Complaint Review: Comcast - Nationwide

The quick version:

Comcast sent my bill to an email address they created and that I didn't even know existed, then disconnected my service for non-payment without any attempt to notify me. Trying to contact them resulted in more than an hour of making phone calls, most of which were disconnected by their system before I ever got to speak to a human being. We'll be using a T-Mobile hotspot for our in-home Internet from now on.

The long version:

We recently moved to the Atlanta area, and the only decent (price & speed) option for Internet service was Comcast/Xfinity. Having dealt with them before, we were less than pleased, but I work from home and decent speeds/data plans are important. So we bit the bullet and signed up.

Here we are one month later, never received a bill, and wake up to find that our service has been disconnected for non-payment. We owe $70.90, says their website (the only site we can connect to using our WiFi). I, of course, want a breakdown of those charges and to see what the hell happened, so I try calling.

That's when the real fun started.

I tried several different 800 numbers that I found online (using my phone's hotspot to connect). Every single one of them had me enter all my identifying information multiple times, then disconnected me at the exact same point--before speaking to a human being, of course. I got ahold of a live chat operator (again, using my phone's data plan to connect) and got other numbers that were "direct hotlines" to the service and, eventually, the cancellation departments. They funneled me back to the same primary customer service lines where, again, I was disconnected.

So, let's call the sales lines--they always answer, right? Disconnected twice, but eventually managed to speak to several sales representatives who were "sorry, but they can't transfer me"--not to billing, not to cancellation. If I wanted to buy something more from Comcast they were happy to help, otherwise I was pretty much f**ked.

After about an hour, I finally manage to get someone in cancellations. They tell me that my account is already in "non-paid deactivation" (remember, this is after one month of service, and I have NEVER RECEIVED A BILL) and they can't do anything. They can't even tell me what the $70.90 I supposedly owe them consists of; for that I need to speak to someone in billing.

Finally get ahold of someone in billing (had to insist that the cancellation rep transfer me and stay on the line while I was being transferred to make sure I wasn't disconnected--she argued, but yelling at her for long enough actually worked).

They tell me my bill was sent to an @comcast.net account that they swear I set up but I very much did not, they simply took my Comcast username (which I had to set up) and made an email address without telling me, then sent my bill there.

I insisted on a paper bill, and I was told that PAPER BILLS ARE AN EXTRA $5 CHARGE PER MONTH. Told him exactly what he could do with himself, and that was that.

I'm typing this report using my phone's hotspot. I've already called T-Mobile, which has great service in this area and great customer service in general--we've been with them for more than a decade--and we'll be using a mobile hot spot with a high-tiered data plan for our in-home Internet. I'd rather pay a little (a VERY little) each month than give Comcast a single penny more.

Comcast: You suck. You know you suck, because reports like this are posted all the time. Maybe you disconnect everyone who calls because you're tired of hearing about how much you suck, but I'll be posting this everywhere I can just to make sure you know how much you suck. (p.s. you suck).