Comcast has notoriously bad customer service. I’ve experienced it myself when I prepared to moved into a new house. I was told we were “all set” with our internet, since the previous owners had used Comcast. When we moved in and couldn’t get the internet to work, it took two weeks for them to come fix it and several phone calls to get a refund for the two weeks we didn’t have service. I think we actually got off easy compared to some of the stories I’ve heard.
Recently, one customer recorded the phone call from when he calmly tried to cancel his service and encountered resistance on the other end from a Comcast rep who basically wouldn’t let the customer cancel his service without a reason. He said phrases like “I’m just trying to understand why you wouldn’t want the #1 internet service in the country.” After several minutes of conversation, the rep finally gave in and canceled the service. The conversation was posted online on soundcloud, which you can listen to here:
After the story went viral, Comcast publicly issued an apology:
“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.”
The customer who recorded the call, Ryan Block, has stated that he hopes that the recording does not result in a termination but rather a closer look at Comcast’s customer service training and policies to ensure better service.
This is a good example of the public relations challenges that happen in the digital age. Companies cannot afford to have anything less than amazing customer service in this era.
Read more about the story at Mashable.