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As a very recent former employee who left voluntarily after 7 years of witnessing underhanded and deceptive practices to not only customers but employees as well, I decided I would rather be unemployed than continue working for Comcast. The constant daily verbal abuse from customers that I had to put with was also a contributing factor. I am now a regular paying customer and I hate having to deal with them because unlike most customers, I know what really goes on there.

In the past year they closed multiple call centers with the reason that they were small, inefficient and non productive, which resulted in the unemployment of thousands of employees. The calls that used to be handled by those call centers have been routed to other areas, but Comcast did not hire additional people to handle the increased call volume. I heard a manager tell some employees to increase their productivity or they could lose their jobs to an outsourced company. Comcast outsourced all incoming Spanish calls to Mexico and the calls for internet and telephone support for field technicians (as well as many of the customer calls) has been contracted to an outside company in the Philippines. Comcast does not have to pay for employee benefits for ""˜outsourced" jobs. The employee cost for medical and dental coverage increased and the 401k company match decreased. Shortly after all of this occurred, the media broke the news that Comcast was planning to merge with NBC Universal.

Want to know why customer service is so horrible? For one thing, many - but not all - reps are so burned out from taking verbal abuse (i.e. screaming, vulgarity, name calling etc.)& complaints from customers for 8 hours a day that they cease to care about taking care of the customers' issue and second, many employees don't last more than a year so chances are you are talking to someone who doesn't know what they are talking about. Management places the emphasis on productivity & sales rather than customer service. I was told by several different managers that the company would rather make the customer schedule an appointment for a service call, take time off from work and spend time at home waiting for hours for a tech to show up instead of allowing a rep to spend extra time on the phone to try & get their issue resolved. This causes a backlog on service appointments & results in making customers wait longer than 3-4 days for a technician. There are many issues which do require a technician to fix the problem, but there are also many service calls that could & should have been resolved over the phone. Ever feel like the person you are talking to doesn't care about your problem or is trying to get you off the phone as quickly as possible? Phone reps are allowed to spend an average time of 5-7 minutes per call depending on which department they are in. If the call lasts longer than 10 minutes, they receive a message every minute reminding them that they are over their 5 minutes, so reps will say anything they think will get the customer off the phone. Sometimes a supervisor will stand at an employees' desk if they have been on a call for longer than 10 minutes and demand an explanation as to why they spent so much time with the customer. On one particular occasion I spent over 30 minutes on one call, but I was able to resolve the problem to the satisfaction of the customer. After the call, I was confronted by my supervisor who actually told me it was more important to stay within the 5 minute timeframe rather than go over the 5 minutes and resolve the issue. I was also told to not let it happen again or I could be "written up". After a certain amount of time, if the reps' average time spent with each customer goes over 5 minutes, they receive a warning. If they do not make the daily sales goal, they receive a warning, so reps will tell the customer anything in order to get "a sale". After a specific amount of time if reps still have not meet their goals, they get fired. In the sales department I saw a sign posted stating one of their daily goals is "customer mind control" (this is no joke)! If a local market is not meeting corporate sales goals, managers will walk up and down aisles to find out who is not meeting their sales quota for the day. The company's goal is to sign up every customer in a Triple Play digital bundle. During new hire training, two entire days is devoted just on overcoming objections from customers who don't want additional services or higher priced packages. There is very limited incentive to provide good customer service, however there are plenty of incentives to sell services (such as not losing their job). Policies, procedures, billing changes & prices can change daily and reps are informed (if at all) of those changes via email or in their team meeting, so if they don't bother to read their email or they don't attend a team meeting, they give customers the wrong information. (Ever wonder why every time you call you get a different answer or you feel like the rep doesn't know what they are talking about?) A standard joke amongst the employees is that for a communication company, Comcast sucks at communicating information within their own organization. Ongoing training for new products, services and billing is not held in training rooms, but on the employees' computer. Each course lasts an average of 5-20 min and is in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. (And customers question why employee's knowledge about their own products is so poor)

