SEATTLE - When you move to a new address, the last thing you expect is to get hit with bills that belong to the person who lived there before you.

It's a human error that fortunately doesn't happen often. But it happens often enough that you need to know, because it can result in a nightmare with your credit report.

Cable Service after 15 Years Without

After 15 years without cable television, David and Tony Snyder ordered cable after moving to their new apartment last summer.

They signed up with Comcast in July. Days later, they got their first bill and it had a past due notice. It showed a previous balance of more than $150 going back to 2001.

"What it looks like happened," said David, "is when they started the account for us, what they did was take the previous tenant's name off the old, past due account, and put ours on it."

It was an obvious mistake, which Comcast acknowledged and quickly rectified.

"They said, 'We opened a new account. It's been corrected. Here's your new account number,' " David continued.

By their August billing, the old tenant's balance was removed.

But three months later, David checked their credit report. It's something he does on a regular basis as the couple prepares to buy a new home.

"I ran it, and discovered there was this Comcast charge-off -- or whatever they want to call it -- on our credit report," David said.

Comcast had corrected the Snyders' account, but that's where it stopped. The company's collection agency forwarded the bad information to the credit bureaus -- not good for David's job, or the couple's credit score.

"Because it shows 950 days out, past due. And it's not even ours," David said.

David said he tried to get the mistake expunged. "When I contacted the first bureau by email, I got a response back that said they had verified it, and it's ours," he said.

"It seems to be placed there fairly easily, and I could say it would be very easy to have them remove it. Just plain and simple. It wasn't there last year. It's not ours. Get it removed please."

David contacted Problem Solvers as a last resort. But he might have had better success by contacting both Comcast, their collection agency and the credit bureaus in writing with documentation of the error.

I called Comcast. Public Relations spokesman Steve Kipp told me after the Snyder's initial calls, the problem was addressed on the Comcast service end.

"We corrected the error in our billing system and notified the collection agency. According to our records, we haven't heard back from the Snyder's until now," Kipp said in an e-mail response. "We spoke with the collection agency Tuesday. The agency assures us they have submitted a deletion to all credit bureaus. They agency says that process normally takes about 14 days."

Comcast stresses this kind of mistake is extremely rare.

But the mistakes do happen, especially with apartments, and not just with cable companies.

To reduce errors when you order any utility service at a new address, get name and company ID number of the person who helps you.

Keep a file, and take notes on the details of your service agreement.

Most importantly, confirm that your account number will be a new number -- not be the same as that of the previous occupant.

Comcast is crediting the Snyder's account for 3 months of credit reports to make sure the mistake is removed.

While there's no set legal time frame for credit bureaus to correct or delete errors in your report, the Federal Trade Commission says credit bureaus typically must correct inaccurate information within about 30 days, so it should be cleared very soon.

For more information:

www.ftc.gov