Can Comcast Get Any Worse? Listen to Latest Call Fiasco

Comcast is the largest broadcasting and cable company in the world. But in a recent phone call with reporter Ryan Block where he tried to cancel his home service with Comcast, they are more like a call center bully completely ignoring the Customer’s request and insisting that they get what they want. Comcast apologized to Block saying they were embarrassed by the incident. The truth is that they should be.

Block tried to cancel service with the Internet, Cable TV and telephone service provider he didn’t expect the call to last for over 8 minutes, but it did. In fact, the call was much longer than 8 minutes as it was initiated by his wife, who handed over the phone to him. Block was so surprised by his encounter that he recorded his exchange and posted it. Here is the call:

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

I cringe when I listen to this. It’s uncomfortable. It’s obnoxious. It’s obvious that the comcast representative doesn’t want to listen to Block, although Block is very clear about what he wants. But the rep just doesn’t quit. He says that he wants to help the company be better but as Block said, “You are doing an incredibly good job of helping your company be worse.”

Why This Call Happened

This call is appalling but the sad thing is I am not surprised. Comcast is synonymous with poor service for years. According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which is an independent body responsible for measuring customer satisfaction for industries across the United States, Comcast has declined in Customer satisfaction from the last year.

TV is 4.8% down from the previous year

Fixed Line is down 5.6% from the previous year

Internet is down 8.1% from the previous year

Comcast is also routinely the poorest performer on surveys like ours called the Global Leader Survey where we ask leaders in Customer Experience Management to rank companies experiences by those they like and those they don’t. Guess where Comcast showed up in last year’s survey? That’s right the number one spot...for the worst experience!

Top 10 Worst Customer Experiences

Ours isn’t the only one. They are also listed as the 4th worst on Business Insider’s List of the 15 Worst Companies for Customer Service. Yet, these ranks appear to change nothing.

It shows the mentality and culture of Comcast. For years we have been hearing of these failures and for years nothing changes. It also shows me that the executive team is not on board with a change to the customer experience. Simply put, Comcast doesn’t care.

But this call example shows something more specific than an utter lack of real respect for the Customer. This is a classic example of ‘what gets measured gets done’ and as I like to say ‘and what gets paid for gets done even more’. I can't confirm this but I would be pretty certain they will be targeting their people to retain Customers. I would also bet they pay some form of the number of Customer they ‘save’.

I am familiar with this kind of shenanigan. This smacks of my recent experience with a rental car company. I gave them a 6 out of 10 for my Net Promoter Score. The representative then asked me what it would take to get a higher score, so I said $X off my rental, which he gave me. When companies care more about getting a good rating for an experience than actually having a good customer experience, this is the kind of maneuver that ensues. And the experience stays a 6.

But like Block, more and more customers will find a new way to get what they need. Then this persistent comcast employee can practice finding out what’s wrong with his company as more and more customers jump off the Comcast ship, badgering them all with his constant question, “Why?” The real question will be will anyone bother to tell him and if they do will Comcast listen to what he tells them they say.

What has been your experience of Comcast or another organization that is poor on Customer Experience? I would be very interested in your comments below...

If you enjoyed this post, you may be interested in the following blogs:

• The Unforgiving Brits: Unhappy Consumers in the UK Punish Poor Service More Than US Consumers

• Deceptive Policy: The Subconscious Effect of Rental Car Loss Waiver Coverage

• The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly In Customer Experience Recently

Colin Shaw is the founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy, one of the world's first organizations devoted to customer experience.Colin is an international author of four bestselling books and an engaging keynote speaker. To read more from Colin on LinkedIn, connect with him by clicking the follow button above or below. If you would like to follow Beyond Philosophy click here

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