The Latest in IT Security

Comcast plans to reexamine the way it tries to keep subscribers from leaving its service, after a nightmarish call with one customer went viral last week and led to an outpouring of criticism. The recorded call included eight minutes of what Comcast calls a Retention agent attempting to argue a customer down from leaving, and Comcast now admits that much of this aggressive behavior was its own fault. The agent on this call did a lot of what we trained him and paid him … to do, Dave Watson, Comcasts chief operating officer, writes in an internal letter that was published Monday morning, leaked to Consumerist, and verified by Ars Technica. As The Verges Adrianne Jeffries reported last week, the agents startling obstinacy was right in line with the ways in which Comcast motivates these employees — namely, having their pay rely on how many customers they lose and how many they keep from leaving.