When ordering service (with my first home in 2004), they told me that both my new phone numbers would not be published in the phone book or directory assistance. Two weeks later both phone lines began ringing with people trying to sell me their crap. I called comcast and complained about this and they told me they were "sorry" or "it must have been a mistake". I just learned to live with it for ye
ars until I moved to another home. My second home (in 2007 - when ordering all their products), I specifically told the guy about 3 times during the conversation "I don't want my information published anywhere". Same thing: I was told for $4.95 per line, this would not happen. Once again, about 2 or 3 weeks later, both phone lines start ringing away with idiots soliciting their crap. This time I blew up. I started calling back all the numbers I could (that would show up on my caller ID) to ask where and how they got my number. Some said it was purchased from a company. I contacted that company and they told me they didn't know exactly how the information was compiled and that they didn't keep any record of it. I called comcast about 100 times about this (yes, at least one hundred times or more for months and months to come). After being on hold for 20 or 30 minutes at a time and then sometimes being disconnected while I was waiting, or even disconnected while I was talking to customer service (useless people) and/or supervisors/managers (useless as well), all I kept getting was the same old story... "we're sorry" and "it must have been a mistake". Some of them even denied making the mistake by saying "we would never have done that seeing a customers privacy is very important to us". Lies, lies and more lies. They tried to buy me off by telling me they would credit my account. I told them I didn't want that and that this isn't going to fix the problem. The phone numbers I got were great numbers ending in 00's. I asked them to change both the numbers and this time NOT TO PUBLISH THEM or SELL MY INFORMATION. They told me there were no other numbers available ending with 00's. They go on to tell me "we'll just make sure that your numbers are unlisted and not published". I said "what good is that"? The damage is already done. It's like having unprotected s*x and catching a disease, then wearing a condom after to protect yourself. Fools. Not only were my phone numbers ruined by idiots calling all the time (the do-not-call list is useless as well), now I start seeing my information all over the web! And to prove to comcast that this is their fault and that they sold my information, I explained it to them how I knew this. When I placed the order for my new phone lines (2nd house), I told them I did not want my full name to be seen on peoples caller ID (my first and last name are long and truncate on caller ID devices - which looks silly). So I told them to use my first and middle names initials followed by my last name. This would be something like "SA Smith" as opposed to "Stephen Smith" (the "A" for my middle name) showing up on the caller ID device. A couple of months later, I went online and started poking around on sites like "People Search", "Intelius", online directories, etc... guess what? I see "SA Smith" in all of them! Not only am I seeing the caller ID name in them, but my street address and city along with it. Now I get the local phone book in the mail and even some other type of phone book and what do i see in them? "SA Smith" - instead of my first and last name. comcast would have been the only ones to have done this seeing I told them to make it like that for my caller ID. What did they say about this? "we're not sure how that could have happened" and "we're sorry". Do you see the pattern here? Everything with these people is a dead end. Even the ones that seem nice and pleasant over the phone with you can't help you resolve a problem like this. There is no one to take the blame for it and there is no one person that can do anything about it. I'm telling you, comcast trains their people to "tell you" that by paying an additional $4.95 a month for an unpublished number, that your information will not be published, then when you hang up with them, they just proceed with publishing it as if you never even mentioned it to them at all. They must also train them to tell you "we're sorry" or "it was a mistake" when you call up to complain about it. comcast makes a lot of money selling our personal information. Obviously, some corporate moron way up above is responsible for running this type of scam operation. "A mistake"... I could see if this happened to me once, but twice? Finally, after being fed up with this whole thing, I decided to drop comcast. Unfortunately for me, the city I live in only has one cable company - comcast. I had to switch over to Direct TV (which I love, by the way) and get a Verizon phone line and Verizon DSL. Sad to say, I have had nothing but trouble with the DSL since I've had it (constantly disconnects - not to mention the speeds are nothing compared to cable speeds). I will never go back to comcast because of what they've done to me and the headaches they've caused me... so I'm stuck with DSL until Fios or something else comes along. Bottom line - I'm a nobody and they are a giant who cares nothing about someone like me. Who pays the price here? Me. comcast sucks and they are an EVIL corporation consisting of bad, bad people.
