Just three days after making a major splash at INTX with the announcement of a $300 million, 5,500-new-employee customer service overhaul, Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) finds itself once again being pilloried in the town square of viral media.
The latest outbreak stems from a report by Philadelphia ABC station WPVI-TV, whose "Troubleshooters" team helped local resident Carol Lehman reclaim $600 Comcast charged her for a set-top box she said she had already returned.
Lehman claims to have received a voicemail from Comcast, indicating that the MSO was ready to send over the money, provided she sign a nondisclosure agreement about the incident.
As part of its extensive customer service overhaul, Comcast said it's going to start giving subscribers digital receipts for returned equipment to avoid this kind of thing in the future.
On Tuesday at INTX, Comcast's top executives, including company chief executive Brian Roberts, cable division CEO Neil Smit and customer service czar Charlie Herrin, unveiled a new plan that called for the immediate creation of three new call centers, staffed by 2,000 new employees.
The conglomerate also unveiled a number of new training protocols, technologies and procedures to try to keep customer issues from falling through cracks.
"We have said jointly, as a group, that we have got to get the customer experience down," Smit said.
In the meantime, outlets like WPVI-TV keep unearthing stories from local residents who have had issues with the MSO, and these stories keep getting picked up by national platforms like The Consumerist.
For more:
- read this DSL Reports story
- read this Philadelphia Business Journal story
- read this local ABC News web page
Related links:
Comcast to hire 5,500 new workers, spend $300M to bolster customer service
The Verge of obsession? Tech pub ramps up series on Comcast customer service
Comcast taps product exec Herrin to fill new customer service SVP role