"I dress the place up to look like a movie studio. I bring all the Winnebagos to the front; I have people pushing sets around, like one of those old Cecil B. DeMille movies. So they come for two days every two, three months, and we look like we're a bustling metropolis, and then we go back to being a regular old business."
Tim Boyle/Getty ImagesComcast says it’s “very embarrassed” over the way a customer hoping to cancel his cable service was treated over the phone.
Ryan Block, vp product at AOL and former editor of tech site Engadget, posted an eight-minute portion of his phone call with a Comcast representative who was doing his best to discourage Block from disconnecting his service. According to Block, the recording starts about 10 minutes into the call.
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“The representative [name redacted] continued aggressively repeating his questions, despite the answers given, to the point where my wife became so visibly upset she handed me the phone,” he wrote in an online post. “Overhearing the conversation, I knew this would not be very fun. What I did not know is how oppressive this conversation would be. Within just a few minutes, the representative had gotten so condescending and unhelpful, I felt compelled to record the speakerphone conversation on my other phone.”
The rep repeatedly questioned why Block would want to cancel, with questions including “You don’t want something that works?” and “So you’re not interested in the fastest Internet in the country?”
He also said: “I’m really ashamed to see you go to something that can’t give you what we can.”
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When the recording picks up, wrote Block, he and his wife had “already played along and given a myriad of reasons and explanations as to why we are canceling, which is why I simply stopped answering the rep’s repeated questions — it was clear the only sufficient answer was ‘OK, please don’t disconnect our service after all.’ “
Comcast told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement that the customer service rep’s behavior is “unacceptable” and that the company is reaching out to Block.
“We are very embarrassed by the way our employee spoke with Mr. Block and are contacting him to personally apologize,” the company said. “The way in which our representative communicated with him is unacceptable and not consistent with how we train our customer service representatives.”
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Comcast added that it is looking into the situation.
“We are investigating this situation and will take quick action,” the company said. “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.”
THR has reached out to Block for additional comment.
Okay, here’s the tail end of our Comcast disconnection call last week. Tell me I’m not crazy? https://t.co/ohVt2YWZis (Background at link.)
— Ryan Block (@ryan) July 14, 2014
