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Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

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Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#241

Post by Natsu »

lucaspiller wrote: post #238
Natsu wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their cancellation was basically fraudulent when they were MegaPath, from my experience. I paid off what I "owed" and no more to get rid of them. Not sure what you do in your case, but they're a complete pain to deal with. I might try to negotiate by offering to pay off some amount, but they will NOT admit that you've cancelled unless you have some kind of proof... which they will make sure there's no way for you to…

How are companies like this allowed to operate in the US? In the UK there are multiple regulators you could complain to about something like this, who would quickly come down on them like a ton of bricks.

They're only cheating me out of a little money and they've made it hard for people to prove that they're right and easy for them to blame a single rep or a glitch.

If enough people complained, something might get done, but you have to figure out who to complain to first. Occasionally, someone can interest a TV show into exposing them, but it's really hard to prove something like this. You could complain to a state AG, but unless they get a lot of complaints, it won't go anywhere--they're too small-time for that. I get the impression that they were squeezing the last blood out of the business they strangled and left to rot.

I only know what I did and what the reps said to me and I knew that I didn't have enough proof to go to court with this so I didn't--I'd just end up losing more time & money to it. So I just retell my experience when it comes up again.

I have seen a few other people on HN who got burned by them, though. It's sad, because Speakeasy was a really good ISP back in the day, before it was sold and gutted. The original Speakeasy support reps were awesome. But that's gone now and it makes me sad. I've never seen support like theirs from an ISP before or since. You used to find geeks singing their praises everywhere, too, but I'm sure you've never heard that about Megapath or whoever bought them.

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#242

Post by monopolemagnet »

Visa to China sounds like a winner: Never had to do that myself, but it seems arcane, shady magic that some friends from Hong Kong know how to perform whenever we needed to go.

There are plenty of these infrequent, but non-zero, official, lifestyle and corporate customer processes that are PITAs, for a variety of reasons. People would gladly pay to avoid the hassle themselves, where cost-efficient, eventually-expert, standardized "schlepping" can make a good business model or 10. Relieve pain for $; enough people will gladly hand you $ to make it happen.

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#243

Post by grecy »

IE6 wrote: post #92
ramidarigaz wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is the way - create a scenario to which there is no possibility of continuing Comcast service. I claimed I was going to be living off the grid and had no need for whatever the internet provided. Was cancelled in under 5 minutes.

I said that when cancelling my cell phone - the rep just kept hounding me, not believing that I simply didn't want a cell phone. Finally the ended with "well, good luck on your new life in the Yukon" - to which I replied - "did you even look at my address or listen to a work I've said to you - I've been living the Yukon for 4 years". "oh".

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#244

Post by politician »

kevin_b_er wrote: post #155
hospes wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They bill for services they haven't provided. Let's say you order Comcast October 10th and tech arrives and installs everything October 15th. When you get 1st bill, it will include October 10-15 period, when you actually did not have any service and were waiting for one. Happened to me recently. I think this can be a subject of class action lawsuit.

Comcast is immune to class action as decided by AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion. You may never sue them in a court of law in the US.

> AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, 563 U.S. 333 (2011), is a legal dispute that was decided by the United States Supreme Court.[1][2] On April 27, 2011, the Court ruled, by a 5–4 margin, that the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925 preempts state laws that prohibit contracts from disallowing class-wide arbitration, such as the law previously upheld by the California Supreme Court in the case of Discover Bank v. Superior Court.[3] As a result, businesses that include arbitration agreements with class action waivers can require consumers to bring claims only in individual arbitrations, rather than in court as part of a class action.[4]:708–09 The decision was described by Jean Sternlight as a "tsunami that is wiping out existing and potential consumer and employment class actions"[4]:704 and by law professor Myriam Gilles as "the real game-changer for class action litigation".[5] By April 2012, Concepcion was cited in at least 76 decisions sending putative class actions to individual arbitration.[6][7] After the decision, several major businesses introduced or changed arbitration terms in their consumer contracts (some of which were based on the consumer-friendly terms found in the AT&T Mobility agreement), although the hypothesis of massive adoption of consumer arbitration clauses following the decision has been disputed.

-- Wikipedia

TLDR: Class-action lawsuits against Comcast are not allowed because they include a class-action waiver in the consumer agreement.

