Comcast Renames Customer ‘A**hole’ on Billing Statement

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I imagine that anyone who works customer service has had bad days when they would like to lash out. But the Comcast employee who thought of taking a customer’s first name and changing it to “Asshole” on their billing statement probably should have thought twice.

The story was first reported on a blog by consumer advocate Christopher Elliott. Evidently, Ricardo Brown’s wife, Lisa, called Comcast to cancel their cable. She said the Spokane, Washington-based family was having financial difficulties, and she want to reduce their bill.

Instead of simply following through on her request, Comcast reps instead had her speak to a retention specialist who tried to get her to sign on to a new two-year cable contract. Lisa Brown said she politely declined the offer.

“I was never rude,” she told Elliott.

So imagine the Brown family’s surprise when they received their next billing statement, which had been in Ricardo’s name, addressed to “Asshole Brown.”

Adding insult to injury, Lisa Brown said she couldn’t get the name changed back, even after making a phone call to Comcast, The Huffington Post reported.

Complaints about subpar customer service at Comcast have snowballed in recent years. Incidents like this one don’t help.

Steve Kipp, Comcast’s vice president of communications for the Washington region, told Elliott in a phone interview:

“We have spoken with our customer and apologized for this completely unacceptable and inappropriate name change,” he said. “We have zero tolerance for this type of disrespectful behavior and are conducting a thorough investigation to determine what happened. We are working with our customer to make this right and will take appropriate steps to prevent this from happening again.”

I’ve had my fair share of bad customer service, most recently when dealing with our landline/cable bill, which we plan to cancel soon, partially because of the shoddy service. But Ricardo (aka, you know what) Brown’s experience is simply unbelievable.

What do you think of Comcast’s actions and apology? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page.

If you’d like to spend less money on the programs you watch, take a look at this video. Money Talks News founder Stacy Johnson guides you through “cutting the cable.”

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