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'To understand Comcast's lousy reputation'

TheVerge tells what it's like working there

Vox Media's TheVerge.com reporter Adrianne Jeffries writes that her publication "interviewed more than 150 current and former employees in an effort to understand Comcast's lousy reputation. We heard the same stories over and over again: customer service has been replaced by an obsession with sales; technicians are understaffed while tech support is poorly trained; and the company is hobbled by internal fragmentation."

So TheVerge has published Comcast Confessions, extracts from dozens of interviews with mostly unnamed current and former Comcast customer service phone workers, installers and supervisors. They detail a sprawling, inconsistent, often outsourced "customer service" operation that pushes workers to sell and cut costs.

Comcast responds a bit in the third installment: "Comcast knows it has a problem with coordinating all its moving parts. D'Arcy Rudnay, Comcast's chief communications officer, says the breaking point came in 2011. 'Everything was completely different geographically,' she says. 'It became impossible to deliver the customer experience that we wanted to.' The company has taken steps, but "we're only in the first, second, or third inning of this," Rudnay added. "There are so many pieces of the infrastructure that need to be fixed."

Read the series:
1) July 28: http://mobile.theverge.com/2014/8/4/5960251/comcast-confessions-why-the-cable-guy-is-always-late

2) Aug. 4: http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/28/5936959/comcast-confessions-when-every-call-is-a-sales-call

3) Aug. 11 part 1: includes Comcast response: http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/11/5978481/comcast-confessions-there-is-no-one-comcast#story

Also: http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/11/5978481/comcast-confessions-there-is-no-one-comcast#confessions

And: http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/11/5991525/now-everyone-is-recording-their-nightmare-comcast-calls

Another Comcast Confessions installment at TheVerge.com is due next Monday, Aug. 18.