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Washington man forced to sell new home over Comcast blunder

A man living in rural Kitsap County, Washington says that he has no choice but to sell his home — which he moved into only in December — after discovering that Comcast cannot provide him Internet service.

A man living in rural Kitsap County, Washington says that he has no choice but to sell his home — which he moved into only in December — after discovering that Comcast cannot provide him Internet service.

The Consumerist has the story of Seth Morabito, a Washington-based software engineer, who says that Comcast and Comcast Business both assured him that he would be able to get service in what he calls his "dream home" before he moved in last year — an important element, as much of Morabito's job is done online. However, he later discovered that the house was not wired for cable.

Via Consumerist:

So with all other options off the table, Seth has had to wait for Comcast to get around to estimating the construction cost for connecting him to the network, and then for the company to decide whether it's worth it. 

Comcast put Seth around 2,500 feet from the nearest connection point, and gave him an initial unofficial estimate of around $20/foot, meaning he'd have to pay $50,000 just to get connected.

Ultimately, Morabito says Comcast closed several requests to correct the problem over the fact that a rep had indicated that he already had service. And, even with Morabito willing to pay for some of the wiring costs, he says Comcast won't provide him service.

And, as it turns out, that's the final straw for Morabito:

Robert called and told me that Comcast will not do the extension. No ifs, no ands, no buts, they just won't do it. They wouldn't even give me the chance to pay for it. Too much effort on their part.

I'm devastated. This means we have to sell the house. The house that I bought in December, and have lived in for only two months.

I don't know where we go from here. I don't know if there's any kind of recourse. I do know that throughout this process, Comcast has lied. I don't throw that word around lightly or flippantly, I mean it sincerely. They've fed me false information from the start, and it's hurt me very badly. 

Morabtio's other choice for an Internet carrier, CenturyLink, has marked his residential area as a "permanent exhaust," which means they won't be hooking up new homes anytime soon. He even attempted to get service with CenturyLink, only to receive a disheartening response:

"We used to serve your area, but last year somebody built a building between our tower and Poulsbo. We lost a lot of customers. There's nothing we can do for you."

As a result, Morabito says he has to head to Starbucks for file transfers and work exclusively from a mobile hotspot in his home. Understandably, Morabito is not happy:

This whole thing would have been avoided if only Comcast had said, right at the start, that they didn't serve this address. Just that one thing would have made me strike this house off the list. 

So, good bye dream house. You were the first house I ever owned, I'll miss you. 

Most recently, Comcast announced that they would overhaul their customer service department by tripling the number of social media-based customer service employees to 60.

[The Consumerist]