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Comcast: Customer Service Or Consumer Fraud?
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I
hesitate to write about my own personal experiences with companies that
I believe they are engaging in consumer fraud because I may be
overreacting out of frustration.
But I also realize that most consumers aren’t in my position of
publicly voicing their outrage and, thus, we, customers, as a group,
have no voice unless those of us with a platform speak out.
So let me vent!
This morning I woke up to my Comcast CMCSA +0.65% network not working. I called customer support. Tracy was excellent and in 20 minutes had the system up and running again.
But there was a problem. She had restored the original network name with its 16-digit password.
Me: “Please help me reset my network name and password, Tracy.”
Tracy: “I can’t do that. It’s a different department. I’m not allowed to help you do this.” I’ll transfer you over.
Tracy transferred me and I was back to the same automatic dialing
options as when I first called. So now I’m speaking to Ellen. Same
story.
Ellen: “I’ll transfer you over to the right number.”
Me: “Ellen, please stay on the line.”
Ellen: “I will.”
I get transferred back to the same options. Ellen’s not on the line.
On my fifth iteration of this, 45 minutes later, Cynthia emails me
instructions for resetting the name and password via a Wizard.
The Wizard turns out to let you reset the name and password for my connection to the Wizard.
Another 30 minutes later, my blood pressure rising to 160/130, I get
Frank on the line. He says I can pay $6 per month with Signature
Support to get fixed that which Comcast broke.
I agree.
After another 15 minutes, with Frank staying on the line and
commenting that he was being driven insane by the background music,
Silvia comes on the line.
Silvia tells us that it’s not $6 per month, which I can cancel after one month (as Frank said), but $79 as a one-time fee.
Frank, says it’s supposed to be $6 per month. Silvia says Frank’s got it wrong. It’s $79.
I ask to speak to a supervisor.
Another 20 minutes of awful background music. Silvia comes back on
the line to say it’s $6 per month. She gives me a ticket number,
connects me with Ben, and Frank signs off.
Ben is very cheery. I’m not into cheery. I’m into outrage. It’s
been over 2 hours to fix something that should take 2 minutes.
Ben then proceeds to tell me to hardwire my Air laptop with an
Ethernet cable to the Comcast combined modem/router. But I have no cable
and my laptop has no Ethernet port
I explain this isn’t possible. Ben says he can’t help me. They can
only do this via a hard wire connection. “Could I please go to the Apple AAPL +1.47% store and buy a wire and a special adaptor and call back.”
“No Ben,” I said, “What I can do and am about to do is write a column
about Comcast’s attempt to sell me a $79 fix, which actually sells for
$6, to fix something that Comcast broke and can’t promise will stay
fixed, and that I was promised you could fix only to find out you can’t
do it remotely.
My column will be read by, I hope, thousands of people. I pray it
will go viral. Do you think your supervisor would like to talk to me?
And, by the way, please Google GOOG +3.23% my name and you’ll see I’m not kidding. I do write these columns.“
Ben: “Let me have my supervisor call you back.”
Twenty minutes later, after spending time trying to chat online with
Comcast’s online support and getting even more frustrated, a supervisor
from Signature Service, Matt, calls me and says to stay on the line,
he’s going to connect me with Andrew who will fix this remotely.”
Me: “Matt, I was told I need to be hardwired?”
Matt: “You don’t. We can do this remotely. Hold on. I’ll get Andrew on the line.”
Matt then disconnects me.
My blood pressure is up at 170/138.
Ten minutes later, Andrew calls, who logs into my system, and restores the old name and password in 2 minutes.
It’s too early to drink, which I don’t do anyway. But it’s not too early to post this column.
This must be happening everyone minute of the day to one of Comcast’s customers.
My girlfriend told me it happened to her – same thing – several
months ago. After hours on the phone, she agreed to have a service tech
come to the house. She took a half-day off from work and he never
showed up.
She then was forced to pay the $79 fee to fix something that could go down again at any moment and that Comcast had broken.
The only reason I got this resolved, after three hours (four hours
counting the time to write), was by threatening to write this column.
I recommend that the CEO of Comcast and all its board members as well
as the head of customer support pop some blood pressure pills and call
in anonymously with exactly my problem and see the kind of incompetence
with which their company is operating and the kind of fraud their
company is perpetuating.
