Lesley lives alone, and says that despite what any Mediacom CSRs may think, she hasn’t been consistently ordering adult movies for the past three months.

I initially had my cable installed in August, and not 12 hours after the cable box was installed, a rep from Mediacom called me to tell me the cable box would short out after that evening and they would send a tech in the morning to replace it. I didn’t think anything of it. Not too long after it was replaced I was having lots of trouble with the “new” box. I am now on my third cable box. They did take off $20 for my inconveniences for having so many techs in. But once the bills started coming after that, that hardly made up for all of the crap I have had to go through.

In early November, I received my bill for the previous month with movie charges on it. I called the Mediacom service line at 877-410-4993. The gentlemen I spoke with was actually very nice. He informed me that these movies I had been charged for were adult movies. I informed him that I was a single person living in a one bedroom apartment and I’m the only one that could have purchased them but according to the dates they were purchased, I had not even been in town! The man was very nice and took the movies off of my bill. We set up a pass code for purchasing movies so only I would know how to purchase them.

The following month I was charged again for more porn. I called again and spoke to a man who was not very concerned about my complaint. He told me he could not adjust the bill because it was a “one time courtesy.” How RUDE! The man then lowered my account down to $1 purchasing.

In December, I have been charged yet again for more pornographic material! I called on January 18th and spoke to “Anna”. She asked me for my information and I told her my name but also told her I would not give her anything more and that I wanted to speak to the head of the financial department. I told her this was not going to be a friendly phone conversation and that if she could not do anything for me to give me to the person responsible in order to avoid unnecessary… well.. yelling! She insisted that I tell her what the problem was, and shouted at me that she couldn’t give me to him unless I told her.

That did not kick off the convo to a great start. I told her that I thought that the incorrect cable box was registered to my name because of all of these false charges and that I was going to cancel the account if things were not immediately corrected. She put me on hold for a while and then came back and insisted she “fix” the problem. I told her that I was a college student and since I had been having so many problems, I actually unplugged my cable box while I was away for winter break and I was still charged for porn.

She found that there were two cable boxes listed in my name. I informed her I am living in a one bedroom with one TV and have no need for two, and she could gladly send someone out to look for the other. She found which one was active in my apartment and took the other one off of the bill.

She gave me a new total and asked me if I was satisfied. I told her I was not. I told her I wanted all of these other movies I have paid for previously deducted from that bill. She told me they were and I didn’t believe her. I told her I was tired of paying for shit I didn’t do and she proceeded to raise her voice at me and say there was no need for profanity. I am sure she is in the wrong industry if she thinks “shit” is the worst word she can hear from an angry customer. I warned her up front I was upset and she was sassy from the get-go. I threatened to cancel multiple times and she never offered to give me a discount on my next few bills or do ANYTHING to make me a happy customer again. After all of the phone calls I have had to make and listening to that horrible music on hold I am left with only paying what I “owe.” I also informed her that I knew it was not her problem that the service techs were not smart enough to check in the other cable box that was removed from my possession, nor was it my fault! These people had me so convinced that someone was sneaking into my apartment to order porn that I was very close to blaming management of my apartment building!

Just to add in a kicker, one of the porns was an animated one.

Here are some things to remember if you find yourself facing mysterious, repeated charges on your cable bill:

• Check whether another account is linked to yours, or–as in Lesley’s case–there’s a second cable box that’s connected to your account.
• Know what your monthly bill should be and check the statement. If you’re not observant, an error like this could go on for a long time and gradually add up.
• No matter how angry you are, be civil to the CSR. If you can manage it (and if the CSR isn’t a complete jackass), try to actually be friendly. You’d be amazed at the favors CSRs can pull out of nowhere if you talk to them as an equal and not as an angry customer, even if you have every right to be angry.
• Some porn is animated, although I imagine it’s not as effective at getting the job done.

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