Pick up at local office
UPS Shipment

If the roommate had gone to pick it up at the office, she would have had to show identification and her name would have to be on the account. They are very strict at the offices with this policy.

UPS - if the caller was not authorized, its still feasable for someone to set up the order for the box to be mailed to the customer, however, the box would have been addressed to the main account holder (Dave) - so the roommate would have been illegally opening the package (I'm assuming there's laws against opening someone else's UPS package like there is for US mail).

The only way I can see Comcast avoiding blame is some kind of "you gave us default okay if you didn't complain for XXX days about the charge" clause.

@tonberryqueen:

I got a call out of the blue a couple of months ago from Comcast. The rep apologized for us being cut off and wanted to finalize my order. I explained that I had no idea what she was talking about. Apparently someone had called and was making a change to my service. She said that they said they were me and provided my last 4 of my SSN. When they were cut off she called back the number on file and got me.

She wanted my SSN as verification. I refused and asked for her extension, as I was going to call the main number to make sure I wasn't being scammed. She was legit, but wouldn't tell me any details of the false order.

We established a security code and I haven't seen any fraud on my credit reports. But it is scary.

@zacox: @tonberryqueen:

I got a call out of the blue a couple of months ago from Comcast. The rep apologized for us being cut off and wanted to finalize my order. I explained that I had no idea what she was talking about. Apparently someone had called and was making a change to my service. She said that they said they were me and provided my last 4 of my SSN. When they were cut off she called back the number on file and got me.

She wanted my SSN as verification. I refused and asked for her extension, as I was going to call the main number to make sure I wasn't being scammed. She was legit, but wouldn't tell me any details of the false order.

We established a security code and I haven't seen any fraud on my credit reports. But it is scary.

I'm kind of surprised Comcast doesn't have a similar policy to help prevent issues such as this one.

Once OP didn't dispute the extra charges for some reasonable length of time, Comcast is off the hook. He's out the 6 bucks a month - sorry. And he's liable for the cable box.

That said, OP needs to send ex-roommate a demand letter, certified mail, return receipt. Demand ex-roommate send OP reimbursement for the missing-cable-box fee, plus the monthly fee for the extra cable box. Give her a deadline. When she doesn't pay up, small claims court is the only recourse (unless you can get her to a mediator).

File a police report, submit it to Comcast. Then it's a theft issue. It's up to the OP whether he wants to deal with that or not.

So she called Verizon. I let her have the account number, but she didn't have any of my other information. They added the DVR to the account and sent it the next day. Now, I did give her permission to do this. And I pay the bill every month online, calculate her share, and she writes me a check. She's honest, so it works in this case. But how could Verizon have known? I was very disturbed that they'd add monthly charges to the account without the express authorization of the account holder.

wow, Comcast won't even let me pay my son's bill for him. He has to call, have phone number, last 4 of ssn and answers to security question to get the bill paid over the phone. Someone on their CS team really blew it.

Comcast is in the right on this (::shivers::). The OP needs to sue the old roomate in small claims court, provided that he can prove that he took the cable box...

@katstermonster: By the way, I hearted both you and pecan in the past. I know that doesn't mean much, but trust me when I say that I'm the last person around here who is going to be likely to mess with you folks for the sake of it. I might not interact with you folks as much as you do with one another, but I do respect you just the same, and I'm not going to be a dick to you, much less for the sake of it. So please give me the benefit of the doubt in the future, okay?

Similar thing happened to my co-worker: his car got smashed up in the parking lot, and another co-worker saw it take place and was able to identify the car. however, even with the car identified, there was no way to contact the driver and get insurance information - even the police were unwilling to help, except to give a name. fortunately for my co-worker, I was once a skiptracer, and her last name was not all that common, and she also had an out of state plate. so, i did a quick search and found someone with the same last name in utah. my co-worker called and after some initial confusion, he was able to impart the message that their daughter was involved in a hit and run and would be turned over to the police if the matter was not handled immediately. the mom thanked my co-worker! and 5 minutes later the daughter called with info at the ready. she blamed a friend - a friend that magically works in the same building as you? hmm, OK. he didn't press charges but I would've.