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#245

Post by solotronics »

mikestew wrote: post #165
linuxfan wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sick of comcast and its hidden fees. Their promotion last for one year and they never inform the customer (conveniently) soon after it expires. The bill keeps piling up and when you call them one day to cancel, they feed you some bs on downgrading to a basic package or even reducing your current internet speed. I had AT&T U-verses before switching to comcast and AT&T are no saints either. Is there a company that'…

In Washington, I've been pretty happy with Frontier. Well, "happy" might be a bit strong. Frankly, I rarely give them much thought. $60/month for (I think) 35Mbps up and down. Every single time I've actually checked it, it was indeed what they claim, and it rarely goes down. (About once every couple of months it'll go down for an hour almost exactly at 2300 or midnight; I assume some kind of maintenance.) I don't hav…

Sorry about the outage two years ago, I was a new network engineer then and deleted all the residential DSL customers on one of the major Frontier routers in Washington. Lesson learned: never touch anything you don't fully understand

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#246

Post by trothamel »

lazyant wrote: post #214

There should be a law (I know, too many laws!) that cancelation process should be the same as sign up, for example you can sign up online for many services but need to call for cancellation.

This. I was about to post the same message, including the same parenthetical disclaimer. It seems like this should be an obvious consumer protection, and yet nobody talks about it.

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#247

Post by mkhalil »

tombrossman wrote: post #82

Nearly all of these contracts with Comcast or similar companies will have a postal address you can write to and cancel. Even if they provide no cancellation postal address, look up their 'Agent for service of process', this is always listed somewhere. I never call to cancel, this is a waste of time and not necessary. I've done this repeatedly (use certified mail, or recorded delivery, the term varies by country) and…

How did you happen to avoid the termination fees? What was in this letter?

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#248

Post by tombrossman »

tomkinstinch wrote: post #179
tombrossman wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't mind sharing but there are so many examples online for anyone searching 'cancellation letter template' I don't see the need. It's a completely standard business letter that you keep very short and to the point. Include your account numbers and do not bother with providing a reason unless you are exercising your 'get out free' option for a rate hike on a term contract. The shorter the better. Read the contract from the service provider and have a copy of your most recent bill to refer to for account details, and make sure the reader has enough info to process your request properly.

Note that this works best for small-time stuff like broadband or mobile phone plans, if you have a lot riding on it you are better off talking to a lawyer and paying for an hour or two of their time.

Sample text,remember to keep it very short and to the point:

Notice Of Cancellation Of Service (or alternate subject line, use bold print this line only)

Dear Sir or Madam, (or preferably a name if known)

I am writing to cancel service under account number in my name at the above address effective .

(optional paragraph) I will return your equipment to your office on the same date and obtain proof of delivery.

(optional paragraph) I reject your rate increase of . You forfeit the Early Termination Fee due to the following materially averse change to our previous agreement: (It CANNOT be a sales tax increase or anything outside their control but can definitely be an increase in any silly and vague 'regulatory' fees, etc. A classic example is an increase in SMS fees from 5¢ to 10¢, regardless of whether you actually went over your allowance and paid an overage yet. They may offer to waive this but you are not obliged to accept - they chose to alter the deal and they broke their contract, not you)>

Sincerely,

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#249

Post by tombrossman »

mkhalil wrote: post #247
tombrossman wrote: post #82

Nearly all of these contracts with Comcast or similar companies will have a postal address you can write to and cancel. Even if they provide no cancellation postal address, look up their 'Agent for service of process', this is always listed somewhere. I never call to cancel, this is a waste of time and not necessary. I've done this repeatedly (use certified mail, or recorded delivery, the term varies by country) and…

How did you happen to avoid the termination fees? What was in this letter?

Here's a classic example: http://consumerist.com/2009/12/31/30-day-window-to-cancel-sp...

Re: Show HN: Cancel your Comcast in 5 minutes

#250

Post by zhte415 »

Natsu wrote: post #113
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…

My worst was with Megapath (i.e. Speakeasy after it was bought up and they destroyed all that was ever good with it). I filled out their web form to cancel and... nothing happened. Someone apparently called me at an odd hour without warning, but there was no message and no callback number so I couldn't figure out why. They just kept billing me. Then I called up and asked to cancel on the phone and they told me you ca…

For anyone in a similar situation with online forms seeming an official means, I now screencast myself in basically every transaction.

Shift+PrtSc and done.

Having never much been into recording screens before, this took a while to discover, but is not automatic behaviour.

There are lots of utilities for doing so. I use ShareX (with the above keyboard shortcut configures) and it is the most useful app I never knew I needed. http://getsharex.com/

[So useful, I just submitted it as a link. It took a long time to find and trust anything similar.]

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