Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#171

Post by hugh4 » Fri, Oct 02, 2015, 10:20 PM UTC

ramidarigaz wrote: post #41

dayjah wrote: post #30

The second-worst experience I had with cancelling a service was with Comcast. Briefly: called up, told operator I wanted to cancel, they put me through to a special sales team attempting to keep me, eventually I pushed it through. The real magic happens during the conversation with the sales rep; he asks why I want to cancel, I explain that the cost is high relative to the quality. He offers me more cost effective pa…

When I called to cancel my account I told them I was moving out of the country. Total lie, but it made the cancelation process really easy.

When I left the country I didn't cancel Comcast, I just closed the account that it was auto- deducted from.

Let's hope I never need a US credit rating for anything.

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#172

Post by atmosx » Fri, Oct 02, 2015, 10:32 PM UTC

dayjah wrote: post #30

The second-worst experience I had with cancelling a service was with Comcast. Briefly: called up, told operator I wanted to cancel, they put me through to a special sales team attempting to keep me, eventually I pushed it through. The real magic happens during the conversation with the sales rep; he asks why I want to cancel, I explain that the cost is high relative to the quality. He offers me more cost effective pa…

The Nigeria story must be funny. Care to share? :-P

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#173

Post by masterzora » Fri, Oct 02, 2015, 10:34 PM UTC

ramidarigaz wrote: post #41

dayjah wrote: post #30

The second-worst experience I had with cancelling a service was with Comcast. Briefly: called up, told operator I wanted to cancel, they put me through to a special sales team attempting to keep me, eventually I pushed it through. The real magic happens during the conversation with the sales rep; he asks why I want to cancel, I explain that the cost is high relative to the quality. He offers me more cost effective pa…

When I called to cancel my account I told them I was moving out of the country. Total lie, but it made the cancelation process really easy.

I had to call to cancel my AT&T account recently. The conversation was pretty short: I just told the rep that I was moving in with a roommate that already had service set up so I didn't need to transfer my own service (only about ~20% a lie).

The frustrating and insulting part was that I spent a really long time on hold before I was connected with the rep and every few minutes while I was on hold an automated message played saying something along the lines of "You can pay your bill, start new service, or basically anything except cancel way faster by going online!" It was bad enough without the constant reminders that I was only sitting there on hold because I wanted the one thing AT&T won't let you do online.

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#174

Post by jjulius » Fri, Oct 02, 2015, 10:43 PM UTC

dntrkv wrote: post #88

jjulius wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It all depends on the representative you speak with. There have been times where I've had to contact them and have had a pleasant experience, but as I detailed in another reply in this thread, I've also had godawful experiences where I simply couldn't believe the logic the representative was trying to apply to the situation.

Would you say their support is worse than other similar companies of their size?

I agree with user hololy, I'm a little confused as to what you're trying to get at here.

You may have had a positive experience, and that's great. I'm genuinely happy that you have enjoyed being a Comcast customer, and I don't say that with any sarcasm. Hell, as far as general internet service goes, I'm content with the product that they provide. My experiences with their customer support are personal, just as yours are - you've clearly spoken with some level-headed, respectful representatives. I, however, had to argue with one for thirty minutes when I told them that my landlord has already setup Comcast for me at my new home - the representative insisted that it would "benefit me" to transfer my service and have two internet connections at the house.

All I'm saying is that everybody's experience is different, depending upon the representative they speak with. Some reps are great, but on the whole, the bulk appear to be subpar.

Now, to answer your question. Yes, I would say their support is worse. I had bad experiences with Chase, too, but even they didn't come close to what I've had to put up with Comcast. The only large corporations I deal with these days are Google, T-Mobile and Nissan. All three have exemplary customer service compared to Comcast.

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#175

Post by PhantomGremlin » Fri, Oct 02, 2015, 10:47 PM UTC

electroly wrote: post #76

koenigdavidmj wrote: post #44

Am I the only one who never had trouble canceling? The process was just this: 1. Call, specify your account info, and say you're canceling. 2. They confirm that it's canceled and tell you to return the cable box (and modem, if you're renting one) to the local office. 3. You either put them in a big box out front, or if you're paranoid like me, you wait in line so that you get a receipt. 4. In a couple weeks, you get…

Here's a related tip: you can skip step 1. Just show up at the local office with your equipment. They can take care of everything right there, and the office employee isn't trained to do customer retention so there's no hassle.

