Comcast Customer Service Strikes Again (PCMagazine)

Oh, Comcast. A (now-sacked) employee added a rather inappropriate name to a customer bill.

Comcast hit a new customer-service low last week when it added a rather inappropriate name to a customer bill.

A Comcast employee recently changed a client's name to "a**hole" on his bill after his wife tried to cancel cable service in order to reduce monthly bills. But as others have found out, it took some time—including a conversation with a "retention-specialist"—to actually stop the service, Brown was hit with a $60 cancellation fee, and later discovered the offending moniker on her bill.

The incident was covered by columnist Christopher Elliott, who asked Comcast for an explanation. Executives were apologetic and eventually refunded Brown the $60 fee, as well as all the money she paid over the last two years as a Comcast customer.

"Each and every customer deserves to be treated with respect," Comcast said in a follow-up a blog post, and "that clearly didn't happen" with the Browns. The offending employee "will no longer be working on behalf of Comcast," according to Charlie Herrin, senior vice president of customer experience at Comcast.

"We're also looking at a number of technical solutions that would prevent it from happening moving forward," he added, without elaborating.

According to Elliott, however, Brown was not the only who got a shock when opening her bill. In a separate blog post, he pointed to one customer who said a Comcast employee changed his name to "the phonetic spelling of a profanity that is unprintable in a family newspaper," while another claimed the company printed "whore" instead of her first name.

Comcast is no stranger to public displays of terrible customer service: Last summer, the company made headlines when gdgt co-founder Ryan Block attempted to disconnect his TV service, but was met with belligerence and repetition—which Block recorded and published online. Comcast apologized for that incident, too.

The gaffes come as Comcast is trying to acquire Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion.