Two months ago, we reported on the Comcast and Time Warner Cable merger. At the time, Comcast had expressed confidence in the approval of the merger. However, recent events have commentators speculating whether approval will be as easy as Comcast believed. The infamous Comcast customer service call that has been making the rounds online has come at a very inconvenient time for Comcast, who is in the middle of the merger approval process.
Comcast has previously acknowledged complaints from customers regarding its customer service. During a Senate hearing on the proposed merger, Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen said: “It bothers us that we have so much trouble delivering high quality of service to customers on a regular basis. Sometimes we need a kick in the butt.” If the recent call is not enough of a “kick in the butt” for Comcast to shape up its customer service, nothing will ever be. The call features a customer trying to cancel his Comcast service. For eight minutes, a Comcast representative can be heard aggressively demanding why the caller wanted to cancel the service and refusing to honor the customer’s request. The Comcast customer service call can be heard in its entirety here.
The Federal Communications Commission (”FCC”), along with the Justice Department, is tasked with approving the merger. The concern, as with any merger of large competitors, is that consolidation will hurt consumers through higher prices and less accountability. The FCC in particular considers the public interest when reviewing such mergers. Many argue (understandably so) that customer service should be included under the public interest. However, “customer service” is hard to measure and quantify, which makes it a hard variable to assess during the merger approval process.
Will the release of the customer service call actually affect the merger’s chances? That is probably unlikely. One thing is certain, however: in a world where more than half of Americans say that they would abandon their cable company “if they had a choice,” a merger of such proportions and an abysmal customer service call signal bad news for consumers.