By R. Lee Ingalls

Brett and I recently had one of the strangest, and most concerning, experiences we’ve had in a long time.

Several weeks ago, a neighbor messaged me to say there was a package sitting outside our gate. It had our address on it, but the name was one neither of us recognized. I picked it up, confirmed what they had seen, and assumed it was simply a delivery mistake.

I searched online for the person whose name was on the package. Nothing. I emailed the company listed on the return address. Nothing.

So the package sat in our kitchen for weeks. I was convinced that sooner or later someone would knock on our door looking for it. No one ever did.

Eventually I was ready to throw it away, but Brett suggested we at least open it first. After joking, and only half joking, about whether it could contain something dangerous, we decided to see what was inside.

The box contained several pieces of Xfinity equipment.

Now we were even more confused.

I called Xfinity expecting to do one simple thing: tell them they had delivered equipment to the wrong address and ask them to retrieve it.

Instead, the call immediately raised a whole new set of concerns.

Their automated system recognized the phone number I was calling from and asked if my address was NNNN. That immediately caught my attention because I have never had Xfinity service at this address. Then the system informed me that I had an outstanding balance of more than $700 and asked if I wanted to pay it. When I declined, it offered to let me make a minimum payment of $300 to avoid service interruption.

At that point, I wasn’t worried about the package anymore. I was worried that someone had somehow opened an account using my address or my information.

After finally reaching a customer service representative, I explained that the equipment had been delivered to my home by mistake. She repeatedly questioned whether someone else living in the house had ordered the service. I explained, more than once, that the only people living here are Brett and me, and neither of us knew the name on the package or had ordered anything from Xfinity.

Then came what I found to be the most frustrating part.

Their first solution was for me to drive their equipment to one of their service centers.

No.

They delivered it in error. They can pick it up.

Their second suggestion was even more unbelievable. They wanted permission to give my phone number to the person who supposedly ordered the service so they could contact me and arrange to retrieve the equipment.

Absolutely not.

I am not giving a stranger my personal phone number or arranging for them to come to my home because of a mistake made by Xfinity.

After several holds and multiple conversations with supervisors, they finally agreed to have someone from their field office retrieve the equipment. Since our gates are locked, I offered to place the box just inside the gate so their employee could simply lift it over the fence.

Before ending the call, I repeatedly asked one final question: Are there any accounts associated with my phone number or my address? It took several attempts before I finally received an answer.

“No.”

The entire experience left me with far more questions than answers.

• How did Xfinity associate my phone number with an address where I’ve never had their service?
• Why did their automated system attempt to collect a debt from me based only on the phone number I called from?
• Why was the burden initially placed on me to transport their equipment or coordinate with one of their customers?
• Why was it so difficult to get a simple confirmation that no account existed in my name?

Mistakes happen. I understand that.

What concerns me is what happened after the mistake. Customer service should protect consumers, not create additional privacy and security concerns.

Has anyone else had an experience like this with Xfinity or another company? I’d genuinely like to know whether this is an isolated incident or part of a much larger problem.