RE: Billing is Incorrect

Comcast contracted to a boiler room call center in Southeast Asia. This call center had access to account details of Xfinity/Comcast customers. 

I had transferred ownership of an Xfinity internet account to my name after moving to a new city into a home owned by a friend. 

I made two payments in November where two separate credit cards were stolen by two separate reps under the official comcast phone number. I ensured that I was calling the correct number. Although I had completed the ownership transfer, I was unable to access bill pay online due to what I can only assume is a lack of urgency or care on the part of Comcast and so had to do so by phone. Store locations were unavailable because of my schedule. I work healthcare. It's not a normal schedule.

The first credit card was stolen, the correct amount was quoted and charged, matching the amount on the bill. My card statement reflected a bogus business in Nevada. My Xfinity payment reflected an electronic funds transfer, or e-check, from a false or temporary account. The payment bounced, I was assessed late and returned payment fees despite having more than a sufficient line of credit available on the FIRST payment card, and service was then interrupted. 

I then called the same number and, using a different credit card because of my suspicions from the first transaction, experienced the exact same thing with one difference. The amount, again exactly what was quoted in the bill but somehow "was returned" despite not being returned to card 1, was charged to a completely different decoy company in Pennsylvania. The call center was again in Southeast Asia. Service was restored for 2 or 3 days until the payment bounced and I was out nearly $500 in total. 

Now I don't do phone payments in general for this exact reason. I'm 32 and worked in tech support from 18-21 when I was in college. I keep up a relatively high degree of suspicion whenever my financials are being given out. But I had no choice here. After looking through the electronic funds transfers that Xfinity/Comcast received, I noted that they were from two checking accounts with different final 4 digits. Neither were from my credit cards. Both payments were returned. I was assessed late and returned payment fees for both. I knew exactly what had happened at that point. 

I again contacted Xfinity/Comcast and spoke with a representative in the states asking for them to please read out a history of my transactions. Mind you I had been principal on the service contract for only 3 months and had never before (and will never again) deal with this company. The representative confirmed what I had already suspected and my bill was reconciled and service brought to date. You all may remember an email sent out on 12/12/22 about phone payments being unavailable:

The problem that I have with this is that Comcast has been absolutely opaque about this. Not only were these charges for the amount of my bill stolen, so were two of my credit cards. The 'third party vendor' had access to Xfinity/Comcast's internal billing information or else they couldn't have confirmed the amounts they would charge me, which is a security check I put in place to hedge against exactly what ended up happening. I proceeded to have to dispute and cancel both credit cards, waste hours on the phone going through individual charges one by one, to the tune of around $1700-$2000 between both cards. When I called and asked Xfinity/Comcast to comp 3 months of service for my time and trouble, they refused and offered me a $75 credit. The rep told me in no uncertain terms that my time was not part of consideration in compensating for service disruptions. I got a flyer in the mail a few weeks ago for ATT and within 12 hours had scheduled the install. 

I am a victim of Identity theft for the first time, despite doing everything in my power to protect against it, because Comcast is too big, unaccountable, and simply doesn't care. I reached out to multiple social media accounts and was ignored. Now that this is all said and done, and since there is virtually no publicly available information anywhere on what happened or why it happened, I am explaining it. I don't know if I was personally responsible for that 12/12/22 email, but the timeline certainly fits. My first credit card was stolen on 11/2 and the second on 11/11. I connected the dots and reached someone in the states on 11/26. The email about the 'third party vendor' went out on 2 weeks later.

As Xfinity/Comcast has failed to publicly acknowledge that their cost cutting and reckless lack of vetting vendors puts their millions of customers at direct risk of identity theft, I have save my receipts, will be posting this repeatedly until they inevitably ban my account on this site, and will be engaging in a consistent campaign to attempt to get the word out to those who may be affected. Comcast does not care about you. Comcast does not care about your financial security. Comcast cares about taking your money while using as little of theirs as possible, even if that means allowing their contractors to steal your money and identity as well. This can not be tolerated. Don't tolerate it.