Attorney General Phil Weiser has joined a coalition of attorneys general in sending a letter to the Federal Communications Commission in support of rules that would require Internet, cable, voice, and broadcast satellite providers to take some of the pain out of routine customer service calls and allow for better customer choices.
Colorado Atty General Phil Weiser
The Colorado Office of the Attorney General receives a significant number of complaints from consumers who have poor and limited interactions with customer service representatives and online chatbots from Internet, cable, voice, and broadcast satellite providers with 680 complaints filed to date this year. The complaints addressed in the letter to the FCC on poor training of customer service representatives, outage refunds and credits, missed or delayed service calls are some of the more recurring complaints that the office has received this year.
Attorney General Weiser and the bipartisan coalition are supporting efforts by the FCC to expand existing requirements that are currently only applicable to cable providers to all providers. The letter also urges adoptions of rules that will make it quicker and easier for consumers to reach live agents, require companies to provide automatic credits for service outages or missed service appointments, require enhanced training for customer service representatives, and to permit consumers to obtain their recorded conversations with customer service representatives, among other things.
“Consumers are regularly frustrated when they cannot get a hold of a customer representative to address service issues,” stated Attorney General Weiser. “Consumers deserve better, and the FCC can ensure that companies are providing genuine customer service and addressing concerns in a timely fashion.”
The attorney general is tasked with enforcing the state consumer protection laws and under those laws, the office investigates complaints against the providers of internet, voice, and cable services. The FCC is considering expansion of rules currently in place for cable providers.