Comcast Will Charge for Hurricane Irene Service Outages, Blames God

[The Straight Story]

Comcast Will Charge for Hurricane Irene Service Outages, Blames God

Comcast customers who lost—or still don't have—cable, phone or Internet service in the wake of Hurricane Irene have a nasty surprise in store for them when they seek to get credit for their downtime. Comcast says they won't be crediting customers who lost service during the hurricane because it was an "Act of God".

What does that mean to you if you lost service during the hurricane, or still a week later don't have it? It means you'll be paying for the internet, the phone, the cable you never received.

I stumbled upon this while dealing with my own cable, phone and internet issues that left me without any service for six days and running.

When I contacted Comcast in the days following Irene I was initially told I'd be without service for a day and would receive credit for the loss. When I called two days later, I was told it would be two days, but I would receive credit. When I called six days later I was told they didn't know how long it would be and that when it was restored I would not be receiving credit for the lost service.

http://blog.kotaku.com/5837065/comcast-will-charge-for-no-service-blames-god

[TBF]

1. Typical Comcast behavior - they are one of the worse companies I have

ever dealt with. I put them right up there with Bank of America.

[AC_Mem]

2. Switch your service!

I have U-Verse and love it. Yes, I know its att - sorry. It is still great service and you get so much more for the same price as comcast - actually (edit), my bill is less than I paid for Comcast.

I used to have Comcast and hated them for reasons just such as this. I had an issue with my Uverse service last month, my box periodically rebooted for about 3 days. I called about it and spoke to a manager. The other day when I looked at my bill I had a $58.00 credit - They credited me over $150.00; I had a negative bill.

Nice surpirse.

Annette

[NutmegYankee]

3. While I didn't have electricity for 6 days, AT&T had UVERSE up in a day.

AT&T had a 5500 Watt generator running the fiber optic junction box for the duration of the power outage. And in a classic sign that you are in small town New England, nobody stole it even though it was sitting alone the entire time.

And don't give me shit about using AT&T - I live in a rural area and my choices for broadband are very limited.

[kentuck]

4. God refused to pay?

So that leaves you!

[jtrockville]

5. Comcast can't pull that crap around here (though I'm sure they'll still try)

From this news release (pdf): http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/pdf/archive/pr/2003/1028mpcomcast.pdf

Under terms of a class action settlement, which resulted from an ice storm in 1999, Comcast is required to include specific information on their monthly bills as to how customers who suffered a loss of cable television can request credits.

I'm not sure if this ruling just applies to our (Montgomery County, MD) franchise with Comcast, or if the ruling is more broad. But it might be worth calling your local franchise authority (LFA) to find out if Comcast is really allowed to charge you for service they didn't provide. Contact info for your LFA is required (federal law) to be on each bill (check the back-side).