How I Got 3 Years of Free Fast Internet

[ViolentBoo]

Before I get started on this thread, let me explain that THIS IS NOT A HOW TO GUIDE! Although I will not stop you from attempting this, who knows if this will work for other people.

 

About three years ago I was sitting in my apartment and my parents explained to me that they were going over seas to Iraq to visit family and they told me that I had to live with my sisters for about a month or two. Me being very uspet because I hate all of my sisters and being forced to live with them was not ideal I painfully explained that I didn't want to live with them and I was totally old enough to live on my own or with a single sister at the apartment, they didn't agree, damn. But before we left to the hell hole my mom told me to call Comcast and tell them that I had to say that we won't be living here for the next few months and we told them to temporarily disconnect our internet so we won't get billed because no one is going to use the internet and it'll be a waste of money. So I called them and I said "In around two weeks can you disconnect the internet no one is going to be at this residence." Comcast agreed and told me that they were going to do that. Good, I'll be on my way.

 

FOUR MONTHS LATER AND ALMOST WANTING TO DIE

 

My sisters and I thought it would be nice to go back to the apartment to go clean it up a bit before my parents came home a week later. We head inside and clean or what ever, until something caught my eye. I looked at the modem lights and they were EXACTLY the same. "Weird." I thought "Didn't we disconnect our internet?" My sisters agreed that I did because they were near me at the time making sure I didn't screw anything up. I then went down stairs near the entrance of the building and checked the mail to see the mountain of mail we've received.

 

Not a single bill.

 

"Did Comcast not disconnect our internet and just decided to not bill us because it'll be easier?" .... Maybe? I don't know. The reason why I decided to share with this with you guys now is that they finally cracked down on us not getting billed. Although they didn't say so they just said that they just disconnected it and that was that. I didn't want to share this information because I don't know if the FBI was going to crack down on me or something. I'm pretty upset now that I have to start paying again, In total I saved $2160.

 

Just thought I'd share!

 

(Also if you end up trying this please let me know the results, maybe we can start a trend here.)

[AngryBeaver]

So you took advantage of a mistake on their behalf to receive free service, but are mad because they finally figured it out and shut you off?

 

Chances are you have a personally owned modem or had an older one... so when they tried to push the boot file or at least out you in the walled garden the actual failed... or maybe they had an intern system error.

 

Since they can track the usage and see it was being used while you claimed none was home... perhaps they will bill you that outstanding balance. I mean even though the 3 to 4 months was legit, waiting for 3 years for them to catch it is VERY dishonest

[Scheer]

While I highly doubt the FBI will be showing up at your door anytime soon, I do believe Comcast is within their rights to bill you retroactively. I'd assume they have logs of your internet usage, so its not like you can claim you didn't use it during that time. Note, I'm not a lawyer... just don't be too surprised if you get a $2160 bill. I could've sworn I remember reading an article where the same thing happened to a lady for nearly a decade and she tried to take Comcast to court over it when they finally billed her and lost, ending up having to pay $5k or so, but I can't find it online anywhere and may just be imagining things. 

 

Somewhat similar, I was going out of state to work for 3 months so I called to cancel my XM radio service and parked my truck in one of our steel shop buildings. Turns out they only send the cancellation signal for a few weeks/months, and since my truck was off most of the time, and only moved a few times inside of the steel building it never received the signal. Had free XM for a year or so until it finally deactivated.

[Canada EH]

Just dont pay it, wait 5 years and its off your credit report.

[Mooshi]

You've basically denied yourself future Comcast services for a while. Although, the person whose name it was under could have a ding on their credit report for awhile if you didn't have it in your name.

 

First months are forgivable, 3 years is milking a service that you stole. Better hope a collection agency doesn't start harassing.

[Purgent]

Sorry, but no chance OP gets billed. 

 

If he legitimately requested to cancel his service on what I will assume is a recorded line, he has every right to have that service discontinued and no longer be billed for it.

 

The onus is on the company to take the appropriate action to disconnect the service.  They are not going to risk a legal battle over a few years of free service that resulted from their error.  Risk/reward is not there.

[Hiitchy]

Let’s find out what they have to say:

 

@FBI your time to shine

[AngryBeaver]

13 hours ago, Purgent said:

Sorry, but no chance OP gets billed. 

 

If he legitimately requested to cancel his service on what I will assume is a recorded line, he has every right to have that service discontinued and no longer be billed for it.

 

The onus is on the company to take the appropriate action to disconnect the service.  They are not going to risk a legal battle over a few years of free service that resulted from their error.  Risk/reward is not there.

Except when you request a TEMPORARY service suspension... I think those max out around 6 months. It is a courtesy that comcast offers to keep people in a contract from having to break the contract and pay the ETF.

 

Also it is the customers responsibility to let them know when they returned so that service can continue. Also if you are receiving a service you know you shouldn't be and take advantage of it... then you can be fully liable. If this was only a few months we are talking about, that would be one thing, but it was taken advantage of for YEARS. So in that respect it isn't  very different from obtaining illegal cable.

[ShortyfromLV]

 Why would the FBI care about a civil dispute ?  Either they will sue you (which they probably won't because that costs more than the 2k you owe them) or they won't give a damn due to making more money than they need..

[NoOverflow]

You want a better story ?

