Posted on 07/15/2014 11:01:48 AM PDT by PoloSec
Deciding to cancel a cable service subscription can be difficult -- breaking the news to the cable company can be near-impossible.
Tech journalist Ryan Block and his wife Veronica Belmont tried to cancel their Comcast service last week over the phone.
Block says 10 minutes into his frustrating conversation with the Comcast customer service representative, he started recording the phone call, which he posted on SoundCloud.
The representative, whose name Block withheld, repeatedly demanded to know why Block would want to cancel the service.
Block tells WTOP he and his wife told the representative they wanted to change providers, before the recording began.
Several times the agent said "I'm just trying to understand," although Block's statements were clearly understandable.
"It sounds like you don't want to go over this information with me," says the representative.
"I am declining to state why we are leaving Comcast, because I don't owe you an explanation," Block said patiently.
"We are the number one provider of Internet and TV service in the entire country," continues the rep. "Why is that you're not wanting to have the number one service?"
"I'm just trying to figure out what it is about Comcast service that you're not liking, and not wanting to keep," states the agent.
Block asked the representative to simply cancel the service, but the agent countered with "I'm just trying to help you."
Contacted by WTOP, Jenni Moyer, senior director of corporate communications network & operations apologized.
"We are very embarrassed by the way our employee spoke with Mr. Block and are contacting him to personally apologize," says Moyer.
"The way in which our representative communicated with him is unacceptable and not consistent with how we train our customer service representatives," says Moyer.
"We are investigating this situation and will take quick action," says Moyer. "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."
Listen to the portion of the phone call Block posted to SoundCloud: (AUDIO @ SITE)
Yeah one of the things that shocked me was that before they could tell me that the incorrect billing was resolved, they tried to get me to re up.
Gobsmacked I was.
I cancelled from Charter over the phone in about 60 seconds and returned the equipment at the local office in another 2 1/2 minutes once there. No hassles of any kind.
:-) Mine too. Saves my bacon, every now and again. Expecially come tax time.
And to your point, a wise man once told me that you never want to, er, "Tee" off three people: Your Cardiologist, your lawyer, or your mechanic.
Good advice, says me. I might steal a page from you and add "plumber" to the list.
I still remember vividly what an ordeal it was to get Comcast to switch our service from our apartment to our house when we moved a few years ago. To be fair, part of the issue was that our house was not wired for cable, but they kept giving me appointment times they never kept, promising callbacks that never came, and in general wasting my time.
I finally had to threaten them with cancelling my service to finally get someone out to the house to hook up our cable. And in the end I did not pay a cent for it and got the cost of my internet service knocked down to about $25 a month for the first year we were in the house.
Exactly. Commiecast is trying to push this off as bad behavior on the part of the phone rep, but the company regularly pressures their reps to delay, digress, obfuscate, and outright lie. But some poor schmuck is about to lose his job to let these douchwads save face.
“The way in which our representative communicated with him is unacceptable and not consistent with how we train our customer service representatives,” says Moyer.
The way in which your representative communicated with him is PRECISELY how you train your customer service representatives, you f***ing liar.
“Exactly. Commiecast is trying to push this off as bad behavior on the part of the phone rep, but the company regularly pressures their reps to delay, digress, obfuscate, and outright lie. But some poor schmuck is about to lose his job to let these douchwads save face.”
Welcome to the “new normal” economy, which consists of salespeople convincing us we need things we didn’t bother looking for ourselves.
After I get refused or delayed once or twice when trying to cancel a service I ask the question “What is the mailing address for your company’s legal department?” Just asking that question seems to stop the retention games immediately.
The exercise/gym "Curves" tried it with my wife, we eventually got our money back that they took from our account for three extra months.
It was the first and last time we ever gave our account routing number to anyone.
The C.U. told us the only way to stop it was to cancel our checking account and open a new one. My wife tried a different tactic that worked. She went to "Curves" several times and explained the problem to them in a very loud manner, in front of customers.
It worked and we got our money back.
I have Charter and am getting ready to cancel. I get calls dropped up to 10 times a day, and when the internet drops so does my phone go out as they are bundled....
The guy was rude..with me. And I questioned him on that. He backed off...
But to this day...I've not rec'd the box I was supposed to get within 3 days..to send the DVD Direct TV box back in...but I have been bombarded with re-up's..at 1/3 the price I was paying.
Excellent!!!
A couple of years ago, we ordered Verizon Fiberoptic and therefore gathered up all the Time Warner Cable gear and took it to the local office; I got a dated and signed receipt for everything...and this was about a week before the due-date for the next month's advance billing.
Less than a month later, we got a demand letter from a phocking COLLECTION agency demanding something like 40 bucks because we'd cancelled after the due date....I copied everything and sent it to them, TW local and corporate and threatened each and every one that I'd own their collective asses if any such bullsh*t got reported to the three bureaus.....I guess it got resolved, because the one and only reply I got was a check for about 15 bucks for the week's refund that was in fact due me.
Wifey still gets pissed at me when I go off on any TW rep who sets up at the local home shows - probably because I've got my spiel well rehearsed, and get it done very loudly in about 45 seconds....perhaps it's the profanity.
Your experience is “Standard Operating procedure” for many companies.
They charge you or over charge you in error.
Most people won’t even realize it and pay.
For those that do, it is a “Customer service” issue.
Since you had cancelled the service you actually realized the charge was erroneous and were willing to fight back. I think there are many folks that would just pay the charge to be done with it.
The fact that it went to a collection company so quickly leads me to think they where up to something a little different.
I had a situation with Comcast many years ago. They were charging me late fees on late fees. I had all my paper bills from the first day I started the service and was able to get a rep on the phone that had access to my entire history.
They wanted to “Start” with the current month and work backwards. I said NO. Lets start at the beginning, since this is the ONLY place where we can agree.
After an hour they ended up owing me two months worth of service.
What totally pissed me off was getting that “collection demand letter” without even getting some sort of invoice from Time Warner.....We’ve got a credit score so high that the “finance guy” at the car dealership we visited not long ago told us he’d never once seen one so stellar..............and I for damn sure wasn’t about to let TW screw with that.
Here’s my issue with cable - they are all regional monopolies. There is no other service except TW in the cleveland metro area for me to get hi speed internet which is all I have with them. I have called other providers who advertise and they are all just attaching you to the TW wires. I can get satellite if I wanted to replace cable but not hi speed internet - phone land line isn’t as fast - so I’m currently stuck with what I have.
IF ANYONE KNOWS of an alternative please let me know.
This is what happens when you call Comcast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmM7mXAsMIk
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.