@DanKelley98: Please do explain.

This is the sort of post that katstermonster would be better served to turn his/her venom towards. You hear that katstermonster? Tear this guy a new asshole!

@katstermonster: I agree with you. However, if the OP had paid closer attention to his bills, he may have been able to catch this problem before she moved out with the box.

He may still have been out the cost of the rental up to the point that he caught it, but he wouldn't be up shit creek for $300 for the cost of the missing box either.

That said, the onus should be on Comcast to prove that he either ordered the box himself or authorized her to do it. Barring that, they should just swallow the loss and bone up on their security in the future. I find the idea that any old jerk with a bit of rudimentary information could call and get changes made to my account.

This is absolutely correct. Comcast reps (and I used to be one) are trained to make sure they are speaking with the account holder before upgrading services like this.

That being said, the way they verify who they're speaking to is to double-check information contained on the account. So they'll ask for names, phone numbers, security codes, etc. If the roommate was a bit of a con artist (and it sounds like she was) then she could have easily found the information she needed around the house and posed as a wife or whatever to get what she wanted.

It would be nice if Comcast could waive the $300 fee for the box (which would merit an "above and beyond" IMO). I don't see any way to legitimately get out of the rental charges though. Check with escalations. They ought to be able to see just how the box got on the account in the first place from the notes in the billing system.

And if the roommate is not returning calls and generally being a class-A shady bitch, then I don't really see any other choice but to take her to small claims court. She is, after all, the root of the problem here, not Comcast.

@katstermonster: Listen, I very well may have misinterpreted his/her post. Simply pointing out that misunderstanding to me would have sufficed. There's no need to be shitty about it, alright? You'll attract more bees with honey than you will with vinegar.

That said, I'm not really sure that I did misinterpret anything here. See, you appear to have assumed that my post was meant to address the suggestions that pecan made to the OP for alternate contact methods, but besides being a pretty big assumption, it's dead wrong. I was just addressing the implied incredulity that I may have mistakenly read into the first sentence of pecan's post, wherein pecan appeared to express confusion as to why the OP could have called his thieving ex-roommate and go on to claim that he has no way of contacting her.

I was initially of the same mind. How do you call someone you have claim to have no way of contacting? However, if you consider that he may have called the phone number he had for her when she lived with him several months ago, and that it's entirely possible that she could have long-since abandoned that number to avoid being confronted for her many alleged transgressions, then it makes sense that he may not have any way of contacting her after all. That's what I was addressing. I had nothing to say about pecan's suggestions for alternate contact methods one way or the other.

Now it's still possible that I may have read something into pecan's post that wasn't there, but at worst that would call for pecan to clarify that misconception for me. It still wouldn't call for you to treat me like an idiot because you assumed that I was talking about something else and couldn't be bothered to seek clarification for what it was that I was really on about.

We're all reasonable people here, so do the civil thing next time and ask me to clarify my point if you don't quite get whatever it is that I'm on about, 'kay? I'll be sure to give you the same courtesy in return. Thanks.

What's Dave thinking? His problem is with the roommate, not Comcast; and its really sad to see him try to use Consumerist in this way....

Dave is wrong, Comcast is right.

The cable is in Dave's name. It was his responsibility to notice that he was being charged $6 a month for over a year now for an extra box. The box is missing and unless Dave can get it back, Comcast has every right to charge him $300. Case closed.

Consumerist staff, why does this start "Dave is the responsible roommate". No, Dave is not, he doesn't even read the cable bills to make sure the charges are right. That is responsible?

@RevRagnarok: comcast is absolutely at fault. they shouldnt send out stuff to people not in contract with them. whats your name? i could use a new dvr. ill just tell them your moving.

WRONG

Dave was defrauded and shouldn't be responsible for the payment. In addition to disputing the charge with Comcast he should alert the police.

Dave was defrauded, is responsible for the payment and should promptly pay Comcast.

Then Dave should file a police report against his lowlife roommate.

Also, she may have just asked a repair tech for a box when they were out. I've never had my identity questioned by anyone from Comcast who was actually at my house.