Have you ever asked for a supervisor and felt like you got the run around? That's because supervisors are hardly ever at their desks, they are busy writing up employees or trying to resolve the dozens of escalated customer complaints. Supervisors HATE taking calls from customers. Phone reps are told to avoid transferring customers to supervisors. If the customer insists on speaking to a supervisor the reps are told to advise customers of a 24-48 hour call back time frame and there is no guarantee there will be a callback. Many times when customers think they are talking to a supervisor, they are actually talking to "floor support" (level below supervisor). The stress the company puts on each employee is unbelievable. Not only do the employees have to deal with the pressure of talking customers into adding services they don't want, as well as the constant fear of being fired for not meeting their insane metrics, but also deal with disgruntled, angry and screaming customers throughout the day. The morale is extremely low and many employees stay with the company simply because there are not a lot of available jobs and they have families to support.

As far as installation and service appointments go, in my local market jobs are not pre-routed, so technicians usually have no idea what type of work they will be doing ahead of time. Because the phone reps can spend a limited amount of time on each call, they cut corners on setting up work orders, such as not listing what equipment or services the technician needs to install, leaving off discount codes, not scheduling an appointment with a valid date and/or time and on service orders many of them are setup incorrectly or don't even state what technical problem the customer is having. The technician may have no idea what the customer is expecting until they walk in the door. The work order may show he is installing one line of service or one cable box, but the customer is expecting something else, and that can make the technician run late to the rest of his jobs. Many of the installations and upgrades are done by contracted technicians. Do not assume that by requesting an "in house" technician that you will get one even if the phone rep promised one would come to your home. The people who route the jobs usually do not read any of the job comments. The reps are required to-but in many cases do not- advise customers that A) The technician can show up anytime during the scheduled timeframe or what the appt. is scheduled for B) Someone 18 or older must be home and C) That there will be a pre-call before the technician arrives (in my market the majority of pre-calls are made by dispatch, not the technician). On service calls for technical problems if the customer does not answer the phone after two attempts are made, the job gets cancelled. This policy was put into place because of the large number of times technicians would drive to a customer's home and no one would be there. A very common problem is that when phone rep sets up appointments, they don't always verify with the customer what telephone number the customer can be reached at, so when the pre-call is made, the correct telephone number is not called. Customers should not assume the correct contact information is listed on their account. Each market may have different policies for installation and service appointments.

If you think it sucks being a Comcast customer, it is 100 times worse being a Comcast employee.

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

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Guest

I had a TCI supervisor who told me to lie to the customer... Wow. That is TCI/Comcast ethical standards in action.

Guest

I was a TCI employee in the 1990s. TCI was purchased later by the old AT&T and then spun off to merge with a smaller company called Comcast.

I was a CSR, TCI called us CSSRs. We had a crooked manager in the Chenault Street call center in Dallas who had his "force management" transfer calls out of the Automatic Call Distribution system and on to the second phone lines of the CSRs. By transferring the calls the true answering stats were not known. I would have a customer waiting to talk to me while I am talking to another customer and I would see that the ACD monitor said that there were no calls waiting to be answered.

The Dallas call center would not train CSRs to handle the Arlington system so the new CSRs did not know how to handle it and it caused much customer dissatisfaction. I stayed on the phone as long as it took to resolve the issue that I was presented. Management did not like my staying on the phone as long as I did on average.

I was fired because I was sick too much. The call center had very bad ventilation and we were asked to sit near other CSRs so the supervisors would not have to walk too much to get to the CSRs.

Because of the corruption and stupidity of management Supervisors were being run ragged. When someone had a cold or other illness then we would all be at risk and because I had a bronchitis problem I would get what was going around. If the management was not so pig headed, ***, and dishonest then it would have worked out very well.

