Comcast executive apologizes for obnoxious phone call to a customer service rep -- ex customer rep says it was in line with company policy.

Last week this bizarre recording of a call to a Comcast phone representative requesting termination of service went viral. (You can listen to the first couple minutes then stop because it is repetive to say the least).

A senior vice president at Comcast publicly apologized for the call, stating:

We are very embarrassed by the way our employee spoke with Mr. Block and Ms. Belmont and are contacting them to personally apologize. The way in which our representative communicated with them is unacceptable and not consistent with how we train our customer service representatives. We are investigating this situation and will take quick action. While the overwhelming majority of our employees work very hard to do the right thing every day, we are using this very unfortunate experience to reinforce how important it is to always treat our customers with the utmost respect

Great -- except that Lauren Bruce, a former Comcast customer account executive says the customer service rep in the recording was not going rogue, but adhering to company policy. Bruce says the Comcast rep in the recording was trying to upsell the caller and also complete a mandatory questionnaire they had for each call. She says it was sometimes easier to make up answers than get them out of irate customers and that the customer rep in this call is being made a scapegoat.

This call recording with a Comcast rep makes my experience with Time-Warner Cable look good. It's no wonder the Internet Service Provision is the lowest rated industry in the United States according to the University of Michigan Customer Satisfaction Survey.

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Update 8/7/2014

Here is a copy of the Comcast retention representative handbook -- the call rating system encourages them to be persistent and -- "take control, ask targeted questions, make an offer", etc. I'd hate to have their job -- it's like working on an electronics assembly line.