Comcast denies asking for irate customer to lose his job

A dispute continues involving Comcast and a disgruntled customer who lost his job after complaining about overcharges and broken promises.

Comcast posted a public apology online Wednesday for "completely unacceptable service" in the case but added that "nobody at Comcast asked for him to be fired."

Conal O'Rourke, who lives in Northern California, has alleged that Comcast, in response to a series of disagreements over billing and services, contacted his employer, resulting in his being fired.

The new apology has not changed O'Rourke's demands, his attorney said, according to an update to a detailed and well-documented account by Ars Technica.

O'Rourke will sue if, by Tuesday, he doesn't get his job back with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in San Jose, and $100,000 in damages, said attorney Maureen Pettibone Ryan.

Comcast has acknowledged contacting PWC, and that's where a Philadelphia connection emerges.

O'Rourke's account is that, fed up with inaccurate billing, he called the Philadelphia office of Comcast's chief accounting officer and controller, Lawrence Salva, who worked for PwC before coming to Comcast. That led to heated exchanges (a woman at one point allegedly repeatedly yelled at O'Rourke "What color is your house?" even though he lives in a condo complex), and, allegedly, to Internet research by Comcast on O'Rourke.

In a letter, Ryan contended: "Because Comcast was a major consulting services client of PwC's, someone from the Controller's office contacted Mr. Joseph Atkinson, a partner in the Philadelphia office of PWC, and falsely told Mr. Atkinson that Mr. O'Rourke had invoked his employment with PwC in an attempt to somehow obtain leverage in his negotiations with Comcast."

In a letter to Ryan, posted online on by Ars Technica, Comcast senior deputy general counsel Thomas R. Nathan stated that Comcast contacted PwC but denied asking for O'Rourke's dismissal:

"Comcast communicated to PWC that a person claiming to be a PWC employee had called our chief accounting executive's office with complaints about his cable service and bills, and yelled at our employees who tried to assist him. Those statements were neither untrue nor unprivileged, as such, they cannot be defamatory. Comcast unequivocally denies your assertion that it requested PWC to fire Mr. O'Rourke."

O'Rourke denies ever mentioning his employer to Comcast.

PwC told Ars Technica that O'Rourke was let go "after an internal investigation concluded that Mr. O'Rourke violated PwC's ethical standards and practices, applicable to all of our people. ... Mr. O'Rourke's violation of these policies was the sole reason for his termination."

The full text of Comcast's apology pledges not only to "get to the bottom of exactly what happened" but that "we are working hard to make real improvements across the board." It's posted on the corporate blog of Charlie Herrin, new senior vice president, customer experience.

Complaints about poor service have dogged Comcast for years, and even became part of Senate hearings in August about the company's bid to take over Time Warner Cable. In a recent Consumerist poll, Comcast was voted "the worst company in America."

Comcast has apologized before, asserting earlier this year that "the overwhelming majority of our employees work very hard to do the right thing every day,"

Shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Time Warner Cable deal on Wednesday.

Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com. Follow @petemucha on Twitter.