Brian found himself in a troubling situation with Comcast. He was setting up service at his mother’s home, about thirty miles from, his home where he already had Comcast service. Comcast’s systems apparently aren’t set up to handle one person with separate accounts in different regions. A customer service rep told Brian that he would not be checking his credit report in order to set up the new service: then ran right up against the freeze Brian had put on his credit report in order to prevent unauthorized access. From, say, Comcast.

Now he’s been flagged as high-risk in Comcast’s system for the next six months, and not even Jack Donaghy himself has the power to change the situation.

On March 25, 2011 I contacted Comcast to get their XFinity Triple Play installed at my mom’s house. I pay her bills so I wanted it in my name. I explained to the representative, [N.], that I was currently a customer at my residence in [redacted] but also wanted to get service in [redacted]. He was happy to take care of this.

First, he gathered some information like the package I wanted, address to be installed, and my SSN# so he could verify my information. He then put me on hold. Not once did he say he was pulling my credit report. When he got back on the phone everything was good, he told me the installation fee and we set a date/time for installation.

Then he dropped the “We will also need a security deposit of $150”. I was confused by this, I already have service with them, never late, I didn’t pay a security deposit for service at my current residence and have great credit. I voiced this to the representative and he sounded shocked I didn’t pay a deposit for my current residence. He then put me on hold so he could speak with his manager.

A few minutes pass and N. comes back on the phone. I then ask him if they pulled a credit report. He said no. I then explained I have my credit frozen with the credit bureaus to prevent identity theft and if they pulled the report that is probably why their system says I need to pay a deposit. He then puts me on hold again.

Several minutes pass this time and N. comes back online. He explains he was talking with his supervisor as well as the supervisor in the credit department. What he tells me next blows my mind. He said that normally their software would not pull a new credit report since I currently have service with them and it was initiated less than 6 months ago.

But…and here’s the kicker, since my current service is in [redacted] which is about 30 miles from [redacted] where I wanted to have service, my current credit report they have is no good. Their system stores credit reports by SSN# and Region opposed to just the SSN#. On top of that, they pulled a credit report for the [redacted] region and that is what was used to determine the deposit amount.

But since my credit is frozen, the credit report came back high risk. Additionally this bad report will stay associated with my SSN# for the [redacted] region for 6 months. There is nothing they can do to make their system pull a fresh report even if I have my credit reports unfrozen.

Bottom line, I never agreed for Comcast to pull my credit report. Even the representative I was talking to was unaware they were pulling it. Additionally, from what he told me, Comcast is utilizing profiling by storing the credit reports with the SSN# and the region. I have already shared this with my local BBB and filed a complaint with the FTC, but I wanted to share with the Consumerist as well.

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