Wow, bad day for Daves. The last 3 posts have been about Verizon, Pizza Hut, and Comcast issues for guys named Dave/David.

> OP needs to file a police report, then call his insurance company, then demand Comcast fix their error/theft (probably involving the OP filing a small claims suit against Comcast, or at least threatening to).

>> Comcast is then free to pursue remedies against theft-happy unauthorized roommate, if they so choose.

Okay... it's Dave's responsibility to go after the old roommate. I agree with that. But I'm not sure why Comcast couldn't help out a little here. And why is it that we care so much about technical blame when good customer service dictates that a very large company should help a relatively blameless consumer.

Shame that: short of swapping health care systems, I can't imagine anything more likely to break the renowned Canadian Niceness than messing with The Maple.

@celtlion: No, it's absolutely Comcast's fault. Assuming of course that the OP is on the up-and-up, and Comcast allowed his former roommate to make an unauthorized change to his account. That would put responsibility for this squarely on Comcast's shoulders.

@Dienacarfire: They don't even require that you have the last four digits of your SS number. Well they ask for it from time to time, but it's not a strict requirement.

I always refuse it, and they instead ask me for my account number and the date on which the last bill was paid. Which is information that is on the bill itself. Yay security!

I can certainly see how unauthorized changes could be made to an account. All it takes is the bill, and you're in like sin.

@failurate: Well I'm sure that the OP has definitely learned his lesson. Still, that doesn't really begin to address the issue here, being that the crux of the matter is that Comcast let an unauthorized party make changes to his account.

Sure he didn't notice it for like what, a year after it happened, but it should never have happened to begin with.

@kexline: Ouch. That's horrible.

@Cyberxion101: Pecan Pi DID consider that possibility, which is why she suggested OTHER methods of contacting her. Like Facebook, for which you only need the person's name. And hey, she lived with him, so I'd hope he knows her name! Your comment doesn't even make any sense...

Maybe the roommate knew someone who worked at a Comcast store or something.

@theblackdog_FeelingRandom: Sorry, but unless Comcast can prove that either the OP ordered the box, or that he had authorized the former roommate to do so, Comcast is the one who is SOL.

Well maybe not SOL, but they may be eating the cost of the box when all is said and done.

@SonicPhoenix:

The boxes are addressable and have serial numbers so this would not work.

The OP isn't THAT stupid, this girl was a deadbeat, why would he have put her on the account?

And if this site has taught me anything, it's that people will lie, cheat, steal, any do any underhanded thing possible to absolve them of any personal responsibility. I've just become more skeptical than most when it comes to illogical stories that involve people paying someone else's bills for more than a year "without noticing."

Questions Unanswered.

1. Did OP know roomate had ordered a box in September
2. Did the OP notice the additional charge for the 7 months?

If the answer is yes to any of these, then it's not Comcasts problem. If, for whatever reason he didn't know the roomate had the box and didn't question the additional charge on his bill for 7 months it's unfortunetaly entirely his own fault. Sure Comcast sending the box out without the account owner asking is questionable but it's actually fairly common.

Check your bills people. Use common sense. This isn't something for Comcast to fix. It's something that needs to be addressed through small claims court if the roomate won't return it.

@friendlynerd: Reading is fundamental!

Seriously, RTFA my friend. The OP didn't loan her anything. She called Comcast and got them to make an unauthorized change to this account, and it escaped his attention for so long because he seems to be of the impression that auto-pay means that you don't have to bother to look at your bill. So she basically snuck one under him because he's irresponsible, and now he's up shit creek.

@pecan 3.14159265: It's entirely possible that he may have tried calling the number he had for her when she was his roommate, and that he has no other way of contacting her besides that.

I admit that it looked funny to me too at first, but it make sense when you consider that possibility. :)

Comcast really only require that you know the name, address, and last four digits of the social security number for the account (or the account number). Sometimes a rep will want to talk to the account holder, but most of the time that is not true.

Dave needs to file a police report as well ask speak with a supervisor at Comcast (after filing said police report). Generally Comcast will work with the police, and once they know a report has been filed, they should refund the money.

