Here’s Why Your Comcast Rep is Yelling at You

[Hissyspit]

http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/16/5909591/here-s-why-your-comcast-rep-is-yelling-at-you

Here’s why your Comcast rep is yelling at you

By Adrianne Jeffries 07.16.2014

- snip -

Last week, AOL vice president of product Ryan Block had a similar experience with a Comcast rep. Block and his wife spent around 18 minutes on the phone as an aggressive call-center employee asks questions like, "Why is it that you’re not wanting to have the No. 1 rated internet, No. 1 rated TV service in the country?"

"CANCEL. THE. ACCOUNT."

The rep, whose name is withheld, is certainly obnoxious. He’s also desperate. As The Awl’s John Herrman points out, "The customer service rep is trapped in an impossible position, in which any cancellation, even one he can't control, will reflect poorly on his performance."

- snip -

In other words, the incentive structure is really about punishment. Reps start out the month with a full commission, but every canceled product deducts from that amount. Once reps fall below a certain threshold, they get no commission at all. That means a rep could get all the way to the second-to-last day of the pay period only to have a customer cancel four products. Suddenly the rep is below her goal, losing $800 to $1,000 off her paycheck.

Metrics-obsessed reps are therefore highly motivated to get every customer to not only continue service, but keep the same number of subscriptions — phone, internet, Xfinity — or add more. Essentially, these reps are trying to reach a predetermined outcome in the call, and they’re trying to do it in under 11 minutes. Comcast has turned its customer service reps into sales reps.

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[LiberalEsto]

1. Inhumane

Comcasts's top execs need to have the same pay structure.

[derby378]

2. If Comcast ever succeeds in buying Time Warner Cable, I may have to drop my service

Comcast has become a raging, rampaging beast intent on censoring American thought, and I for one do not wish to throw my paycheck into its jaws.

[ananda]

7. I don't know which scares me more... Comcast or Murdoch.

Either of them owning Time Warner is a worst case scenario.

[krawhitham]

19. Two Different Time Warner companies

They became two separate companies in 2009

Time Warner Cable

VS

Time Warner Inc.


Comcast wants Time Warner Cable

Murdoch wants Time Warner Inc.

[IDemo]

3. Comcast is far from alone with this behavior

It is pretty well matched by most if not all call centers.

[CherokeeDem]

4. So funny....

Karma will get you.... years ago I had the same kind of run around from AOL when I called to cancel them. It wasn't pretty... I feel sorry for the reps, who are forced to do this to keep their jobs but I am not sorry one of AOL's VPs got the same treatment his company gave me.

[edgineered]

6. good catch, missed it myself. nt

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. Me too - an AOL rep was doggedly determined to not let me cancel

That was years and years ago.

[whopis01]

17. Listen to this AOL call - amazingly similar to the Comcast one

I hadn't realized that it was an AOL exec that this happened to. That is hilarious. This video was of someone's attempt to cancel AOL years ago.

http://m.

[IronLionZion]

5. Comcast doesn't deserve anyone's business

their business practices are really shitty. They still send out contractors with obsolete equipment as if no one would notice or ask why there's no HDMI output on the "digital" cable box.

I've been much happier with Verizon Fios for everything except price. I even downgraded my service to a cheaper plan recently and the service rep politely did it.

[davidn3600]

8. Typical behavior of companies like this

When a customer calls to cancel, the rep's performance is judged based on if that customer actually does cancel. They are trained to talk the customer out of cancelling by any means possible.

Comcast is not the only company that does this.. Most telcoms act the same way... especially phone companies, alarm companies, etc...

[Curmudgeoness]

16. The saddest thing for the rep's is

that they are judged by if a customer cancels, but they are given no tools to work with. If you have a complaint, all they can do is continue to say "I'm sorry you had that problem", and if you find a better price somewhere else, they don't always have the ability to reduce your charges to match or do better.

[groundloop]

9. Unfortunately my only 2 choices are Comcast or Uverse

I've heard from a couple of people that Uverse internet and cable service is a good bit inferior to Comcast, so I feel kind of stuck.

[genxlib]

15. Same Boat but Opposite

I would desperately like to get rid of Uverse but COmcast is my only choice otherwise.

And yes the internet speed is frustrating. It tests OK but I can't even stream netflix without periodic buffering.

[pipi_k]

22. Just read this today...

maybe something that would work for you?

http://news360.com/article/248737982#

[genxlib]

30. Its an interesting idea

But i'll be damned if I am going to pay $15 bucks a month more to get what I should already be paying for.

Thanks for the suggestion

[tclambert]

10. Corporate bureaucracy is so-o much better than government bureaucracy.

Commissions and profit and the hell with customer service. If they monopolize the market, they don't have to care. Where ya gonna go? And who else can you call?

The government at least gives you other avenues of complaint.

[All_Corners]

25. In the end it all comes down to motivations and incentives...

... and very rarely is the satisfaction of the end user or a quality product the goal in either arena.

