dslreports logo
Customer Claims Comcast Got Him Fired After Service Complaint

The Consumerist is running a unique Comcast complaint story in which an individual claims he was fired for simply complaining about Comcast service. According to the story, the individual spent years battling the kind of service issues and errant billing mistakes Comcast is well known for, including receiving and being billed for $1,820 in equipment he never asked for. Things get weird when the employee, who worked for a company that does unspecified thirty-party consulting work for Comcast, fired him:

quote:
Remember how we briefly mentioned above that Conal worked for a large, prestigious accounting firm? Comcast certainly noticed that fact, especially since that firm is one that does business with Comcast. 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.
What did Comcast and the man's employer have to say about this? From the story:
quote:
Comcast maintained that Conal used the name of his employer in an attempt to get leverage. Conal insists that he never mentioned his employer by name, but believes that someone in the Comcast Controller’s office looked him up online and figured out where he worked...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. But Conal has never seen this e-mail in order to say whether it’s accurate and Comcast has thus far refused to release any tapes of the phone calls related to this matter.
This is, it goes without saying, all based on one person's story and neither the Consumerist or the individual in question provide any solid evidence (though again, they claim nobody was willing to release the e-mails in question). I reached out to Comcast for comment and received the following statement, the brevity of which implies Comcast's facing legal action from the individual in question:
quote:
"Our customers deserve the best experience every time they interact with us. We have previously apologized to Mr. O’Rourke, but we will review his lawyer’s letter and respond as quickly as possible."

Update Ars Technica has a much more involved story on this, with a bit more supporting evidence and detail.

Most recommended from 37 comments



Kilroy
MVM
join:2002-11-21
Saint Paul, MN

3 recommendations

Kilroy

MVM

I'm sure the customer isn't 100% in the right

I'm sure that there is more to the story that will unfold. There is a good possibility the customer said, "Do you know who I am?" or who I work for or something along those lines. Whenever you are attempting to resolve an issue making it personal is rarely a good idea.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

3 recommendations

tmc8080

Member

ymmv based on location

if your in the south (or a work to rule state), suck it up and find a new job.. wrongful termination lawsuits go NOWHERE fast.. elsewhere, fire back right away..

kmt5150
@69.246.72.x

2 recommendations

kmt5150

Anon

Oh, believe it folks! I HAVE MY EMAILS

Yes, that's right. Let me shed some light on this.

(BTW I'm not the person mentioned in the article, but I experienced a very similar situation.)

I started working for this particular Comcast Subcontractor (who handles call-center duties for Comcast/Xfinity Home Networking Services, otherwise known as the built-in WiFi in your leased Comcast/XF Gateway and rhymes with rupport.com) in January of 2014. At the time, I was living at what we'll call 'Address 1". At this residence I was using Comcast service as my ISP (only other broadband choice was ATT DSL at 1.5mbps which does NOT meet my former employer's requirements of 5mb/sec or above) hardwired directly from the modem to my work-pc setup, no router in between and using a Cat6 cable made by me and personally certified as well as an in-home tech sent by Comcast.

The service would go out on almost a daily basis for whatever reason, which would reflect upon my work performance, even though Comcast was our client and they verified EVERY SINGLE OUTAGE and every single time I called in about it (every outage). They had multiple techs come out, check the wiring, adjusted my bill by 1.50 every time there was an outage, and verified other homes around me were having the same exact issues.. I informed them that I work full time for the WiFi contractor and I know it's not an on-premise device issue. They had me get a monitor service. Did so. The monitor service showed multiple outages, Node problems and issues with DNS routing in and around my local area (A decent size Comcast footprint in Michigan).

After showing this to a supervisor, they agreed to not hold me responsible for the ISP issues up to that point. In August of 2014, we were forced to move because the landlord did not pay the land taxes and was forced to be us out within 7 days. I IMMEDIATELY informed my employer that I had to move, emailed them documentation relating to such, and proceeded to call Comcast. They had me go thru the process of setting up 'Movers Edge'. We were all set to move my 100 mb/sec package over to 'Address 2'. They assured me nothing would change about my billing except my address, and they would have someone out to 'address 2' within the next 24 hours to make the house 'hot' (hooking up at the pole to the customer drop).

Fast forward 2 days. I'm checking my drop at the new house and it is 'cold'(no service at all). Called Comcast, they say 'tech was there and everything is good', I told them it's not, they said "We'll send someone to see what's going on, and we'll do it as part of our Comcast Customer Guarantee meaning you will not be charged for this visit'. I agreed. The Tech did NOT show up as scheduled within 2 days. Instead, I was left without service, without a way to DO MY JOB, for over 3 weeks. Finally, after calling again, I get a rep who proceeds to tell me that it was never scheduled and NOTED IN THE ACCOUNT that it was scheduled.

It is now September at this point and I have not had internet service nor a way to work since I moved out of 'Address 1'. MY employer proceeds to tell me that there's nothing they can do and they cannot have Comcast investigate why this is happening, basically telling me I either get another ISP that DOESN'T EXIST or get Comcast to fix my internet. I was Officially Terminated on Sep 2nd 2014 with the reason being that 'The employee did not have reliable equipment to perform their duties' not underlying the fact that THEIR COMPANY PROVIDES THE FAULTY SERVICE. Comcast FINALLY comes out on September 12th 2014 and indeed verifies that the drop is not hot and proceeds to fix my issue. My modem comes online within 5 minutes of the fix and the tech leaves. Then, when running a speed test, I see my internet speed package was dropped down to 25 mb/sec which is 1/4 the speed I'm paying for. I call Comcast billing who tells me the previous rep REMOVED ALL SERVICES from my account at 'Address 1,cancelled it, then made a NEW ACCOUNT AT 'Address 2'. Keep in mind, My 100 mb/sec internet CONTRACT was started in Jan 2014 at 'Address 1'. They said REPEATEDLY that my contract would remain unchanged upon moving to 'Address 2'. My price per mb/sec effectively increased 400%, my service was continually interrupted for over 30 days, only after moving and correctly transferring service to the new residence aka 'Address 2', and I was completely LIED TO EVERY SINGLE STEP OF THE WAY.

I want to know, do I have any options at this point since every single word I'm typing here is extremely well documented?

imanogre
join:2005-11-29
Smyrna, GA

2 recommendations

imanogre

Member

Comcast released an email between Conal and the employees?

A summarized letter? They released a summarized letter?

What a crock of poo. I cant wait to see the behemoth called Comcast go down.