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Comcast Customer Service Rep Just Won't Take No For an Answer
RevWaldo writes: The Verge and other sources report on how AOL's Ryan Block ultimately succeeded in cancelling his Comcast account over the phone, but not before the customer service representative pressed him for eight solid minutes (audio) to explain his reasoning for leaving "the number one provider of TV and internet service in the country" in a manner that would cause a character in Glengarry Glen Ross to blush. Comcast has now issued an apology.
That's probably what they meant...
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What is this, backwards day?
So... companies don't want you to stop sending them money? Who woulda thunk!
Probably something like "as you wait for confirmation that the service has been terminated, continue your attempts to save the customer". With no consideration given to the fact that it takes 8 fucking minutes.
How much do guys in Glengarry Glen Ross blush?
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
where else can you get hundreds of channels of TV i hate and crappy internet for one low price of $200 a month?
what else would i do if i didn't have 400 channels of TV? how else would i watch commercials?
Comcast simply will not accept being second place in the competition for the worst company in existence.
We should learn what we need to know about issues, before we decide what we need to feel about them.
don't understand why this is not more widely understood.
Someone astutely put it somewhere else that a cancelation is probably a "failed customer problem resolution" and negatively impacts a performance review or bonus consideration.
If I am hearing correctly, this guy was signed up for 105 megabits per second... Do you know how hard it is to use 105 megabits/second? Netflix in HD only uses up 5... unless this guy has a family of 20, with each person watching HD content, 105 Megabits/second is a waste of money. I mean granted, maybe some people here can tell me how a single family home can use that much bandwidth (downloading several dozen torrents simultaneously?), but my family doesn't even use half of our 30 Megabit/second bandwidth.
They're only sorry they got caught.
As for instructing the bot to personally apologize, that wouldn't cut it with me. If a rep were to call me after I just got through firing his company. He will never get a chance to apologize. And yes my coworkers have heard me do things like that to other reps who have called after their companies were fired.
They've done this to me. They interurpt you, they refuse to let you speak until you scream. They just keep talking. They make excuses, they contradict themselves. They are just unbelievable.
This recording is a great example of how Comcast representives are trained to talk you. Obviously, a monopolist can just abuse you and treat you any way they want.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
I listened to this earlier today. I had to stop listening after about a minute because just listening to it made me angry enough to want to break things and kill people (not exaggerating).
Had I been the caller, I'd have been frothing at the mouth at this jackass. Or I'd have hung up before I threw the phone, and called back to talk to someone else.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Exactly like the slimeball "sales manager" at a car dealership who tries to sell you the extended warranty and other overpriced crap after you've agreed to a price. He demands that you justify your refusal, because he knows that if he can get you on the defensive, he can bully you into submission.
I once tore up a negotiated deal in front of one of those. That wouldn't work in this case, because this customer was already cancelling service, but it might be fun to say "Why I'm cancelling is none of your damned business. I will pay no more bills. Remember when your robot told me this call would be recorded?"
I have been telling my friends and neighbors about dumping cable and just streaming and using bunny ears for TV - and the only way to get REAL HDTV is by antennae, btw.
EVERY single one says something like "But I love my sports!" - read, I love ESPN.
I solved that problem: the networks rebroadcast many things and I got off my ass and actually DO sports and lost a bit of weight doing it too.
And when it comes to many sports - like tennis and softball - you meet single (fit) women or women who have single friends.
Cable is one of the biggest money wasting ripoffs in our society.
...and a free month of service. Just call to cancel if you don't wish to continue.
"There ought to be limits to freedom." -George W. Bush
It's hard to believe the customer service rep acted in this way simply because he wanted to.
It's far more likely Comcast phone reps in charge of customer retention have some sort of quota or other incentive that all but compels them to speak with people in such a belligerent fashion.
I'm sure the poor rep was fighting for his livelihood, why else would he so aggressively press the customer to stay with Comcast?
They apologized, but have they changed the script they give their customer service reps to follow.
Where is my apology and when is comcast going to re-sod my lawn?
You don't have to 'explain' a goddamn thing to them or anyone else, and you damn well TELL them that. You are paying them, not the other way around, and if you want to cancel your service with them or anyone else for that matter, it's not their place to badger you or bully you. Being asked, once, politely, why you're unhappy enough to cancel is one thing, but if you don't wish to explain why then they MUST accept that. Arguing, bullying, badgering, or any other hard-sell tactics, is just plain bullshit. Anyone gives you that kind of guff? You tell them you want to speak to their supervisor, RIGHT NOW, and YOU don't take 'no' for an answer, either. Their supervisor is being a hardass about it, too? Go over their head. And so on. The only way you get shithead companies like Comcast to knock it off is to not sit back and take shit from them.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
I had little or no problem cancelling Comcast recently when I moved. I used the phrase "moving out of the Comcast service area" when they asked why I was cancelling, and they put it right through. Had a little more trouble returning their boxes, however.
Is it weird in here, or is it just me?
If you want to get rid of your service quickly:
1. Pick a country where you know they have no service (typically something like Sweden or Finland are great, since very few multinational US companies operate there...)
2. Call the customer service and tell them you're moving to the country you chose in (1), because you got a permanent job there. To sound convincing, tell them that you don't have a permanent address there yet and are temporarily going to stay at a hotel. Ask them for a confirmation number that you owe them nothing. If they can't do that tell them to write on your file that any bills they send must be e-mailed to you.
3. Watch them cancel your service no question asked.
I've moved out of the US twice and each time I've been able to cancel all of my services in less than two minutes after I managed to get through the wait when calling them.
An AOL exec eats his own dog food.
Normally threatening to cancel always results in a lower bill, but man, after hearing that, I should be able to really get a low rate! All the reps probably have a quota per day of how many people they can turn around from wanting to cancel. We can use that to our advantage!
Does anyone else remember the AOL Cancellation video from years ago? I just now noticed that it was an AOL person trying to cancel their account. COMEUPPANCE.
this customer service rep, I would eat my hat! :)
Bukowski said it. I believe it. That settles it.
We are very embarrassed by the way our employee spoke with Mr. Block and are contacting him to personally apologize. The way in which our representative communicated with him is unacceptable and not consistent with how we train our customer service representatives. We are investigating this situation and will take quick action. While the overwhelming majority of our employees work very hard to do the right thing every day, we are using this very unfortunate experience to reinforce how important it is to always treat our customers with the utmost respect.
If you read this carefully, they aren't sorry for the content, merely the delivery.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
... in the early 2000s because they had trouble porting my phone number from T-mobile. Anyways, customer service representative didn't take no for an answer for like 15 minutes even though I agreed to pay the early cancellation fee. The 2G phone didn't work right. The customer service representative was like: "Are you sure you want to cancel your service? The computer is down. It should be back up in a few days." I said, "Yes, cancel my service and bill me for this month." Then she asked me what was wrong with the phone service. Uh.. I already told her that the phone doesn't work right because I can't call in or out with AT&T. The number porting didn't work right. x.x I think she is hard of hearing or something.
I eventually stayed with T-Mobile and kept my phone number. But AT&T had better reception back in the 2000s where I live. Reception is still kinda spotty with T-Mobile. Maybe I'll switch to Verizon.
I still have that $99 2G AT&T phone but the battery is nearly useless. Maybe I'll recycle it some how.
Yeah, kinda off topic but I wanted to share my experience.
Companies don't want to hear this, but that's just the way it is. People are lazy. They don't go around and call you to fake-cancel their accounts hoping to get a better rate. The few that do are well known and blacklisted. So when a long time customer calls you and cancels, you might want to test the waters and ask for a reason, maybe he got a better deal that you can still beat (though if you did that with me, my reaction would be to cancel on principle because you ripped me off all the time, if you can lower your rate now, why couldn't you before? And I certainly have zero reason to continue business with a company that very obviously has no problem with ripping me off). But that's pretty much all you could possibly do.
If you continue afterwards, be prepared for abuse. It is actually amazing how civil the person remains. "This is a simple yes or no question, even a monkey can answer that so I'm kinda hoping you could as well: Can you cancel my service? Yes or no. No other option available. CAN. YOU. CANCEL. MY. SERVICE?"
Every answer besides yes or no will be met with verbal abuse, followed by the repetition of the question.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I was thinking more along the lines of ...
. /Oblg. South Park - Cable Company
Just stop paying the damn bill. Eventually, it will be terminated and then you get a bill. Pay the bill and do not look back.
Why am i leaving your service..... a 50Megabit plan with a ping that would make a 14.4 boca proud.
Comcast's main web page has a link to the "Comcast Customer Guarantee". That page implies that they're trying hard to serve their customers well.
But look at the "Help and Support Forums" web page. Lots of angry customers today (July 15).
I did a free trial of AOL's music service 10 years ago. I spent longer than 8 minutes talking to the customer service rep to the point I was screaming at me to cancel my service. It wasn't until I said "Put me through to your supervisor right now" that he went through with the cancel.
Comcast can burn in hell. I really really hope the merger with TWC is blocked.
"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
Imagine Customer Service as the Early Space Program.
You have Astronauts and you have Monkeys.
Astronauts have problem solving skills that can ultimately sink or swim a mission. They hear orders from mission control but can offer suggestions or even take direct action based on spacecraft feedback if necessary for overall success. They're the guys you send to the moon and back to get moon rocks.
Monkeys see a red light on a console initiated from mission control, which corresponds with pressing a red button on the console. If they press the red button when the red light is on, they get a banana. if they press the button when the light is off, or press any other button when not instructed to, they get shocked. This continues with multiple lights corresponding to multiple buttons to get the desired result. In no way does the monkey have any say so in the control of the spacecraft lest he gets shocked.
