Chances are, if you have internet access in your home, you've dealt with Comcast. If you haven't, then you're lucky: Comcast is notorious for some of the worst customer support and shoddiest service in the country. Unfortunately, the company's reach is so widespread that it can be impossible to avoid; for many, Comcast's service is the only one available. Over the past few years, Comcast's service has only gotten worse, though few have it as bad as this man.
Known only as Conal, the man tried to call Comcast to have a litany of problems with his account finally taken care of. Comcast repaid him by having the company Conal worked for fire him.
According to a report on Consumerist, Conal began his service with Comcast back in early 2013. Almost immediately, he noticed problems with his coverage. Charges weren't what he was promised and discounts simply never materialized. It's something that many Comcast customers have to deal with, but the situation continued to worsen. Conal then received a shipment of over $1800 worth of equipment from the provider, none of which was actually ordered by him. On top of everything else, Conal wasn't even sure what he needed to pay half of the time; a clerical error was preventing his bills from being shipped to the correct address.
After months of trying to deal with Comcast's terrible service through the customer support department, Conal decided to head straight to the source. If there was one person that could help him, it was the Comcast Controller. So, Conal called the Controller, and after a reportedly bizarre conversation, Conal finally got around to speaking to the person he needed to talk to. After stating that Comcast should have their practices looked at by a private firm, Conal hung up. A few days later, he was fired.
Conal maintains that he did not mention his firm by name, but someone at Comcast was able to found out where the man worked as an accountant. This led to the cable provider calling the firm, which led to an ethics investigation, which led to Conal's dismissal from the firm. Conal's former employer said that the employee's firing was due to an email Comcast sent that contained interactions between Comcast representatives and Conal himself, but Conal was not aware of the email and Comcast has since refused to release any of the evidence against him.
While it is true that the firm Conal was previously employed by did work with Comcast on occasion, the company never did the accounting work for Comcast. This means that, even if Conal had mentioned the firm by name, it wouldn't have done any good.
Basically, Conal was fired from a job that he excelled at because Comcast called his boss. It's a new low for the company, and when 'low' meant that one of your representatives argued with a customer for 18 minutes instead of simply cancelling their service, going further beyond that is shocking.
It's also startling that Comcast holds that sort of power. It doesn't apply to everyone, of course, but the idea of customer service complaints costing someone their job is downright scary.
So far, Comcast has said very little on the matter. A representative gave a very generic 'we've heard his complaints and will respond quickly,' while the Senior Deputy General Counsel did admit that the firm was contacted after Conal's call, but that he "is not in a position to complain that the firm came to learn [about the dispute]."
Photo: Mike Mozart (cropped)
