Comcast Bills Man For Self-Immolating Cable Box Of Doom
If your Comcast cable box starts a fire in your home — should you be responsible for paying to replace it?
That's what happened to Kirk — and he's refusing to pay up, so Comcast has been harassing him for months. Finally, they stopped letting him use OnDemand, so Kirk canceled.
The story began when the Fire Department was summoned to Kirk's house at 5:30 AM because his cable box had caught fire. He says he never received an apology from Comcast, or any reassurance that the flaming cable box would be investigated. What he did get is a bill for $88 for destroyed equipment.
From The Daily Journal:
What was — and is — of concern to Comcast is the apparent loss of a piece of their equipment, which they billed me for, as though I were responsible for its untimely end! For several months, despite repeated telephone calls explaining why I cannot return their equipment (each of which ends nowhere and during each of which they thank me for choosing Comcast!), the $88 for their lost equipment has remained on my monthly statement along with late fees.
To add insult to injury, I wrote a letter of complaint to the corporate head office in September and, to date, have not received a response to my letter, much less an apology or any kind of guarantee that they will absorb the cost of their faulty equipment.
To be fair, I have paid the full amount of my service each month — less the $88 — which amounts to several hundred dollars, and always on time. In fact, I have been a good customer for almost eight years, and yet Comcast was willing to lose a customer who spends thousands of dollars each year on their services for an $88 piece of equipment that could have killed me in my sleep.
We asked Comcast if they had a comment about the incident, since Mr. Wisemayer didn't seem to be having much luck contacting them. Here's what they told us:
We spoke to Mr. Wisemayer this morning and apologized for his experience with our service. Our team is looking into these events and will work with Mr. Wisemayer to restore his service to his satisfaction.
If you're having trouble successfully communicating with Comcast, you should contact their team of powerful internet ninjas. They can be found at Twitter.
Burned up over cable company response [Daily Journal](Thanks, Mike!)
(Photo: Getty)
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Comments:
he should drop off a bag of ashes.
Dear God,
Thank you so much for allowing me to live in an area where I do not need to rely on Comcast for my TV and internet service.
Amen
Is 'looking into these events' the new 'taking things very seriously'?
@JulesNoctambule: Or the double-whammy:
We're looking into these events, and take them very seriously.
The "official Comcast policy" states that the process for replacing lost, damaged, or destroyed boxes is that you, as the homeowner, pays for the box, then you get reimbursed by your homeowner's insurance.
I certainly wish Kirk good luck, and I hope that Comcast bends (and breaks) this policy for you.
New Tag Line: 'The new and improved comcast cable boxes.......Powered By Sony!'
How about you sue Comcast for anything damaged in the fire that wasn't covered by insurance (or just for the amount of your deductible) and include the $88 in that. I bet you that would get their attention.
It needs to be said, customers should not have to drag in consumer advocacy groups or blogs to get a common-sense resolution to this sort of shit. If it has to go this far, then it is already a massive failure of customer service.
It's hard to say on this one who's at fault. The equipment could be defective obviously and the cable company should be responsible.
But the other consideration I've observed personally is that people tend to cram their cable box in small unventilated entertainment centers. Or they stack "crap" on top of the cable boxes. This could easily cause overheating. But even then this could be seen as a design flaw...the said cramming and stacking just exacerbated the already poor design.
@BrianDaBrain: Homeowners insurance pays for the resulting damage, but not the cause of the the damage. So if the cable box caught the house on fire, everything damaged by the fire is covered but not the box since it started the fire.
@RurouniX:
This is obviously a design flaw. It is pretty clear that this is inevitably going to happen. The boxes should be better designed to not overheat and have better ways of ventilation. They clearly don't want to use fans cause of the noise in these boxes, this instead makes them get hot.
Only company I have seen make cable boxes seems to be Scientific Atlanta. It is sad that there isn't an actual better product out to replace these, overheating, buggy, and slow boxes.
@gaya2081: Good point, but Comcast's equipment policy doesn't make the same exception, which it should. It's not technically their fault since they didn't make the box, but they did provide it, so they should be held accountable for it being defective. That's part of the rental fee... or at least what the reps are told to use to explain the rental fee.
I agree with the sue commenters.
Pay the $88 dollar bill.
Then sue comcast for for installing dangerous equipment. Include that $88 payment as one of the many items you are suing for.
@Sockatume: Consumer advocacy groups wouldn't exist if the customer service industry was capable of doing it's job with a dose of common sense.
Looks like Comcast saw how well FiOs was doing, and tried to emulate their success, right down to the fire-starting installations.
But seriously. Cancel. Then send them a certified letter that you will not be paying for their equipment that started on fire through no fault of your own. And should they try to collect such funds, via collections or any other method that affects your credit, you will pursue your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
IANAL
Why the hell should people have to rely on twitter to get some decent customer service out of these assholes? Empower the front line CSRs to do simple, common sense shit like this and your customer will be much happier!
How many of comcasts customers know that they can escalate issues like this? Probably the vasdt majority. How many cancel service because they didn't know? I'm sure it's 10s of thousands.
Comcast should be kissing his ass to be sure he doesn't sue.
I retract all of this if the customer had his box set up so that the vents were not clear (putting another piece of equipment on top of it, etc.) causing the device to overheat and thereby starting the fire.
Why isn't the OP's insurance company already charging Comcast for the damages?
The OP's claim to the insurance company should include the $88.00 fee (which he should pay) then be reimbursed by insurance.
He should then demand his deductible and other non-covered incidentals directly from Comcast, and use small claims if neccesary.
Comcast should just be friggin' reading here instead of dicking around on Twitter.
I've got no love for Comcast but is it possible that the OP could have accidentally covered the vent holes making the unit overheat?
