Comcast error caused porn movie charges after customer returned cable box

Comcast customers who were charged for adult movies they said they didn't order weren't able to prove their case until they decided to cancel their service and send back their cable box. The proof they were being charged incorrectly? Comcast's computer system accused them of ordering more movies after they returned the cable equipment.

The story was reported Tuesday by ABC Action News in Tampa Bay. Alyssa and Jason Overstreet had been Comcast customers for eight years, never ordering any adult movies, when suddenly Comcast started charging them for pay-per-view porn films supposedly ordered in the middle of the night, the report said.

"Comcast charged the Overstreets for about 20 of these films," with the first erroneous charge occurring on March 30, the ABC affiliate said.

ABC contacted Comcast about the case, and the cable company insisted the charges were legitimate, telling the news station that "the box that is sending the authorization signal to order on-demand movies is the box that is assigned to the account."

But that wasn't the end of the story. The Overstreets decided to cancel their service and return their equipment. "The UPS receipt shows they returned the cable box April 7. Days later on April 10, 11 and 12, Comcast billed the couple for more adult movies," the report says.

ABC contacted Comcast again, and this time around the cable company figured out what the problem was.

"Comcast charged more movies to her account, so I went back to Comcast," ABC News reporter Jackie Callaway said. "The company this time had their engineers look into what happened. They found a data stream error and they called the problem 'unique.' They also apologized for what happened."

Ultimately, Comcast credited the Overstreets for the $240 they'd been erroneously charged, and even waived the couple's final cable bill of $139.

We contacted Comcast to find out more about how the error occurred, but the company said it had nothing to add to what was reported by ABC Action News. In a possibly related story, Comcast has repeatedly ranked as one of the most hated cable companies in the American Customer Satisfaction Index's customer surveys.