Comcast's customer service incidents jeopardizing $45 billion deal
*By Robert Channick **
**Chicago Tribune *
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/ct-comcast-time-warner-0212-biz-20150211-story.html
Comcast puts offensive name on customer's bill
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/ct-comcast-time-warner-0212-biz-20150211-story.html#>
*Warning: Video contains strong language -- When Mary Bauer received her
cable bill from Comcast she was shocked to find her name had been
changed. (Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune)*
Does billing incident hurt Comcast's deal with Time Warner Cable? Perhaps.
Customer service issues could make proposed merger a nightmare for Comcast.
Last week's "Super Bitch" billing incident, the latest in a string of
customer service horror stories for Comcast, could cost the cable giant
a lot more than one unhappy subscriber.
The company's proposed $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable, which
is facing increased scrutiny from federal regulators, may hang in the
balance.
"The customer service nightmares of the past 12 months certainly aren't
going to help," said Craig Moffett, a senior analyst at
MoffettNathanson. "It's unclear how much politics matter in these
things, but they have to matter at least a little bit."
Mary Bauer, of Addison, who received the insulting invoice after
repeatedly complaining about her service, has been offered two years of
free cable by the company. And the rogue customer service employee who
bestowed upon Bauer the unflattering appellation has been identified and
fired, Comcast said.
While Comcast's situation with Bauer is ostensibly resolved, its merger
with Time Warner Cable is stalled, and odds of its approval are
decreasing, according to Moffett and other analysts.
Comcast agreed to acquire Time Warner Cable a year ago in a stock
transaction that would make the nation's largest video and high-speed
Internet provider even larger.
The deal, which must be approved by the Justice Department and the
Federal Communications Commission, has stalled in recent months because
of regulatory changes and, perhaps, mounting concerns over the size of
the resulting cable and broadband behemoth.
The combined company would control 30 percent of the cable market and
about a third of all broadband connections. Comcast has agreed to divest
of 3 million cable subscribers as part of the deal to keep its market
share at the 30 percent threshold, formerly a statutory limit imposed by
the FCC. While no longer mandated, the divestiture is seen as a goodwill
gesture by Comcast to help push the merger through, Moffett said.
While there is no limit for high-speed Internet market share, it could
prove even more problematic for Comcast in the current regulatory and
political environment. The FCC voted last month to redefine broadband
Internet standards, raising the minimum speeds and boosting the combined
company's share of the high-speed market to about 55 percent, Moffett said.
"That increases Comcast's apparent market share, making it easier for
the Justice Department to block the transaction," Moffett said. "But it
is also emblematic of a relatively hostile environment in Washington for
cable operators right now."
Public hostility toward Comcast and the proposed merger is becoming more
palpable on social media as more customer service horror stories come to
light. Last month Ricardo Brown, of Spokane, Wash., received a Comcast
bill addressed to "A------" after calling to cancel cable service. In
July, Ryan Block, of San Francisco, recorded 8 minutes of a now-viral
phone call during which a Comcast "retention specialist" all but refused
to cancel his service.
Bauer, 63, said she had 39 service calls with Comcast last year before
resolving an intermittent cable problem. Then there were months of
billing issues, including a credit that never materialized, an
unexpected price increase and four months of no invoices at all. The
culmination of more than a year of service calls, phone calls and
complaints came in the insulting invoice, which arrived in her mailbox
last week.
"We've identified the customer service agent who was responsible for the
name change and that individual is no longer working on behalf of
Comcast," Comcast spokesman Jack Segal said in a statement. "We've also
put in place additional technical safeguards that will prevent this from
happening in the future."
That was the same promise made by Comcast 10 years ago, after a
remarkably similar incident. In 2005, the Chicago Tribune reported that
Elgin resident LaChania Govan's name was changed to "Bitch Dog" on her
Comcast bill after she complained about poor cable service.
At the time, a Comcast spokesman apologized and said the company was
"putting things in place so that it will never happen again."
Comcast has taken steps to improve customer service.
Last month, the company elevated Wendy Liu to the newly created position
of vice president of customer experience for the Chicago market, with
other regions expected to follow. Liu is tasked with making sure
customers have a "great experience," an ambitious goal that may have
become a higher priority in light of growing backlash and the pending
merger.
"We're looking at every single process and every single interaction to
determine ways to make our service even better," Segal said Wednesday.
By his estimations, Moffett said the FCC's decision to redefine
high-speed Internet reduced the odds of the merger being approved from
80 percent to 70 percent. He declined to handicap the potential negative
impact of the Bauer incident and other customer service issues but
didn't discount it either.
"The optics of this transaction have gotten worse and worse as these
customer service horror stories have surfaced, and it has to tip the
scales, at least a little bit, in favor of a rejection," Moffett said.
Reached by phone Tuesday night, Bauer said part of her two years of free
service included Comcast technicians upgrading her to the company's X1
platform, the system she had abandoned after experiencing frequent
outages last year.
Everything worked fine Monday after the three-hour installation process,
Bauer said. But when she returned home from work Tuesday night, she
found all four of her TVs had once again gone dark.
"Tonight I came back and the cable was off again," Bauer said. "It's
beyond ridiculous."
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