In One Video, This Guy Reveals His Secret to 'Negotiating' With Comcast

"Negotiating" with a big company? You might want to record your calls.

That's what Comcast customer Tim Davis learned — and was lucky to have done — in a video posted to YouTube, detailing his long fight with the cable and Internet giant.

In a nutshell: Davis said Comcast promised him a free technician visit after he moved to a new apartment, but then charged him for it — and then said it would be impossible to reverse the charge.

The only way he triumphed was with a secret weapon: recorded phone calls.

Davis said he would have switched providers when he moved, but because Comcast has such a "bulls**t nationwide monopoly," he had to settle for transferring his Comcast service to his new home.

His "self-installation" went swimmingly, he said, but soon afterward, his Internet service started dropping out sporadically.

He said he checked all of his equipment, verified that everything was working and determined that the problem was coming from outside his apartment. When he spoke with a Comcast representative, he said, he was assured that a technician would come out free of charge.

The technician came — and then they charged him.

Image source: YouTube

Davis said Comcast tacked a series of erroneous charges on to his bill, including a "failed self-install" fee — when his self-installation hadn't been an issue — and wireless set up fee.

Another customer might have rolled over, but Davis brought a gun to this knife fight: He had recorded his calls.

When he spoke with a Comcast supervisor about the debacle, he pressed hard and didn't give up until they agreed to credit back the charges.

"You cannot bill me for something that I did not authorize," Davis says in the recording. "You cannot tell me that it’s free and then bill me anyway, and then tell me that you cannot un-bill me or credit me for the bill. You can’t do that, it’s illegal, do you understand?"

The supervisor tells Davis that it's impossible for her to credit back the charges, but Davis reiterates, "I’m not going to pay for something that I was told would be free."

Eventually she promises to speak with a manager, and when she calls Davis back, she tells him the credit will be applied.

"Why were you not able to do it before?" Davis asks.

“Because we try to negotiate," she answers, "and again, that is a valid charge, but since I advised my manager that there is a recording, and you were misinformed, she’s the one who can approve that $82.”

“You’re telling me that if I didn’t have a recording of that call, you wouldn’t have been able to do it?” Davis asks.

“Yes, that is correct,” she responds.

Davis ends the video with some advice.

"Comcast lies, tries to steal, lies some more and covers it all up by claiming to be negotiating," he says. "So what did we learn today? Always record your calls with big companies, especially ones that don’t give a f*** about you. Like Comcast.”

Listen to the whole thing here (content warning — strong language):

(H/T: Consumerist)

UPDATE: Comcast has provided TheBlaze with a statement on the video:

This is not the type of experience we want our customers to have, and we will reach out to Mr. Davis to apologize to him. Our policy is not to charge for service visits that are related to problems with our equipment or network. We are looking into this to understand what happened and why it happened.

This story has been updated.

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