Comcast adds 550-employee call center in S.C. as it seeks to boost customer ratings

Comcast Corp., which has said it will hire more than 5,000 employees to improve its notoriously bad customer service, announced a fourth new call center in Charleston, S.C., with a staff of 550.

Other new Comcast call centers are located in Spokane, Wash.; Tucson, Ariz., and Albuquerque, N.M.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and cable division head Neil Smit pleged a laser-like focus on customer service in 2015 after a vigorous and public bashing during the federal regulatory review of Comcast's proposed $45-billion deal for Time Warner Cable Inc. Comcast abandoned the deal last April.

The Philadelphia company has some of the lowest customer satisfaction ratings of any U.S. company in any industry in national surveys. Comcast has said that in addition to the 5,500 new employees it would put an additional $300 million into customer service.

A constant complaint of Comcast customers has been that many times service calls are directed to the Philippines or other overseas call centers. The cable giant says that it will bring those calls back to the United States as it adds domestic call capacity.

Comcast spokeswoman Jenni Moyer said the South Caroline call center should be operational later this year.