The company stole my vacation pay that I would have had if they were not a bunch of crooks. I am not surprised that Comcast (Also known as Comcrap) is still considered dishonest.

When a dishonest manager is allowed to stay then they become the standard. Now the dishonest manager is an employee of Time Warner.

Guest

Hey you really need to get this out there. I read the whole letter and everything you said is true.

Let the people on the internet read your letter. Comcast needs to be taken down and put in their place and you can do it.

Guest

I worked for outsourced call center for companies such as sprint, at&t, telstra(australian account) and comcast. we handle west division of comcast.

comparing all the accounts i handled i felt like they are almost the same, you have target scores for quality assurance, customer surveys, average handling time etc etc, which limits the things you can do for the customer. but for comcast where i was a tech support for cable and internet quality assurance is a joke, and the only thing that they are serious about is... SALES!, they will give you a coaching for bad surveys but they wont take it seriously, they will push for sales more than any other metrics or goals. fraud is not allowed but to be honest the only fraud that is not allowed are the obvious ones like adding new line of business without the customers consent, any other techniques will be considered as a sale.

supervisor will do anything to avoid a supervisor call and yes that is correct you will be talking to a floor support and not the supervisor, and to be honest, most of the supervisor doesnt know anything about the process, they are just trained to talk like a supervisor and has more access on the system while us agents has a limited access like requesting for an early schedule for technician. my supervisor before even gave me his log ins to access his account on the tools so i can do the early schedules my self. that is how lazy most of the supervisors are. one supervisor doesnt even know how to transfer correctly.

comcast is about sales only and call quality just comes in second or sometimes on third. im pretty sure our management knows how to give a good customer service but the accounts demanding metrics really limits the capability of the agents.

Guest

Hi guys i am a comcast employee from an outsourced company as well, i am a Technical Service Rep for couple of years now. To tell you guys the truth most of the people you talk to are all burnt out 8 hours of taking in calls with to avail time, at one day minimum number of calls would be around 40, I am a multiple split rep i handle cable,internet,phone,x1 and sales, If you called in and asked for a supervisor you may have already talked to me.

Our metrics are insane 600 seconds of handle time for 1 call, And if you are complaining about us sounding like robots its not our choice its required that we follow a set of steps of questioning or we will fail at Quality Assurance and the target for that is 90%-100%. We have to say all that *** to pass and for that i would like to offer an apology.Lastly our surveys 90% target most of all the people that i started out with got fired because of this. One zero survey is equivalent to four 100% surveys to reach 80%. So as you can see they expect as to be robots and just follow everything by the book.

As i have mentioned i am a Tech Rep and now they are moving me to Billing which will be another venture for me,the management did this without my consent and it is involuntary i had no choice, and what we earn 18$ a day.

That is not even enough for the racial slurs and abuse we get through the phone and everything is taxable even our allowance and performance bonus, we cant even file a leave without begging for them to approve with. I lasted this long in this *** trade because i need a job to survive its not that easy to get a job here nowadays.

Well this is for shedding a bit of light on why you feel like we do not care. Well how can we?

Guest

This entire article is bull. I've worked for Comcast for several years and so have many others.

Many of my co workers have been with comcast for 14, 20 and one even 40 years. If the company is so bad why do employees make this opportunity a lifelong career? In regards to customer calls, comcast allows us to stay on the phone until we've done everything we can do to assist the customer.

I can go on and on addressing all of the galaxies in this guys' story, but I have better things to do. Please do not believe the words of an ex disgruntled employee.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-970600

No, Mama. In the call center where I'm at, we are only allowed to be on the phone with a customer for only 9 minutes ..

which is not a lot of time if the customer talks for 4 minutes before giving up any information to be identified, and we are not allowed to interrupt. 9 minutes is not enough time to take care of the customer's problem, especially when that customer is having problems with all 3 services (phone, internet & cable). In my call center, after 9 minutes, you are written up.

