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If you haven't already heard this going around facebook, listen to this.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/07/15/331681041/comcast-embarrassed-by-the-service-call-making-internet-rounds?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20140715

How that guy kept his cool with that rep is amazing to me

I can't believe how stubborn that Comcast representative was, haha. Perhaps having a customer cancel their service through him impacted him in some negative way, so he felt the need to go all in and do whatever he could to keep them connected. I doubt that, but surely he must've had a reason to drone on so persistently.

Props to the customer though. Glad he didn't just ask for another representative to speak to and instead recorded the call. Not that that rep would've redirected him elsewhere, probably would've just kept going.

Comcast is very upset with that rep, even going so far as to having him call the guy to personally apologize. Also, I'm pretty sure they'll fire him after he does that... what company would want that negative light when their ratings are already so low?

This was discussed on reddit in this thread http://www.reddit.com/r/WarOnComcast/comments/2aq048/customer_call_to_cancel_comcast_wtf/.



Some people in that thread said that the actions of this rep is "standard procedure". I posted the link on skype and a friend of mine said he had had the same experience with a swedish ISP. They will try to keep their customers for as long as possible like this, then when it's revealed that this is what they do, they will blame the representative.

ISPs are usually really terrible and there is nothing anybody can do about it because there are no alternatives. They sell a service which is needed by society and that costs very little to provide. Getting into the industry is also really hard so the companies can do whatever they want without having any consequences. A perfect example of that seems to be the data caps on mobile connections. A few years ago, getting a plan with unlimited data usage was pretty easy and now it's impossible. The ISPs claim that the networks wouldn’t be able to handle the traffic and that the caps are required for maintaining stability but that doesn't make sense. I read a while back that a new ISP was starting out in the US which didn't have any data caps on mobile networks which might mean it works.

Another reason I suspect that data caps are an arbitrary limit is that my ISP who usually have a max data cap of 10 GB or lower have launched a campaign where you get more data during the summer if you buy a new phone / plan. I, and im guessing many others use their mobile internet connections to browse the internet when we are away from home. Most people go away during the summer and that should strain the mobile networks more than regular non-summer use. Yet my ISP are increasing the avalible data 5 times during this peak season which if the data caps had a technical reason wouldn't be possible.

Lucily I live in sweden where there are lots of ISPs to choose from which means that there is some limited competition. I can't imagine living in the USA and only being able to choose between 1 or 2 ISPs.

I worked for Verizon dsl about 10 years ago. If someone tries to cancel, we're suppose to talk them out of it. I got dinged several times because I'd transfer people immediately to retention. I just tell my supervisor I'm a tech, I fix tech problems. I don't sell your service.

I've had a lot of issues with Time Warner. I did have Insight but they were bought by TWC. My only other option in my area is WOW.

I have resorted to just saying I am moving countries, and that cuts through all the rubbish...

I suspect because it's sales some part of their job relies on keeping customers. Nobody in a call centre cares so badly about the company they work for that they're like an overly attached girlfriend. What they do care about is that they keep their job. The agent was an idiot, but I don't think the blame alone should be thrown on him, I suspect Comcast as a company bear some responsibility in the guy's service.

Hard sales can mean if you're not meeting targets, you lose your job.

However, in a meeting yesterday, saw some interesting stats, these are rough as I'm relying on memory, 65% of customers without a problem will repurchase a brand, 10% of customers with an unresolved problem and 85% of customers with a resolved problem. I suspect after that call, the customer is on the 10% chance. He had to fight for a resolution.

Kudos to the customer.

I keep getting calls from BT, asking me to switch ISP to them...

Rep ''What speed do you get right now sir?''
Me ''160mbs''
Rep ''Ohh, that seems like a lot, wouldn't you be better off with 80mbs?''
Me ''No''

That happens about once a week.

10% Wut? think there might be something missing there you forgot to say >.< that or I woke up too early...



I think that is not BT, it might be an outsourced group, be sure to ask them who is calling I do this with every call, and they sometimes are tricky, they might say something very rushed and that is before they mention who they are calling on behalf of, but I am past these idiots... so I always negate any of these calls with brisk fashion...

However I do believe anybody doing that is against policy and also illegal... well it would be if I was running the country...

This, there's a lot of companies that does that; The job of the people there are to keep customers and to get sales - It happens a looot in sweden too, sadly.

He'll be on targets, if his retention rate goes below a certain level, he'll be out. My guess is he was below that level and reaching the end of the month.

However...his technique was dire, and that's probably why he was below par. Continuously repeating statistics wouldn't convince me to stay, because they don't necessarily convert to service levels.



The rep isn't apologising, the company is apologising. But the way they have written it is very poor and could be interpreted that way. It could also be read as the company apologising to the employee It looks like poor communication skills go all the way up to senior management!

"We are very embarrassed by the way our employee spoke with Mr. Block and are contacting him to personally apologize."