Most CSR tier 1 centers consists of Monkeys. The keyword to tell is if you hear "I'm sorry" or "Thank you" a lot. They're saying that cause their screen says to say it. Usually a robot like script reading session follows the keywords. the "Shock or Banana" is the Feedback call / Survey you get after calling one of these CSR's. you vote 1 he gets schocked (fired) and if you vote 10 he gets a banana (paycheck)
CSR tier 2's Still have monkeys but a Astronaut may be lurking around somewhere. The Astronaut is going to sound like a normal human being. he may converse with you outside of the issue at hand. he may skip a few steps to get to the actual problem if he feels that he can without causing issues. This is who you dream of as a CSR. A human with real problem solving skills.
Tier 3 Consists of mostly astronauts. Getting here takes some time but it's your best bet to get your issue resolved.
Just Remember that you have to go through the Zoo first before you can get to NASA.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
You shouldn't need to say anything.
Me: "Hi, I need to cancel my service."
Rep: "Oh? [insert marketing speak that boils down to 'Why do you want to cancel our awesome service?']"
Me: "I'm moving out of your service area and I'm already set up in my new place."
Rep: "Oh. Okay then."
Doesn't matter if it's true or not. There's not really much they can say to that. They might fish for details about where you've moved to. Just don't be stupid enough to bite.
When I needed to cancel Comcast a few years ago because I was moving to a new apartment, they wouldn't let me go without giving them a forwarding address, which I did not want to provide. (The bill was already paid in full.) The solution I finally found was to lie to them. I called and told them that I'd found Jesus, and he didn't want that filth in my house anymore. They let me cancel without complaint or argument.So there are two lessons here: (1) find an excuse they don't want to fight with, and (2) don't tell them you're moving unless you want them to stalk you.
Gather all the equipment up.
Go the local service office at the busiest time of the day.
Wait in line.
Turn all the equipment in and cancel on the spot.
The is no "customer retention service" there.
Which is bad, because it's Comcast's shitty service and policies that are causing the cancellations. The call center employees are being thrown under the bus when it's the policy-makers within the company that need to be shown the door.
In the last 15 years, AOL has been pulling the same thing on customers wanting to cancel their services. Hurts to wear the shoe on the other foot, eh?
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
I cancelled XM a while back and the rep kept trying to get me to stay with various free offers. He kept asking "Don't you want free service for 2 months?" and English was clearly his 5th language because he failed to understand NO. I finally got him to cancel by asking for a supervisor since she couldn't seem to do a simple cancellation. I must have caught him when he was on the edge of losing a bonus. Had he simply said "Hey. Help me out. If you cancel I lose a bonus. How about hanging up and calling back" I would have don that. Wouldn't with Comcast because it takes 20 minutes and multiple phone trees to get to human.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
1) "Because every time I call you guys, you try to get me to change. You give me a run around and refuse to provide the service requested.
2) "Because whenever I turn on the TV, it tells me to carve up people that don't do what I tell them to do. So my psychiatrist told me to stop watching television."
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
I recently moved out of Comcast's service area and am in the process of trying to have improper charges removed. Fortunately I live within a reasonable drive of their SA, where there is a physical office. Thus, I was able to employ the tactic of actually meeting a rep face-to-face. Like I said, I'm still in process though. She said I'd get a check. Both of us were very polite, because of being in person. She even did as I asked and printed a screen capture of her terminal, gave me her name so I would be able to properly document this in case the check never arrives and/or the charges aren't cancelled.
It's sad that you have to do this. I pity those who can't drive back into the SA and employ this tactic. They will probably have a much harder time.
BTW, allegedly the first rep that I cancelled with only changed my address, didn't cancel the account. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to change address outside the SA without cancelling. (sarcasm).
According to another source (not sure if this is true) reps get a +1 when somebody signs up and a -1 when somebody cancels. If this is true, then it's easy to see how the rep would be tempted to just change the address so that their rating wouldn't be affected. These aren't sales people, they are just order-takers. Sales incentives like that have no place in such situations, since the best sales person in the world cannot provision outside the SA!
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
They bounced me around through escalation teams for 45 minutes before letting me cancel. I bought a house in an area that isn't serviced by them and they tried to get me to agree to paying $200,000 to run cable to my new house. Bastards!
Write a letter. Fax it, then send it. Goes for dealing with any large organisation, including government but also big corporates.
Calling is just an excuse for them to abuse you, like sharing their taste in hold music, putting up a labyrinth of phone menus, and yes, mouthing off. Why expose yourself to that? Your time wasted on the phone is much better used wording the letter, and if that's hard on you, even just "I hereby cancel your service" will do. Why bother with the phone? There's an analogue of penny wise, pound foolish going on here.
call center employees are being thrown under the bus
but it's a really nice bus that the CEO's are riding...does anything else really matter?
