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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?
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.
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.
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.
Two words: Minecraft Server.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
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
Their apology was sincere. They even offered to continue his service at a 'special rate'.
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?
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.
It's not about average usage, it's about instantaneous usage. Most of the time my connection is pretty idle, but when I want to download something big (e.g. multiple gigs) I don't really want to wait around for it. That's what I'm paying for - not having to wait.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
You don't know how he uses it or what his income is or if he's even paying for it (work might reimburse it) so how could you possibly know if it's a waste of money. Maybe he needs to download gigs of data for work... Also download speed isn't the only aspect of a connection, perhaps they wanted higher upstream bandwidth or lower latency.
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 an area with good over the air reception the signal is not compressed heavily as it is over cable. Here, Comcast is the worst, followed by the satellite services. FIOS has the least compression but I still see it on some fast moving stuff.
Over the air can be as good (to me) as BluRay.
Explain this one, I don't get it.
It's the dirty little secret of cable TV: Pixel resolution and compression are two different things. You may be getting a channel in 1080, but by the time a cable company delivers it to your TV, it's be recompressed so much that it being 1080 doesn't matter anymore. You see it most when things in the picture are moving, they get blocky, and in aliasing around things like text on the screen. They do this to fit more channels into the available bandwidth of their network. Over-the-air from local stations isn't recompressed within an inch of it's life; you're getting the highest quality you can get that way short of having an actual digital copy of a program physically sent to you on some sort of storage medium. I suspect that satellite TV compresses the hell out of things, too, for the same reason: fit more channels into the available bandwidth, so they can make more money. Try paying attention to all this the next time you're watching cable or satellite, you'll notice the compression artifacts. Sorry in advance for ruining it for you, BTW. Then go watch TV where it's using an antenna for OTA broadcasts, you'll see the difference.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Sadly, then the company will send your unpaid bills to a collection agency who will hound you for payment and which will ruin your credit score. The burden will be on you to prove that you told them to cancel your service and they didn't. It won't be impossible, mind you, but you'll need to fight to clear your credit because some company refuses to stop billing you in the hopes that you'll just send them more money because it's easier than trying to cancel.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
I was thinking more along the lines of ...
. /Oblg. South Park - Cable Company
About 4 or 5 years ago, all the broadcast TV in the US changed over to a digital format, and the digital format includes HDTV broadcasts. If you have an HDTV and an antenna, and you live in a place where you can receive the signals, you can get the HDTV of all the broadcast networks over the air (OTA) with no cable.
It has been reported that Comcast re-compresses the digital HDTV streams, cramming them into a smaller digital channel in their cable system, in order to fit more channels in. This leads to reduced quality in the picture you view on Comcast compared to the OTA HDTV broadcast. I don't know about other cable systems. Here is one such report, though it seems to be specifically about other non-OTA HD channels (where the FIOS broadcast was used for comparison).
I had a 150Mbit connection and i found uses for it all. Having that much extra headroom is very useful.
Just because you can't find a way or can even fathom why someone would want that speed doesn't mean there aren't good uses for it.
I really don't understand the need to say no one needs more than 640k of memory. It plainly makes you look dull.
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.
But that's boring. There's so many more fun responses you could give. CSRs don't argue as much with "crazy" customers so it even makes things easier for you (plus, it messes with their statistics). .666. I refuse to support any company with such obvious anti-christian leanings."
"That information is classified."
"The stars are in alignment. The prophecy must be fulfilled."
"I'm moving to Elbonia."
"The NASCAR team you sponsored keeps losing, so I'm switching to a winner like AOL."
"I got assigned an IP ending in
"I finished reading the whole internet, I really don't see any point in keeping it once I've read it all."
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
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
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.
... and the word of this day is: Amateur.
The correct hard ball approach is: I am recording this call and forwarding to my local cable franchise authority.
This is the entity that your local franchise must go through to offer service in your area and they are the ones that set rules like the number of seconds you may be placed on hold until you get a human without them having to pay a fine.
-- I was raised on the command line, bitch
I suspect the Comcast Rep was following his script just as he was instructed. But the Rep is an easy scapegoat for Comcast.
The correct hard ball approach is: I am recording this call and forwarding to my state attorneys general
FTFY. Large companies generally aren't afraid of most government agencies, due to regulatory capture. But tell them that you might be in touch with the office of an ambitious politician with subpoena power and suddenly they become very helpful.
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.
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.
I looked around for a bit, and couldn't find a source for this. Mind providing one?
I actually don't see what would be wrong with just explaining that you didn't feel that the service was a good value, and that you feel they don't display respect for their customers.
What's wrong with it is that it opens a time-wasting conversation that doesn't need to happen. Comcast doesn't care why you're dropping, they just use the question as a ploy to engage you so they can give you a sales pitch.
You are oversimplifying. In tech we reach plateaus of 'good enough' for the time and resources involved.
Good-bye
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?
Sigh.
Slashdot, how far you have fallen.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
No, OTA is also compressed video (you have to compress it).
It's just that in a 6MHz channel, most OTA stations only broadcast one channel, so it gets the full 20Mbps available of that channel.
In a cable system, each 6MHz channel also gives around 20Mbps. however, instead of just having one channel take the entire bandwidth, they squeeze in three, four or more HD channels in that slot, so they get 6, 5 or less Mbps each. Even more now that they're switching to h.264 on a bunch of channels.
This results in much over compression as there just aren't enough bits left so picture quality degrades.
Actually...if you use a credit card, and dispute the charge after you tell them you want to cancel, it goes a bit better than that.
Sadly, then the company will send your unpaid bills to a collection agency who will hound you for payment and which will ruin your credit score.
Some people made the point that they can't ruin your credit score because they never extended credit -- a loan of money -- to you.
"I got assigned an IP ending in .666. I refuse to support any company with such obvious anti-christian leanings."
Brilliant.
He can't help it, the leads were weak.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
As a general rule, higher bandwidth connections are "faster" end to end, this is NOT universally true, just normally. Consider the latency of sending 100 bytes over a 2400 baud modem verses the same latency noted on a gigabit link (extreme example, I know). It will take a LONG time to transfer that 100 bytes over the modem link then receive a similar reply just because the physical layer takes so long. Higher bandwidth will lower latency.
How much difference is this physical layer delay considering say 10BaseT to 100BaseT? Minor but measurable, all things being equal. But, in general, getting higher bandwidth means newer equipment, which means lower latency, at least on your link.
There is also the "store and forward" part of switches/routers, which if a link is saturated may queue up packets where having more bandwidth will result in less saturation of the link, and thus less queuing. So again, bandwidth can lower latency.
Normally the biggest driver for latency is router performance and the number of links between the two points, unless there is a saturated link, then you will see queuing delays being the major driver. There are lots of special cases... But that's what network admins are paid to understand and deal with.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
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! :)
That's way too polite. I've once told a Comcast rep something to the effect of the following:
This is the way that anyone who has gone through Comcast's training and still consents to work there deserves to be treated. If I manage to torment the rep to the point that he reconsiders his choice of vocation, I consider myself to have done him a service!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
"This call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes" means that you have their permission to record it, too, even in California.
"Cancel my account."
"I can't do that unless you give me a reason."
"I'm recording this conversation, so I have proof that the account has been canceled. If I receive any more invoices, the next phone call will be from my lawyer, or the police."
Click.
The better method, though, is to do it in writing, by registered mail. End of equation.
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.
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.
That's why you don't tell them until after you've told them to cancel the account. If they reserve the right to record it - which they did before the human came on the line - there is no expectation of privacy, and you don't need to tell them. You only tell them at the end to reinforce that you can prove you did.
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.
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.