It's official: Outages are only the second-worst thing about Comcast

Comcast subscribers say that the US cable giant's notorious billing system is the worst and most infuriating thing about the biz.

This according to tens of thousands of complaints filed with America's broadband watchdog, the FCC, from November 2014 to May 2017 covering Comcast's TV and cable internet services. In other words, we expected Philadelphia-based Comcast's internet outages to be the number-one gripe: it's actually the internet bills.

The data – obtained by the Philly Inquirer via a freedom-of-information request – shows that of 67,627 complaints received about Comcast, 41,760 were for its internet service.

Of the 41,760 internet complaints:

• 21,388 concerned issues with billing.
• A distant second was gripes about internet service outages, with 8,664 complaints.
• The third most-common complaint, at 4,853 filed, was over slow speeds.

According to its latest quarterly earnings, Comcast has more than 25.3 million high-speed internet customers in the US.

25,865 of the 67,627 complaints were over Comcast TV service issues. Since 2015, Comcast has increasingly seen its TV subscribers drop, while internet subscriptions have grown.

That the billing process would be such a source of complaints shouldn't surprise those familiar with the company's history. In recent years, Comcast's customer service has built itself quite the reputation for bad behavior, particularly when it comes to billing.

In 2016, Comcast was hit with the largest-ever fine for overcharging its customers on hardware and service plans.

This is probably not the look Comcast wants for itself as it lobbies the FCC for greater freedom from regulations on how it can manage internet traffic and collect personal information on its customers – though such reports will probably have little outcome on the commission's decision at this point. ®