Frankly, as an economist, I can tell you this wouldn’t be happening
were Comcast not a monopolist with respect to the delivery of its
services in my part of Boston. They are the only service provider and
they are acting just like it.
But Comcast customer support could be split off from the entity that
actually provides TV, internet, and phone service and turned into a
competitive industry. I recommend that the FCC and Anti-Trust Division of the Justice Department look into this.
Our government didn’t break up AT&T T +0.25%
decades ago, freeing the American public from a terrible national
telecommunications monopolist, only to deliver us into the hands of
local telecom monopolists, who, in many ways, are far worse.
HEAR IT: Comcast 'embarrassed' by employee who resists customer's effort to cancel service
Technology
journalist Ryan Block posted an 8-minute clip of the customer service
representative continuously trying to ask him why he wants to disconnect
and trying to talk him out of it. The company apologized to Block and
said it would work to make changes.
BY
Joel Landau
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, July 15, 2014, 2:59 PM
Thanks for your Support
Follow Comments
I
hesitate to write about my own personal experiences with companies that
I believe they are engaging in consumer fraud because I may be
overreacting out of frustration.
But I also realize that most consumers aren’t in my position of publicly voicing their outrage and, thus, we, customers, as a group, have no voice unless those of us with a platform speak out.
So let me vent!
This morning I woke up to my Comcast CMCSA +0.65% network not working. I called customer support. Tracy was excellent and in 20 minutes had the system up and running again.
But there was a problem. She had restored the original network name with its 16-digit password.
Me: “Please help me reset my network name and password, Tracy.”
Tracy: “I can’t do that. It’s a different department. I’m not allowed to help you do this.” I’ll transfer you over.
Tracy transferred me and I was back to the same automatic dialing options as when I first called. So now I’m speaking to Ellen. Same story.
Ellen: “I’ll transfer you over to the right number.”
Me: “Ellen, please stay on the line.”
Ellen: “I will.”
I get transferred back to the same options. Ellen’s not on the line.
On my fifth iteration of this, 45 minutes later, Cynthia emails me instructions for resetting the name and password via a Wizard.
The Wizard turns out to let you reset the name and password for my connection to the Wizard.
Another 30 minutes later, my blood pressure rising to 160/130, I get Frank on the line. He says I can pay $6 per month with Signature Support to get fixed that which Comcast broke.
I agree.
After another 15 minutes, with Frank staying on the line and commenting that he was being driven insane by the background music, Silvia comes on the line.
Silvia tells us that it’s not $6 per month, which I can cancel after one month (as Frank said), but $79 as a one-time fee.
Frank, says it’s supposed to be $6 per month. Silvia says Frank’s got it wrong. It’s $79.
I ask to speak to a supervisor.
Another 20 minutes of awful background music. Silvia comes back on the line to say it’s $6 per month. She gives me a ticket number, connects me with Ben, and Frank signs off.
Ben is very cheery. I’m not into cheery. I’m into outrage. It’s been over 2 hours to fix something that should take 2 minutes.
Ben then proceeds to tell me to hardwire my Air laptop with an Ethernet cable to the Comcast combined modem/router. But I have no cable and my laptop has no Ethernet port
I explain this isn’t possible. Ben says he can’t help me. They can only do this via a hard wire connection. “Could I please go to the Apple AAPL +1.47% store and buy a wire and a special adaptor and call back.”
“No Ben,” I said, “What I can do and am about to do is write a column about Comcast’s attempt to sell me a $79 fix, which actually sells for $6, to fix something that Comcast broke and can’t promise will stay fixed, and that I was promised you could fix only to find out you can’t do it remotely.
My column will be read by, I hope, thousands of people. I pray it will go viral. Do you think your supervisor would like to talk to me? And, by the way, please Google GOOG +3.23% my name and you’ll see I’m not kidding. I do write these columns.“
Ben: “Let me have my supervisor call you back.”
Twenty minutes later, after spending time trying to chat online with Comcast’s online support and getting even more frustrated, a supervisor from Signature Service, Matt, calls me and says to stay on the line, he’s going to connect me with Andrew who will fix this remotely.”
Me: “Matt, I was told I need to be hardwired?”
