The event happened, when Mr. Santangelo set up new Internet service with Comcast late last year. During a chat session with a Comcast representative, Santangelo was told the company would have to issue a credit inquiry to establish new service. When Mr. Santangelo opted to pay the $50 deposit and expressly refusing to authorize Comcast to pull the report. Santangelo is not alone with these transgressions. The class-action lawsuit suggests that Comcast routinely performs unauthorized credit checks, and cites “numerous reports of customers experiencing a credit inquiry from Comcast after deposit to avoid said inquiry.” The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act expressly prohibits companies from obtaining consumer reports without authorization. The legal complaint itself contains links of several Comcast customer forums in which users complain of having their credit reports pulled even after they paid a deposit. Customers accused Comcast of initiating “hard credit pulls”, which can downgrade credit scores and remain on a person’s score for two years. The suit also claims Comcast benefits from the practice by skimming customer deposits. Since the lawsuit was filed as a class action, other similarly situated Comcast customers could potentially join it.
