As I was waiting to watch the Champions League Football match [soccer] and trying to send a very important email to a business associate of mine, what happens, my Cable provider [Comcast] goes down, the picture freezes, the high speed internet is slow and none existent [not working at all] in the process, my Vonage VOIP system is down and out as well.  

When Comcast is down everything is down.  So what do I do, I call customer service, I am immediately placed on hold, finally 22 minutes later someone answers.  As I was trying to explain to the customer service rep my issues and concerns that I am having with their service, the rep asks me if they can place me on hold for just one minute, and they do, approximately 7 minutes later, I get disconnected...I guess they had enough of my complaint.  Needless to say, this is not the first and probably won't be the last time this happens.  I decided to call back, but eventually after being on hold for many more minutes, I just gave up.  

A few days later my girlfriend and I rented a movie from the On-Demand menu.  We started to watch the movie and it was scrambled, we could not see any of it.  Since I am not really good at dealing with stressful situations, I asked my girlfriend to call Comcast, and she did.  After many minutes on hold she finally reaches a Customer Service Rep.  She explains what has happened, and the Rep apologizes and asks her to test another movie, to make sure the system is functioning properly [she also said that we will NOT be charged for these movies, and I actually believed her...]  Long story short, the second movie was also scrambled, and now to Comcast it appears that we watched 2 movies with a total charge of approximately $10, but, not to worry since we will not be charged for these movies, RIGHT?!!?!!  Well, we move forward one month and I receive my Comcast Statement, and what do I see, both movies charged, plus all applicable taxes and even though Comcast looses its signal numerous times throughout the month, I am always charged for the entire month with no discount applied.  What happens if I were to be late just 1 minute with paying of the bill, their system would instantly disconnect me.  Why is it that their system is never wrong when it comes to us not paying on time and when it favors them, yet always at fault with incorrect charges that do not favor us, the Consumer and their customers?  

How can I deal with this constant frustration and company that always demands for me to pay on time, but yet they do not take the responsibility for their own actions?  Whether the system is down, or their features and services which we pay for are never rendered, yet they always seem to charge us, and the only way to get your money back is by obviously calling Customer Service and complaining.  This is almost like an OPT OUT system that the Banks and Credit Card companies implement, they charge and hope that people wont notice, and if they do notice hope that by being on hold for 10, 20 or even 30 minutes will discourage them and they will eventually just give up and hang up...