Flickr/Graeme Maclean The man was understandably upset. A man spent four hours on the phone with Comcast in a series of calls made to cancel his account, John Biggs of TechCrunch reports.

The customer posted a 38-minute excerpt of his conversations with various customer-service assistants on YouTube under the user name Gern Branston.



The clip documents the man's painful attempts to sort out his situation with the the US-based company, which provides telephone, internet, and phone services.

You can listen below:

TechCrunch pointed us toward a Reddit post in which the customer explains his frustrating attempt to cancel a media bundle package after taking up a new offer with the rival provider AT&T. The complications first started when he was met with a Comcast retention specialist, whose job is to keep him on. A new "too good to be true" deal was put on the table.

He writes:

Basically, I called to cancel my service after already making preliminary arrangements for an install with ATT. A Comcast retention specialist then offered me what I thought was a deal too good to be true — 50mbps internet (for which I was already paying $59.99/mo) for $39.99 for 12 months. They were also going to cancel my bundled TV service since I didn't really use it anyway.

Branston "grudgingly accepted the offer" and phoned ATT to cancel his installation. But after doing so, he didn't receive a confirmation email from Comcast, so he had to call back. Nobody seemed to know what was going on.

Branston notes:

I called back. The 2nd rep had no record whatsoever of the deal that was made on my first call. I informed them that I had recorded the call, so on to another retention specialist, who claimed to be able to match the original deal. I, again, grudgingly agreed. At this point, I was 2 hours in & just wanted it to be over with.

He also mentions that he carried out an internet speed test to see whether Comcast's enticing extra service had come into effect. It hadn't and was still running at less than 30mbps, he says. He phoned yet again, but the third representative had no record of his previous conversations.

In fact, this representative told him he had been enrolled on a more expensive plan than before. He was sent to another retention specialist who again offered him the previous package (50mbps internet for $39.99) — but this time he had to take the TV package, too, when before he was told he didn't have to.

In the end, his speed tests improved and his internet confirmation email came through. But his TV service wasn't working. He declined an offer from Comcast for a new box because he thinks it would bring more complications and costs.

Branston finishes:

So, in short, several phone calls, several lies, several hours. Finally got working internet at the right price but the TV service is still not working, and I am so wary of rocking the boat and having them screw up my account again that I haven't authorised them to correct the TV issue ... I simply don't trust them to not screw it up further.

Comcast is notorious for poor customer service. In 2014, The Wire ranked it No. 2 for customer dissatisfaction across the US, just behind the worst company, Time Warner. Last year, Comcast got 57/100 on The American Customer Satisfaction Index, compiled by the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. It was the second-lowest ranked cable service on the same index in 2013.





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