Epic Comcast customer service call

Comcast’s brilliant new way to retain subscribers: Refuse to let them cancel

http://news.yahoo.com/comcast-brilliant-way-retain-subscribers-refuse-let-them-123055966.html

Comcast didn’t earn its reputation as America’s Worst Company overnight — it took years and years of hard work. From offering customers ridiculously overpriced bundle packages, to having the highest fees among any of its competitors, to offering some of the absolute worst customer service of any company in the United States, Comcast has toiled away tirelessly to perfect its craft of angering its own customers, who have little choice but to stick with the cable giant due to the sorry state of America’s home broadband market.

However, just because it’s already one of the two most hated companies in America doesn’t mean Comcast is going to stop innovating new ways to enrage its subscribers. TechCrunch brings us word of an amazing customer service call between a Comcast rep and former Engadget editor-in-chief Ryan Block, whose wife had been trying in vain to get Comcast to cancel their home service before Block took over the phone and decided to start recording the call.

The results are about as amazing as you’d expect. When Block informs the representative that he wants to cancel his service, the representative refuses to do so and instead asks him why in the world would he even think of canceling Comcast, which in the rep’s mind has a sterling reputation for customer care. So instead of promptly agreeing to cancel Block’s service, the rep aggressively peppered him with questions such as:

   “Why don’t you want the faster speed? Help me understand why you don’t want faster Internet.”
   “We are the No. 1 provider of Internet and TV service in the entire country. Why is it that you’re not wanting to have the No. 1 rated Internet service, the No. 1 rated TV service available?”
   “I’m just trying to figure out what it is about Comcast service that you don’t want to keep?”
   “For nine years, you’ve been a Comcast customer… all of a sudden you’re moving and you want to change?”
   “So you’re not interested in the fastest Internet in the country? Why not?”

Block brilliantly responded at one point that this particular phone call was actually an “amazing example” of why he didn’t want to stick with Comcast.

We’d be tempted to say that this is just a particularly overzealous customer service representative, but it’s actually the second such incident we’ve seen in the past couple of months involving a prominent tech writer finding it nearly impossible to cancel Comcast’s service.

Former Time tech columnist Harry McCracken said on his Twitter feed this past May that he had been trying in vain to get Comcast to cancel his mother’s Comcast subscription without any success. When asked what the big roadblock to canceling the service was, McCracken said that Comcast customer service reps “refused to do it for her for reasons which are unclear” and that “they won’t let me do it because I’m not her.”

Check out the whole audio of Block’s call with Comcast below.

This makes me very glad that Verizon services the area in which I live. Their installation tech was a gem - even after a really complicated installation.

Comcast, on the other hand, tried to bill me for service after I'd moved and cancelled service and it took three calls to get that resolved.

I think I'd prefer dialup...

I remember a posted phone call with AOL years back that went very similar.

The new tactic with crap companies seems to involve training call center staff to talk really fast, end with a question, and then "get your permission" to re-up service.

"We have the super blah-blah service for an additional thousand a month plus your firstborn and I would gladly take your immortal soul right now. Would that be ok?"

It's like - dude, I just called to pay my frickin' bill!

Anyone else miss when companies had goods and services you WANTED to pay them for?

mc666 wrote:

I remember a posted phone call with AOL years back that went very similar.

It looks like the same people that wrote the scripts for AOL now work at comcast....

BTW - anytime you call to cancel your service at companies like comcast, you are sent to what is call the "saves" queue - these are call center reps whose job is to keep you as a customer. They get commission/bonuses for every call to cancel that doesn't cancel by the end of the call. The profile that is hired for someone with a an outgoing, sales-y personality. They are trained in what to say, methods to use to keep the person on the other line from cancelling.

I think the rep just wanted to hear what service the caller was switching to, so he could give him an offer that matches it. If you don't give them that information, it will just drive them nuts.

Also, you can't really blame that rep. He's probably on the hook for every customer that cancels through him. For all we know this one was his last chance to keep his job.

Lari wrote:

I think the rep just wanted to hear what service the caller was switching to, so he could give him an offer that matches it. If you don't give them that information, it will just drive them nuts.

Also, you can't really blame that rep. He's probably on the hook for every customer that cancels through him. For all we know this one was his last chance to keep his job.

If Comcast is requiring their reps to save every single call to cancel, they would be firing every single one of their reps.


They generally have a percentage they have to keep as customers. That percentage is decided by a program manager at the corporate level. That percentage goes up or down depending on what that program manager promises to keep in order to get his or her yearly bonus. They have people that write those scripts that they have to use, performance and keeping you job is dependent on keeping people as customers who call to cancel. In Comcast's case, most of them are switching to fios, and they know that. They know the areas that Fios overlaps with Comcast. These reps do nothing but take these calls all day and night - they do nothing but "saves" (as a lot of companies call it.) The rep's goals are set by someone at the corporate level that is promising to deliver X amount of revenue to the corporation though keeping people as customers. 


