I dunno. The CSR was really, really, really, REALLY over the top. I know lots of people have said that the penalties he faces for losing a customer and other Comcast polices are to blame, but that’s the way of a lot of companies, and I’ve never, ever, encountered anything as relentless as that guy. I’ve seen lots of annoying behavior, yes, but this was borderline insane.
(This in no way should be seen as an indication that I consider Comcast to be anything but a foul and despicable company, by the way.)
I don’t think that’s necessary - as indicated by the comments on Comcast’s website, others who have tried to cancel service have attested to having received the exact same treatment, so absolutely no one is fooled by Comcast’s claims that this CSR did anything but follow the corporate guidelines. It’d be interesting to see the training material, but we can also reconstruct the script based on a couple other CSR interactions. More customers need to record their experiences.
You don’t think he wanted to keep harping on the same point over and over again, do you? As soon as I heard his voice I recognized that desperation: he couldn’t let this customer go because his job was on the line. He works in retention: his sole job is to keep customers from cancelling, and he’s punished if he fails.
You make it sound like he was attached to an electrode. Yeah, I get that there are punishments. But losing ONE customer would not get him fired, and this is far from the only business that has those incentive/disincentives to retain customers. This guy actually DID sound like he was enjoying it, or just really, really is trying to win the “best customer keeper” of the month parking spot and the customer was just a tool to that end.
I didn’t get down-trodden desperation from his attitude. I got just “clueless, pushy asshole who doesn’t care about anything but getting his numbers higher”. Too many people are reading too much into this. Sometimes people----even people who work for asshole corporations—are complete assholes themselves.
That he was probably working in an environment which tacitly encouraged this sort of behavior does not absolve him of responsibility for actually doing it.
No he wouldn’t be very successful. The only thing that rep has going for him is persistence which is necessary in sales but he doesn’t handle rejection well and his manner is rude and very aggressive. Any potential customer would run the other way when bullied like that. You have to charm people in sales and know just the right buttons to push to get people to do what you want. You have to be a bit of a con artist sometimes to get people to buy stuff. Scaring them like that rep did with undisguised aggressiveness will get doors slammed in your face and people hanging up on you. If some sales rep acted that way with me in a store, I would be looking for the nearest exit and would never come back. That sales rep wouldn’t have a job for long with all the complaints to management about his rude behaviour towards customers. You get more bees with honey than you do with vinegar as the old saying goes and it is very true in sales too.
This is why sales is so hard for many people to be successful in. Most people are either too aggressive like that cable rep or they are not aggressive enough in trying to make a sale. Sales require extroverts with excellent people skills which few people actually have. A lot of people are not extroverts and only have average people skills which is why most people hate sales because it is hard and requires a skill level they don’t have. Very few people can do sales well and that is why good sales people are in demand and don’t work for a measly $12 an hour in an outsourced call center.
The reason that to this day I will NEVER do business with Bank of America is that I was on a very similar phone call when I tried to cancel a credit card.
By the end of the call I was saying, “It’s not you, it’s me. I just don’t want a credit card right now.” It was like breaking up with an abusive, co-dependent boyfriend who could not get the word No.
The last time I had to deal with BOA is when I worked for a company that banked with them. I can’t remember the details of why I needed my money ASAP at that time in my life, but the only way to cash this check drawn on their bank in a timely fashion was to go to the branch near my work. I had two options - pay an extra fee for them to cash their own check or get an account with BOA. Every week they’d give me their pitch and every week I’d fork over the extra money to cash the check. I’d explain each time that it was worth it to me to not have an account with them. So every time I cashed a check I was explaining to their tellers what pieces of shit their employer was. Though I am sure they knew that already.
In my complex you have an automatic payment that goes to TW (being bought by Comcast) that is 20 per month EVEN IF YOU DO NOT USE IT.
It’s part of your rent whether you like it or not. It does not count as a credit if you buy any other service through TW.
One of the many reasons I’m shopping for another place. Also, there is 0 competition. As some one who works from home, I can’t really do without a good internet connection. So I literally have one company I can use, and nothing else.
