PHILADELPHIA -- Comcast, a cable company already notorious for its poor customer service, was left scrambling to apologize recently after some of its customers received bills that had swapped out profanities and insults for their names. Instances of bills being addressed to "A**hole," "Whore" and "Hey Dummy" were chronicled by consumer advocate and blogger Christopher Elliot. The first story to appear in late January included the tale of Ricardo and Lisa Brown, who received a bill addressed to "A**hole Brown" after the Spokane, Washington couple sparred with a customer service representative and canceled their service. After Elliot, who also pens a syndicated column, published the stories on his blog, they were picked up by major news outlets such as CNN and CBS. That prompted Comcast to offer a public apology. "We have spoken with our customer and apologized for this completely unacceptable and inappropriate name change," a Comcast spokeswoman told CNN recently. The company said it fired the employee responsible in the Brown case. This isn't the first embarrassing public relations episode that Comcast has faced in recent months. Last year, the audio recording of a customer's frustrating attempt to cancel his service went viral. The company at the time vowed to fix its customer service problems, but said that it won't happen overnight. "It may take a few years before we can honestly say that a great customer experience is something we're known for," a Comcast exec wrote on the company's blog.