A choice is wanting a mobile phone, one specific technology, and having many providers that offer it. If I could get Comcast, Cox, Charter, and Time Warner all at my same address, without moving, that's when the monopoly would end.

Why is this hard for you all? Go ahead and continue to get burned. Maybe you'll figure it out eventually...

1. exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market, or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices.

By the way, nice job making personal attacks at me.

I could care less where you work, that's the problem with running line. It's also what the phone companies faced when Ma Bell was a monopoly, it was that exact thing. They ran they line so they owned it and no one else could use it, hence the Bell monopoly and hence the Bell phone company was broken up into "baby bells" as they were called.

God you people fail at comprehension of anything.

The real problem with many of these large monopolies (Comcast/Time Warner/Verizon) is that they've grown too large and haven't managed to scale their operations to match. Calls get routed to call centers in far away places where reps are judged solely on the # of calls per hour, not actually resolving the issue. No one with accountability. It's terribly inefficient, but these companies haven't figured that out yet. They're too busy looking at call metrics and stock prices rather than customer satisfaction and long-term profitability.

Ummm Yeah verizon tried to do that to me. But they were sneaky about it. I was about to cancel my account which had 2 phones on it. One was for my mom. She didnt need text messages anymore so i removed them. 4 months later when i go to cancel the service to get iphones, they try to tell me because i took away text messages that it extended my contract 2 years. Ummmm what? Then they try to stick me with ETF of like 400 bucks or something. I talked to them numerous times and tried to resolve it, but they wouldnt budge. I havent paid and stopped using the phones. They still send me bills. I dont care. I hate verizon with passion. Was with them for 9 years then they pull that. I know this is a rant... but... work is slow lol.

Other people are not responsible for the actions of Comcast just because they don't fight or necessarily even realize a billing error. Comcast has a duty to its customers to do the right thing without being reminded about it every single time. It is not the duty of anyone else to remind Comcast to do this. If Comcast can't do it by themselves then hopefully the consumer interest czar or whatever will help them, but it's not anyones job to ensure that Comcast does its job.

Whaaaaaat?! When was that? I missed it!

Darn! >:(

U-Verse isn't "fiber-optic" any more than DSL service is. U-Verse is, in fact, nothing more than a high-speed (54MBit) DSL circuit. Half of it is carved off for TV over IP, the other half for data service and signaling. It's fiber to the node, and they just pushed the DSLAMs out to the neighbourhoods so that the copper run would be within spec for the DSL tech they're using.

Unfortunately, U-Verse was NOT cheaper to begin with. Then when I went to turn in my Comcast equipment, a rep actually noticed how angry I was and reduced my bill so that it was $80 less than U-Verse. I hate Comcast and I've heard only good things about U-Verse, but that's too big a difference at my income level.

I hate this company so much that I willingly burden myself with RCN and it's horrible, horrible offerings. And Consumerist, take note: this happened to me two years ago, and I didn't waste any time taking the fight to Martha Coakley's office. These crooks billed me for two months of service (Sept/Oct) when I had told them in JUNE that August would be my last month. It took almost half a year for the snafu to be cleared up, but in the end, I beat Comcast.

Comcast also now has a dedicated support forum over on DSLReports, but like the Twitter service, you have to know about that site for it to be of use. I guess these support services are like Comcast's version of the first rule of Fight Club.

Comcast did something cancellation unrelated to my grandmother; I gave her my old modem, got her signed up for internet service. Comcast sends a bill for 3 cable modem rentals monthly (LOL WHAT) at 5 bucks a pop + internet service bill. Good job comcast, considering there were 0 modems rented plus how the hell are you going to bill someone 3 modems on one internet plan.

That said, I think it's a bit odd that you can't get that level of service when it matters, and instead have to hunt the internet for effective customer service after your perception of the company has already been tainted. It would stand to reason that it'd probably be better if Comcast empowered all their customer service representatives to be that effective, however the folks I spoke to online to get my issue resolved didn't seem to give half a squirt of piss. The mind wobbles.

That's something you shouldn't be forgetting, but if you do, I would think that you'd just suck it up and take it as a lesson learned, rather than punishing the company for your own mistakes.

Besides, stuff like this really makes it tough for those of us with legitimate issues to get them resolved.

See, I wanted them to transfer service to my new apartment, but the tech they sent out to install service decided not only to just skip the appointment, but he also decided to call Comcast and cancel our account on our behalf! That raises a whole ton of concerns that I will eventually have to address I'm sure, but I was without a phone at the time, so I put it in the back of my mind and got a hold of Shari from work the next day, who graciously got me a service call lined up for the same day. I'm waiting for a bill to show up in the mail telling me that I still owe for service at the old address in spite of Comcast swearing up and down that it's been taken care of.

