Comcast Customer Service Under Fire Again

John Lister's picture

Comcast has been embarrassed yet again by a recording of a call to its customer service team. This time, a representative was caught trying to charge a Comcast customer for repairs, despite the company already promising the work would be done free of charge.

Last month, Comcast came under fire when another customer repeatedly tried to cancel his Comcast service over the telephone. During the recording, which reportedly lasted eighteen minutes, the customer service representative repeatedly badgered the customer and demanded to know why he wanted to cancel his service. The audio recording was posted online soundcloud.com, and has since gone viral.

Comcast's No Charge Promise Comes To Naught

The new scandal involves an Oregon man, who goes by the online name 'Tim Davis'. He recently moved to a new home and brought his Comcast equipment with him, and successfully self-installed it. Davis' Internet worked without any issues for a few days, but then later the service became intermittent. He called Comcast for help, and was told there would be no charge to fix the problem - a point which Davis explicitly confirmed (and recorded) while on the phone.

A technician later came to the home and fixed the problem; subsequently, Davis received a charge of $181.94 on his next bill. He then called Comcast to complain, and was told the charge was imposed due to an improper self-installation of his own equipment and for additional services - something which was not the case. (Source: yahoo.com)

When Davis protested, the customer representative first offered to compromise with a $60 charge, to be paid in installments. Davis again pointed out that he'd been promised no charge, at which point the representative said Comcast would have to charge at least $50, as that was a standard minimum fee for all technician visits.

Phone Recording Changes Company Attitude

At this point, Davis revealed that he had recorded the original call promising no charge, and played it back over the telephone. The representative then said she would investigate and call back later. She did so, and said all charges would be waived.

The real shock came when the supervisor not only said she'd made the original offer of cutting the charge to $60 because "we try to negotiate." However, the supervisor also admitted that if Davis had not made the recording in the first place, the company would not have waived the charges completely.

Davis has now released the audio of all his calls to Comcast. The company says it is investigating the situation. (Source: youtube.com)

What's Your Opinion?

Have you ever been made promises about pricing by a tech or communications firm that weren't kept? Would you consider recording a call to use as evidence if needed? Do you think it's right to make such recordings public in order to embarrass a firm?

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Comments

jboursales_2964's picture

I gave up comcast 8 years ago and went to Dish Network. I gave up comcast over pricing. They are the most expensive service and their service & customer relations are horrible. I gave up Dish because I could not go a week without calling their tech support. I now have Century link Fiber Optic Prism. It is the best TV reception I have ever had. No tech problems and wonderful service.

xtrmegene's picture

Comcast is full of nothing but f@*#ing liars. I had a service issue and spoke to six different reps and got six different answers. I also got six different offers to "improve" my service. How can you get six different answers and everyone be right? SOMEBODY IS LYING!!! Switched to DirectTV. I've had one problem and they fixed it within 3 hours of the call. Screw Comcast.

jsteedley2's picture

Hello.

How can you "embarrass a firm?"
Its not like a 'firm' has 'feelings',
or a 'conscience', for that matter.

In these kinds of situations, such a question is worse than ridiculous, its nonsensical, absurd, & idiotic.
The entire point of the "customer's" action was to try to force the 'company' [Comcast] to do what it should be doing already;
I.E.,
PROVIDING SERVICES WHICH CUSTOMERS HAVE **ALREADY** PAID FOR!!!!!

The *real* issue here is **WHY* state regulatory agencies REFUSE to actively support THE CUSTOMERS [the CITIZENS], instead of de facto providing services to the companies they are **SUPPOSED** to REGULATE!

This so-called "article" makes me wonder if there are *any* "journalists" left any more, because this kind of nonsense does *not* 'qualify' as 'journalism'.

The fact that the 'customer' made the recording is proof that, apparently having dealt with Comcast's "customer service" before, "Tim Davis" knew that he would *not* be treated properly by his 'business partner', Comcast.

This situation is the direct result of government bureaucracies that are worse than worthless because they are corrupt, as seems to be the case with the vast majority of such. Numerous examples can be found and/or cited, as that is the 'norm' rather than the exception.

I understand that in many cases, the various legislative bodies have sold out to lobbyists and are the real source of the corruption, but if a bureaucracy can not fulfill its legal function due to legislative interference, then the legislature should simply scale back the funding so that the citizenry are no longer being forced to pay for the legislature, the bureaucracy, AND the so-called "services" of the disreputable commercial organizations, such as Comcast.

In other kinds of cases, the government would usually step in, investigate, and act to protect its citizens.
But when the culprits are companies rather than individuals or actual criminal organizations, the various governments responsible most often ignore the deplorable plight of "the little people".
This is unacceptable.

Fortunately, the time is coming when these harmful, counter-productive 'governments' WILL be destroyed, to be replaced by a truly 'righteous' government.

Have a GREAT day Neighbors!