I know I’ve definitely thought this about cable service customer representatives, and they’ve probably thought the same about me, but who would actually put it in writing? Apparently someone at Comcast, because that’s just what happened to Ricardo Brown of Spokane, Washington, after he called them to complain about a bill. On the next monthly statement the couple received, Ricardo’s name had been changed to A**hole Brown. Seriously. Real clever retaliation, Comcast!
But the story doesn’t stop there. When Ricardo’s wife, Lisa, called the company to get the profane name change rectified, rather than receiving sympathy, she met with resistance from the service department. So she did what any smart woman would in this age where the media speaks louder than any one personal complaint: She called a reporter. That reporter was Christopher Elliott, who writes on travel and consumer affairs for The Washington Post, USA Today and other publications. Naturally Elliott was appalled by the story.
“You know employees talk about customers behind their back and say things like this,” Elliott told CBS News. “But I’ve never seen anyone put something like this in writing. This falls into the category of ‘What were they thinking?'”
According to Mr. Brown, he originally called Comcast to cancel the family’s cable service and was told he’d have to pay a $60 fee to do so. He was then redirected to the sales department, where a representative tried to persuade him to keep the service and even go on a two-year contract. This call resulted in the infamous name change on the family’s statement. “I was never rude,” states Brown. “It could have been that person was upset because I didn’t take the offer.”
During his work on the story, Elliott received this statement from Steve Kipp, Comcast’s VP of communications for the Washington region: “We have spoken with our customer and apologized for this completely unacceptable and inappropriate name change,” he said. “We have zero tolerance for this type of disrespectful behavior and are conducting a thorough investigation to determine what happened. We are working with our customer to make this right and will take appropriate steps to prevent this from happening again.”
Comcast is the largest cable service provider in the country but certainly not the only one to be lacking in the customer service department. However, it is the first to take customer disrespect to such an immature level. Well done, Comcast. You’re officially the playground bully of the cable service world.
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