@tailstoo: I would imagine that it might be difficult for Dave to have retrieved the box before his roommate left with it, being that Dave had no idea that the she had ordered a cable box in the first place. :P

If Dave is at fault for anything, it's for letting auto-pay make him complacent. That your bills magically pay themselves without you needing to do anything to make it happen doesn't absolve you of the responsibility you have for looking at them every month. He may not have initially been aware that his shady bitch of a roommate had ordered the cable box, but he should have been as soon as it showed up on his bill, and he would have been had he bothered to look at it.

Dave did own responsibility for this, but in spite of his objection it actually is the point. Well maybe not, but it does have a bearing on the matter at hand just the same. There was a period of several months between when she ordered the cable box and when she moved out, but it never did occur to Dave to look at his bill at any time over the course of those months. In fact it took him another several months after she left for him to come to the conclusion that something wasn't right and to finally check it. In spite of how unimportant Dave seems to think this is, the simple fact of the matter is that had he been more diligent about checking his Comcast bill from month to month he would have caught the additional cable box, and he would have been able to confront his roommate about it before she moved out and took it with her.

Still, Dave's lack of attention to detail aside, I'd like to see Comcast do the right thing here. Sure Comcast may technically be within its rights to demand that Dave pay for the box, but they would also be well-served to keep it in mind that this is only an issue because they allowed an unauthorized party to make a change to his account without seeking his permission. They should call it a wash and write the box off, because pressing the matter may draw attention to just how lax they are when it comes to the security of its customer's accounts. That could be more trouble than the missing cable box is worth.

As for getting a former roommate's contact info before she/he leaves, what's to keep them from lying to you, or from withholding that information altogether? Especially when they have reason to do so, as may be the case in Dave's situation? I can't imagine that a thief would want to give her former roommates the means with which to track her down, especially if she left the house with disputes and unpaid bills. It may not have made a difference even had he thought to ask her for that information.

@RevRagnarok: Two things here:
1) As others have pointed out, Comcast better have a decent explanation as to why they issed a cable box to some random unauthorized caller and are attempting to collect from the OP. If this woman talked them into ignoring all of their identity procedures, then the mistake is at least partially on them (he's still partially at fault for letting a year go by without bringing it up).

2) I hate to say it, but small claims court likely isn't worth the hassle for $300. You're looking at two days lost wages (one day off for the trial, another to file the forms and effect personal service on the defendant) and even if you're 100% successful you're not that much better off as you've still got to try and collect your $300 from a known deadbeat.

Actually, you probably shouldn't do this as it may constitute fraud but it'd be funny as hell.

@katstermonster: I think it depends on the parent. There are entirely too many adult children with enabling parents who think their precious babies can do no wrong.

File a claim with your Renter's or Homeowner's Insurance policy. Take that money, pay Comcast, and call it a lesson learned. All these lawsuits sound awesome until you realize they are not worth the time or hassle.

@Trai_Dep: Between this today and my Cracker Barrel post yesterday, I am completely freaking out with how much Consumerist I am a part of!

I think the OP needs to tell Comcast to provide proof of who authorized the new box. If they can't provide proof that it was the OP who ordered it, then I'd start filing complaints and police reports. Worked for me.

And BTW, much to my surprise, the FTC was great. I got a personal call back from someone at FTC in DC within 3 days of filing my complaint, and two follow-up calls to make sure the matter was resolved to my satisfaction.

Did the poster actually have the other roommates on the Comcast account, or was it solely in his name? If the latter is true, then the former roommate received the box fradulently from Comcast, and Comcast should not have allowed her to order the cable box. In that case, Dave would have to try to convince Comcast they gave a cable box to a fraudulent party and the account holder (Dave) did not authorize that action. Then it would be on Comcast to get their cable box back. Frankly, if he's the sole account holder it would be on Comcast to prove an account holder ordered the box.

Filing a police report makes a lot of sense. Again, for a $300 item where the perp's address is unknown, the OP isn't going to have the CSI squad running around trying to find a cable box.

If the OP has the information (say on the lease application) filing a report with the credit agencies may be helpful if nasty but at this point I think nasty is probably justified.