Umm, as someone who used to work for an insurance company, maybe he should contact his homeowner's or renter's insurance company. If he made a claim after this fire for property damage, then the insurer might have the right to go after Comcast for subrogation of losses. If they are a decent insurance company, they would also include a waiver of claims against him (as their customer). Insurance companies have the time, manpower and contacts to deal with this sort of thing better than the average Joe. IANAL, YMMV.
Its pretty bad I declined a job off because all they had in the area was Comcast and Time Warner.
Does anyone else find it odd that in order for customers to get a decent response out of Comcast, they have to hear about this Twitter page through a site like Consumerist? Just think about how many people who don't know about the Twitter page are getting screwed over all the time. My mom and dad don't know how to use Twitter at all, and there are a lot of customers like them out there.
Combust Communications - Worst Company in America!
@RurouniX: Usually its just that. The box would overheat, and it would melt down and cease to function. Cable boxes are typically designed for ventilation and storage in some type of closed environment. I have my cable box right under my DVD player. Never has given me problems.
But then again, it could be faulty wiring in the homeowners house that could cause such a thing.
Holy Crap! Several hundred dollars per month? I shudder...
That being said, I cannot believe Comcast would not just forgive the equipment charge, especially when it never should have been there in the first place. One would think that would be an acceptable "favor". IMO, comcast should gift the OP free upgrades of all equipment on the account and a service boost (If that's even possible, for what he's paying monthly).
I live in Houston, and you may have heard that we had a little hurricane come through here in September. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ike Down on Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula, people had homes washed away into the bay or the Gulf of Mexico. Comcast was right on top of it, though - just as soon as they were able, they sent out notices to the affected customers.
They wanted their cable boxes back. And if the boxes were destroyed, they wanted to be paid for them.
Direct TV did the same thing.
Cite: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ike/galveston/6089134.html
Cecil
@TakingItSeriously: he should call a product liability lawyer. not only should you not be responsible for the cost of replacement, they should be paying your ass for all the damages.
Yep. I would happen to be one of those people. I'm cancelling my service with them next week. . . . I'm sick of being told different things by different techs when the same issue persists for months. @Jabronimus:
@BrianDaBrain: Don't most home owner's insurance policies carry a high deductible, like $500-1000 dollars? In other words, Is Comcast yet again being a douche? The answer, at 11!
Something similar happened to me! My box would make grinding, clicking, sounds occasionally start smoking. I called Comcast and asked them to come to replace my box. I was told that i would have to pay $15 if they came to my house to do the repair! But if i brought in my burnt cables and box the main office it would be free. What did of ridiculous business are they running? What if there was damage in the wall, or it had affected other cables as well. Im not a professional, I cant evaluate these things and why should i pay them to do their job?
@ludwigk:
Don't most home owner's insurance policies carry a high deductible, like $500-1000 dollars? In other words, Is Comcast yet again being a douche? The answer, at 11!
Why wait 'til 11? We all know the answer...
YES!!!
There is a distinction between a cable box that is destroyed in a house fire, and a cable box that itself catches on fire.
I would argue the policy quoted only covers the first situation, not the second.
I don't think it's unreasonable for a company to have 1 or 2 posts on here; even Apple, well known for its quality CS, ends up here every once in a while (though that may be because they're the hot company these days..). However, the amount of posts due to Comcast failures - they even got their own tag - is fucking ridiculous. They really need to step it up or GTFO.
I also get the impression that Comcast is the type of company that will fail miserably and have to ask for a bailout. Maybe that's just because of the massive amount of failure surrounding it like a halo of doom.
@Franklin Comes Alive!: the internet sucks, only reason I have cable now is because its bundled for like 25 more with who I got now.
Why not find a lawyer, and go after them? I'm sure they'll drop the charge immediately...
But are they saying you (or your insurance) if Comca$t's box self destructs and STARTS the fire?
I once had to trade a regular box for a HD box and they told me that I would be charged fifteen dollars for the guy to bring it to the house (even though they were going to charge me an extra ten bucks a month for the equipment and the "HD upgrade"). My local office is ten minutes away, so I decided to just take it in myself to buck their system and get around paying the fee. They charged me three dollars and called it an "administrative charge" or something like that. To walk in thier crappy office with horrible customer service!
The same thing almost happened to me. We went away for the day and arrived home late in the evening. As soon as we walked in the door we smelled something burning. I ran upstairs where the smell was stronger and I found the plug to the cable box melting and smoldering. I took pics of the plug and I emailed comcast right away. They sent some one out the next day to retrieve the box this person then tested the outlets and said that the voltage was too high. I had an electrician come in and he said nothing was wrong. I am still waiting for a response from comcast...by the way I did cancel and moved to Verizon.
@bdgbill: Lucky...I have Rogers Cable, which is like the Canadian equivalent of your crappy Comcast.
Most likely there are at least two more appropriate legal remedies. The first is basically what you suggest except there is no need to deduct the damages that are covered by the insurance policy - the insurance company would most likely even be required to pay for the lawyer to take the case (however given the small amount involved all parties would be better served by Comcast and the insurance company coming to an agreement ). The second is a standard products liability against the manufacturer of the cable box and everyone in the chain of distribution (ie comcast) with the additional threat of it being certified as a class action.
SlantLinx @comcastcares [tinyurl.com] Really? And you wonder why people don't want your service. Ever heard of Sandvine? Of course not.
comcastcares @SlantLinx I am happy to report that the Customer is happy today. We are investigating the experience
That's funny, because as I recall he is no longer a 'customer'. Silly Comcast.
Doesn't "Cable Box of Doom" describe any Comcast cable box whether it happens to be on fire, or not? ;)