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
My experience with Comcast as an ISP is that the service itself is actually pretty good, if a tad expensive. I have a high-speed, low latency connection with native IPv6. However, I cringe whenever I have to contact their customer service for any reason. Their policies seem designed to make any customer interaction as painful as possible, and I have never had a positive experience when I have had to call them. This recording does not surprise me at all, as the representatives that cancel service probably have metrics that state they must save a certain percentage of those that call to cancel (my guess is that particular rep had been threatened by his boss that if he didn't do better in that regard that he'd lose his job).
If they want to fix their bad CS, they need to make fundamental changes to the way they approach customer service. A good starting point is to give their reps more authority to deal with issues themselves and not be beholden to policy. If the company doesn't trust their employees to make good judgement calls on what's good for the customer and the business, then they shouldn't have hired them in the first place. When someone calls to cancel, it is OK to politely ask why once, but if the person refuses to answer it should be left at that. Remove any metrics that are in place about how many saves a rep must perform.
Intelligent responses welcome, flames will be met with marshmallows.
The premise of the parody was funny. The delivery of it was too over the top to be funny after the 2nd F-Bomb was dropped.
And the word of the day is: Amature
Life is not for the lazy.
Why argue? Just hang up and, if something remains undone, call back later.
This same article was recently posted on Techdirt. The call wasn't 8 minutes. The RECORDING was 8 minutes. There was 10 minutes of call prior to the recording even starting.
This happens to everybody every day... The poor SOBs in the retention department (notice the name), are rated based on how many people they can RETAIN. They can be fired if they have a bad day and a whole bunch of folks actually manage to cancel.
... and the word of this day is: Amateur.
Yeah, but it gives Comcast the wiggle room to say exactly what they said.
Police officer: Oh my god, this guy's TV has an off-switch!
Other officer: He'll fry for that!
For those of you who never got to enjoy this fabulous series from the mid-1980's Max Headroom took place is a dystopian society where TV ruled the land, and being able to shut it off was illegal. Even political offices were voted on via ratings. Being "blank" (unable to be tracked via computer, no credit history, no marketing history) made you a terrorist. 20 minutes into the future my friend.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
I suspect the Comcast Rep was following his script just as he was instructed. But the Rep is an easy scapegoat for Comcast.
After listening to this call I'm just laughing because I've been experiencing this for years. It's all about maintaining those subscribers and it shows that the Comcast rep was probably a used car salesman in a prior life. Maybe he's going back there after this episode but who knows. What's funny is that people are actually surprised about this because every major company in the US, especially those who sell subscription based services, have these kinds of last ditch sales people to keep you hooked up. It's all about customer relationship management 101, keep them in the relationship.
This guy from Comcast represents once again while consolidation in the telecom and cable industries is a bad thing. Plus with Comcast controlling NBC and all its subsidiaries we now get such great entertainment as "Sharknado 2", this isn't better its worse.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
It was a piece of cake. I took my DVR and all of my various HD and SD convertor boxes to my closest Comcast office. The lady took them all and scanned them. She said our records indicate this is everything you had from us and that you have your own cable modem, are you keeping internet service? I said yes. She handed me a receipt for the turned in equipment and I walked out. My next months bill arrived, it was prorated and I was only charged charged for internet.
Not a single word was spoken about trying to retain me as a cable subscriber. It was a very easy experience.
We went through something similar and eventually got to canceling the service.... then there is the matter of returning the equipment – keep a copy of the documentation because after a few months we had multiple calls from a third party that was assigned to do "equipment recovery" and they were even a worst pain than the Comcast harassment department.
We should get reimbursed for the time and trouble they put us through and actually filed a complaint with the Minnesota Attorney General's office of Consumer Protection. While I don't expect our case to make much of a difference, after a few thousand complaints they might change their procedure to rob us in a more gentile manner.
The suggestion by the service rep. that the 105 mbit speeds were "guaranteed" is insanity!
Even in cases where a customer pays about 2x the normal price for Comcast's business class service, the speeds are absolutely NOT guaranteed! My workplace uses Comcast in a couple of our offices (pulled it out of others, where better options were available), and we suffer fairly regular service interruptions/outages which are very disruptive because our internal phone system runs over VoIP. Comcast never credits us a dime for the time the service is down, and even when it's simply under-performing, they'll remind us that "cable broadband is a best-effort delivery mechanism; not a guaranteed level of service".
If you're on a residential connection? Good luck with even reaching a live person to voice a service complaint! Unlike the business customers, residential users typically get tossed into a call queue that requires a 45 minute to 60 minute hold time to speak with someone.
