Techmeme: How warped incentives for Comcast's “retention specialists” lead to a vexing cancellation call (Adrianne Jeffries/The Verge)

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July 19, 2014, 1:05 PM

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Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:

How warped incentives for Comcast's “retention specialists” lead to a vexing cancellation call — Here's why your Comcast rep is yelling at you — Warped employee incentives and an absence of competition make bad customer service inevitable — In 2006, a man named Vincent …

More: ParisLemon, DSLreports, Venture Chronicles, Gizmodo, FierceCable and Technologizer

Tweets: @davewiner, @cfcamerer, @paleofuture and @levie

John Napier Tye / Washington Post:

Meet Executive Order 12333: The Reagan rule that lets the NSA spy on Americans — In March I received a call from the White House counsel's office regarding a speech I had prepared for my boss at the State Department. The speech was about the impact that the disclosure …

More: ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Guardian

Tweets: @csoghoian and @kenroth

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Snapchat Files Trademarks To Handle Payments — Snappay? Snapchat may try to monetize by processing peer-to-peer payments, money transfers, or online payments, according to two trademarks it filed earlier this week. Owned by Snapchat and filed on July 11th by an attorney at Cooley …

More: iMore, The Verge, VatorNews, The Next Web, memeburn, Business Insider and ReadWrite

Ashlee Vance / Businessweek:

Amazon's Cloud Is One of the Fastest-Growing Software Businesses in History — Five billion dollars. — That's how much Amazon.com (AMZN) will rake in from its cloud computing business this year, according to a new estimate from Pacific Crest Securities. If true, it's an incredible figure.

Tweets: @bfrist

Se Young Lee / Reuters:

Nearly 200 managers at Samsung's mobile division voluntarily return $3M in bonuses as firm profits decline — Samsung handset division managers return part of bonuses: source — (Reuters) - Nearly 200 managers at Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's mobile division have voluntarily returned …

More: DailyTech, The Verge, CNET, 9to5Google, BGR, Android Central and SamMobile

Jason Del Rey / Re/code:

Starbucks will let customers place pickup orders via mobile app in one test market this year — Starbucks Has Bigger Plans in Mobile Payments Than Most People Realize — A decade after the idea was first sketched on the proverbial drawing board, Starbucks is poised to finally let its customers order their coffees from their phones.

More: Android Police, Ubergizmo, Gotta Be Mobile, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Verge, VentureBeat, Cult of Mac and Wall Street Journal

Jack Smith IV / Betabeat:

Inside Look: Imgur Reveals Redesign, Announces Plans for a Convention — Can Imgur remain its positive, plucky self while growing to be one of the Internet's rising social titans? — Imgur's Sarah Schaaf, IRL. (Photo via Imgur) — Imgur is at a tipping point.

More: TechCrunch, Fast Company, BestTechie, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Search Engine Land, WebProNews, The Guardian and ReadWrite

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

Uber Is Being Audited By Rudy Giuliani's Team About Its Driver Background Check Process — On-demand car service and logistics company Uber has retained former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani to conduct an audit on its driver background check process. — Recently, some of Uber's drivers have stirred …

More: Uber Blog, The Daily Beast, bizjournals, News & Views … and New York Post. Tweets: @ajs

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Internal memo: Microsoft to cut off all ‘external staff’ after 18 months, imposing mandatory 6-month break — An internal Microsoft memo, distributed earlier today, imposes new restrictions on the company's use of “external staff” — including a new limit on people who work on projects for Microsoft through vendors.

More: Business Insider. Thanks:@taylor_soper

Lenovo Newsroom:

Lenovo will continue selling 8" and 10" Windows tablets in the US, new models coming this holiday — Clarification on Lenovo Statement on Sales of Small Screen Windows-Based Tablets — We will continue to bring new Windows devices to market across different screen sizes …

Janko Roettgers / Gigaom:

Netflix tests private viewing mode to hide your B-movie binges — Select Netflix members are getting a chance to hide viewing of embarrassing titles from logs, recommendations and Facebook friends. — We've all been down that road: You decide to watch some roadhouse B-movie fare on Netflix …

More: VentureBeat, Digital Trends, Engadget, SlashGear, Mashable, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Phandroid, The Verge and TIME

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:

Yahoo Search Share Falls Below 10 Percent For “All-Time Low” — We're on the cusp of new comScore U.S. search market share data for June. According to financial analyst notes, releasing the numbers early, desktop search declined for the fifth consecutive month after a period of growth in mid-2013.

More: Business Insider, Design & Trend, TheDomains.com and WebProNews

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