Another Bad Comcast Customer Service Recording Emerges

Consumerist has a new Comcast customer service recording, and no, it’s not any better for the company than the one unveiled a few weeks back.

The latest incident involves YouTuber Tim Davis — and, uh, the video above has some NSFW language — and his story is slightly complicated. Let’s break it down.

• Tim Davis moved to a new location. He took his Comcast service with him.

• Being a bright fellow, he self-installed the service.

• A few weeks later, he noted the Internet was spotty.

• He called Comcast, who determined the problem was located in wires leading up to the house — and not anything he did wrong with the self-install.

• In the video, Davis includes a brief recording of the Comcast rep telling him there will be no charge because it’s an outside issue.

• A tech shows up, fixes the problem, and leaves.

• All is fine until a week or two later when Davis receives a bill that includes $99.99 for “Failed Self Install,” another $32 for “Failed Video [Self Install Kit], and $49.95 for “Wireless Network SET Up.” That’s $181.94 in total.

• Davis protested the charges.

• A Comcast supervisor tells him he’ll get the $49.95 network setup for free.

• And then she offers to give him BLAST+ for a year — a $60 value. That’s still $22 short of the full $82 Davis supposedly owes for the call he’d been told would be free.

• Davis says he wants the full $82 refunded. Then he plays her the recording of the earlier call.

• She grudgingly agrees to listen to Davis’s brief recording of the initial call. He then points out … that he is being charged a net $82 that he was never told about and had never agreed to.

• He gets the refund.

• He asks why she didn’t just do that in the first place.

• “We try to negotiate, and again, that is a valid charge,” she answers. “But since I advised my manager that there is a recording and you were misinformed, then she’s the one who can approve that $82.”

In other words, Davis’s recording was the only thing that got him off the hook for a charge he’d been told he wouldn’t be charged.

We can’t imagine Comcast would like all of its customer-service calls recorded by customers. You might check your state’s wiretapping laws before trying the same thing.