Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Complain About Comcast, Get Fired From Your Job

Posted by timothy on from the now-that's-some-customer-feedback dept.

ub3r n3u7r4l1st writes When you complain to your cable company, you certainly don't expect that the cable company will then contact your employer and discuss your complaint. But that's exactly what happened to one former Comcast customer who says he was fired after the cable company called a partner at his accounting firm. Be careful next time when you exercise your first amendment rights. From the article: At some point shortly after that call, someone from Comcast contacted a partner at the firm to discuss Conal. This led to an ethics investigation and Conal’s subsequent dismissal from his job; a job where he says he’d only received positive feedback and reviews for his work. Comcast maintained that Conal used the name of his employer in an attempt to get leverage. Conal insists that he never mentioned his employer by name, but believes that someone in the Comcast Controller’s office looked him up online and figured out where he worked. When he was fired, Conal’s employer explained that the reason for the dismissal was an e-mail from Comcast that summarized conversations between Conal and Comcast employees. But Conal has never seen this e-mail in order to say whether it’s accurate and Comcast has thus far refused to release any tapes of the phone calls related to this matter.

3 of 742 comments (clear)

  1. So, it has come to this. by hawkinspeter · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can't he just sue his ex-employer for wrongful dismissal or does that not exist in the U.S.?

    --
    You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
  2. And what's the problem ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If the guy really did name-drop his employer in an attempt to intimidate/coerce Comcast, what's the problem?

    If the company name was used it would be entirely fair to contact the company to make sure the policy stated by the employee was in fact the policy of the company. If not, if the employee did misrepresent the company, than getting fired may be appropriate.

    Cable companies may be evil but not everything they do is necessarily wrong. Pushing back against a bully would not be wrong.

  3. Re:We don't know the details by rahvin112 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I fully believe they Google'd the guy. He basically threatened them with reporting them to the IRS and SEC for violating accounting standards, and he didn't just threaten a nobody, he threatened another accountant. Very very serious allegations. They likely ran those accusations right to their legal department who did a full investigation and realized he worked for someone that worked for them. A quick call to a partner threatening to pull the account and the guy is fired.

    I completely believe this happened even without knowing their side of the story. Even if he did mention who he worked for it would have been irrelevant and treated just the same way it would have been if he was talking to low level support. Without Comcast releasing the actual call recordings we shouldn't trust any spin they put on it, nor should we outright believe everything the guy says. But the fact is they called his employer and got him fired. There is almost nothing he could have said on the phone to them to justify that.