Comcast customer service rep harassing customer about cancelling subscription

[DLM_012]

Like I said in my post: the rep is not only paid to behave exactly like that, he's expect to and even forced to behave like that. Think of it as aggressive sales x10. Don't for a second believe Comcast when they try to put it on the rep, I go so far as to say that he would have been reprimanded if he wasn't being that pushy, on all calls.

 

I've overheard my parents talking to sales reps from other ISPs before and they were nothing like that.

[SlayerOfHellWyrm]

I've overheard my parents talking to sales reps from other ISPs before and they were nothing like that.

It's like that pretty frequently with Rogers in Canada. It's painful to have to deal with them, and worse, when there's problems, they always try to pin it on the customer, when most of the time it's their end, or their ISP

[DLM_012]

It's like that pretty frequently with Rogers in Canada. It's painful to have to deal with them, and worse, when there's problems, they always try to pin it on the customer, when most of the time it's their end, or their ISP

 

No way I'd put up with someone as aggressive as the Comcast employee. I'd be asking to talk to his supervisor. I'm surprised the customer didn't do that. And if the supervisor didn't do anything (likely wouldn't progress past here), I'd contact someone higher up in management. 

[Misanthrope]

I've overheard my parents talking to sales reps from other ISPs before and they were nothing like that.

 

A sales rep is very different from a "saves" or cancellation avoidance rep, that's kinda why I said 10x worst. They are basically allowed to be as pushy and obnoxious as debt collectors if it means they get a customer to stay, only instead of threatening people to get em to pay they allow them to go into extreme rhetoric and endless perseverance to try to get people to stay in.

[SlayerOfHellWyrm]

No way I'd put up with someone as aggressive as the Comcast employee. I'd be asking to talk to his supervisor. I'm surprised the customer didn't do that. And if the supervisor didn't do anything (likely wouldn't progress past here), I'd contact someone higher up in management. 

Rogers retention is somewhat better. Funny part is, if you frequently end up in yelling matches with them, they can put a flag an an account, that makes them bypass normal customer service, and elevates you straight to retention. Retention tends to be 1) a lot more knowledgeable and 2) a lot more sympathetic of Rogers fuck ups. They are no where near as bad as that rep however, it's more an issue of one hand (read: department) not talking to the other, so no one really ever seems to know wtf is going on.

[Misanthrope]

No way I'd put up with someone as aggressive as the Comcast employee. I'd be asking to talk to his supervisor. I'm surprised the customer didn't do that. And if the supervisor didn't do anything (likely wouldn't progress past here), I'd contact someone higher up in management. 

 

That's a good point, in fact while they don't actively encourage people to requests a supervisor they do prefer that in difficult cases and a Trainer/QA agent or Supervisor checking the call would have taken over the call. Not only are they more experienced but have more leeway and would have tried to take control of the call by offering things a normal rep cannot like "Ok sir if you don't want to give me a reason I understand, but what if I told you I can reduce your bill? What if I told you I can increase your contracted speeds at no extra charge/What if I give you 2 months of free service and transfer you to a specialized team so they can resolve any technical issue you might have, you can basically have a free service and we will have to convince you we're the best option" etc.

This guy however knew exactly what kind of stuff he should say to avoid giving the rep a reason to escalate or transfer the call and not give ANY sort of leeway for any discussions or incentives to be offered. He's a pro, he was the VP of one of THE pushiest services ever that pretty much was an innovator in this kind of retention, AOL so he knew how to push things without ever giving up control of the call. But normal people would have easily been taken off track.

[ForsakenLive]

I hate Comcast just as much as the next guy.  I find this to be pretty sensationalist though.  The guy could have just told him why or made up some bullshit response to move things along.  Instead he dragged it out to make a point for the internet.  

 

I have no sympathy for Comcast, but the guy is a douche.  He's just not in the same hemisphere of douchiness as Comcast.

Douche? Are you kidding me?

You don't have to give any information to the rep or the company, you are entitled to keep your reasons to yourself if you want. It's in consumer laws to be able to cancel any type of service you are paying, and nobody should be able to make it a hell lot more difficult.

I don't know how the thing works on the US, but where I live, this guy could have easily sued the company.

[Murdoch]

This guy however knew exactly what kind of stuff he should say to avoid giving the rep a reason to escalate or transfer the call and not give ANY sort of leeway for any discussions or incentives to be offered. He's a pro, he was the VP of one of THE pushiest services ever that pretty much was an innovator in this kind of retention, AOL so he knew how to push things without ever giving up control of the call. But normal people would have easily been taken off track.

 

Do you think it was the caller's intention to deliberately get an illustration of 'bad service'. I got the impression it was a person who knew how the industry works, who wanted to just cancel his service without playing the usual 'retention games' and was genuinely surprised at just how badly the guy handled it.

 

If you have to ask directly to 'cancel the service' 25 times before the company does it, you don't need to be a 'pro' to demonstrate bad service.

 

Your previous post gives a great example of why this happens, there is so much pressure on these guys. This is entirely by design. And it's a design to one extent or another that is used by thousands of companies. It happens because unfortunately it works.

[Misanthrope]

Do you think it was the caller's intention to deliberately get an illustration of 'bad service'. I got the impression it was a person who knew how the industry works, who wanted to just cancel his service without playing the usual 'retention games' and was genuinely surprised at just how badly the guy handled it.

 

If you have to ask directly to 'cancel the service' 25 times before the company does it, you don't need to be a 'pro' to demonstrate bad service.

