As Fudzilla points out:
Comcast is a terrible ISP, an evil corporation, and…I mean I love Comcast, Comcast is love, Comcast is life, please don’t fire me.
I don’t doubt that this could happen, but I take anything I read on The Consumerist with a large grain of salt.
Only if you happen to work for a company that has Comcast as a major client and may or may not have used your company’s name to get leverage in dealing with Comcast employees.
Still, Comcast sucks.
I have no doubt that there are big chunks of the story that are being left out.
For now, it’s his word versus theirs. But it does seem odd that so far Comcast has declined to provide any recordings of the call which would immediate prove that he dropped his company name.
Agreed. And if it did happen, why wouldn’t the fired be able to sue (and win easily if he’s got proof)?
I don’t think he has proof himself - he didn’t record the call.
But let’s say he did drop his company’s name in a moment of frustration. Yeah, his company probably has the right to fire him and he’d have a slim-to-none chance of winning a lawsuit. That doesn’t mean that Comcast isn’t being a vindictive jerk by ratting him out.
Why would this be a wrongful termination in the US?
Dig in below the headlines people.
This guy worked for a company that does business with Comcast. He called Comcast’s accounting department directly and tried to leverage his company’s clout against them and then it bit him in the ass when Comcast came to his bosses to say “What the fuck?”. I’d have fired him for that too.
People mistakenly believe that “Wrongful Termination” only refers to firing someone who is part of a protected class. It doesn’t and a case can be made that a firing for other reasons were wrongful:
Win easily may have been a leap, but with adequate proof, I don’t doubt this could be considered a wrongful firing by the courts.
Based on reports, he was using his company’s name in non-authorized ways. If that’s true I can’t see how that supports a wrongful termination case. You’re link was very informative (seriously, thanks) but I don’t see anything in there that supports the idea that this particular case falls into that category.
That’s how it looked to me as well. The reason the Consumerist was able to spin it as they did was because the lawyers for the accounting firm are playing it very close to the vest in not saying anything that the accountant could use in a wrongful termination suit. Which is their right and the smart thing to do.
I have a feeling that if this ever makes its way to the courts, then the accounting firm and Comcast will have information available that may cast a different light on the matter.
Regards,
Shodan
That’s AWFUL…cuz it’s TRUE!!!
The article in the consumerist link was not really that interesting to me, but I did pick up on a couple of details. One is that the accountant/dissatisfied customer made a spreadsheet. And another is that he sent an email to Comcast.
I wonder if the email had that spreadsheet attached, and if so, if there might have been embedded information that could identify the owner of the license to the software on which the spreadsheet was made.
Notifying his employer that the customer was using company resources, presumably on company time, to handle his personal business, while kind of dickish, might lead to the employee’s dismissal.
I just don’t think we’re getting the whole story from either side, but I wouldn’t be so quick to jump on Comcast’s ass about this even though they usually suck.
Many of the articles on the Consumerist web site have direct links to the actual news stories or original references. This story does not.
Ah, I didn’t go beyond the headline and assumed (wrongly) that Comcast did something nasty. Not an unreasonable assumption, I think.
ArsTechnica (a much better source) is now running the story as well, and actually interviewed the guy: Comcast got me fired after billing dispute, says California man [Updated] | Ars Technica