I don’t normally post over personal issues with companies I do business with, but every once in a while there is an instance I feel others can benefit from. That being Comcast Cable’s online payment system.

I’ve been using it for the better part of eight years without a glitch, that is until last night when I went online to pay my $83.25 bill. After placing my account information and authorization for a onetime payment I received a confirmation “Thanks for your payment of $125.35!”

Being the cautious type I always screen shot my online experiences and rechecked my selection and sure enough it was $83.25. So “No problem I’ll just call Comcast to get this straightened out”.

If you’ve called Comcast you know that it’s a chore in itself, “Press One, Press two, Press Three,….etc”, then you get a representative who may or may not actually work with Comcast (language barriers,etc). However I did get a billing representative and after explaining my delema she responded that “We’ve been having that issue tonight” and began to help me out. Then she suddenly put me on hold telling me that she needed to speak to her supervisor. After which she came back on and told me she needed to transfer me to that supervisor.

When the supervisor came on she took to the offensive blaming the incident on me (bad eyesight, stubby fingers) and basically told me that there was nothing that they could do I would have to suck it up. I might note also that the $125.35 was the amount I paid last month and wasn’t even an option on the page. So even if I were feeble and blind I couldn’t have selected that amount unless I typed it in. I did no such thing, why would I?

Incensed, I continued my defense to no avail, I simply hung up. Calling my bank about the incident I was told to stop the payment would be a $32 charge, hardly worth it to recover the $40.10 Comcast simply stole from me.

So being how I have enough in my account to cover the theft I’ll leave it alone. For their part Comcast does have my account showing a $40.10 credit. Great! So why call them thieves? Simple. If you take more than you are owed you are a thief. Then I thought, “I wonder if others have been a victim of Comcast’s thievery?”

After a bit of online research I found that many have had this issue including this poor lady who – although admitting the mistake of putting the decimal in the wrong place, lost out temporarily much more than I did.

“Carole Hays gets her Internet, telephone and cable TV all through Comcast. She always pays her bill online because it is hassle free, except for this one time when a little tiny mistake caused a very big problem.

“I typed in $125 and I typed in one, two, five, dot, zero, zero,” she told 7 On Your Side. “And, I thought I put the decimal point in.”

Hays thought she typed in $125. But, if she put in the decimal point, it went in the wrong place.

“When I hit ‘click’ to send the payment it popped up with saying ‘Thank you for your payment of $1,250,” she recalled. And, I said, ‘Oh no no no no!’”

Hays says, at first it was scary watching $1,250 coming right out of her debit account. But, she figured no problem, this was a simple mistake.

“So, I’m thinking OK this is an easy fix. All I have to do is call Comcast and tell them what happened,” she said.

So she did. But, Comcast said it had no way to reverse the payment. Comcast said Hays should call her bank to stop it. So, she did that. But, Chase bank said it could not stop the transaction either. They said she should go back to Comcast which in turn sent her back to the bank. Then — you get the idea.

“Remember when you call Comcast you don’t just get a person on the line,” Hays said. “You’ve got to listen to the music. And, I’m just panicking the whole time.”

She was panicking because this has serious ripple effects. The overpayment to Comcast was about to drain all the money from her debit account right when her home mortgage payment and a lot of other bills was due. All with auto pay, all of them were about to bounce.

“I’d already sent payments out for other bills. Everything was… This amount was going to be devastating to lose,” she recalled.

Hays got so desperate she tried canceling her debit card and filing a debit card claim for return of funds. But, the transaction was in motion and like a speeding train, nobody could stop it. The money came out of her account, her house payment was late and her credit rating took a hit, all because of one dot.

“Just a click of a button that snowballed into all kinds of just disaster for me. This was a simple mistake and anybody could make it,” she recalled. “And, if you make it, everybody should know it’s not an easy fix. Your whole life can be turned upside down in a matter of just a click.”

She still did not have her money back, so Hays called 7 On Your Side who found out that once you hit send the money goes into a kind of cyber-limbo. Comcast says it could not refund her money until it actually received payment, which was still pending at the bank. Chase said the way the debit system works, it cannot stop any pending transaction.

However, right after 7 On Your Side contacted the two companies, things did happen faster.

“No one could do anything, but as soon as 7 On Your Side got involved, the very next day the money was in my account,” Hays said. “And, to me, that’s amazing.”

Comcast still says the bank should have been able to reverse the transaction and the bank still says Comcast should have been able to cancel it from the get-go. The bottom line is to make sure you type your payment amount correctly before you hit send.”

Which is correct. Actually I made the mistake with an online payment to Geico. However one call and the customer service person was happy to cancel the payment. I checked around with others I make such payments and they told me that it’s no problem to cancel the payment, or even adjust it to the proper amount.

Comcast’s excuse for taking more than is owed is simply lame and inexcusable. I’m glad they’ve given me the $40.10 credit on my account, I told them to apply it to my final bill, and cancel my account.

How about you? Have you had a similar experience? Comment on it, or send it to macrangershow@gmail.com.