Customer Service

Cable: making dish customers one bitch dog at
a time.

And the customer service award does NOT go to ...
When LaChania Govan's Comcast service wasn't working, she called for help. And called. And called. It was a frustrating process, and then she got the bill.


By Scott Goldstein
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 17, 2005

Until recently, LaChania Govan's complaints about Comcast's service seemed relatively tame. The 25-year-old Elgin mother of two said she was put on hold, disconnected, even transferred to the Spanish language line.

But after persistent problems with her digital recording system forced her to make dozens of calls to the cable company in July, her August bill came with a change really worth complaining about: In place of her name were the words "Bitch Dog."

"I could not believe it," said Govan, who works in customer service for a credit card company.

She said she immediately called Comcast to cancel her service and was sent to an operator.

"She asked me for my name. I said, `You really don't want me to go there,'" Govan said.

Recounting her problems on Tuesday, she said she was transferred to a supervisor who assured her he would find out what happened and get back to her soon.

In the meantime, she said, he offered her two months of free cable, which she declined.

...........................

"If this is not that customer's name, it shouldn't be on that bill," said Patricia Andrews-Keenan, vice president of communications for the company. "But we don't know why that happened. It's obvious that that's inappropriate to have a name like that on that account."

The name on Govan's account has been changed back, said Andrews-Keenan, who is based in Chicago.

The company should be able to track who made the change, she said.

........................................
But receiving the bill with the obscene name topped it all, she said.

"That hurts my feelings, and I feel that is just beyond the bottomless pit," Govan said. "You don't do a customer like that in any business that you're in."

Govan said she was never abusive to Comcast employees.

"I did express my dissatisfaction with their customer service," she said.

She said the company did eventually replace her digital recording system--twice, because the first replacement didn't work either.

Now, with her cancellation request pending, she is simply waiting for the company to show up and disconnect her.

Yeah, Direct TV needs a few more stories like this.

But a lot of this, like our last story, comes from the barely concealed contempt many service workers have for their customers. Calling women bitches, pointing out who's a Jew, all comes from the less pleasant places in the American psyche. In the end, it's an attempt at superiority.

I'm better than that person, despite my lowly status or my cause is so important that I can coopt your suffering, because it just isn't as important.

They can't really challenge you, but they can show their contempt with a disregard for your feelings and your humanity.

In many ways, people deny others humanity because it is just easier. And a dinner check, or a cable bill or even a touring exhibit may seem like a small thing in the scheme of things, but when you feel that sting, that reminder that you're not only different, but lesser in some way, whether it's being a woman, or Jewish or black.

A lot of people will just write this off as just a stupid, job-losing prank, but it's more than that. It's an attempt to demean this woman for asserting her rights. Nothing less.

Someone said Reagan made it ok to be racist. I don't agree. I think Reagan made it ok to hide your contempt for others, but still hold on to it. Racism isn't just the Klan and sexism isn't just boys room antics on Wall Street, those are just the extremes.

posted by Steve @ 2:55:00 PM