Complaint Review: Comcast Cable - Atlanta Georgia

I had a power surge come through my house and fry my computer monitor, built-in microwave oven, and every other electronic I owned. When I contacted Georgia Power because I had a whole house surge suppression system installed by them over two years ago, the guy came out, and showed me that someone from the cable company had wired AROUND their surge suppressor, on the box that protects from surges from the cable (they have individual boxes for power, cable, and phone).

I remembered that I had upgraded to digital cable a couple of years ago because of a free offer, and when the tech came out, he knocked on the door, told me he would be installing the upgrade. When he finished, he came back to tell me he was done, and mentioned that he noticed I had the surge suppression system, but that he was able to "work around it." I didn't realize at the time that he meant that literally, but apparently he took it upon himself to wire around the box instead of connecting it back, thus rendering it useless.

The power guy told me he ran into this all the time, and that he now gives training to cable techs on how to deal with the surge suppressors when they come across them. He told me the cable company's actions had voided the warranty, and that I needed to go after them. He warned me that I was in for a really big fight--and he was right.

It took me three months to get anyone to do anything--and they finally told me my claim was denied--without ever having come out to my house to check it out or anything. They said I needed to write a letter, which I did, threatening to go to the FCC, get a lawyer, call an investigative reporter, all of the above, if someone did not call me immediately to have someone come out and perform due diligence.

After about a month of back and forth more calls, someone did come out, took pictures, etc., last week. (All this time I kept the wiring as was, even though it's major storm season here, and I knew I was unprotected). Tonight I got a call that my claim was denied because their records show that the original cable drop to my house was in 1997. They claim that there was no change in wiring involved when my cable was upgraded, and so that meant their wiring had occurred before the surge suppression system installation had.

When I asked if she thought that Georgia Power had reworked their cable wiring, she said that was very likely. She refused to contact the Georgia Power guy, even though he had given me his number to give to Comcast, and had volunteered to pull their service records to compare to theirs. When I asked for the name of the president of Comcast, she refused to give it to me, even after I pointed out that Comcast is a publicly held company and that is public information. She said I could look it up myself.

There is no way that the cable tech did not do the re-wiring, and there is no way Georgia Power did. He wasn't out there long enough, plus the whole idea is just ludicrous. In fact, in the midst of all this, I had a surge come through the phone line, and it fried a phone. When the same Georgia Power guy came back after I called to tell him of that development, he quickly identified it as a surge, and that the suppressor on the phone line had failed. He sent it back to the equipment manufacturer, and filled out a claim form for me on the spot. The whole thing was settled as close to immediately as you can expect in this type of situation. I don't usually stand up for a monopoly utility, but in this case I know they are justified in their position, and Comcast is looking for ways to avoid paying me.

The kicker is that the primary reason I got the surge suppression system was because it blocked surges through the cable system. My parents had a surge come through their cable several years ago that took out every TV in the house and all their electronics.

And I know there are other people out there who have had the same thing done, and maybe they have not yet been hit by a surge. I think Comcast is sitting on a potential liability powderkeg, and they are looking for an out.

Denise

Atlanta, Georgia
U.S.A.

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