I'm using Comcast broadband at home, myself (again, because no other options exist where I live except for Verizon's 6 mbit DSL - which IMO, hardly even qualifies as an option). I've found that the service is reasonably good at delivering what they promise (although I'd say it averages about one outage per month), but everything from customer service to sales is lousy. They've changed around programming packages so often, it can be difficult to even figure out which high speed options are offered in your area. (I initially wanted something at least comparable to the 85 mbit FiOS service I used to have at my old address, but the Comcast literature all claimed my options were getting 50 mbits with a "Blast" package, or paying somewhere close to $200 per month for some kind of 150 mbit "Extreme" package. Gritting my teeth, I decided to just pay the high cost and try the 150 mbit service, only to be told I wasn't even able to buy it if I was doing a "self install" (using my own cable modem), which I was trying to do. Comcast wanted to charge me $250 or so for a guy to come out here and do the installation, which there was NO WAY I'd pay for since the place was pre-wired from the previous homeowner and I had the best-in-class Motorola modem ready to use.
So THEN I found out if I just went with that 50 mbit Blast package, I'd actually get 100 mbits with it because Comcast "recently doubled the speeds, for free, in most of the Northeastern U.S.". Great, I guess?! But what lousy marketing to hide that from people and trick some people into paying far more to get the overpriced 150 mbit service they might not have even really wanted.
This is nothing new or unique to Comcast. Anytime you try to cancel service with anybody these days you get the hard sales pitch. No one wants to take "no" for an answer anymore. Customer service departments are really sales departments. Notice that you can never unsubscribe to anything online, you have to call a person.
Cancelled DirecTV and it sounded like the other guy was ready to cry because I was leaving. Asking what he could do to keep me around (well given that I was down to two shows I watched, he could have dropped the price to $10/month).
Cancelled the local newspaper and they gave me the hard sell too. Finally insisting they gave in and kept the deliveries until the current payment period ran out. Except that it didn't quite work, they didn't quite realize I had unsubscribed. When the payment period ended they left voice mail saying that my credit card was not validated and could I call them back to give them a good number, then a got the mail bill saying "First Notice" that I hadn't paid. Unlike their customer support website, the bill actuall had an email address so I sent an angry letter (I sort of regret it) and promptly had things cleared up.
And again, this is not new, it's been around for a long time. I cancelled ebay once, after a single purchase, and was told that cancelling my account would also mean me losing my buyer rating... A lot of online sites hide their unsubscribe information. Push a couple buttons on the remote and I can add HBO to my service for a month, but I have to phone up in person to get it cancelled again.
Good luck with that. I know cable TV and phone companies have terrible CS but the three or so VOIP companies I've dealt with a FAR WORSE. Blatantly lie, ignore calls, never respond to emails and will keep charching you even after you go through every hoop to officially quit. I even had one charge my card again and then dispute my dispute of the charge. Same thing happened to me with Sirius satellite recently.
I did not know that even with an expired or a new number CC, companies can still put through a charge if they can establish with the CC company that you already had an account with them and a prior relationship. I asked AMEX about this over my Sirius dispute and they pimped it as a perk for my benefit. Their theory was I had a made payments monthly or quarterly with Sirius in the past so they allowed them to continue charging using my expired card (Sirius did not have my new number) so my service would not be interrupted because I forgot may have forgot to give them my new number. I've been receiving the Washington Post newspaper every Sunday for almost 6 years from a CC number they have that I have not had in over 5 years.
ESPN will have 14 hours/day of the British Open this Thu & Fri. When soccer was on, full coverage of it. How do you figure it is all college sports?
Slight correction: the customer service representative pressed him for a further eight solid minutes.
He'd already been on the call for ten minutes before they started the recording!
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
is that I would love to be a Comcast customer, but they don't offer service in my building in Seattle. I'm stuck with 640 kbps (no DOS jokes, please) from CenturyLink. They're the only choice we have, and with the fifty+ year-old phone wiring, that is the fastest DSL we can get. A friend down the street has 10 Mbps Comcast. I'd kill for that. The worst thing is that he pays less than I do for my barely over half a megabit per second pitiful connection. The only good thing is that it is rock-solid unlike his Comcast connection that goes down for several hours a day. I'd be willing to live with that for a connection over ten times faster. CenturyLink has only been down a couple of times I've lived here the past seven years.
When I reach resistance to a reasonable request, I begin chanting my mantra. You cannot help me, I need to speak to your manager. Sometimes there is an "obviously" inserted after the first word of the mantra. If I am not handed off after three repetitions or less, then I hang up and play again.
No one should ever waste eight minutes of their life talking to a sadistic phone monkey.
I've done phone support, it's not an excuse to be an ass. In fact, you have a responsibility to the customer, even if they are becoming a not-customer. They've paid for your time already.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I became - not entirely by my own choice - a comcast customer last summer (I previously lived in a place with a different cable company who had vastly superior service in every aspect). Every time I have called for support I have had to deal with operators who were running on obvious scripts. I expect the 8 minute hard sell to try to prevent the customer from leaving was only another script.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
They used to make it impossible to disconnect from their service.
From their website at http://customer.comcast.com/he...
If you are looking to completely cancel your XFINITY service, we ask that you call us at 1-800-XFINITY (1-800-934-6489). We want to make sure weâ(TM)ve done everything we can to give you the best experience, price and package. We would also love to hear any feedback you have so that we can improve our service.