It sucks a huge amount of ass through a crazy straw that the tech was able to cancel our account, because I had a bunch of deals on my account as a result of the complaints I filed with the FCC. I could use the internet for everything else just fine, but I continually encountered issues when I'd stream video from sites like Netflix, Hulu, Youtube and the like, and having read about how the FCC had to climb up Comcast's ass and tell them to stop screwing with people's video streaming, I took my issue to the FCC. Comcast gave me half off my internet bill and a bunch of free channels for a year. All gone in the blink of an eye when the tech took it upon himself to misrepresent our intent. Which itself caused all sorts of issues.

Ugh, it's been one huge headache after another. If I had an alternative in my area, I'd drop Comcast like a bad habit. Unfortunately I don't, and my disabled mother likes to watch programs on cable besides, so I'm stuck with Comcast for the time being. Ugh.

We told them, OK, cancel that too! Great business model Comcast... Also, the lady hung up before giving us our cancellation confirmation number. We had to call back yet again to get it. I am so impressed by U-Verse, if it had only been available years ago.

The term "billing error" ended when it was brought to their attention and Comcast elected to claim they are entitled to do whatever they wanted.

@rwalford79: You have no clue what you are talking about, do you?

First, in the majority of instances, there is fiber up to the taps up on the pole outside of your home.

Second, if the lines were not upgraded in the last 'decade or more', Comcast would not have anywhere near the network bandwidth to offer what they do.

Seriously, if you are just looking to troll, say so.

If customers could get cable TV from a competitor that did not engage in fraudulent billing (if it was simply an error they would have corrected it when it was brought to their attention, it wouldn't have taken a call from the AG's office or the FCC) then Comcast would wither and die like it deserves to.

@Don Roberto: So, let me get this straight...you moved, but kept the equipment for 6 months after the fact, neglected to cancel the service for 8 month after the move, the cried foul and wanted a refund?

They should have laughed at you. You kept their equipment, and failed to cancel your account. Why should they be expected to refund an equipment rental charge when you still had the equipment, and had yet to cancel the account?

This is just one of those things that irritates me about the EECB. Yes, it's handy when warranted, but I'm sorry, that's just abuse of the whole system.

@supercereal: I have to say I agree with you.

When my boyfriend and I were looking into internet service for our apartment, we opted to go with cable internet for 2 reasons. 1) it was already wired, 2) we didn't want to have to pay to get a landline so we could go through a carrier such as AT&T. Once we narrowed it down to a cable carrier, we had a few options, but went with one that we were familiar with, and had had a good experience with in the past, CableOne. Granted, we don't have the fastest internet, or even a great computer, we at least have something, and that's always better than nothing...especially since my boyfriend requires the internet to work from home....

Within two weeks, I had received a new bill -- noting the payment that had gone in. They could not say it had "crossed n processing." I got on the phone and ripped 'em a new one, eventually telling the person I talked to that I knew it wasn't his fault, but the rotten customer service was the reason I had canceled anyhow. I did receive my refund as well as a new bill that canceled the one I had.

It is important to let every company know when they have done a good job or a bad one.

Comcast is fiber to the node just not to the home itself. That has been done in the last 5 years or so in most markets. Know your facts.

All of these companies are monopolies...

Cable lines need eminant domain on them, and the FCC/Government can decide that anyone can come in and take them over if they chose.

Cable has NOT been upgraded in the past decade or more, and contrary to the adverts, Comcast has NOT a fiber optic network that they claim... Maybe from the office to the internet, but not from home to office (nice try, and false adverts on that one).
So Im sure Cable isnt making any less money by leasing out their lines, since there is nothing new about them.

There is plenty of competition in the mobile phone industry. I'm sure more than a few people out there have been mis-billed by their respective providers.

Anyway, speaking as somebody who works for Verizon, I know my company never would have bothered to put in fiber optic lines to homes if they would have to just resell the line to a competitor

I moved into a new home. Forgot to turn in the cable modem for 6 months, turned it in, but forgot to cancel it for 2 more months. All that time, I'm getting billed auto on my credit card. Quit my job, started scrutinizing credit card bills, as I should have been doing, and noticed all those charges.

Did the email carpet bomb thingy, and within 2 business days, someone from my local resolution team contacted me, left me multiple vmails, and finally refunded my money to the tune of $400 dollars.

Because I had moved, they did ask for proof that I moved, so I faxed the closing doc on my new home.

Good info to know, though. I'll definitely hold on to that receipt and have my AG on speed dial for when they pull this.

It's good they didn't have automatic billing set up with their account, or this would have been an even BIGGER debacle.

This poster apologizes for watching The Twilight Zone episode 'It's a Good Life' yesterday and drawing parallels to everything.

I think I'm just going to go back to drawing on rock walls for entertainment.