Just show up at the local office with your equipment.

Only if there is a local office. Frontier bought up a bunch of Verizon FiOS assets in the area. Frontier behaves purely as a short-term revenue maximization company. So they closed all their local offices. That's right. The local phone/internet/tv company doesn't actually have an office where you can go to return equipment!

Comcast is heaven compared to the depths of hell that is Frontier.

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#176

Post by criddell » Fri, Oct 02, 2015, 10:48 PM UTC

ramidarigaz wrote: post #41

dayjah wrote: post #30

The second-worst experience I had with cancelling a service was with Comcast. Briefly: called up, told operator I wanted to cancel, they put me through to a special sales team attempting to keep me, eventually I pushed it through. The real magic happens during the conversation with the sales rep; he asks why I want to cancel, I explain that the cost is high relative to the quality. He offers me more cost effective pa…

When I called to cancel my account I told them I was moving out of the country. Total lie, but it made the cancelation process really easy.

I usually just say personal reasons.

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#177

Post by rrauenza » Fri, Oct 02, 2015, 10:49 PM UTC

estsauver wrote: post #119

walterbell wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you verify identity, e.g. could an attacker use this to cancel a target's service? When you call customer service, cable companies usually have a few security questions to confirm the customer's identity. A letter usually has a customer signature. How do you close the identity loop with the person keying data into your web form?

We charge their credit card. We don't think it's likely that people will use this to maliciously cancel people's Comcast, but we'll absolutely cooperate with authorities in the event of identity theft.

Malicious? Cancelling a random person's Comcast might be a random act of kindness!

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#178

Post by criddell » Fri, Oct 02, 2015, 10:50 PM UTC

javert wrote: post #160

buckbova wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, what's a non-shit cable provider?

AFAIK in most of the US there are only two cable companies in a given area (both of which typically will be national companies with lobbyists, and also utter shit). The traditional "telephone" company and the traditional "cable" company, in a given district, each have monopolies that prevent competition. Since both can now serve cable TV, they only have to compete with one another. In my area it's Time Warner, which…

If you have a choice of two, you are lucky. Cable franchise rights with cities are usually exclusive. Your choice is usually satellite, cable, or antenna.

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#179

Post by tomkinstinch » Fri, Oct 02, 2015, 10:53 PM UTC

tombrossman wrote: post #125

adrr wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$5 seems worth it considering the amount of time it takes to find the address and then go to post office to get a certified letter.

Yes, time is money isn't it? Like anything else it's easier the more often you do it. I have a template letter I adapt, and I use the automated kiosk at the post office to send. Do it when you are out running errands and it doesn't add up to much time really. I can say that if I were running a $5 'let us cancel for you' deal I'd damn sure be doing it all by letter though. No way I'd pay to have a bunch of employees s…

Would you be willing to share your cancellation letter template?

It would be great to have a repository for such templates on GitHub with variants for different companies. Maybe as Jinja2 files so filling in the sender's name, address, etc. would be easy.

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#180

Post by nfriedly » Fri, Oct 02, 2015, 10:55 PM UTC

craftkiller wrote: post #129

dayjah wrote: post #30

The second-worst experience I had with cancelling a service was with Comcast. Briefly: called up, told operator I wanted to cancel, they put me through to a special sales team attempting to keep me, eventually I pushed it through. The real magic happens during the conversation with the sales rep; he asks why I want to cancel, I explain that the cost is high relative to the quality. He offers me more cost effective pa…

Comcast is actually my only utility that I didn't set up autopay for because I was worried about exactly that. They really should have an "autopay until rate increase, at which point contact me" option since their service isn't charged on usage.

I "auto pay" all of my billa through my bank (Fidelity) and they have an option to automatically pay up to $x amount but just email me if the bill is higher. I'm pretty sure it was intended for bills that aren't quite the same each month, but it would also work here.

Most billers have the option to send the bill directly to my bank, for the ones that don't, then it has to be a fixed amount each month for Fidelity to auto-pay it.