Another group (that reports to the person at corporate either directly or indirectly) writes the script that they use on the phone. The rep isn't making that stuff up - it is spoon fed to him by corporate on his computer screen (try this, this or this)


Generally, the reps saves are people calling to "cancel" who aren't really calling to cancel. They are calling to get a better deal because every single company in any type of subscription business offers something to keep people - what they can offer is spelled out on the rep's computer screen. The rep knows exactly what he can offer. That's where they make their commissions/bonuses. The rep is also expected to try and "weed" those people out - of course rep doesn't give flying F*ck as long as he gets his commission/bonus.

The person that has switched to fios is not going to take the offer, they have probably already had it installed.

All companies with a subscription based business want to know who they went to so corporate can track it and make a plan to head off others switching to the same company. All these company also do their best to make it difficult to cancel.

Rep also has the personality type of a used car salesman - they would not have hired the rep otherwise. They use carefully pulled together interview questions to weed out introverts and only hire extroverts. It is an extremely high pressure job. that people don't take unless they can't get employed elsewhere. The call centers are located in low cost of labor areas, so the folks that work their can't find jobs elsewhere in the area they live. The are also shown the potential to make more money than their friends working somewhere up the street. 

It's a shit job.

I listened to the call - that rep on that call went overboard. Best practice in the industry is that once the customer say cancel 3 times, you cancel. This rep pushed the boundaries. He will get fired for that call (no doubt about it) - he made national news for his call and it shows Comcast in a very negative light. He was being a complete dick to the caller and he well knew that caller was going to cancel. The rep has probably already received his termination notice and has been walked out of the building at this point. He's probably been warned about being too aggressive (even for comcast standards and they are hyper aggressive on those calls) prior to that call - all reps have a percentage of their calls reviewed by a "Quality Assurance" person who listens to the calls and rates them at a later time.

I worked in HR at the corporate level for a large corporation in the call center area (I was "asked" to go to that area by my VP at the time - I was told it was my "tour of duty in Vietnam" - did it for 2 years) and learned that business inside and out.

Sorry for the novel, but I know the industry well. And Comcast SUCKS!

And now you know how to cheaper, better deals from any subscription based service you use!

The cable company I use was called Knology. They got swallowed up last year by WOW. Been a customer 15 years and have no desire to go to Comcast. So far service with WOW is just as good as Knology, although phone calls take a little bit longer. Other than that there have been no issues. But last fall I had a cable hanging from the telephone pole down in my yard. WOW wouldn't remove it because it was Comcast's cable hanging down. So I called Comcast 6 or 7 times, each time on hold a minimum of 25 minutes or so. And every time no one would come take it down. Kept asking me for my account # and I would explain to them I was NOT a customer and they were dumbfounded. After a 2 week period and this cable hanging where the kids play I called them one more time and told them I was tying it to my truck and pulling it down off the telephone pole... And STILL no reaction other than "what's your account #?". Yep, they called my bluff so I called the BBB and reported them. The cable was taken down the NEXT day. Comcast called my house for DAYS asking if I had any other issues (leaving voice messages).... I never answered the phone!

This thing has gone viral. 

Comcast is outwardly apologizing to the caller but I bet behind the scenes they're congratulating the "customer retention representative".

Yet more reasons a merger between Comcast and Time Warner is a BAD IDEA.

tohostudios wrote:

This thing has gone viral. 

Comcast is outwardly apologizing to the caller but I bet behind the scenes they're congratulating the "customer retention representative".

Nope, it hit the press so he's getting fired....... They don't care as long as it doesn't hit the wall street journal or go viral....

thejokeriv wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

This thing has gone viral. 

Comcast is outwardly apologizing to the caller but I bet behind the scenes they're congratulating the "customer retention representative".

Nope, it hit the press so he's getting fired....... They don't care as long as it doesn't hit the wall street journal or go viral....

It's already gone viral. I saw the video on FNC today.  Their press release may say "he's fired" but I bet he's not; that's probably what they told him to do.

tohostudios wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

This thing has gone viral. 

Comcast is outwardly apologizing to the caller but I bet behind the scenes they're congratulating the "customer retention representative".

Nope, it hit the press so he's getting fired....... They don't care as long as it doesn't hit the wall street journal or go viral....

It's already gone viral. I saw the video on FNC today.  Their press release may say "he's fired" but I bet he's not; that's probably what they told him to do.

He's fired... it went viral and made the press. And that is the ONLY reason the rep is gone.

thejokeriv wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

This thing has gone viral. 

Comcast is outwardly apologizing to the caller but I bet behind the scenes they're congratulating the "customer retention representative".

Nope, it hit the press so he's getting fired....... They don't care as long as it doesn't hit the wall street journal or go viral....

It's already gone viral. I saw the video on FNC today.  Their press release may say "he's fired" but I bet he's not; that's probably what they told him to do.

He's fired... it went viral and made the press. And that is the ONLY reason the rep is gone.

he is going to have his own talk show, join The View or be on The Bachelorette. Mark my words!!!