You Have To Hear This Man’s Numerous Attempts To Cancel Comcast

One man’s attempt to cancel his Comcast service turned into a nightmare recently, and he has the recorded telephone call to prove it.

According to CNET.com, customer Ryan Block — who happens to also be a working journalist — was attempting to cancel his Comcast service when the customer service representative on the other end of the phone basically refused to allow it without some sort of explanation for the cancellation:

“Block simply wanted to disconnect his service. The rep wants to do everything, and I truly do mean everything, to irritate him into staying.

“‘I am declining to state why I’m leaving Comcast,’ Block politely explains. He explains that he’s moving to Astound.

“The rep ignores him. ‘Tell me why you don’t want faster speed,’ he says.

“When Block very politely insists he just wants disconnecting and wonders why this might be a difficult task, the rep says: ‘Because my job is to have a conversation with you about keeping your service.’

He tries to persuade Block to go into the Comcast store to disconnect his service. Why is it that Comcast wants its customers to labor on its behalf?

“‘It sounds like you don’t want to go over this information with me,’ says the irritated rep. He won’t let go. He wonders what is it about Comcast service that Block doesn’t want. Block mentions that the rep’s attitude might be a good example.”

For his part, Block explained in a posting of the recording on SoundCloud why he recorded his attempt to cancel Comcast. Long story short: he had already tried for 10 minutes prior and was getting nowhere:

“The representative (name redacted) continued aggressively repeating his questions, despite the answers given, to the point where my wife became so visibly upset she handed me the phone. Overhearing the conversation, I knew this would not be very fun.

“What I did not know is how oppressive this conversation would be. Within just a few minutes the representative had gotten so condescending and unhelpful I felt compelled to record the speakerphone conversation on my other phone.

“This recording picks up roughly 10 minutes into the call, whereby she and I have already played along and given a myriad of reasons and explanations as to why we are canceling (which is why I simply stopped answering the rep’s repeated question — it was clear the only sufficient answer was ‘Okay, please don’t disconnect our service after all.’).”

Comcast’s CEO has previously taken jabs at competitors, including Google Fiber, saying the service is not needed. But after listening to the conversation above, do you think more competition would force companies to improve their customer service? Or will customer service experiences continue to worsen?

[Image via Flickr Creative Commons]