Guy’s house burns down destroying his TV and cable box, Comcast still wouldn’t cancel his service

When 66 year-old Jimmy Ware’s house was destroyed in a fire, everything was destroyed, including his TV and cable box. Of course, he wouldn’t be needing his cable service any longer, but the good folks over at Comcast weren’t going to let things be so simple.

Comcast, which is pretty much the most shady company in America, always has a way of making customers’ attempts at canceling service into a rabbit’s hole of never-ending delirium.

From the Pioneer Press:

But when Jessica Schmidt had called Comcast for her father, customer service representatives asked for Ware’s account number, saying they needed that to cancel his cable.

“Gone in the fire,” Schmidt told them. Ware got on the line and provided the last four digits of his Social Security number, which Comcast told him was still not enough.

Schmidt grew increasingly frustrated because she wanted to focus on helping her father with more serious matters, such as where as he’s going to live or how he’s going to rebuild his life. The retired trucker had no homeowners’ insurance.

“I’ve said to Comcast, ‘Here’s your choice, disconnect the service or send someone out to fix the cable, because it’s not working,’ ” Schmidt said. “The [Comcast] guy said, ‘That doesn’t make sense, because the house burned down.’ I said, ‘Exactly, shut the service off.'”

After calling four or five times, Schmidt finally got her father’s service canceled this Tuesday – after an entire week.

In a statement, Comcast spokeswoman Mary Beth Schubert said:

“We understand that this is a difficult time for Mr. Ware and apologize for the inconvenience. Comcast has safeguards in place to protect the privacy of our customers, including not allowing unauthorized users to make changes to a customer’s account. […]

We do provide the option for customers to designate others, such as family members, to make authorized account changes and verifying an account can normally be done either over the phone or in person with a driver’s license.”

According to Gawker, “Comcast’s response to these situations has been inconsistent. The company said they gave Ware the runaround because of their strong account security policies, but his neighbors, also victims of the fire, were able to walk into a local Comcast office and cancel right away.”

Featured image via the Pioneer Press