Other parts of comcast might be a "dream" to work in, but I do not recommend working in the call center. Not only do you have to deal with customer abuse, you're also dealing with the constant threat of being fired.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-970600

I have never gotten worse customer service from any company I have ever dealt with, in any industry. It is a disgrace and I dread calling Comcast for any reason because I know it will start atleast an hour pursuit and likely not resolve my problem.

What kind of reputable company does not only not empower the operators, but then won't put a supervisor on the phone?

Comcast is the worst company, period. I make sure that anyone who is considering signing up, knows how stressful the hole process will be.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-970600

Why to people stay in abusive relationships where they'll continue to be abused? Because it's known and somehow feels safe.

If people need jobs and feel they don't have similar earning prospects elsewhere, they'll stay ... even it it's sucking the life out of them.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-970600

No....The entire article is accurate.

As a current employee for Collections the only way I can describe the general atmosphere of the office is something between "Kafkaesque" and "***"

We're given a transfer number that apparently only even routes directly back to us - even if the customer is current or has made payment arrangements, even if they sincerely need tech support, even if a tech set their house on fire and they want to make a complaint. The mentality is "Shut the *** up and pay us"

There are often between 10 and 30 new representatives coming in every week to replace ones who have either given up or found greener pastures, which means often they *** something up and then a customer has to spend the better part of 4 hours trying to get someone competent. Some are outright rude to customers, I've heard many shouting and screaming back at someone on the phone, of course they didn't get in trouble, but if you aren't on the phone for 90% of the time with no downtime between calls you get "assistance".

Some supervisors are entirely worthless and we're even prohibited from trying to flag them down to assist on a call. We're supposed to email them, even though they spend more time *** with one another than at their desks. The one or two that do care about the customer's experience have very little that they can do - they're literally only supervisors because they've lasted longer than anyone else.

Most of my day is spent handling things that Customer Service or Billing *** up - how is it that any time Billing has to make an adjustment, they manage to take something like half of a past due balance and shove it into the current balance? This leaves a customer under the impression that they just got billed $300 when they really just have two $150 bills. Try explaining that to someone who is ripshit mad after having spend a whole day on the phone with immature children whose major qualifications for the job are "Can you dress nice when Corporate comes in to check the center?" Oh no, this post is accurate. I can attest to this.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-970600

Well I'm a Comcast customer and everything you said about what I would think on a customer and is true to me everything you said sounds very plausible cuz most of the times when I call customer service they are Filipino and they don't know what the *** there talking about... so I said you're the one that's full of it

Guest

I asked about a certain cable channel and the man from Mexico asked what transponder it was on

Guest

i am an employee of a outsourced company that works for comcast, and i have worked also with many other companies as sprint and santander...but actually all the companies are the same they didn't care about the customer they care about the money that is normal in all the companies i have worked is the same...but well as a customer my only point of view is that if you dont like the service well leave it, as an employee im happy with my job...if i was customer not so much but i think that are we who created those monster companies when we stayed with them

Guest

I'm a current (soon to be former employee) and this article Is true- except now its even worse with Comcast offering home security. Let's see what I do in a typical day shall we?

I work in our inbound sales call center.

I arrive at my desk when I am supposed to and start up my computer.

Once all my software is up and running I make sure and check my email to see if any last minute promotions have changed.

I should mention that in my department 80% of the calls we get have absolutely nothing to do with sales. And the automated system usually routes you through sales even if you asked to go to billing.

Call One- someone complaining about something. I used to work in billing and I have a good idea how to fix the situation, but every time I try to do that my supervisor says its not getting Me a sale so go on to the next call. My stats are dinged every single time I get a call I cannot sell on.

By "dinged" I mean my paycheck gets deducted. Call 2- someone wanting to sign up for online exclusive internet only offer. I tell the customer if they want that deal they have to sign up online. My stats have been dinged again due to this call.

