Ok, I have come to the decision that I am not going to sell any Cable Services anymore (well maybe fiber). The commission is just not worth the aggravation. We sell a cable modem for what a hundred bucks or so? We make about 14% on it so 14 bucks a month give or take? How many times does the paperwork go right? How many times do they take a couple of weeks to come back and tell you that there are construction costs?
Here is what recently happened to me and why I have come to the conclusion that the effort just isn’t worth the reward: A very good customer comes to me and asked if I will get them a cable modem at one of their smaller offices to back up their MPLS network. I say no problem I will send you the paperwork.
I call the master agency whom I run my Comcast through and they give me the paperwork for a 1 year deal at around $115 bucks or so. I get it signed and turn it back into said master. I think no big deal that went pretty well. Two weeks later I get an email saying that construction is like 10k and they want a two or three year commitment. So, I go back to the customer with a two year contract and they sign it. We both grumble about Comcast being so hard to work with and I leave and turn the paperwork into the master for the second time.
A week or so later, I get another email saying that Comcast now says that they have to add TV or a POTS line to help pay for the 10k construction. I go ballistic and thank God the master went back to them with the confirming email and got everything worked out. But the fact that they keep changing the rules in mid-stream created unnecessary stress and aggravation. Then today, I get two more forms that I have to get the customer and the landlord to sign. Why didn’t they give me those when I went back with the two year paperwork?
In addition, during this entire process direct reps from Comcast were calling my customer saying, “I see that you are working with an agent. You should work directly with me.” They knew everything that was going on the whole time. When the one year contract got cancelled because they needed to sign a two or three year contract, who was knocking on the door? Yep, a direct rep. They walked in and said, I see that your one year contract got rejected and I just happen to have a two year contract right here in my bag along with the two other pieces that needed to be signed by the customer and the landlord.
How do the direct reps know everything that we are doing? Why do they seem to get involved in every deal I do? It was ten times worse when I was selling a Comcast Fiber deal a few months ago. I turned in the paperwork to my master agent with company name, contact, email, phone number, etc. One week later they were lighting up my customer’s phone and email. I go back to my master and they called Comcast to tell the rep to stop as we had 30 days or whatever to close the deal. Well, before the word got to the direct rep they went in with a lower price. I ended up getting the deal, but because of the direct rep, we had to lower the price by about $300 per month.
So, they have no rules of engagement between the direct and indirect side. They know everything that we are doing. They have better pricing, and they pay a lousy percentage on a lousy price point. They cause drama between us and our customers, and the customer service is about the worst in the industry.
The problem is customers want to buy the product because it is so cheap. Our customers are not educated enough to know the difference between a 17/7 cable modem and an 8 Meg EoC. We can talk about SLAs, QOS, and shared vs. private all day long. The cable modem is so cheap most customers don’t care.
I am anxious to hear what other agents out there have to say and how or why they sell the products. I have heard that some of the other Cable Companies are much easier to work with, but I have not had much experience outside of Comcast.
Bill Leutzinger | TelecomMedic
bill@telecommedic.com | www.telecommedic.com
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