For most, canceling your cable doesn’t go farther than a phone call. But for one man in Washington, D.C., the decision has taken him all the way to the U.S. District Court.
Marc Himmelstein canceled his Comcast cable and Internet service in 2010. When technicians came to collect the equipment from his home, they left behind a modem that resulted in a $220 charge, Courthouse News reports.
Despite notifying Comcast of the error, Himmelstein alleges that the cable provider did not resolve the issue, and eventually the charge made it’s way up to credit-reporting agencies. Himmelstein is claiming that the resulting hit to his credit score forced him to pay an additional $26,000 to refinance his mortgage -- and he sued Comcast for the additional cost.
Himmelstein is accusing the cable provider of trying to deceive him by allegedly refusing to acknowledge the error on his credit report. Unfortunately for him, a U.S. District Court judge sided with Comcast, agreeing that Himmelstein’s allegations were not supported by his case.
But Comcast is still on the hook for Himmelstein’s claims of negligence as well as breach-of-contract, according to Consumerist. Also, just to make things worse, the cable provider has reportedly yet to refund Himmelstein the around $125 that was promised to him more than two years ago.
Comcast did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is not the first time that Comcast has found itself in hot water with its customers for faulty service. An 86-year-old man in Alabama accidentally sent the company $6,453 instead of $64.53 when paying online. Comcast reportedly told him at first that the company could not send him a refund and could only put the credit toward future payments. Thankfully, after pressure from a local news station, Comcast changed its tune and gave the man his full refund.
In October, the cable provider received several complaints from residents in Seattle who alleged that they were harassed by Comcast workers banging on doors and using threatening language. Another customer affected by Hurricane Sandy alleged that Comcast charged his parents for not returning the company’s cable box. According to the customer's account, Comcast did not care that their house was still at risk of being destroyed due to a ruptured gas line.
The cable company isn’t exactly loved by some of its employees either. A call out to readers from Reddit resulted in one employee effusively stating, “I work for Comcast, and it is ruining my life.”
In a rebranding effort, Comcast once considered changing its name entirely. Instead, the cable provider decided to just change its logo to include NBC's widely recognized colorful peacock logo. NBC Universal is a subsidiary of the company.
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