Ask Comcast if they can locate/turn off the box. I would expect that if service was running through that box, Comcast would be able to determine its location.

The suggestion of filing an insurance report is a good one subject to determining the deductible portion. If it's $500, filing a claim for $300 is pretty useless. In any case, I would check with the agent first to find out whether filing a claim is likely to cause a bump in premiums.

The OP was pretty clear that they didn't authorize the additional box or any other changes to the account. I don't know how it is in Seattle, but I own the building in LA where my business is located, and I rent out 3 suites to my colleagues. The bills are all in my name. Even though we are all at the same address, not one of my utility providers will allow anyone but me to make changes to my accounts. It's even a hassle because sometimes I want one of my colleagues to be able to call in and discuss our service, but they will only speak with me unless I specifically add my colleagues to the account.

I'm not saying Comcast is completely at fault, but I certainly don't think they should be blameless when they were the ones who sent the box without the account holders permission. Problem is, by paying the monthly fee for so long, OP was giving Comcast his tacit approval, so he's SOL, unfortunately.

That said, autopay is always a bad idea. Ignoring your bills + autopay is a horrible idea.

Step 1: Contact your insurance company to report the theft so they can pay Comcast.
Step 1b: If you don't have insurance, or this isn't covered, you pay Comcast $300.

Step 2: Contact the police and explain the situation to them.

Step 3: File a small claims court case against the former roommate.

Step 4: Receive default judgement when the former roommate doesn't show up.
Step 4b: If the roommate does show up, receive official judgement instead.

Step 5: After x months of not receiving payment, file in small claims against to garnish roommate's wages. See if you can tack on court fees at this point.

Step 6: Wait for roommate to get a job and ganish away.
Step 6b: If roommate doesn't get a job, file to put a lien against something they own and repossess it.

Alternatively, see if you can convince the crown/DA in your area to prosecute. Good luck with this, $300 of theft on your say-so probably just won't cut it for a proper case and the crown knows it, so they'll tell you no. If they say yes, well, wait until the case is done and you'll get the receiver back. Unfortunately, it'll be blacklisted by Comcast at that point and it'll be worthless and you can then go to Step 3 anyways.

@RevRagnarok: The OP says that he didn't authorize the former roommate to make changes to the account. If that's the case, then isn't Comcast at fault for releasing the second cable-box without his consent?

I have to jump through hoops just to ask technical questions. Getting changes made to my account is doubly difficult. If it's this tough to do when the account is in your own name, then it stands to reason that it should be even more difficult to do for someone who isn't authorized to do it at all. And yet according to the OP, his former roommate was able to get Comcast to make changes to his service in spite of not being authorized to do so. If that's true, then how is it not Comcast's fault?

Also, I think you misspoke when you said that the OP was at fault. While I still wouldn't agree, I think you'd have been more correct to say that the missing cable-box is the OP's responsibility. He's not at fault. If anyone is, it's his thieving former roommate, and Comcast for letting her get away with it in spite of not being authorized to make changes to his account.

Anyway, what the OP should do is start the process to file a claim in small claims court. If the OP wins, the roommate will almost certainly have to pay the 300 bucks. And if the judge is feeling generous, they might throw in the monthly charges and possibly some extra for the trouble the roommate caused by fraudulently modifying the account.

So once the paperwork starts moving, the OP can go to the roommate and offer to settle out of court by having the roommate return the box and pay the monthly charges. It will be cheaper for both of them because no one has to pay the 300 bucks.

Anyway, that's what I'd do.

The OP definitely should have paid closer attention to his bills, but I wouldn't think the roommate was authorized to order a cable box. That's something Comcast needs to look into.

HAHAHAHA

I understand your point, but honestly, what's the big deal? Unless they are giving out your account info, the worst that would happen is you notice a higher bill the next month and call to rectify it. I highly doubt people are randomly calling and ordering cable packages for people the don't know.

If Comcast were to read off your info to the caller (or allow someone to change the contact info on the account), that would be a different story.

