Comcast Resolves Consumerist Reader’s Auto-Pay Paradox, Then Screws It Up All Over Again

You may remember the story of Consumerist reader L. Back in October, he was puzzled how Comcast had him listed simultaneously as being enrolled in its automatic payment program and not in the program. After his story appeared here, it looked like everything had been resolved. Appearances can be deceiving.

L. writes in with an update to his story, and anyone who follows Comcast probably won’t be surprised at how things have turned out.

He tells us that his billing situation seemed to have been resolved after the Kabletown folks got wind of the Consumerist post, though he claims he never got a terribly satisfying explanation.

“Something about my move creating new account numbers that canceled the auto-pay,” he writes. “They never could figure out why my bill continued to say that I was still enrolled.”

But since everyone seemed to finally be on the same page, L. gave Comcast’s auto-pay another try. Of course, it takes 45 days for it to kick in, so he waited… patiently.

“Having learned my lesson, I double checked on the first of the month to ensure that I was still enrolled for a bill due the third,” he tells Consumerist. “Imagine my surprise today when I checked my credit card balance this morning and Comcast had not charged me. A quick check of the website showed that my autopay was removed with no notifications. Just gone.”

He says that his cable bill still has him listed as enrolled in auto-pay.

“A call to Comcast basically resulted in a ‘I don’t know why the website and bills don’t match, want me to set up autopay?'”

L. says he’s giving up on the cable company’s automatic payments, as Comcast just can’t seem to get it right.

“Verizon, Geico, and even the freelance fitness instructor I take classes from all auto-draft their bills from me, without incident,” he writes. “And, they all set up the auto-drafts immediately. Comcast takes 45 days to do so, and can’t execute on it even then.”

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