Absolutely. I think the best way to handle it would have been, "I am sorry to hear that you no longer wish this service. I can cancel it down for you, it's not a problem, however, to help us improve our service for the future, would it be possible for you to offer feedback as to why you wish to cease the service".

It shows immediately that I have listened to what the customer wants, shown I am interested in them. I've not made out how brilliant our company is. But by keeping a calm, polite, friendly and welcoming tone and making his feedback entirely optional, he might think, "well, actually, I don't like the service provider I've switched too, maybe I'll give Comcast a second chance."

I was dealing with a customer situation I suppose like this yesterday. Customer had a fault, customer found themselves getting quite agitated. When they came through to me they were already on "demand to speak to a manager" level, but once I had access to her file, I was able to spot her problem and get it booked in. She had one other complaint, I escalated it and she was happy with me. The person she spoke to a couple days ago, she felt was patronising and rude and unhelpful, it really escalated things (she possibly was irate with him as she was me as she still had a problem). However, she ended up coming through to me again, she recognised my name and voice, she was on the verge of "I am writing a formal complaint to a managing director, I'm unhappy with how I'm treated." But because I was willing to listen, take on her concerns and speak positively and politely and attempting to find a result, managing expectations and being realistic about what I can do - because I showed I was interested in what she wanted, she told me that she was happy with me and it's because of me that she's willing to give us a second chance. And I believe I've managed to deliver, because I've managed to get a hold of a senior engineer for them with a decent level of product knowledge to help solve her problem.

Of course, it can be challenging to do that as an agent. I suspect in a sales environment, you do have a different kind of pressure. Up-selling is generally important. But I think approaches and training in this respect is quite poor, as a person working in after-sales, we actually take the fall for sales misinformation. But I have a friend who works in a sales environment and is able to exceed targets, yet remain honest and get the customer what they want and keep them happy. It's by avoiding upselling, sometimes downselling can mean customer satisfaction and as a result, you might find they buy something in addition to the item they were after. Plus if you're showing you're caring and listening, it can pay off.




If we were to categorise people.

The 60% of people without problems with a service/product returning to a brand.
The 10% of people with unresolved problems returning to a brand.
And the 85% of people with resolved problems returning to a brand.

I would argue that in the case of this customer he would fall into the middle category. They've got a 10% chance of him returning to their service. If it was painless and his query resolved, even if it's leaving a service, there would have been a much greater chance of him returning.

Because that guy is a "journalist" that works for AOL.



I haven't had a laugh that good in ages.

I can guarantee you his job was to do exactly what he did. This guy wasn't desperate. This guy was making bank on commission. This guy is totally pro, I'd hire him for any phone job. After this recording I can guarantee he got a few job offers.

When I canceled my Comcast account it was very easy because I was moving back to Canada. I guess they figure it's a lost cause selling me a service that doesn't even exist in my country!

I remember way back in the day when I canceled by original Xbox's Live service, and the lady had three stages of enticements to offer me. First level was a few free months, second level was a free game, third level was a free game and 6 months free. Finally she gave up

Come to think of it, I had the same thing cancelling one of my services on Heart Internet, I had a Linux and Windows package, didn't end up using the Linux server so was redundant. Yet, the support ticket was very much like I was leaving them and they wanted me to stay. But I was staying, they're a good service and customer support has most of the time been swift and knowledgeable. I only had one guy sound like he was working from a template, but he was prolly new.

I still pay them for hosting my RP group's website, but only need a windows based server as I'm not working on another other sites ATM and I need IIS for the one I am working on. But it really is a commission or job target thing. I would say there's more tactful approaches, but not necessarily as scalable. Giving customers shiny shinies seems to be the most popular, but I don't give into freebies or even 'the best' by some statistical means, it's about the product, service and overall experience. Ethics plays into it in some degree too.

I had a guy like that once. After he sworn at me several times and I warned him I would have to disconnect, he (screaming at me this entire time) wanted my manager. At which point I calmly informed him there is no manager, which was true he was fired that morning. I said I was the only person he could talk to right now as we didn't currently have any supervisors. He couldnt believe it. I did tell him though I would send his issue over to tier 2 and have them call him back. I think I ended up transferring him to retention.

I live in Russia and the way you cancel your internet provider is just stop paying your monthly fee. Maybe some providers will pester you for some money you still owe them for a few years before the contract actually runs out. At that point they cant really do anything to you. As for most internet providers here as long as the internet cable is still hooked up to the provider's ethernet switch, you can turn your internet back on by making another monthly payment without even having to deal with any customer service at all. I decided to go back to one of my old providers recently, and was somewhat surprised my account was still active (just blocked because i didnt pay for it for a year), made the payment, everything works. They even saved my old data plan which they dont offer any longer and even added 10mbps/s to my speed making it 70mbps for the price of 60.