Anyone with a cable subscription has their fair share of customer service horror stories. And tech journalist Ryan Block is no exception.
When the gdgt co-founder and former Engadget editor recently tried disconnecting his Comcast service, he was met with belligerence and repetition—a hellish monotony that Block recorded and published online.
The eight-minute sound clip (below) actually begins about 10 minutes into the call, after Block's wife (TV/radio personality Veronica Belmont) became so frustrated with the worker that she simply gave up.
"The representative … continued aggressively repeating his questions, despite the answers given, to the point where my wife became so visibly upset she handed me the phone," Block wrote in a message accompanying his SoundCloud recording. "Overhearing the conversation, I knew this would not be very fun."
At least not for Block, who now serves as a product manager at AOL. Listeners—especially Comcast customers—may find some humor in the resulting eight minutes. The company, however, did not.
"We are investigating this situation and will take quick action," a Comcast spokeswoman told PCMag in a statement.
"We are very embarrassed by the way our employee spoke with Mr. Block and are contacting him to personally apologize," she continued. "The way in which our representatives communicated with him is unacceptable and not consistent with how we train our customer service representatives."
Block took to Twitter this week to share his tale of woe, writing in follow-up messages that people have been "so supportive" and it "turns out it wasn't just me being overly sensitive."
2/ Comcast followup:
3. Yes, the guy disconnected our service. @Veronica went out to the store to double check, we didn't trust it. 3 weeks!
— Ryan Block (@ryan) July 15, 2014
3/ Comcast followup:
4. Believe me, the irony is not at all lost on me that I work for AOL. :)
— Ryan Block (@ryan) July 15, 2014"While the overwhelming majority of our employees work very hard to do the right thing every day, we are using this very unfortunate experience to reinforce how important it is to always treat our customers with the utmost respect," Comcast said.
The company tweeted an apology at Block, who responded that he hopes the "quick action" taken is a "thorough evaluation of your culture and policies, and not the termination of the rep."
There is no word on whether the employee is still employed with Comcast.
While Block received an outpouring of support during the drama, at least one person offered some sympathy for "the Comcast rep from Hell."
The Awl writer John Herrman wrote that "if you understand this call as a desperate interaction between two people, rather than a business transaction between a customer and a company, the pain is mutual."
This very public embarrassment comes amidst a fight for Comcast to acquire Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion—a merger that has been met with condemnation by competitors.
Listen to the call in the clip below.