The call agent was just true to what Comcast told him to do. To be SURE everything has been done possible.
Fun thing is that when you go up one level to http://customer.comcast.com/he... you won't find the information on how to cancel. In fact I needed google to find the page.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I recently had the promo period for my service expire and the price go up $40. I had to yell at the rep for five minutes just to get him to admit that they had lower price tier packages. His excuse was "Well normally people don't want to lose any speed." Yeah? What part of "I don't care about speed I just need a lower price" didn't get through your thick skull?
Know whats really sad is that kinda stupid blind company support will get him nothing...... Here,s a guy who really love the company he works for, but Comcast would lay his ass off in a heartbeat to bring costs down. This Guy must be a new hire because only a new hire talks and acts in such blind support of his/her company. Sad, corporations take advantage of such blind support.
Jack of all trades,master of none
The irony of some person from AOL having difficulty disconnecting from Comcast is just awesome.
Back in the deep dark past of the 90's, I had an AOL account for a few months. My bills were a lot higher than they should have been.
All I got from AOL was a curt "That must have been what you used".
Then I found out that instead of the X amount of time I got every month, they were charging me for every minute I was online in addition to my monthly fee.
Then the fun began. Trying to find the number to call was trial number 1. It was hidden within deep dark recesses of their documentation. Calls to AOL on their regular numbers only got me told that it was "in the documentation", and they couldn't tell me. Then it was "oh - your a day past the billing date - you'll have to pay for an entire month if you disconnect now. There were a few other jerks I had to deal with before I could actually disconnect. Took about a month.
Then the stalking began. Telephone calls and emails and snail mails "We want you back" for well over a year. If they had only spent 10 percent of the effort actually fixing my problem, I might have remained with them.
All I can say is how's it feel AOL Asshole?
Comcast needs a marriage counselor
Sure, but when I say that my reason for cancellation is I'M MOVING OUT, stop hounding me.
Also, when I call to inquire at my new residence, telling me that your downstream speed is 25 megabytes/sec is a good way to make me ask "Ma'am, do you mean megabytes, or megabits?"
An answer of "Oh, we mean megabytes! Our competition measures their speeds in megabits but we have megabytes, which are eight times as much!" won't inspire confidence.
I tried cancelling Megapath (formerly Speakeasy) service some years back. You could only do it via a web form they had hidden. They wouldn't accept it over the phone. And the web form did absolutely nothing. I finally got out of it when my credit card expired and I had to use the fact that I wasn't going to authorize any payments with the lady on the phone to make the cancellation work (which it mysteriously did only when I was on the phone complaining to someone...).
I also learned to keep better records of cancellation in the future. Next time I fill out a form, I will keep timestamped screenshots and verify them against an external service, because I only realized later that they were expecting me to deny the charges and they were going to lie about me not cancelling if I fought the charges with my CC company.
In the mean time, I will never, ever do business with Megapath again. Though they'll probably just buy some other once-decent company like Speakeasy and destroy their once good name and abuse their customers. The sad thing was that Speakeasy was once an awesome, helpful internet service. When Best Buy bought them out, they eventually had the name changed and went to hell.
That is *exactly* what would have been happened. Companies call them "missed opportunities". This is an internal culture/training/systemic issue, not a rouge agent. Unfortunately, it's likely only that agent that will suffer.
While I agree the whole thing was ludicrous, but one thing that stuck with me when I first heard about this was the recording - it's not legal everywhere to record a call without letting the party know (it varies wildly by state), and even if the other side notifies you they are recording (like most customer service) I think in some places it would have to be notified on both sides. Not a big deal, just something that made me think. I also find it a little odd that they had a recorder hooked up - I have one I use for occasional phone interviews with subjects, but I don't have it hooked up all the time.
Again, probably nothing to that - and in any case, it's an issue Comcast should be held to address internally regarding retention, no excuses for that, but if can't shake the nagging "this is very convenient, isn't it?" questions, either.
Look into Ting.
I remember reading about this elsewhere. Some of the AOL 'retention reps' were making 90k+ a year to keep customers and often earned even more.
Don't tell them you're transferring to a competitor. That gives them all the excuses to 'save' your account.
My father was canceling his cable Internet service and reconnecting with another provider. I knew about all these tricks they use to retain customers. He had tried calling before and was put on hold, transferred, then spoke to someone for a few minutes and was again put on hold. He ended up hanging up the phone in frustration.
My solution to him was provide a different reason to cancel.
Told my father a better excuse. The next call lasted less than 1 minute. No transfers, no retention reps. A CSR cancelled the service. The reason: carpal tunnel syndrome. As soon as he said he can't use the keyboard/mouse anymore they immediately cancelled no other reason needed.
Hope this helps others! :)
If you read what he posted as well as listen, you would see that he hooked it up 10 minutes into the call already. So the first 10 minutes are not recorded.
