mail in 5 to 7 business days.
The company has a multitude of contact methods for me that were entered when I created the service account, but will only contact me to provide account access via methods that I can cannot access unless I already have account access. And they are charging me overage fees in the meantime.
I’ve sent the content of this blog post to FCC Consumer Complaints along with a bunch of screenshots of our conversation, which I am told is the best way to get Comcast to get a somewhat more powerful representative to get in touch with you.
In the meantime, digging up a working landline phone and a cable to plug in and try when I get home.
Update 1: They called me, on my cell phone, to tell me I owe them money. I explained in short the story above as pertains to letting me into my account to add a payment method. They cold transferred me. New person needs the exact number I owe (dollars and cents) to continue along the process of letting me reset my password (that I never created or was told existed). Obviously I did not write down the exact amount. Person who created my account in-store apparently did not enter in any identifying information. Also, account numbers are considered secrets.
P.S. Wow, this is what got me to write a blog post after multiple years?
