Comcast apologizes after calling customer profanity on cable bill

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Thursday, January 29, 2015
Lisa Brown is upset after Comcast referred to her husband as "A**hole Brown" on their bill.
creativeContent-Gene J. Puskar / AP

No matter how much trouble you've had with you cable provider, it's hard to match Lisa Brown's struggles with Comcast.

Brown, a volunteer for a missions organization in Spokane, Wash., had been attempting to cancel her Comcast cable service after her family was experiencing financial difficulties, according to consumer advocate blogElliot.org. Instead of immediately canceling her service, Brown's call was escalated to a retention specialist, who tried to persuade her to keep her cable and sign a new two year contract.

Photo Courtesy: Elliot.org

Brown was able to eventually cancel her service, but noticed an unwelcome surprise on her billing statement: her husband's name has been changed from "Ricardo Brown" to "A**hole Brown." Brown attempted to correct the issue by visiting her local Comcast office and spoke to higher ups in the Washington area, but no no avail.

After Elliot.org reached out to Comcast with a copy of Brown's bill, they provided the following response.

"We have spoken with our customer and apologized for this completely unacceptable and inappropriate name change," Steve Kipp, Comcast's Vice President of Communications for the Washington region, told Elliot.org. "We have zero tolerance for this type of disrespectful behavior and are conducting a thorough investigation to determine what happened. We are working with our customer to make this right and will take appropriate steps to prevent this from happening again."

According to Elliot.org, Brown's billing issue was eventually corrected, with Comcast officials telling her they would waive her $60 cancellation fee. Comcast and has refunded her past two years of service for the error.