Dave Winer’s Internet service was recently shut down by Comcast without warning. Apparently, he’s in the top percentile of bandwidth usage and Dave feels that Comcast has singled him out as a criminal. While I don’t know how he’s using his Internet connectivity, I do agree that the way Comcast handles these matters isn’t very consumer friendly.
However, what interested me is that Dave was directed to the Comcast Customer Security Assurance and Legal Response team. Frankly, Comcast needs to tighten up their own security before making customer insinuations… Last week, we initiated a customer support chat to get our Comcast.net credentials. Despite providing our specific account number, phone number, and partial social security number Comcast reset the former resident’s email password and gave it to us. No social engineering required. Fortunately, this is a mostly unused account and I’m a pretty ethical guy. But the experience surely gives me pause.
eSupport Chat Transcript
Melissa > Hello, I’d like to know my Comcast email address and password to access Comcast.net.
Jerome.25550 > Hello Melissa_, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Jerome.25550. Please give me one moment to review your information.
Jerome.25550 > I will be happy to assist you with your concern today.
Jerome.25550 > Let me assist you on that. One moment please while I review your information.
Jerome.25550 > For account identification, may I please have your complete name, address and phone number?
Melissa_ > Melissa X Xxxxx
Melissa_ > ### Xxxxxxxx Xxxxx, Xxx ###, Xxxxxxxx, XX #####
Melissa_ > ###-###-####
Jerome.25550 > Thank you.
Jerome.25550 > For account identification, may you please provide your account number?
Melissa_ > i’m looking it up now
Jerome.25550 > Thank you.
Melissa_ > ######-#
Jerome.25550 > Thank you.
Jerome.25550 > For identification, may you please verify the last 4 digits of the Social Security Number listed on the account?
Melissa_ > ####
Jerome.25550 > Thank you for that information. Let me check that issue for you in my system. One moment please.
Jerome.25550 > Your username is: lisayoung####
Melissa_ > who is lisa yong?
Melissa_ > that must be a different account
Jerome.25550 > Sorry for that error Melissa.
Jerome.25550 > Let me check that for you. One moment please.
Jerome.25550 > I was able to verify your account details Melissa. You may change that after you are logged it.
Jerome.25550 > I am sorry I do not have access to your email password. However I can create a computer-generated password for you. Would that be okay?
Melissa_ > that is fine
Jerome.25550 > Your new password is: xxxxxxxx
Melissa_ > and what is my username?
Jerome.25550 > Can you please try that for me by logging in to this link? https://login.comcast.net/login?s=portal&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fmailcenter.comcast.net
Jerome.25550 > Your username is: lisayoung####. I will assist you on changing that Melissa.
Melissa_ > ok i’m trying to log in now
Jerome.25550 > Thank you.
Melissa_ > yes, this is someone else’s email address. her email is still there
Jerome.25550 > One moment please while I check that information for you.
Melissa_ > this is not my account. maybe she used to live at this address
Jerome.25550 > For account identification, may I please have your complete name, address and phone number?
Melissa_ > Melissa_(Wed Apr 9 18:37:35 EDT 2008)>Melissa X Xxxxx Melissa_(Wed Apr 9 18:37:46 EDT 2008)>### Xxxxxxxx Xxxxx, Xxx ###, Xxxxxxxx, XX ###### Melissa_(Wed Apr 9 18:37:51 EDT 2008)>###-###-####
Jerome.25550 > Thank you for that information. Let me check that issue for you in my system. One moment please.
Jerome.25550 > With regard to your concern Melissa, I was able to check your account. Did you try contacting your local office or 1-800-COMCAST before you transfer service?
Melissa_ > Yes, the local office installed the new apartment
Melissa_ > my account number is ######-#
Jerome.25550 > Okay. It seems that your account has encountered an error. What I can do is to make a note on your account for this issue. You may contact your local office or call 1-800-COMCAST.
Melissa_ > ok thank you
Jerome.25550 > Is there anything else I can help you with?
Jerome.25550 > You are always welcome. It is my pleasure to be of service.
Jerome.25550 >Thank you for contacting Comcast!
Jerome.25550 > If you need assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us through Live Chat or E-Mail (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Comcast also offers excellent FAQ and Help forums located at www.comcast.com to help you reach a resolution independently.
Jerome.25550 > We value your business with Comcast. By answering the online survey right after this chat session, we are able to gather your suggestion and recommendation on how to improve our service. We thank you in advance for accomplishing the survey.
Jerome.25550> Have a Comcastic day!
Jerome.25550 > Analyst has closed chat and left the room
[ Jerome ] “…Have a Comcastic day!”
No way, he did NOT say that. You made that part up!
Jerome.25550 > Okay. It seems that your account has encountered an error. What I can do is to make a note on your account for this issue. You may contact your local office or call 1-800-COMCAST.
wow. That is unreal. I think the error is that your dealing with comcast.
Just makes me wish i had access to FiOS already!
You should be hearing from Comcast shortly…
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20080420_Comcast_s_big_push_to_repair_its_image.html
Comcast’s big push to repair its image
Eyes on blogs, more ears on phones to help gripers.
By Bob Fernandez
Inquirer Staff Writer
Most afternoons, the Internet in Sarah Chambers’ office at iFractal L.L.C. in Center City crashes and leaves her cyber-stranded without e-mail or online communication with clients.
When it happened for the zillionth time a few days ago, Chambers tried something new, once her Web connection reappeared. She shot Comcast a curt public online message on the social-networking site Twitter:
“My Internet goes out every day at 3:30. Why would that be?”
Frank Eliason, a Comcast Corp. manager in Center City with the daunting assignment of monitoring the nation’s blogosphere for venomous posts aimed at the company, answered right away: “That should not be. We should have that looked at. Send an e-mail with account info to We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com.”;
Under siege for customer-service woes detailed on Comcastmustdie.com and other blogs, the Philadelphia cable giant has gone on the offensive, trawling the Internet for Comcast chatter. Eliason’s assignment is very specific: If someone has a Comcast problem and is talking about it online, he contacts that person and offers help.
I had a similar incident back in 2001 or 2002. I asked for my e-mail address and password and was given login info another person with a similar name.
In this case, it was a teen councilor and there were very private e-mails that should not have been viewed by anyone other than the councilor. I was shocked and vowed to never use Comcast’s e-mail or trust their security.
I did send an e-mail to the other customer and CC:ed Comcast support. I never heard back from either.
We finally got around to calling in. Comcast gave up Lisa Young’s email and password again over the phone. Look, I’ve already read her email. It’s BORING. We told Comcast that was the prior resident (again) and they said, don’t worry just change the email address/id when we log in. Great, so the next occupant of this apartment will get our email? Actually, we’d never use it after this crap – however, I do want the security suite that comes with Internet service.