Unhappy Customer: Comcast Told My Employer About Complaint, Got Me Fired

http://consumerist.com/2014/10/06/unhappy-customer-comcast-told-my-employer-about-complaint-got-me-fired/

Ugh...this story is tragic.

I hate Comcast.

We used Comcast a few times before FIOS became dominant, at different locations within Virginia.  The service was good enough (this was between 2004 and 2010).  There were no service interruptions and the bandwidth was adequate.  There was no equipment or billing issues.

So, why do I hate them?  It seems that they receive far more negative news coverage than even Verizon.  Verizon definitely has customer service issues...I'm not going to even argue that they don't, but Verizon doesn't have the level of negative press coverage that Comcast does.  The problem is, the Comcast leadership seems to welcome strong-arming their customers and then dragging them through the mud afterward with such press coverage.  If the Comcast leadership want to get in front of the negativity, they need to retrain their staff and fire anyone that is involved with such activity.  Some of these stories can be refuted, but there have been several stories where the complainers actually recorded their interactions with Comcast, and it's difficult to argue against such evidence.

I've a problem with this story in particular.  Several commenters state that this was the customer's fault.  No.  It was both the employer's fault for taking Comcast's word as gospel AND Comcast's fault for calling the employer.  What's funny is that, when asked if it is standard practice for Comcast to contact customer employers, Comcast didn't provide a straight answer.  And while most states are "at-will", where companies can fire their employers without reason at any time, there should generally be a reason offered when terminated in the fashion that this Comcast employer was let go.  If I were this guy, I'd lawyer up and go after both Comcast and his employer.  Apparently, he was let go due to ethical reasons.  For such accusations (that can damage a person's reputation and hinder future job searches), a reason is definitely needed, and all evidence should be offered.  The employer never provided a copy of what was sent to them by Comcast.  Comcast didn't specify what was discussed.

Now, every company has its bad elements, but the Comcast leadership appears to be playing games with people and when journalists ask the right questions, Comcast offers blunt but insufficient answers.  At some point, they're going to get seriously burned.  I seriously hope this customer legally hunts them down (he still has to deal with those billing and service issues, too).

The next time I see a Comcast sales rep on my door step asking me to switch to Comcast, I'm going to try to discuss this article with him...maybe it'll make him leave my door step quicker.