Comcast Told My Employer About Complaint, Got Me Fired

[villager]

<snip>

Making matters worse, Comcast billed him $1,820 for all this stuff he’d never requested and had no use for.

When Conal returned all the equipment to Comcast and, being an experienced accountant at one of the nation’s most prestigious firms, even prepared a spreadsheet detailing every charge, overcharge, payment and credit on his account for his brief time as a Comcast customer.

He says even this didn’t convince Comcast that there was a problem and that Conal had been overcharged. And even though it wasn’t yet past due, Comcast sent Conal’s account into collections in Feb. 2014.

<snip>

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.

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.

And while his former employer did provide consulting services to Comcast, it was not the accounting firm that audited Comcast’s books. So Conal doesn’t quite see how mentioning the name of his employer would have helped gain him any leverage.

In response to a letter from Conal’s lawyer — he has not filed a lawsuit, but it’s not out of the question — Comcast’s Senior Deputy General Counsel admits that the company did contact Conal’s employer but says that Conal “is not in a position to complain that the firm came to learn” about his dispute with Comcast.

<snip>

http://consumerist.com/2014/10/06/unhappy-customer-comcast-told-my-employer-about-complaint-got-me-fired/

[villager]

1. Thanks to those who rec'd and commented when this was in LBN....

That was an inadvertent post in that forum.

I'd meant it for Good Reads (or maybe GD), and should have realized by the formatting I'd clicked through to LBN when I was posting.

I realized it a few minutes later.

Nonetheless, still worth sharing. And still kind of shocking.

Or perhaps, "shocking," because it isn't.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. I have always been a firm believer in recording calls with corporations.

or at least telling THEM I was recoding it.
They say they are recording our calls, so why can't we?

I do bother to find out what the recoding laws are my state before hand.
Amazing responses when I mentioned I am making notes to post "the information" on a national web site, btw.
or making a recording of my call. Suddenly customer service gets real attentive.

[Downwinder]

2. Now that Corporations have citizenship, the Customer

is never right.

[davidpdx]

4. What a fuck-up

I hope he sues both Comcast and his former employer. It sounds like someone at Comcast called someone they knew at his firm and together completely fabricated the story. I'm no lawyer, but maybe someone could chime in whether that would rise to conspiracy to commit fraud.

[Doctor_J]

5. The major problem with monopolies

You basically have 3-4 choices for TV - there is no "free market". If Comcast/DISH/Direct screw you, what are you going to do?

[marym625]

6. so Comcast is actually big brother. JFC

K&R

[Mopar151]

7. They were jerks to deal with when they were Continental Telephone, 40 yrs ago

Cheap-ass, miserable, screwed employees over even when they lost money doing it!

[ck4829]

8. Get him fired and send his account to collections, real productive there, Comcast.

[Man from Pickens]

9. Comcast should be broken up

we're back to the same ol telecom monopoly situation with them - they are notorious for abysmal customer service and overcharging for everything

[villager]

10. I'm not sure our current "Hope and Change" FCC can be relied upon to do that.

They seem to have a certain affinity for monopolies.