3

Once I got mis-charged on my bank-issued debit/credit card.

What happened is that a COMCAST service representative offered to connect me with "premium" technical support for $50, so I said OK, then she disconnected me instead of transferring me to the technical support. I tried calling back, but after 45 minutes of waiting I gave up. Nevertheless, I was still billed the $50. Naturally, I wanted to do a chargeback to get refunded.

I went to my bank in person to demand the charge back, but they told me to "work it out" with the vendor, ie COMCAST, and refused to do the charge back. I do not want to call COMCAST again because the wait times are very long and I doubt they would cooperate with me anyway.

How can I make my bank do the charge back, or should I talk to somebody else (attorney general's office, etc)?

I live in Massachusetts.

Five Bagger
  • 9,865
  • 9
  • 45
  • 80

2 Answers2

9

Call Comcast during a non-peak time (first thing in the morning?), wait on hold, and politely explain what happened and request a $50 credit. Also politely request that your premium support request be handled for free given how much hassle you've had getting disconnected.

They'll be able to tell your premium request was never answered because there are no notes on your support tickets.

Calling them is much easier than any of your other options.

Rocky
  • 24,439
  • 5
  • 70
  • 91
2

You can't make your bank do a charge back. This function is to assist with straight up fraud, not a customer service mistake. (Think spoofed or stolen card or if a vendor intentionally acted fraudulently.) While you may believe what they did is fraud, your bank will require that you provide the vendor with the opportunity to rectify the situation themselves. Trying to call back and giving up after a long hold time won't meet their standards. If banks started letting anyone unhappy with a vendor start doing charge backs, they would be doing nothing else all day. The issues you're describing has not reached the threshold for the bank to authorize a charge back.

Comcast has local and regional offices, and you could go in person to speak with someone. Maybe there isn't one near you. There are non-peak hours which wait times will be less. You'll just have to grin and bear it if you truly want the money back. Then, take your business elsewhere and post bad reviews online. Always keep in mind that when you eventually speak with someone, they will not be the person that messed up, and you should be overly nice and polite to them. I promise it will yield far better results than being surly and demanding.

Another way to get Comcast's attention would be to file a complaint with the BBB. It might take longer, but I've had this work with big companies, usually with good results. Again, be nice to whomever contacts you.

In reference to your recent duplicate question: Mastercard won't be able to help at all. They play no part in the transaction at all.

BobbyScon
  • 14,104
  • 3
  • 47
  • 63