Now everyone is recording their nightmare Comcast calls


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Now everyone is recording their nightmare Comcast calls


 

Tim Davis, a Comcast customer and YouTube user, is the latest to go public with his tale of injustice at the hands of the cable company's customer service agents.

 

Yesterday, Davis posted a 14-minute video detailing how the company promised him he wouldn't be charged for something, charged him anyway, and then refused to undo the charges until Davis revealed that he had recorded the initial call.

 

"What have we learned today? Well for one thing, always record your calls with big companies," Davis says in the end of the video.

 

Basically, Davis moved from one Comcast service area to another and completed the self-install according to Comcast's instructions. When the service got spotty, he called Comcast. He was told it was a problem on the company's end and assured that a technician visit would not result in charges because it was an "outside issue."

 

The tech came and the issue was resolved. But the following month, Davis received a bill for about $182 in charges for the "failed self install" and, mysteriously, a wireless network setup he says never occurred.

 

After a few rounds with customer service agents, Davis is informed that $100 of the charges were actually offset by "discounts" on his bill, but he's still on the hook for $82. He ends up on the phone with a customer service agent who repeatedly claims the charges are valid and that she cannot credit him the full amount.

 


(Warning: the above video has some strong language, and you should probably put on headphones if you're going to listen to it at work.)

 

She offers a $60 credit on his internet service, which would have brought his obligation down to $22, but Davis insists the charges were not valid and demands a full refund. He plays the recording of his initial call, in which an agent says there will be no charge for the technician's visit.

 

After listening to the recording, the rep promises to get back to him within an hour. Roughly 90 minutes later, she does. The full amount is credited to Davis's account because, she says, she told her supervisor that there was a recording of the call. "Since I advised my manager that there is a recording, and you were misinformed, then she is the one who can approve that $82 credit."

 

"You're telling me that if I didn't have a recording of that call, you wouldn't have been able to do it?" Davis asks.

 

"Yes, that is correct," she says.

 

The story is now circulating on Reddit and various media outlets, but Davis's experience is hardly unusual. Last week, Dann Furia blogged about his Comcast nightmare, which involved $1,320 in charges, 17 phone calls, and six appointments. Similar stories abound in the Comcast subreddit, which is for "venting about your ###### experiences with Comcast."

 

he Verge also received a number of these stories from frustrated customers who have been following the Comcast Confessions series, which is about the underlying issues that lead to bad customer service at the cable company. Many stories spanned months of frustration over things like unburied wires after half-finished installations, long hold times ? one gentleman says the department he was waiting to speak with actually closed while he was on hold ? and unexpected charges.

 

Davis's story comes roughly three weeks after AOL exec Ryan Block published a frustrating call with Comcast that has been listened to more than 5 million times. Comcast, which has proposed a merger with Time Warner Cable that would increase its subscriber base by more than a third, says improving customer service is "one of our number one priorities."

 

Update, 3:30PM: Comcast sent a statement: "This is not the type of experience we want our customers to have, and we will reach out to Mr. Davis to apologize to him. Our policy is not to charge for service visits that are related to problems with our equipment or network. We are looking into this to understand what happened and why it happened."

 

Unbelievable. Comcast just doesn't give a crap about their customers and the US government is more than likely going to allow them to buy Time Warner, so things will only continue to get worse. WE NEED COMPETITION!!!

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initially, this is not Comcasts fault, it was the onsite tech man's incorrect reporting. But it their fault for not understanding the situation and were wrong not to 100% believe the customer and correct it, but i am sure that they get people every single day phone and claiming wrong billing trying to get out of paying.  I think the girl was very professional and only had limited power at her level.

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We had a problem with them, where we were promised one price by a sales person. We were magically charged $80 more and told that price is not even possible with all the bundles and discounts. After 4 days of fighting with them they dropped the price to what we were promised. Needless to say I wish I had recorded my calls.

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I had a similar issue with AT&T Uverse, where I moved and canceled my service for right at the 1 year contract/promo price ($89/mo) expiration date, returned my equipment in the specified time frame and they charged me again for the next month at non promo pricing ($160) -- at this point I no longer even had equipment and it was processed at the return center. They had the nerve to also charge late fees for a service I no longer even had, two months in a row.

 

I spent the next two months trying to get it fixed. These companies just don't care, and had the people I spoke with on customer service actually spoke English, instead of reading from a prompt of canned answers... I feel like a lot of these problems would go away. I literally had to go to the corporate headquarters in downtown of my region (who directed me to call a number when I marched in there, I refused, after hours and hours and hours of lies and different information from every person I talked to. The phone time seriously probably amounted to almost 2 days of waiting and talking total) and had to battle it out in person to get it corrected.

 

I too will record my calls from here on out with these mega corps.

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initially, this is not Comcasts fault, it was the onsite tech man's incorrect reporting. But it their fault for not understanding the situation and were wrong not to 100% believe the customer and correct it, but i am sure that they get people every single day phone and claiming wrong billing trying to get out of paying.  I think the girl was very professional and only had limited power at her level.

