Claim: Comcast Got Complaining Customer Fired From His Job

There have been lots of “Comcast delivers bad customer service” stories lately — so overwhelming, in fact, that the company just appointed an executive to solve the problem amid worries that disgruntled customers could derail the company’s merger with Time Warner — but the latest story may be the worst: A Comcast customer says the company got him fired from the job.

Consumerist reports that the customer — known in the story only as “Conal” — began subscribing to Comcast in 2013 under a promotional offer, but almost immediately found himself charged for set-top boxes that had not been activated. He says he met with a Comcast rep in May of that year to sort out the billing issues, but they actually got worse from there.

He attempted to cancel, but was persuaded to stay for three free months of The Movie Channel; the company ended up sending him items he hadn’t order and charged him more than $1,800 for them. Conal, an accountant, then contacted Comcast’s controller. Consumerist reports: “During this call, he says that he mentioned that Comcast’s billing and accounting issues should probably be investigated by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), a private-sector oversight operation.”

Here’s where the problem develops: Comcast learned where Conal was employed. It just happened to be a company that does business with Comcast.

Consumerist reports that Conal claims he never named the company when he was on the phone with various customer service reps — he believes Comcast must’ve looked up the information somehow. Nonetheless:

At some point shortly after that call, someone from Comcast contacted a partner at the firm to discuss Conal. This led to an ethics investigation and Conal’s subsequent dismissal from his job; a job where he says he’d only received positive feedback and reviews for his work.

When he was fired, Conal’s employer explained that the reason for the dismissal was an e-mail from Comcast that summarized conversations between Conal and Comcast employees.

Emphasis added.

Consumerist, never a Comcast-friendly publication to begin with, seethes:

“I think whether or not Conal mentioned his employer is beside the point. The problem should not have reached the point where he was even reaching out the Comcast Controller’s office,” writer Chris Moran says. “Had the billing issues been fixed on the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth chance that he gave Comcast to address the issue, the call in question would never have happened.  And even if Conal did identify his employer in the hope of getting his billing issue fixed, he wouldn’t have been trying to get preferential treatment; just the service he’d paid for.”

Comcast told Consumerist it “will review (Conal’s) lawyer’s letter and respond as quickly as possible.”