Comcast Locks Customers Out Of Accounts, Has Been “Working On It” Since 2012

Last month, we shared with you the sad story of Karen, who somehow got locked out of her Comcast account. This would have been easier to deal with if Comcast believed Karen when she described the problem, but they didn’t. Now more customers are reporting the same problem: they’re locked out of their accounts, and Comcast’s solutions range from “delete your browser cookies” to “clear your browser cache.”

Karen followed the company’s instructions, but it was clear that she didn’t just need to erase her browser cookies. Consumerist had to step in and restore her access to her account management and e-mail accounts.

Complaints about this issue date back to 2012 on Comcast’s support message boards, so it’s nothing new. Worse, customers who called in to complain about their account issues would wait on hold for almost ten minutes, then get disconnected.

One customer posted last Thursday:

My husband has a comcast account email but I am the one paying the bills. I informed 2 customer service reps, one regular and one supervisor, of this. I DON’T want to create a comcast.net domain email in order to pay my bill AND I DONT want to affect my husband’s email in any way just because I want to pay a bill.

The supervisor kept say over and over “I understand Ma’am” and he didn’t understand anything. I have always used my email and my own log in to pay a bill. Crazy stupid that I am trying to give them money and they don’t want it unless I create a comcast.net domain.

She wasn’t alone in having this problem on Thursday:

Having the same problem since [Thursday]. I just want to pay my bill. I have tried 3 different browsers on 2 different computers so the problem is with the Comcast site. This happened to me once before and customer service just wanted to do checks on my computer. Has anyone found an answer or solution?

Apparently not, since a Comcast employee assured forum-goers that the company was working on a solution to the problem on August 21. Of 2012.

If Karen’s experience is any indication, even if they are able to obtain any help, these customers have weeks of solicitous phone calls from Comcast to look forward to when the company fails to close out their case.

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