The spin at the beginning is bad enough but - note if your equipment floated away or was hauled off with your house... Comcast is dunning you up to $694.34 and sending collectors after you.... in your tent...
Cable provider Comcast Corp. said 81 island residents who received letters from a debt collection agency demanding the immediate return of, or payment for, converter boxes, remotes and modems lost in Hurricane Ike are owed letters of apology.
But some island residents who opened their mail Thursday didn't find apologies. Instead, they got more hounding from the collection agency advising them to pay up or return the ruined equipment. The letters come as frustration and bafflement about Comcast's post-Ike policies on flooded equipment mount.
Comcast said Thursday it had directed Carrollton-based Credit Management LP to suspend collection efforts against island customers who canceled cable service after Hurricane Ike struck Sept. 13 but did not return equipment submerged in seawater when thousands of houses and apartments were flooded.
If Comcast customers have been able to recover their converter box, cable modem or remote after the storm, they should return the equipment to one of the company's area service centers, Bybee said. In Galveston, Comcast has set up a temporary service center at the Island Community Center, 4700 Broadway. Once the equipment was returned, Comcast would remove the charges from their accounts so they wouldn't be billed, Bybee said.
Comcast would not charge for damaged equipment, he said. But if the equipment was lost because of the storm, Comcast is advising customers to file the loss on their homeowners' insurance policy at the same time they file other household claims, such as appliances and electronics.
Comcast said the charge for the equipment would appear on a customer's monthly statement. However, the company would not require payment for at least 90 days, allowing enough time for consumers to receive insurance reimbursements.
But because the equipment is rented, most insurers won't reimburse policyholders for it, said Jerry Johns, a spokesman for industry trade group Southwestern Insurance Information Service. If insurers won't cover it, or some cable subscribers don't have insurance, then they should send a letter to Comcast saying so, Bybee said. "We want to work with every one of our customers,'" Bybee said. 
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