 

Your previous post gives a great example of why this happens, there is so much pressure on these guys. This is entirely by design. And it's a design to one extent or another that is used by thousands of companies. It happens because unfortunately it works.

 

If you really want to "cancel" you would open by saying "I'm sure you're a nice guy, nothing against you but I'm not talking to you, transfer me to a supervisor" repeatedly and then he would have given the supervisor a pretty conclusive argument like "I'm moving, out of any Comcast service areas, I need this disconnected and I cannot transfer service to anybody else" That would pretty much get you disconnected within 5 minutes because you're

 

1) Removing an inexperienced rep out of the equation

 

2) Giving them an irrefutable reason that they have no way of countering due to the nature of their service.

 

So yeah I think he pushed it intentionally. I don't condemn it because like I said, this COULD happen to normal people pissed off enough that they refuse all offers or even talking about them, but since he's no amateur I gotta take his approach as more of an example than a real world common case.

 

EDIT: I also agree that it is by design but is not completely without benefits. Sure Comcast might be the worst and most unreliable company in America but if you inherited the service from a sublet for example you might have enough value that you can get away with really cheap service and several free months of service if you threaten to cancel, in fact some customers do get wind of this and abuse the system but it's a calculated expense for them anyway.

[Murdoch]

If you really want to "cancel" you would open by saying "I'm sure you're a nice guy, nothing against you but I'm not talking to you, transfer me to a supervisor" repeatedly and then he would have given the supervisor a pretty conclusive argument like "I'm moving, out of any Comcast service areas, I need this disconnected and I cannot transfer service to anybody else" That would pretty much get you disconnected within 5 minutes because you're

 

1) Removing an inexperienced rep out of the equation

 

2) Giving them an irrefutable reason that they have no way of countering due to the nature of their service.

 

So yeah I think he pushed it intentionally. I don't condemn it because like I said, this COULD happen to normal people pissed off enough that they refuse all offers or even talking about them, but since he's no amateur I gotta take his approach as more of an example than a real world common case.

 

I like how it works in the UK. If you want to change service you phone up and request a Migration Authorisation Code (MAC). Soon as you specifically request it by law they have to send you the code. Completely avoids all the usual BS. 

[Misanthrope]

Yeah that would be a sane law (which in regards to ISPs, makes it sadly very unlikely) I believe some mobile carriers even cancel your current service with a competitor for you and migrate your shit? Or maybe I'm thinking of cable/ISPs but I know that concept exists

[pk-man]

those 8 minutes was hilarious and infuriating.

 

At times I thought this rep must've a gun pointed at this head or something....so damn persistent

[Murdoch]

Yeah that would be a sane law (which in regards to ISPs, makes it sadly very unlikely) I believe some mobile carriers even cancel your current service with a competitor for you and migrate your shit? Or maybe I'm thinking of cable/ISPs but I know that concept exists

 

I believe that used to be the case for MAC codes (internet). But not anymore, it was open to abuse, rogue companies were requesting codes without customers knowledge. Haha. So nowadays it must be done by the end user. I'm not sure about PAC codes (mobile) I think similar rules apply.

[Sky Daddy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAo5GgaJmsA

[Kamina]

https://soundcloud.com/ryan-block-10/comcastic-service

 

lol this guy.

[helping]

Someone's getting a promotion

[pixeldensity]

Should of started trolling the guy by making outrageous demand

[SilenT_LobsteR]

I love how he keeps saying "Fastest internet in the Country", isn't Google Fibre way loads faster? Yeah it's not all around the Country but still amusing. 

[SirNumbers]

Google fiber ...

[SlayerOfHellWyrm]

Google fiber ...

Google fibre is stupidly fast, and cheap for the speeds. I want it to work it's way up to Canada

[Yoinkerman]

Not having listened to this at all, I would say that rudeness begets rudeness.

 

Even the most curmugeon(sp?) csr bends to my will when I'm polite and courteous.

 

EDIT:  having worked in a call centre, we definitely took more leeway with customers that initiated it.

[BloodySinner]

I hate Comcast just as much as the next guy.  I find this to be pretty sensationalist though.  The guy could have just told him why or made up some bullshit response to move things along.  Instead he dragged it out to make a point for the internet.  

 

I have no sympathy for Comcast, but the guy is a douche.  He's just not in the same hemisphere of douchiness as Comcast.

 

Wrong. You're not entitled to an answer. If I want to end your subscription service, it should be done without hassle or reasoning.

[Hatsune Miku 「 」]

Just get all of comcast customers try to disconnect and hire an army of lawyers.

[Carpenoctem]

I agree that blaming that poor agent isn't really the solution.

 

 

After all ask yourself why is this happening ?

 

I do not believe that it's black and white and right and wrong are shared on both parts.

The representative was terribad but that guy was being a duche on purpose knowing how it would end, no doubt about that.

 

As it's been pointed out he's likely doing an underpaid job probably also with the very high pressure and stress of unrealistic targets to achieve.

And when you know that someone is in that situation, you just don't rub it in his face, if you have a bit of humanity you play along a bit his game and try to end it over quickly. But that's just me.

 

If you wish to point fingers, always go for the general, not for the soldiers.

 

Not to mention that ISP is a very competitive market, and I believe companies that wants to maximize profits will have to play dirty because otherwise someone else will benefit more anyway.

That is why there is massive outsourcing with lower labor costs and over all lower quality, the entire system beside very few exception is flawed.

[TAK]

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