As for recording in general, you are correct that it varies wildly from state to state. Some have no requirement to inform, some have a requirement that at least one party be informed and others have it that all parties must be informed. That is why that recording saying, "This call may be monitored for quality assurance" is always given out on customer facing lines.
It should be noted that there are exceptions to the notification requirement most notably 911 and other emergency services phones don't have to notify callers that they are being recorded.
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
Send a letter to their registered head office stating that you do not want their service from xxx date. Then cancel the payment with your bank. Job done.
Your new provider can do whatever work is needed to take the line over. Send them a copy of the letter that you send to your old provider.
If you've got a car charger for it, you might keep it around as an emergency backup phone for calling 911, but 2G is going away. My Garmin GPS was using it for traffic data and Google searches, and their contract for 2G/2.5G data service ends next March so their newer GPS's can't sign up for the feature (as I found to my great annoyance when replacing one with a cracked screen.)
Disclaimer: This is my opinion as a grumpy Garmin owner; as an AT&T employee I'd have to tell you to look at the corporate website if you want more details about exactly when 2G gets shut down. And coverage really has improved since the early 2000s :-)
In his defense on the recorder, it does sound like he's simply recording a speaker phone with something, such as another cell phone. At the beginning of the recording you can hear a bit of him fumbling around to get it going.
The premise of the parody was funny. The delivery of it was too over the top to be funny after the 2nd F-Bomb was dropped.
Yeah when you find out the rest of the Internet doesn't support, accomodate, and coddle your prudish, ever-so-tender Victorian "sensibilities" and hang-ups, that's a real bitch, huh?
My God, in other news, women nowadays are showing their ANKLES! What lewd, lecherous, naughty HARLOTS they are! A scarlet letter for them all, says I!
Fuck the employees. Call center employees I've talked to are always on the side of the company, and will defend it to the death. They're not just working for a paycheck, they really believe the shit they spew. We like to believe that most employees really are just working to make ends meet and feed their families, but it's really not true; most people become emotionally invested in the power structure they're part of. It's the same phenomenon that drives patriotism, defending "your side's" political candidate, etc.
"Hi, I need to cancel John Doe's Comcast account."
"Blah blah blah why?"
"He died. This is his attorney. The house is being sold."
"ok"
Switching from Cablevision to FIOS I too had the extreme run around. Despite contracts clearly stating my existing number was to be ported they claimed it was somehow lost (Verizon blamed Cablevision and vice-versa). Hours on the phone with customer service resulted in ever ruder agents, who would not give their name or escalate to their superiors.
It all changed once a filed a complaint on the FCC website (very simple, just fill some data and send some scanned contract paperwork). Within two days BOTH companies were falling over themselves with their "Chairman's Executive Resolution" teams fixing the previously "unfixable" problem, and even following up to make sure I was completely satisfied.
I highly recommend the FCC complaint site!
I bet when they apologized to him they offered him 1/2 price service for 3 months.
We need to get this dude (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj2oXMdZ4sk) and this rep from Comcast on the same line.
Stupider like a fox! - H.S.
Aside from the general rule that newer, faster network equipment tends to be faster, there's also the bandwidth delay product. The bandwidth delay product means that as bandwidth increases, it high latency tends to cost the ISP money.
Assume you have a 1mbps link and a 100mbps link.
Let's say they both have latency of 100ms. If you're pushing 1mbps and there is 100ms worth "in the pipe", that's 0.1mb stored in the router queues. At ten times the throughput, 100ms of data is ten times as much data stored in very expensive Cisco routers at any given time.
No, really, I mean they actually horrify me. It's special.
And of course, The famous 1976 sketch We don't care; we don't have to. We're the phone company.
And note http://i.imgur.com/77HxH2g.png (one second long from the video) that it is on Time Warner Cable (TWC).
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Hello,
Completely unsurprising. Comcast billed me for imaginary hardware, twice.
I set up cable Internet service with Comcast at a vacation home with no TVs in it about two years ago, just to be able to surf the web, etc., while there. Sometime around December, 2013, Comcast apparently decided that we needed TV service and shipped a set top box to the address, where it apparently sat, covered with a light dusting of snow for months (it's a vacation home). And, of course, they billed us for TV service and a rental fee for the box for months. I got that straightened out, and a credit issued.
A couple of weeks ago, I looked at my bill from them, and, lo and behold, they have been charging me an $8.00/month modem rental fee. I bought my cable modem from Fry's for less than the $96/year that would have ended up costing me.
As far as I can tell, when they removed my non-existent TV service and took back their set top box for the imaginary TVs, they stuck on a modem lease fee.
I have finally gotten that straightened out, and, no doubt, will have some new billing failure from them in a few months for hardware or services I did not request, own or otherwise purchase from them.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
Dexter is a good dog.
Many areas with NO second choice for broadband
+
Many people with no second choice for employer
=
Unhappy customers on the phone with unhappy employees who REALLY need this gig, and could be replaced before close of business
"By the time they had diminished from 50 to 8, the other dwarves began to suspect 'Hungry.'" -Gary Larson
The Comcast Rep is findable, targetable and killable.