I take several more "change of service" calls (non sales calls that Comcast floods us with because they don't know what to do with them) and my stats continue to get dinged I get a sales call. Like an *** I'm required to repeat the issue the customer is calling about. "So you want to set up a new account? Great I'd be happy to help.

May I ask you a few questions to further assist" We are required to ask you permission to ask you questions because according to Comcast it opens the door for us to ask sales questions. Customer tells me what they want- and sometimes they are reasonable and sometimes they are completely delusional about what they think they should pay. I then have to ask them questions about what they are doing for home phone service_ a follow up question about phone, and then what they are doing for home security and a follow up question about home security. Everything we sell gives us points- and how much points we get depends on what we sell.

Therefore we are encouraged to offer the most expensive package that fits the customers needs. At the end of the month we take all the points we make and its assigned a % value. If you took very little calls and got lots of sales- you get a higher % and each point you make can be worth up to .42 cents a point. Imagine that multiplied by thousands of points.

Some agents are making 3-5k in commission each month... Which sounds like a lot but that's all pre tax. Commission is taxed at 40% If I get a customer wanting a supervisor I'm instructed to tell them there are none available and to set up a call back. This is usually true.

Our sups are literally just people who have been brainwashed into the Comcast pyramid and are just figure heads of our teams. They can't actually do anything more than the agents can. Why? Because our dispatch is outsourced.

There is no room for customer service at this company- but its not entirely the companies fault. The average consumer will only stay with a company until their promotion runs out and then bounces to another company. People have become all about the $ and not about the quality. I hate Comcast as an employer but I love the quality of the service I use.

Oh one more thing that might make you love Comcast even more- I was on an attendance final warning due to complications from my chronis health condition- I was finally able to get medical leave approved (it was first denied because Comcast tried claiming I was part time and not eligible...

When I have always been full time) I came in late to work after having a doctors appointment and was told I had to give a 2 weeks notice or be fired because I was late. Really makes you feel warm and fuzzy about the company that they fire people with disabilities and try denying their medical leaves.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-842967

Are you sure you do not work for Sprint, because it sounds SO MUCH like my former employer. You know, the one that just laid many of us off and are hiring others to do the exact same job for about 30% less salary than the people they laid off.

Tawney Fbu

this is so true!!!work in a call center in Schaumburg il :cry

Guest

Comcast is the government. They have so much money and lobbying power that anything they want to do, they can.

You can't win. Power and greed got to their heads, and all the managers are drinking that kool aid way too much. They have their heads up their *** so far that they forgot about the little guy. The government is in bed with Comcast and they write the rules, so does Time Warner and COX and every other snake oil company out there.

Billions and billions of dollars they make.

Sometimes customers pay upwards of 300 or more per month on their bill, that is a mother *** car payment folks! Cut the cable, live life free of the brainwash that they sell to you every day.

Guest

i would like to say that as a comcast call center agent in mexico, comocast doesn't really hadle us directly. i am working for a company that is named teleperformance and they do a very good job training us and try to teach us on how to handle with customers of all kinds ( kind ones, mean ones, dum ones, even with those custs that tink that they know it all) they actualy make us give a good customer service to our customers but sometimes or systems are a bit slow and some times we are not able or alowed to do surtain things. Now that im working for this company that works for comcast , and not only comcast but for others to but im in the comcast part. and many people tink it is easy being a cs agent but it is not, after a while you get frustrated with so much customer. but the good thing about TELEPERFORMANCE is that after 3 months of taking calls you can aply to be a supervisor but you must have a good quality call job.

so next time you call a comcast center in mexico dont get frustrated or mad beacouse we cant get you a sooner technitian visit. THAT IS NOT OUR FAULT that is comcast fault for not hireing more technitians.

in that part i do understand customers really , but unfourtunatly we cannot change that

thank you if you read all the way trough.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-714993

Well if your customer service is as bad as your grammar :-(

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-922258

Look who writes with perfect grammar! It's your turn to write in Spanish, go ahead.

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