TV INTERRUPTION: One sharp complaint gets torrent of abuse

Barbara Jones says her husband, Al, can be a cantankerous son of a gun.

TRANSCRIPT OF PHONE MESSAGES
3:18 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 11
"This is to Al, you stupid mother(bleeper). You kiss my mother(bleeping) (bleep). And I hope you'll never (unintelligible) another cable service as long as you live, you stupid (bleep)."

3:20 p.m., same day

"I cut your cable, you mother(bleeping) mother(bleeper), mother(bleeper). I cut your cable, you won't be (unintelligible) mother(bleeper), mother(bleeper), mother(bleeper), mother(bleeper), mother(bleeper)."

6:11 p.m., same day

"Hi, Miss Jones, this is (deleted). We got disconnected when you went to, uh, replay the message for me? My extension number is (deleted). And you can give me a call back . . . and have them transfer you. . . . That way we can clear, uh, this, uh, bad message that one of our representatives that you stated left. Thank you."

And Al Jones admits he can be belligerent.

But he says that doesn't mean the cable company can talk to him like this:

"This is to Al, you stupid mother(so-and-so)."

These unfriendly words, the Joneses said, came from a Comcast representative on a recent Saturday afternoon. Comcast officials said they are investigating.

Al Jones, 57, called to complain about his cable service cutting out during the Oct. 11 Michigan State Spartans game. He vented on the female representative who answered Comcast's service line.

"They were winning," said Jones of Detroit. "They were kicking butt, man. It was in the middle -- almost halftime, I think -- the TV, no warning, just went out. . . . I became very incensed. And I called, and I told the young lady when she first answered the phone, 'I am a dissatisfied, disgruntled, pissed-off customer.' "

Jones said that when the service representative began talking over his words, he ended the conversation with this: "If you're not going to service it properly, you come and get it."

More than an hour later, at 3:18 p.m., someone called the Joneses' house, but the voice mail picked up. Al Jones said he didn't hear the phone ringing.

In the message, which the Free Press reviewed, a female voice erupts viciously for 10 seconds. Two or three words are muddled, but four expletives are very clear, as are the words "cable service."

Two minutes later, the same woman called again.

This time, in a hushed tone, she says either "I cut your cable" or "I got your cable," followed by eight "mother-bleepers" delivered in a sing-song voice.

Barbara Jones said she was away for a few hours and discovered the messages later Saturday afternoon when she returned to their east-side home. She said she called Comcast to complain and believes she spoke briefly to the same representative who insulted her husband. She said she thinks that woman called the Jones home later that evening and left a decidedly more professional voice mail.

"Hi, Miss Jones, this is (name deleted)," the last message says. "We got disconnected when you went to replay the message for me." The caller then asks Barbara Jones to call back so the matter can be addressed.

Jones waited till the next day, and complained to other Comcast officials. She said she and her husband were told that Comcast severely reprimanded or fired the female service representative.

But Comcast spokesman Rich Ruggiero said in an interview Monday no one had been disciplined, pending further investigation. Ruggiero said the company could find no record of the calls on its phone system. That doesn't rule out an employee using a cell phone or pay phone.

He said the company's customer service representatives, who work in Sterling Heights and Plymouth Township, receive five weeks of training before ever taking a call.

"Clearly that kind of response wouldn't ever be appropriate."

The Detroit Cable Commission, which regulates Comcast in the city, has asked for an explanation.

Interim director Paula Gentius-Harris said the complaint of rude treatment from Comcast service employees is not uncommon among Detroit customers. Gentius-Harris said she has been trying to get a response from the company since last Wednesday.

The city also is trying to negotiate a long-term deal with the company to provide cable in the city.

Ruggiero said Tuesday that Comcast will respond to the commission's request.

Barbara Jones said she just wants the situation noted so that no other customers share her husband's experience.

"He's a wonderful person. He's the king of his castle. If there's no other place on earth where he can be king, it's his home," she said. At the same time, "he could make an angel go to hell."

But nothing justified the response, she said. "This person evidently wanted to make it seem like she had all the power in her hands."

After the calls, the Joneses responded with a little oomph of their own. They posted the voice mail recordings on their personal Web site, which is devoted to spirituality, music and, now, abusive phone calls.