I agree with you, but this is why they should be tracking the customer calls.

 

I've personally never had any experience with Comcast, but I have with Verizon for their DSL service and while their service is crap, I've always had pleasant experiences with their customer service.

 

One time I called because of a connection issue, similar to what Davis had and when I had to call back, the previous Rep. had made notes on everything I had given him so I didn't have to start over.

 

If Comcast isn't doing this, then why? That's basic Customer Support 101. If they are doing it, then someone either lied or failed to type up their notes properly. Either way, that's 100% on Comcast.

 

Customers will absolutely lie about stuff like this and that's why they have notes. But the notes should also be to help Reps. make the customer experience seamless and honest as possible.

 

My recommendation to everyone now is record every conversation you have with a customer rep., especially if it is Comcast.

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Considering how ager these morons are to give out customer info to anyone who says they are from the corporate office and how stupid the customers who complain on twitter posting their phone number for anyone to call as support I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were talking to a troll.

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Typical Comcast, I just hope the knuckleheads in Washington do not, under any circumstances approve their merger with Time Warner Cable.

 

It's going to go through. They have already lined the pockets of the important people to get it to go through. :(

 

Luckily for me, I'm not in one of the areas that's going to get molested (switched)

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Stuff like this requires getting more consumer protection laws which is a tad difficult due to the current political climate.

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Stuff like this requires getting more consumer protection laws which is a tad difficult due to the current political climate.

No it doesn't. All it requires is real competition. We don't need more regulation, we need the government out of it to begin with. Government is exactly why Comcast has duopolies in the first place.

 

If a customer could easily jump from one ISP to another, these companies would have more incentive to offer a better service, including the customer service experience.

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No it doesn't. All it requires is real competition. We don't need more regulation, we need the government out of it to begin with. Government is exactly why Comcast has duopolies in the first place.

 

If a customer could easily jump from one ISP to another, these companies would have more incentive to offer a better service, including the customer service experience.

Legality of Monopolies and Oligopolies is determined by the government.
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Comcast in my old town in Maryland were just as outrageous. I was in DC and went into the comcast center only to be told, they can't take my payment because my address wasn't in their area. this is a trick to get people to be late on their bills and then stack fee upon fee.

 

When Verizon Fios became available, Comcast lost their shorts and then tried to reinvent themselves with Comcast xfinity in hope of trying to get back customers. once you leave comcast, you'll get junk mail asking for you to come back all the time...

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Legality of Monopolies and Oligopolies is determined by the government.

That's my point exactly. The government is allowing these monopolies to exist. More real competition would mean better service.

 

Of course it isn't just government that is the problem, but more regulation isn't the solution. Here's an interesting article from Wired: http://www.wired.com/2013/07/we-need-to-stop-focusing-on-just-cable-companies-and-blame-local-government-for-dismal-broadband-competition/

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You know... I don't know what the law is in the US, but in the UK, it's actually illegal to record any call you make unless you first notify the other party that you are recording (and record that notification as well).

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I think the calculation is simpler when it comes to Microsoft. 1+ = Everyone.

Microsoft just expands into the integers realm with "0   = Market researches" and "< 0 = We"

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You know... I don't know what the law is in the US, but in the UK, it's actually illegal to record any call you make unless you first notify the other party that you are recording (and record that notification as well).

For the US, it depends on the state: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_recording_laws#United_States

 

However, I think Comcast would look really bad if they pursed a customer who caught them in a lie to begin with.

 

Under Federal law, (18 U.S.C. ?2511(2)(d)) "at least one party taking part in the call must be notified of the recording", so if you're calling Comcast, because they notify the customer that they are being recorded, that would probably satisfy any legal requirement for the Rep to know they are being recorded, regardless of who is doing it.

 

That's just my interpretation of the law, others may disagree with me. And like I said, if Comcast went after a customer for recording them, they would look even worse than they already do, which is pretty bad.

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You know... I don't know what the law is in the US, but in the UK, it's actually illegal to record any call you make unless you first notify the other party that you are recording (and record that notification as well).

i could understand if the recorder ware the 3rd party that shouldn't involved in conversation, but

what was the rationale of such law?

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Hurmoth, on 13 Aug 2014 - 11:10, said:

For the US, it depends on the state: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_recording_laws#United_States

 

However, I think Comcast would look really bad if they pursed a customer who caught them in a lie to begin with.

 

Under Federal law, (18 U.S.C. ?2511(2)(d)) "at least one party taking part in the call must be notified of the recording", so if you're calling Comcast, because they notify the customer that they are being recorded, that would probably satisfy any legal requirement for the Rep to know they are being recorded, regardless of who is doing it.

 

That's just my interpretation of the law, others may disagree with me. And like I said, if Comcast went after a customer for recording them, they would look even worse than they already do, which is pretty bad.

 

When I worked with Verizon Wireless we were told not to participate in calls that were being recorded (obviously we can only know that if they say it but still). I do believe you are correct though, we're legally required to let them know even if we call them back after a disconnect on the same or different line.

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