A former Comcast retail employee has sued the telecommunications giant in Connecticut state court, accusing that particular location of subjecting workers to embarrassing rituals for not meeting certain performance goals.
In a complaint filed earlier this month, the former worker, David Figueroa, he was forced to resign after witnessing co-workers being tied to a chair and hit in the face with cream pies as punishment for sales.
Figueroa says Comcast hired him as a retail sales consultant in early February and assigned him to the company’s store in Plainville, about 15 minutes away from Hartford. He resigned less than a month later.
During his short time with the company, Figueroa reported to store manager Sully Peterson, who was the instigator in the sales performance hazings, the lawsuit claims.
Employees at the store were ranked on a chart posted in the store’s back office, the complaint says. Figueroa alleges the highest-ranked retail sales consultant for the prior month was instructed to tie the lowest-ranked consultant to a chair and hit that person in the face with a cream pie.
Figueroa says the incidents were ordered by Peterson, carried out in front of other employees and videotaped. He claims the practice caused physical injury, shame and humiliation to the employees involved while creating an intimidating and hostile work environment.
Figueroa witnessed and recorded one such incident on February 25, when a co-worker identified only as “Ty” was tied up and struck in the face by another employee. The lawsuit says Peterson was present and also recorded the incident.
Co-workers reportedly told Figueroa about a similar incident involving an assistant sales manager named “Jania,” who was allegedly struck with a pie after receiving a poor customer survey score. The complaint says Figueroa viewed video of that incident on another employee’s phone.
In late February, Figueroa contacted the store’s regional manager, Miranda Cody, who told him to send a text message documenting his concerns. It wasn’t clear if anyone from the company responded back.
Figueroa has hired a local personal injury attorney to represent him in the case. Comcast has not yet returned an inquiry seeking comment about matter. The case was first reported by the legal blog Law360 on Tuesday.
Comcast operates nearly 700 retail stores across the country, which serve as a point of sales for its telecommunications products like Xfinity Internet, Xfinity TV, Xfinity Wireless and tech platform Xumo. Most stores also offer equipment exchanges and basic customer support.
In recent years, Comcast has increasingly pushed more customers to sign up for products and manage their accounts online, negating the need for a robust retail footprint. Still, the company maintains a limited retail presence in major urban and suburban areas where it offers connectivity services.
Last week, Comcast said its lost around 167,000 domestic broadband customers during the second three-month quarter (Q2) of the year, with its churn rate directly tied to increased competition in the home Internet space from fixed wireless products offered by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile and satellite-based services like Starlink.
Comcast also continues to experience an ongoing trend in its pay television business, with the company losing 280,000 video customers during the three-month period. Its TV-related churn was an improvement from the 325,000 customers lost during the same quarter last year. Comcast ended the period with 10.67 million video customers and 28.49 million residential broadband hook-ups.
