Comcast CEO 'embarrassed' by infamous customer service call

Comcast Corp. CEO Brian Roberts said he was not pleased when reports surfaced regarding shoddy customer service.

Fortune.com reported from an event in San Francisco where Roberts said he was "embarrassed" and "disappointed" when he heard a July call with a Comcast representative that was recorded by a customer. The representative refused to let the customer disconnect his service.

"It was a teachable moment for employees and it was a teachable moment for all of us," he said.

In October, after Comcast received tons of bad press regarding customer service issues, Roberts appointed up-and-coming executive Charlie Herrin as Comcast Cable's first senior vice president of customer experience.

But on Wednesday, Roberts insisted that customer service nightmares are the exception, not the rule for the media giant.

Roberts also spoke out about net neutrality — the concept that Internet service providers treat all web content equally in terms of speed. The issue pits consumer activists against telecom companies.

President Barack Obama issued a statement Monday urging the Federal Communications Commission to adopt strong net neutrality rules. To implement new regulations, Obama said, the FCC should reclassify broadband service as a public utility — a route the Comcasts, Verizons and AT&Ts of the world are extremely against.

Comcast issued a statement saying while it agrees with Obama's principles on net neutrality, it disagreed with calls for Internet providers to be regulated like utilities. Here's what Roberts had to say, according to Fortune:

"There's a better way to do that," said Roberts, who argued that Internet providers should keep their current largely unregulated status.

Jeff Blumenthal covers banking, insurance and law.