Better fact check whatever you Comcast agent tells you
It's getting increasingly difficult not to get pissed off every time Comcast makes the news. This is one of only two companies that's been voted "The Worst Company in America" more than once by readers of Consumerist (Electronic Arts being the other), and it's because of the negative experiences that customers report, like a woman who received a bill addressed to "Super Bitch." Way to keep it classy, Comcast. These incidents aren't as rare as they should be, and if Comcast's agents aren't insulting their customers, they're spreading misinformation, like the Comcast rep who recently told a customer that data caps are mandated by law.
This came to light when a Comcast customer posted to Reddit that he called in to cancel service after being charged $120 in overage fees. He recorded the conversation and posted a one minute clip of the exchange. Here's how it went.
"If you don't mind me asking, what is the reason why you would want to disconnect your service," the Comcast support agent asked.
"Your outrageous data usage plan that is completely archaic and unnecessary," the subscriber answered. "I am apparently in a trial market for it, it's not everywhere, and I've been getting charged for going over my data cap and I'm going to find somewhere where that's not going to happen to me."
"Okay I understand, but every Internet service provider has a data cap. It is mandated by law," the agent replied.
The Comcast subscriber did the only that was appropriate in that situation, which is to laugh at the claim and set the agent straight.
ArsTechnica contacted Comcast about the incident, and lo and behold, the cable giant confirmed that its agent was misinformed and in need of training.
"This representative is wrong," Comcast said. "There is no law requiring ISPs 'to have data caps' and Comcast discontinued having a cap in May 2012. We are currently conducting trials of a more flexible data usage plan in a small number of markets, and this representative's statements are not consistent with the training and messaging we provide. We will work to retrain this representative and will reach out to the customer to clarify this information."
It's been less than five months since Comcast vowed in a blog post to fix its customer service. Unfortunately, it looks like the company is aiming for a record third "Golden Poo" award the Consumerist instead.
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