In Comcast Controversy, Fired Customer Won’t Get Job Back

Conal O’Rourke has received a public apology from Comcast — but he won’t be getting his accounting job back.

The Silicon Valley Business Journal says that PricewaterhouseCoopers won’t re-hire O’Rourke, saying he violated company ethics policies in making his billing complaints to Comcast.

PricewaterhouseCoopers confirmed in a statement to the Silicon Valley Business Journal Monday that an internal investigation concluded that O’Rourke had violation [sic] the firm’s ethical standards and practices, and subsequently lost his employment there.

“Mr. O’Rourke was employed in one of our internal firm services offices,” said a PricewaterhouseCoopers spokesperson in a prepared statement emailed Monday to the Silicon Valley Business Journal. “The firm has explicit policies regarding employee conduct; we train our people in those policies, and we enforce them. Mr. O’Rourke’s violation of these policies was the sole reason for his termination.”

The dispute seems to boil down to this point: O’Rourke is accused of identifying himself as a PwC employee — the company handles some Comcast business — as a way of throwing his weight around in an attempt to get his billing issues resolved. O’Rourke insists he never identified his employer, and says Comcast must have deduced his place of work before contacting PwC to complain.

O’Rourke’s attorney had threatened to file suit if he didn’t get his job back. That’s probably not pleasing to Comcast, who would clearly like this story to go away sooner than later.