My mom and dad’s house might explode, but Comcast wants its cable box back

People have a right to expect better behavior. No, Comcast doesn't have to care, but the other side of the coin is that customers have a right to make a big stink if and when a company pulls some bullshit like this. I'm not sure we can have a productive conversation about much of anything if a natural disaster on this scale is for all practical purposes equivalent to a burst water pipe.

And, as a counterexample: I got an email from PNC Bank saying that they weren't going to charge people for overdrafts and suchlike from now until November 5th, on account of Sandy. It's as if this particular corporation is comprised of people, some subset of whom sat down for two seconds and thought about something other than the bottom line.

Note that even if PNC are motivated by not pissing people off or garnering good will, I'd still call this working as intended. Without an incentive to behave well, the temptation to revert to behavior like Comcast's is all too easy.

I think we have to be really careful about anthropomorphizing companies.

The CEO has to make rules, one of which is that they charge fees for all boxes so that people have no incentive to try to game the system. The rule must be consistent across the board. He or she also knows that the people implementing this rule will be low-paid and are not the right people to make the choice about what excuse to accept.

Further, he or she (the CEO) realizes that if your house is destroyed, you're going to put in an insurance claim, including possibly for any lost property belonging to services contracted to the house.

For this reason, they're not cutting you a break. They need a consistent policy that doesn't have any loopholes. It's not much different than computer security, actually. You eliminate ambiguity and make upstream rules.

That isn't to say it doesn't suck. Then again, it's a drop of suck in an ocean of suck. I've seen the pictures of some of the devastation and my heart goes out to the people there. If I thought they needed my services, I would give them a discount.

This brings me to the meat of this rambling post: go Consumerist style but instead of complaining to Comcast, offer it up to them as an opportunity. You mentioned how they often go out and do community initiatives. Suggest to them that they reach out to the recently devastated and offer a free cable hook-up and services with monthlies at the regular rate. You never know, it could work out for them, since all the devastated homes will need some kind of internet, and whoever makes it easiest may win over the harried homeowners.

I do not care if Comcast in business of making money or they have fiduciary responsibility to their stock holders. The timing is wrong and inappropriate esp. when people lives coule be in danger and their entire life saving is in jeopardy.

Comcast get a handle of this stupid situation.

Why this is justified on Comcast's part: the equipment is rented, if it's lost due to a natural disaster then that's still on the renter unless you've insured for that loss otherwise. Note that it would make sense for Comcast to offer such insurance as a service fee, although it's likely this is covered through homeowners insurance.

Why this is dumb on Comcast's part: this is day 2? post Hurricane and now Comcast's greed is front and center in the national press. This is not smart, especially considering the relatively small amount of money at stake here. How much does Comcast spend on advertising? With this move they've basically erased the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars in advertising for far less value in return. No company wants a PR failure of this magnitude. Especially considering that Comcast is already one of the most hated companies in existence.

This was not a good move for Comcast and they are going to lose far more than they could possibly gain.

Consumerist performed the escalation.