Matt: “You don’t. We can do this remotely. Hold on. I’ll get Andrew on the line.”
Matt then disconnects me.
My blood pressure is up at 170/138.
Ten minutes later, Andrew calls, who logs into my system, and restores the old name and password in 2 minutes.
It’s too early to drink, which I don’t do anyway. But it’s not too early to post this column.
This must be happening everyone minute of the day to one of Comcast’s customers.
My girlfriend told me it happened to her – same thing – several months ago. After hours on the phone, she agreed to have a service tech come to the house. She took a half-day off from work and he never showed up.
She then was forced to pay the $79 fee to fix something that could go down again at any moment and that Comcast had broken.
The only reason I got this resolved, after three hours (four hours counting the time to write), was by threatening to write this column.
I recommend that the CEO of Comcast and all its board members as well as the head of customer support pop some blood pressure pills and call in anonymously with exactly my problem and see the kind of incompetence with which their company is operating and the kind of fraud their company is perpetuating.
Frankly, as an economist, I can tell you this wouldn’t be happening were Comcast not a monopolist with respect to the delivery of its services in my part of Boston. They are the only service provider and they are acting just like it.
But Comcast customer support could be split off from the entity that actually provides TV, internet, and phone service and turned into a competitive industry. I recommend that the FCC and Anti-Trust Division of the Justice Department look into this.
Our government didn’t break up AT&T T +0.25% decades ago, freeing the American public from a terrible national telecommunications monopolist, only to deliver us into the hands of local telecom monopolists, who, in many ways, are far worse.
But I also realize that most consumers aren’t in my position of publicly voicing their outrage and, thus, we, customers, as a group, have no voice unless those of us with a platform speak out.
So let me vent!
This morning I woke up to my Comcast CMCSA +0.65% network not working. I called customer support. Tracy was excellent and in 20 minutes had the system up and running again.
But there was a problem. She had restored the original network name with its 16-digit password.
Me: “Please help me reset my network name and password, Tracy.”
Tracy: “I can’t do that. It’s a different department. I’m not allowed to help you do this.” I’ll transfer you over.
Tracy transferred me and I was back to the same automatic dialing options as when I first called. So now I’m speaking to Ellen. Same story.
Ellen: “I’ll transfer you over to the right number.”
Me: “Ellen, please stay on the line.”
Ellen: “I will.”
I get transferred back to the same options. Ellen’s not on the line.
On my fifth iteration of this, 45 minutes later, Cynthia emails me instructions for resetting the name and password via a Wizard.
The Wizard turns out to let you reset the name and password for my connection to the Wizard.
Another 30 minutes later, my blood pressure rising to 160/130, I get Frank on the line. He says I can pay $6 per month with Signature Support to get fixed that which Comcast broke.
I agree.
After another 15 minutes, with Frank staying on the line and commenting that he was being driven insane by the background music, Silvia comes on the line.
Silvia tells us that it’s not $6 per month, which I can cancel after one month (as Frank said), but $79 as a one-time fee.
Frank, says it’s supposed to be $6 per month. Silvia says Frank’s got it wrong. It’s $79.
I ask to speak to a supervisor.
Another 20 minutes of awful background music. Silvia comes back on the line to say it’s $6 per month. She gives me a ticket number, connects me with Ben, and Frank signs off.
Ben is very cheery. I’m not into cheery. I’m into outrage. It’s been over 2 hours to fix something that should take 2 minutes.
Ben then proceeds to tell me to hardwire my Air laptop with an Ethernet cable to the Comcast combined modem/router. But I have no cable and my laptop has no Ethernet port
I explain this isn’t possible. Ben says he can’t help me. They can only do this via a hard wire connection. “Could I please go to the Apple AAPL +1.47% store and buy a wire and a special adaptor and call back.”
“No Ben,” I said, “What I can do and am about to do is write a column about Comcast’s attempt to sell me a $79 fix, which actually sells for $6, to fix something that Comcast broke and can’t promise will stay fixed, and that I was promised you could fix only to find out you can’t do it remotely.
My column will be read by, I hope, thousands of people. I pray it will go viral. Do you think your supervisor would like to talk to me? And, by the way, please Google GOOG +3.23% my name and you’ll see I’m not kidding. I do write these columns.“
Ben: “Let me have my supervisor call you back.”