I pay 4$ per month for unlimited VDSL internet, tv and unlimited phone + Unlimited mobile phone, unlimited SMS/MMS, 100Go 4G+ data

And this, totally legaly

I live in France and each year i take advantage of promotion

But anyway, internet is fairly cheap in France (1Gb Fiber at 15 euro)

 

[ILiketoMobit]

cool

[kirashi]

https://www.comcastseasonal.com/ You're welcome. It does seem like they made a mistake though, especially if the agent said "sure, we can temporarily disconnect services for 3 years no problem" since they only allow a minimum of 90 days to a maximum of 270 days in a calendar year for temporary disconnects. If they indeed don't bill you for it, then awesome, but I'd really recommend you login to your online Comcast account and actually check to see that there isn't a large sum of money owing at the moment.

[JustMATT]

You DO know that r/UnethicalLifeProTips is just parody right?

[Canada EH]

Honestly I dont care about big corps, its when you fuck over the working person or family person that gets me all riled up.

[Beef Boss]

Their mistake, not anyone else's. I doubt they'd try anything afterwards, they were in the fault. 

[Cole5]

Hahahahha

 God Comcast is incompetent 

[Donut417]

On 5/4/2018 at 4:01 PM, ViolentBoo said:

because I don't know if the FBI was going to crack down on me or something.

FBI wont do shit. Comcast could take you to small claims court to get the money, but its probably not worth their time. Just know who ever had the internet in their name, might be on Comcast's shit list. As in they might not do business with that person. Because generally in the US, a business can refuse service for about any reason. 

 

But in part it is Comcast's fault for not disconnecting you from the tap, and leaving it active. 

[wasab]

18 hours ago, Donut417 said:

 Because generally in the US, a business can refuse service for about any reason. 

I am pretty sure I do not serve your kind here and whites only signs on the door are not legal in the US

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, wasab said:

I am pretty sure I do not serve your kind here and whites only signs on the door are not legal in the US

Yeah but they can pretty much tell any one to fuck off and leave. In most businesses this wont happen. But if you fucked a company out of who knows how much money, im fairly certain they have the right to tell you to fuck off. Or make you pay a really big deposit to get service. Also discrimination is legal in the US. Those under the age of 40 are not protected under age discrimination laws. Younger people and males are discriminated against for car insurance, same with people with poor credit. So if they can get away with that, then they could get away with almost anything. 

[2FA]

25 minutes ago, wasab said:

I am pretty sure I do not serve your kind here and whites only signs on the door are not legal in the US

You can't discriminate against people of protected classes (race, religion, age, ethnicity, disabled, etc.). As long as the reason isn't a protected class, you can use it as discrimination.

 

Also protected classes within the US legal framework are groups of people who have been proven to be systemically discriminated against.

[wasab]

8 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Yeah but they can pretty much tell any one to fuck off and leave. In most businesses this wont happen. But if you fucked a company out of who knows how much money, im fairly certain they have the right to tell you to fuck off. Or make you pay a really big deposit to get service. Also discrimination is legal in the US. Those under the age of 40 are not protected under age discrimination laws. Younger people and males are discriminated against for car insurance, same with people with poor credit. So if they can get away with that, then they could get away with almost anything. 

No, it is risk they discriminate on, not the protected class of their customer. If a male has a higher risk of car accidents and road rage, then they will charge higher cuz the risk of you as a male, not that you are a male specifically.

 

[wasab]

12 minutes ago, 2FA said:

Also protected classes within the US legal framework are groups of people who have been proven to be systemically discriminated against.

 It means gender, religion, enthcities, ect. It doesn’t matter if you are privileged or historically disadvantaged. 

 

Of course the Jim crow south, with the blessings of the US supreme court, had been grossly violating both the 14th and 15 admenements of the US constitution until the civil rights acts of the 1960s while  the modern day affirmative actions are more or less doing the same thing but somehow they seem to have ethics and morality on their side for some reason.

 

 

[2FA]

11 minutes ago, wasab said:

 It means gender, religion, enthcities, ect. It doesn’t matter if you are privileged or historically disadvantaged. 

 

Of course the Jim crow south, with the blessings of the US supreme court, had been grossly violating both the 14th and 15 admenements of the US constitution until the civil rights acts of the 1960s while  the modern day affirmative actions are more or less doing the same thing but somehow they seem to have ethics and morality on their side for some reason.

 

 

I was basing it off the EEO definition.

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, 2FA said:

age,

Labor laws to age are only for people over 40. I know this because I have a business degree. They can not hire you due to being to young, thats not illegal. Also, its up to the candidate to prove age discrimination, instead of the employer proving they did not discriminate. Which makes it harder. 

 

1 hour ago, wasab said:

If a male has a higher risk of car accidents and road rage, then they will charge higher cuz the risk of you as a male, not that you are a male specifically.

If being male puts me hire at risk, then why did this dumb fuck women pull out in front of me and almost cause an accident today? The fact is women can rage just as bad as men, shit. Or what about using credit scores to determine what you pay? So being persecuted for being poor is ok? 

 

Also in the case of the op, Comcast would not be refusing based on a protected class. They would be refusing because the OP did use service they did not pay for. So legally Comcast could tell them they would not provide service to them or to that address any more and they would be within their legal rights to do so. This has happen in the past, Comcast has black listed addresses for non payment.