Short story:
Last month, cancel cable and downgrade my internet speeds. Send back cable box and cable modem (bought my own modem).
This months bill. Still have full cable service, got double charged for internet, and still charged for renting cable box and cable modem.
ARRRGGGHHH!!!
I called and got it cleared up. After telling two people what happened at least 3 times and waiting on hold forever.
sounds like comcast..
the cable co. is the new phone co.
'memba their great service record and bureaucracy?
The communication industry's business model counts on adding additional fees for "services" not requested or used in the hopes that the consumer will not notice the "small" differences in monthly bill amounts and pay them anyway.
When I had Sprint cell phone service, I had to call them every other month to have a bogus charge removed. It was usually under $10, but it's the principle of the thing.
In reply to GrantMLS:
ding ding ding! and you're not the first to guess correctly either 
Any sort of utility is a pain. I went round and round with AT&T for 3 months over my internet.....
I cancelled my cable service as I was spending 6 months out of state and they stopped billing me. When I returned, I discovered I still had full hookup and called them to disconnect it.
Then I moved around for my job for the next 2 years and house was vacant.
Upon my return I realized I still had cable so I went to the cable office and requested them to disconnect and got a copy of the disconnect order.
3 years later, it is still hooked up and 2 reps show up at my door. Their spiel was that I had an illegal hookup and I needed to sign and make myself responsible for 6 years of cable bills or they would prosecute.
Told them of the multiple requests and showed them the work order and that they could do whatever, but I was not paying a dime. They took down the cable and left, never to be heard from again.
Bruce
The trick is knowing what forms or reciepts to request in order to cover your rear.
Many times if you say "can I have confirmation of this request" they skirt around the subject and insure you that everything will be taken of.
g/f moved and cancelled cable at her old place, then started new at new place some time later. after she returned her box, first they said she didn't turn the box in, and tried to charge her $350 for it, then she went back and showed them the receipt from when she returned the box, and they "fixed" it, but later tried to charge her for not returning the "programming key" or something that they never gave her. so she went round and round and got that fixed finally, kept the final zero bill and assurance that it wouldn't affect her credit.
when she went to open the new account, they wanted a $300 deposit because she had previous issues with payments or some BS.
like a comment i read in an article about a B of A customer whose house that no longer existed was being foreclosed on: "they are ferocious in their incompetence"
I had to change my Point of Sale card reader about a year ago to accept chip cards. First was trying to return the old unit, as they had to send us a return authorisation and a label. Second was convincing them they had actually received said unit. Now is trying to get them to stop debiting my account for the old unit. Last week we finally figured out you can put a stop payment on a direct withdrawl. I desperately hope someone phones to worry me about our payments. Please.
Haven't tried canceling long distance phone service with AT&T have you? Nightmare.
