S. has a super-special type of Comcast business account called Teleworker Enhanced. This account allows him to have business-class Internet access in his home. The problem, as far as Comcast is concerned, is that he has a business-class account in his home, so they keep making up a phantom residential account to charge him for, then send him to collections. He’s had enough.

I’ve been a Comcast Business Internet customer for almost 5 years now, with an account type called Teleworker Enhanced. In a nutshell, this account is for internet service at my home and is subsidized by my employer since I work in the tech industry, and it qualifies me for Comcast Business Class customer service and higher speeds. Internet access with this account is fantastic. Such accounts typically exist for companies with tens of thousands of employees, so there are a lot of people who have such an account.

For the past few years now, I’ve been receiving harassing calls from Comcast Residential Services Collections Department telling me that I have an unpaid balance for internet service. This happens every 2-3 months (3 calls a day, 7 days a week), and when I follow up with Residential Services, it is always a new account they create, trying to charge me twice for my service (once for my Teleworker account, and once for the bunk Residential account). The Teleworker account has no outstanding balance, and is paid on time.

Resolving the matter ends up taking several hours of my time because the Residential Services folks are not allowed into the Business Services systems. Every time, the case gets escalated several times after which I’m promised the matter has been resolved. Unfortunately, Business Services never live up to their word and a few months later I get into the same situation once again.

The last straw was when I started getting harassed on my cellphone during a friend’s wedding and during a July 4th BBQ. I’m sick of the incompetence shown by Comcast Business Services for not resolving this properly, and at this point, I feel that my only recourse is to play the name and shame game. As a person that takes pride in having zero outstanding debt, it’s especially annoying to be repeatedly harassed by debt collectors for charges that are incorrect.

We sent S.’s story on to the Comcast Cares team. Maybe they can help exorcise the phantom residential accounts.

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