Just Do It; Kill The Rep.
I demand Comcast CEO, CFO and BOG to suck my dick and pay me $130 billion dollars USA not to kill the Rep.
NOW.
Nice find !
I doubt that. Suppose after 7 minutes, the customer agrees to keep the service? Then you already have a pending deactivation in the queue, and the service would be cut, possibly BEFORE the customer hangs up. If the customer finds out that his service has indeed been cut even after agreeing to keep it, that would just give him more reason to cancel the service.
"We're the Phone Company. We don't care; we don't have to." -- Lilly Tomlinson, pre-AT&T monopoly break-up
You will be assimilated into the collective.. resistance is futile.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Why do you assume that he didn't intend to write Armature?
I had a little hassle with my Cable Company over cancelling my service, so I just hung up and redialed. The second call was to "remove the cable drop" because the "house was being demolished". They actually gave me a little grief over this, so I said "either you remove it or I will, and I won't be careful". This costs them (around here) about $200 because they contract this to a third party company. Don't worry if you want cable again in the future, they will happily re-install the drop. Costs them ANOTHER $200). You can do this any number of times you want. They will always remove and reinstall at their expense.
As a former call center worker (multiple centers), I can tell you unequivocally that that is bullshit. Your average CSR does not give a single fuck about the company they're working for (or the company that their company has a contract with). They're paid to absorb anger and read scripts. There is no intellectual input other than saying what they're told accurately. The first time your manager at the call center chews you out for doing a fantastic job and resolving the problem to everyone's satisfaction, but going over your handle time by 3 seconds, you run out of fucks to give.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
Not surprised. This is what happens when you let monopolies grow unregulated. Comcast is the new Ma-Bell. We need to demand congress break up the cable giant.
When I tried to cancel AOL (over 15 years ago) they were just as bad,if not worst.
What we really need is a corporate breakup service as part of a credit/debit card. They can send a nice letter like
Dear Comcast, We are sorry to inform you that John Smith wants to end his relationship with you. He feels that you're growing in different directions and the chemistry isn't the same. In short, he's just not that into you.. He wants to see other cable providers.
Then to avoid any boiling rabbits and such, they should refuse all further charges from them to their ex-customer's card. As a premium service, they should also file a restraining order keeping the ex's marketing department at least 500 feet away at all times.
Even simpler solution:
Act all distraught, make it sound like you're sobbing just thinking about it, and explain that you're cancelling the service for the account user who has recently Died.
Any telemarketer calls I've ever gotten I start sobbing and claiming I don't have time for them because I just lost my family to some tragic accident of type . I get an apology and my number is removed from the lists immediately.
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
In Brazil we had a new set of rules in this regard issued by ANATEL (like the FCC). They made it so your can cancel your service through the internet or choosing a menu item on the call center, no need to talk to a human.
They also have to call you back if you get cut off, you can request and get the recordings using the internet, special packages must apply to new and old costumers etc.
http://corporate.comcast.com/comcast-voices/comcast-statement-regarding-customer-service-call
Just tell them that you are moving to Japan and getting Ftth service. Their competition is offering 1Gbps fiber at just under $59.00 US (6000 yen) per month. Can they beat that?
I reviewed as many comments as I could stand and it seems that a common solution is to "lie through your teeth". Is this really what the conduct of what should be routine business come to? It's no wonder there is no trust in the world anymore. This will be our undoing. It may actually turn out that AI instead of offing us may be our salvation. Welcome home Gort...
Dear Microlimp: I give you 2 valid product keys for win7 and you reject both of them. Piss off you wankers!!!
how hard it was to cancel an aol account?
Is it legal to not record the call, but to falsely tell the representative that you are recording it?
Tell him/her that you are recording the call, you will post the recording on your web site, and you will tell news media about the recording. Hopefully then the rep will be more helpful.
Tell the rep. that you will put their name on the web site, as well as the recording. (You got their name from the beginning of the call, when they said, "Hi, my name is XYZ, how may I help you?")
When I tried to cancel my cable service with them. I said, "There's nothing on TV I want to watch" and the person on the phone kept trying to convince me I hadn't watched enough TV to know that. I've decided if I ever need to do something like this, I'm going to say that I have changed religions and God does not want me to have these services.
I was moving out of my house and needed to cancel cable service. I called them, and was put on hold and transferred around and spent no less than 45 minutes trying to get ahold of the right person to cancel my account and was disconnected twice.
In complete frustration, I transferred my cable bill to a separate credit card and cancelled that card. It was all I could do to get rid of comcast without another hour on the phone that I didn't have while packing the house and getting everything ready to go.
The experience was incredibly frustrating.
"No good deed goes unpunished"
There should be a new FTC ruling to force providers to allow you to cancel with the same method you signed up. If they can take a new subscription by web, by golly they must take a cancelation in the same way.