[Aerows]

12. I'd rig a pair of tin cans together with some string

before I'd deal with Comcast. Even AT&T is better than Comcast, and that is freaking saying something.

Remember something, folks - no one will EVER call you and offer you money in good faith, nor will they email you to send you money. And ditch Comcast because they are full of crap, too.

[broadcaster75201]

13. WHen yo cancel, do what I did. Tell them you are moving to Saudi Arabia. 60 sec call.

Having said that, the fact that America and their Teabag overlords, permits corps to do this ensures the end of this nation. And good riddence.

[the_sly_pig]

14. Comcast is a monopoly.

And Centurylink reliability is horrendous. I have no choice other than the choice to not have internet service.

[questionseverything]

28. yes comcast is a monopoly

you have correctly identified the problem

[Fred Sanders]

18. Reverse commission, only a capitalist profit blood sucker could of thought of that as a loophole

in labor law.

America has a long way to go to get civilized about labor law protections for workers.

Wonder if any of the news propaganda outlets they control will be permitted to mention any of this.

[WinkyDink]

20. Ask instead to speak to the supervisor.

[maddiemom]

21. I cancelled Comcast four or five years ago due to some real aggrevation about billing.

Because I live in a eleven unit, privately owned apartment building, where it's understandable that having a near dozen small dishes stuck all over, getting a dish network is not possible at this time. Years ago, as homeowners, we had the huge dish, which we privately owned, in our backyard. At first we could get everything, including the various U.S. time zones and Mexican and Canadian TV. We could also get the unedited network news feeds. It was a great, if short lived, experience. My daughter could polish her school Spanish by watching Mexican TV. and we knew "who shot J.R.?" an hour before anyone else in the U.S. It wasn't long before everything was increasingly "scrambled," however. Still, we were happy to subscribe to many of the service networks, still having more choice than cable gave us, and indescribably great reception. Dish networks are the obvious choice over cable as it now exists. Now we are getting our TV through Netflix and similar subscriptions, still less costly than cable. And movies and TV series on DVD, of course. Certainly it's long past time for some real improvements for our television watching options. Thankfully we've never been among those who need TV in the background of our lives at all times. We would surely enjoy the option of our own choices for the money we put in, however.

[maddiemom]

26. To further clarify: At the time of our cable problems, we had bought a home on a short,"rural" road

with only about a dozen homes on it, behind a local golf course. It was quiet (except for early morning yells of "fore!&quot , had a lovely hilltop view and was only minutes from town and malls. Cable television surrounded us on all sides. The problem was, according to our local cable company, actually the forerunner of Comcast, over thirty years ago: it would be too expensive to run cable down our road for so few houses. Luckily it was early days of satellite dishes. Within weeks of the appearance of a twelve foot dish in our back yard, the cable company was knocking on our door asking if we'd subscribe to cable if they ran it down our road. Well, duh..of course, in our case, having just spent a couple thousand on our dish, we weren't interested. Our other neighbors, a couple of whom were debating on installing their own dishes, of course, were. And so...we got cable TV on our road. It was still some years before dish networks appeared, but we still never regretted the investment in the dish. Despite increasing scrambling over the following years, the reception and lack of technical interruptions common with cable at that time were well worth it.

[rickyhall]

23. I have Windstream & they charge me $5 just to talk to a service rep.

But Dish is a lot of help with no hassle or charge.

[pipi_k]

24. This is why

whenever I want/have to cancel something, I do it by email whenever possible.

One place even tried to tell me I could not cancel by email and that I would have to do it by telephone. Yeah, right...I'm on to their little tricks...

I emailed them back and told them that I have hearing problems and using the phone is difficult, and that I signed up via the computer and I would also cancel that way, and if they didn't cancel my account, I would contact my credit card company and instruct them not to honor any more payments to the place.

They allowed me to cancel.


Don't mess with the gray-hairs!!!

[TxVietVet]

27. I had Time Warner Cable for years.

Customer "NO" service was a joke. I'd call and complain because of outages. They gave me lame excuses. At the end of my conversations, I'd tell the rep that "Time Warner Cable is the best cable in town because it's the only one in town". Then, ATT came into my area. I dumped Time Warner so fast. You can say what you want about ATT but at least I got service. When I had outages, they were right on it and made up with free time on HBO.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable will be the ultimate disaster. I pity the folks that get that "service".

[MDarleneI]

29. Divorcing Comcast is costly.

I canceled them April 30th, they reported my account delinquent in June. While I was waiting for a return label, they were busy creating a $200+ bill. The nearest "service center" is over 20 minutes away. They claim I have an overdue monthly charge. Anyone who's experienced Comcast knows one day late & services are locked.

They employ a particular nasty collections company. They've blocked me from their site & phone center.

As I told their rep, who was trying to talk me into some bundle, "I don't want any relationship with Comcast. Comcast, the person, is not someone with whom I care to do business."