Twenty minutes later, after spending time trying to chat online with Comcast’s online support and getting even more frustrated, a supervisor from Signature Service, Matt, calls me and says to stay on the line, he’s going to connect me with Andrew who will fix this remotely.”
Me: “Matt, I was told I need to be hardwired?”
Matt: “You don’t. We can do this remotely. Hold on. I’ll get Andrew on the line.”
Matt then disconnects me.
My blood pressure is up at 170/138.
Ten minutes later, Andrew calls, who logs into my system, and restores the old name and password in 2 minutes.
It’s too early to drink, which I don’t do anyway. But it’s not too early to post this column.
This must be happening everyone minute of the day to one of Comcast’s customers.
My girlfriend told me it happened to her – same thing – several months ago. After hours on the phone, she agreed to have a service tech come to the house. She took a half-day off from work and he never showed up.
She then was forced to pay the $79 fee to fix something that could go down again at any moment and that Comcast had broken.
The only reason I got this resolved, after three hours (four hours counting the time to write), was by threatening to write this column.
I recommend that the CEO of Comcast and all its board members as well as the head of customer support pop some blood pressure pills and call in anonymously with exactly my problem and see the kind of incompetence with which their company is operating and the kind of fraud their company is perpetuating.
Frankly, as an economist, I can tell you this wouldn’t be happening were Comcast not a monopolist with respect to the delivery of its services in my part of Boston. They are the only service provider and they are acting just like it.
But Comcast customer support could be split off from the entity that actually provides TV, internet, and phone service and turned into a competitive industry. I recommend that the FCC and Anti-Trust Division of the Justice Department look into this.
Our government didn’t break up AT&T T +0.25% decades ago, freeing the American public from a terrible national telecommunications monopolist, only to deliver us into the hands of local telecom monopolists, who, in many ways, are far worse.
O'Reilly via YouTube Tech writer Ryan Block posted an 8-minute conversation he had with a 'belligerent' Comcast rep. Comcast, which apparently has the No. 1 service in the country according to a very determined customer service rep, admitted Tuesday to being embarrassed about the conduct of the employee who refused to take no for an answer when a customer tried over and over to have his service disconnected on the phone.
Technology journalist Ryan Block recorded an 8-minute clip of his conversation with the rep who was determined not to get him to cancel. The employee repeatedly assured Block, a customer since 2005, of how superior their service was and was adamant that he be informed why Block wanted to cancel.
Block declined an interview request with the Daily News, but wrote on his Twitter account that the rep was "rude, unhelpful, condescending" and "straight up belligerent."
The 8-minute exchange — the first half of which was not recorded as the rep spoke to his wife — was posted online Monday night.
"Why is it you don't want faster speed? Help me understand why you don't want faster internet?" the rep asks.
"Help me understand why you can't just disconnect us?" Block answers.
After Block informs the rep over and over he does not want to state a reason for canceling and that he does not owe the company an explanation, the rep just says he wants to help.
"But how is that helping you though?" the rep wonders.
"That's what I want," Block replies.
"OK, why is that what you want?" the employee continues.
Help me understand why you can't just disconnect us?
After more arguing Block asks, "Please answer my question. Are you capable by phone of disconnecting our service?"
"It's something we can do. I mean, very rarely do we do it," the rep says.
The customer then asks him to disconnect, but like a jilted lover the Comcast rep immediately starts asking about the new internet provider.
Gene J. Puskar/ASSOCIATED PRESS Comcast sad it was embarrassed by the recording and apologized to Block. At the 6-minute mark the employee finally says he will disconnect the service.
"It's really a shame to see you go to a company that can't give you what we can," he said.
Tom Karinshak, Comcast's senior vice president of customer experience, issued a statement Tuesday noting the company is "embarrassed by the way our employee spoke" to Block and would call him to personally apologize.
Comcast did tweet an apology to Block that admitted they had more work to do to be better.
Block responded he hoped the company would take a "thorough evaluation" of the company's "culture and policies" and not fire the employee.
jlandau@nydailynews.com Follow on Twitter @joelzlandau
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/hear-comcast-employee-customer-difficult-time-asked-cancel-service-article-1.1867728#ixzz37dyUagw4
