Almost anyone that has tried to cancel cable service, wireless service, or a gym membership knows how difficult it can be to do over the phone, but a recent call to Comcast by one customer might take the cake for the worst of them all. Ryan Block, formerly of Engadget and now at AOL, called Comcast to cancel his service, but instead of politely obliging and going ahead with his request, the representative on the line insisted on taking him through a circular argument to find out the reason why he was canceling service. Block was able to capture about eight minutes of the call and has posted the audio to his Soundcloud account for the rest of us to enjoy. It’s pretty painful to listen to, and even though it sounds like something straight out of a hidden camera TV show, Block insists that it was not a prank. Grab a cup of coffee and give a listen to the call below.
We all know that it takes strength to call a utility or telecom. But the patience of two customers was seriously tested recently when they had the audacity to contact Comcast and make a simple request. Writer Veronica Belmont and her husband Ryan Block, a product manager at AOL (parent company of The Huffington Post), called Comcast last week to disconnect their service. The couple planned to switch to another cable and Internet provider, but the customer service representative who handled their call had no intention of letting them do so. According to Belmont: He began asking me why we switched and that he would get us a better deal. I said, again “No, thank you, we’ve already switched, I just need to turn off the service in the old place.” It went back and forth like that for another five minutes. At one point I actually pleaded with him, “Please, I don’t want to get into a back-and-forth, our minds are made up and we just need to cancel.” He wouldn’t relent. So Belmont handed the phone to Block. “Overhearing the conversation, I knew this would not be very fun,” Block wrote on SoundCloud. “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.”
