Comcast is sorry that it changed one customer’s name to ‘Asshole’

The hits just keep coming from the customer-service geniuses at Comcast.

The Consumerist brings us a story today from consumer advocate Chris Elliott in which a Comcast agent, after having some trouble with a customer on the phone, decided to change the person’s first name to “Asshole” in the billing system.

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So when the customer, Lisa Brown, got her next paper bill from Comcast, the name on the account was listed as “Asshole Brown.” The account was in her husband, Ricardo’s name, so it was he who suffered the indignity.

Brown says all she did was request that Comcast remove the pay-TV part of her product package because her family was having financial difficulties. She was even prepared to pay a $60 cancellation fee. But predictably, Comcast put up a fight, transferring the call to a “retention specialist” — possibly the weirdest, most passive-aggressive position ever created within a corporation.

It was just such a retention specialist who was responsible for the now-famous “Customer Service Call from Hell” back in July.

“I was never rude,” Brown told Elliott. “It could have been that person was upset because I didn’t take the offer.”

Brown said she tried to get an explanation as to why said megacorporation had rechristened her “Asshole” Brown, but nobody at the local or regional office was willing to help.

After Elliot made some calls on Brown’s behalf, somebody at Comcast corporate headquarters figured out the possible PR ramifications on Brown’s rechristening, and issued a swift apology.

“We have spoken with our customer and apologized for this completely unacceptable and inappropriate name change,” a company rep tells Elliott. “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.”

Then, Comcast senior director of government affairs called Brown and offered to waive that $60 termination fee and promised that the employee responsible for the name change would be fired.

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Another regional manager called to assure Brown that her husband’s real first name had been restored in the billing system.

Brown, justifiably, is not satisfied. “This is unacceptable,” she told Elliott.

She’s now asked Comcast to refund every cent she’s ever paid them.