I'm working on my first major telecom audit for a client with 47 locations across Washington state. They have Comcast Business service at most locations and the billing is an absolute mess. Each location has different service tiers, some have static IP charges that don't match the contracts, and I'm finding equipment rental fees for modems they own. Has anyone dealt with Comcast Business audits? Their customer service keeps transferring me to different departments and no one seems to understand their own billing system.
Comcast Business audit nightmare - need advice
Nancy, I feel your pain on Comcast. I did a smaller audit for a client here in Milwaukee last year and it was brutal. The key is getting escalated to their Enterprise Business Solutions team, not regular customer service. Ask for a dedicated account manager and demand a complete service audit from them. It took me 3 months but we recovered $31K in overcharges going back 2 years. Most of it was incorrect service tier billing.
What Mia said about getting to the right department is crucial. I've audited several Comcast Business accounts here in California. Their billing system shows different information than what the field techs see, which creates constant confusion. One trick I've learned - if you can get the circuit IDs for each location, you can often trace billing errors more easily. Also, always verify the installation dates match the billing start dates.
I haven't dealt with Comcast much here in Idaho, but I have extensive experience with Charter/Spectrum business accounts and they have similar issues. The equipment rental fees are usually the biggest problem area. Clients often purchase their own modems but the billing system never gets updated. I've found it helps to request copies of all equipment return receipts and cross-reference with billing. Sometimes they'll credit back years of rental fees if you have the documentation.
Warren brings up a great point about equipment returns. I've seen this with Time Warner Cable (now Spectrum) here in Cincinnati too. The field techs collect the equipment but it never gets processed as returned in billing. Nancy, for your Comcast audit, I'd suggest creating a spreadsheet with columns for: Location, Service Address, Account Number, Circuit ID, Contracted Speed, Billed Speed, Equipment Serial Numbers, and Monthly Charges. This helps identify patterns in the errors.
Another thing to watch for with Comcast Business - they love to automatically upgrade customers to higher tiers during promotions but often fail to properly downgrade when the promotion ends. I found a client here in Pennsylvania was paying for 500Mbps service but only contracted for 100Mbps. They'd been overcharged for 14 months. The promotion expired but billing never adjusted back to the original rate. Always compare current billing to the original service agreements.
This is all incredibly helpful, thank you! Sylvia, that promotion issue sounds exactly like what I'm seeing at several locations. Mia, I'm going to try your approach with the Enterprise team. Pete, I love the spreadsheet idea - I've been trying to track everything manually and it's overwhelming. Has anyone had success getting Comcast to provide historical usage data to verify if clients are actually using the bandwidth they're paying for?
Nancy, getting usage data from carriers is tough but not impossible. I've had some success with that here in Alabama, mainly with AT&T business accounts. The key is framing it as necessary for billing verification, not just curiosity. Some clients are paying for symmetrical service but only using asymmetrical bandwidth patterns. If you can prove they don't need the higher tier, carriers will sometimes offer retroactive credits. Though with Comcast specifically, I haven't tried this approach yet.
I've been following this thread with interest since I'm considering expanding into telecom audits here in New Orleans. Nancy, how are you handling the client communication during this process? Are they getting frustrated with the timeline? I imagine explaining telecom billing errors to clients is more complex than utility errors. Do you provide interim reports or wait until the full audit is complete?
Juan, great question about client communication. I'm doing monthly progress reports because this is taking much longer than expected. The client is understanding because I'm finding significant errors, but I've learned to set expectations upfront about timeframes. Telecom audits definitely take 2-3x longer than electric utility audits. I'm also providing preliminary recovery estimates as I go, which keeps them engaged. So far I'm at $67K in identified overcharges across the 47 locations.
Nancy, $67K across 47 locations is solid recovery! That's about $1,400 per location average, which matches what I typically see. The key is getting Comcast to actually process the credits once you document everything. In my experience, they're more likely to issue credits if you present everything in a professional audit report format rather than just calling in with individual complaints. Good luck with the rest of the audit!