Comcast went and made a deal with somebody who is not Dave, and decided to stick Dave with the bill. That's not cool. I agree that Dave shouldn't have monthly bills refunded, because dude Dave, you're right, you really should look at your bills, and paying a bill is tantamount to agreeing it was correct. But Dave never acknowledged receipt of, nor agreed to be responsible for any additional cable boxes, and has received no benefit from Comcast that suggests he should now be paying them. In contract law, both parties must receive some benefit for a contract to be valid, and this includes modifications to contracts as well.

Seems to me that Comcast should have made a better attempt at finding out who was adding equipment and what authorization she had.

Were this to be one fluid act (ordered the box 2 days before skipping town), Comcast would be left holding the bag here, and not the OP. But because there were seven months between the time she ordered the box and skipped town with it, the OP shares some responsibility.

If I were a judge deciding this case, I would rule thus:

Comcast and the OP each have 50% responsibility.

Comcast should have denied the authorization for a new box since the account was not in EvilFormerRoommate's name.

The OP should have watched his bills more closely and determined that there was an extra box.

Comcast should refund the first month of box fees as well as every month since the OP brought it to their attention.

Comcast should waive $150 of the $300 box fee.

The OP should not seek a refund of the middle x months of box fees, and he should pay Comcast $150.

Case closed.

This is why you check your bills people!

@Kimaroo - Fortified with Kittydus Purrularis: Just don't have "Noaballayarnis!"

Of course that could be cured by going to Len's Mill Store. Shepd probably knows where that is.

@ChuckECheese: Never never never. How many times do people have to state to NEVER put any company's bills on auto-pay?

Get them to send you the invoice so you can have a look at it first! Then YOU can choose how much/if/when you pay.

I don't know about a police report, I'm thinking small claims. Anyone?

Bottom line - my sympathies for having a crummy roommate. Something similar happened to one of my buddies. You know what worked for her? She called her ex-roommate's mother, and the mother shamed her into making good. You could try that.

I have a password on my Comcast account, that requires me to provide it any time I call to make an account change. If the OP still has roommates, he might want to consider doing this.

ugh. this is why I live alone. I have had simiar problems in the past and went to small claims court against the former roommate which worked for me - I did eventually get my money back.

@MostlyHarmless: Now that I'm thinking about it, you are probably right.. *Sigh* You just can't win with them.. unless you have potato sticks.

"Meh. Wheres my food? And what is alfred doing here?"

@tailstoo: I agree but I think Comcast shares some of the blame for allowing such easy mods to their account. I can vouch for the ease. My wife called from her cell (not the phone on record), only gave our last name and ordered an upgrade.

Dave says the old roommate isn't answering his phone calls, but then says that he has no way of contacting her? He should try finding some of her friends on Facebook and Twitter. It may not pan out but at least if she's not answering his phone calls, he can still get to her friends and see if they'll help him out.

What he should do at this point is alert the police because he is the account holder, and she didn't have his authorization to get another cable box, so he can report her to the police for theft. At the very least, they may be able to retrieve the cable box for Dave, and he can return that to Comcast and get the charges refunded.

And he should take his account off auto-pay.

Anytime you have a roommate who leaves, you should have their contact info - you never know what skeletons pop up after they're gone.

One of my old roommates had our Comcast in her name, and when we wanted to upgrade our cable package and get DVR, she had me call to set it up one day when I was off from work. I didn't even have her cell phone number in front of me, so I couldn't even give them that without ending the call and looking at my phone contacts, but they let me order the modifications, anyway, only knowing our account address and the account holder's name.

...which, in retrospect, is pretty scary.

OOooh.. That is shady shady.. I'm only a little surprised that Comcast allowed someone unauthorized to add a box to the account. Maybe she posed as "his wife" or some such.. but still her name should have to be on the account for her to deal with them.

Also: YAY My kitteh is famous!! Bastien will be so impressed later when I show him.

You won't see me type this much, but it has to happen every now and then: "Comcast is not at fault here." Not their problem that you sublet the Comcast account.

Now that I think about it, it's most likely against Comcast's ToS. Doubly so if you have a cable modem. I don't agree with that, but the simple fact of the matter is it is in your name.

I've had apartment bills stuck in my name way too many times...

Sorry I had to blame the OP here, but it sure looks like that's where the fault lies.