Comcast isn’t exactly the most popular US company, to say the least. In addition to struggling with presenting its brand in a more positive light, the cable division of this mass media conglomerate recently had some issues with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after its customers filed numerous complaints about Comcast overcharging and charging for products and services that were never asked for. The entire ordeal resulted in a large-scale federal investigation which has now seemingly been concluded. As Reuters reported earlier today, Comcast agreed to pay a $2.3 million fine in order to resolve any remaining issues that it wasn’t able to clear up with the investigators.
In addition to that, the cable company agreed to adopt a five-year plan drafted as part of the aforementioned agreement it signed with the FCC. The plan was designed in order to offer a better, standardized method of answering customer complaints related to any Comcast product, service, or practice. Comcast agreed to open this new communications and service channel by January 1st of next year. By then, the company is expected to improve its record-keeping practices, issue individual order confirmations for all services, and provide its customers with a simple way to completely ignore all of the other services they’re not subscribed to. In addition to that, Comcast also agreed to put all of its individual employees who were proven to overcharge bills through additional training. In other words, the FCC investigation didn’t prove that any Comcast employee was intentionally placing extra charges on customers bills because if that was the case, the repercussions would have been much more serious so all of the cases were attributed to individual negligence or ignorance.
It’s worth noting that all of the aforementioned changes will probably be implemented much sooner than January 1st, at least according to Comcast’s spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice. In a short press release, Fitzmaurice admitted that the largest US cable company realized its customer service could have been much better in the past and has vowed to make the necessary changes in order to keep its customers happy. For the uninitiated, Fitzmaurice is referring to the issue of Comcast’s computer system not allowing remedies for overcharges longer than six months, which is what the company has told its many consumers who were complaining after realizing they’re paying for services they either didn’t want or didn’t even have. All things considered, Comcast will hopefully clean up its act by next year if its plans to become a wireless carrier are still in the making.