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Tech Blogger Tries To Cancel Comcast Service, Hilarity Ensues

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Re: Tech Blogger Tries To Cancel Comcast Service, Hilarity Ensues

#131

Post by tombrossman »

zerohp wrote: post #57

There's only one easy way to cancel service with a company like Comcast. You have to lie and tell them you're moving to a city that they don't serve. They don't transfer you to customer retention and you'll be off the phone in a few minutes.

The easiest way to cancel services with shit companies like this is by mail. Spend a few minutes typing a letter, pay the small extra fee for proof of delivery, and you are done. Your post office probably has an automated self-serve kiosk where you can do this in under 5 minutes. Time is money, don't allow a company to spend your time like this.

Sure, you should be able to cancel on the phone with no hassle but that is a pipe dream. This is one instance where the old-school method still works best. I've done this with Verizon & Sprint when I lived in the States and was even able to cancel without penalty (they raised SMS a few cents each time) and not deal with their retentions people.

Now it is my preferred method for anything that takes over 10 minutes on the phone. Even if they are on the line, 10 minutes is a hard cutoff and I hang up, type a short letter, and mail it. It's low-tech but very effective.

And for anyone else with Comcast, here's the fine print that Ryan should have read to save all this aggravation. Scroll down to section 9 b (1): https://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Customers/Policies/Subscri...

Re: Tech Blogger Tries To Cancel Comcast Service, Hilarity Ensues

#132

Post by wallawe »

michaelfeathers wrote: post #112

This being HN no one likes to talk about regulatory solutions, but the silence on this one is startling. Wasn't there a day in the US when companies would be fined for this sort of business practice? Why can't we go there today? Is it simply the triumph of free-market orthodoxy and a tacit acceptance that to be a consumer today one must subject oneself to this sort of rapaciousness?

I think you're missing the point all together. The only reason a company can behave this way and retain the number of customers who would have otherwise moved elsewhere is because there isn't a free-market. The companies are run as oligopolies. It is government intervention and protection that has caused this problem in the first place which is what most people don't realize.

Re: Tech Blogger Tries To Cancel Comcast Service, Hilarity Ensues

#133

Post by abdelm »

danielweber wrote: post #127
scott_s wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's fair to the caller. He was polite, and was clear in what he wanted. Had the Comcast agent said "Okay, I understand that you don't want to tell me that, let's move on" the call would have moved on and not ended up on the internet. He wanted his service cancelled, and did not want to engage in a conversation about it. How else could the caller have possibly handled it? Also, the caller was not a "c…

How else could the caller have possibly handled it? This is obvious: by answering the question. I'll repeat that he was under no obligation to answer that question. My mother-in-law does the same thing this guy does: stands her ground and refuses to answer any questions. It's completely her right to engage in that manner, but she neither asks for nor gets any sympathy for how long she has to stay on the phone with pe…

Yes, but answering the first question would lead to a million other questions since the rep obviously set his mind on something from the start. He said he's moving to a different service, then the rep says why are you moving, don't you want the #1 internet & tv, etc.

Re: Tech Blogger Tries To Cancel Comcast Service, Hilarity Ensues

#134

Post by maxerickson »

verisimilitude wrote: post #91
zerohp wrote: post #57

There's only one easy way to cancel service with a company like Comcast. You have to lie and tell them you're moving to a city that they don't serve. They don't transfer you to customer retention and you'll be off the phone in a few minutes.

Accidentally downvoted you, meant to upvote... sorry about that. Anyhow: I was actually moving, told Comcast so, and I was indeed off the phone in a few minutes. "I wonder what everyone's concern about Comcast is anyway," I wondered. Then, a few days later, the "follow-up" calls began. It got to the point that I had to block the Comcast number just to get some peace.

It often works to ask to be put on their courtesy do not call list.

Systematically, they don't actually want to spend effort on people that don't want to talk to them and the 'courtesy do not call list' line says 'stop calling me' without inviting an argument.

It's probably more effective if you don't mind talking over their initial spiel.

Re: Tech Blogger Tries To Cancel Comcast Service, Hilarity Ensues

#135

Post by mikeash »

interpol_p wrote: post #67
wil421 wrote: post #24

I've cancelled Comcast a few times before when ATT had a better deal and it was never this bad. They usually try to give me a better deal but sorry I've made my decision thats why I am calling, if you gave me a better rate to begin with I might not be leaving. With Comcast you can usually just hang up and call again if you get an employee with an attitude. This method works with tech support too, hang up and try agai…

> With Comcast you can usually just hang up and call again if you get an employee with an attitude. I'm guessing that this tactic might actually make the nice employees look bad. The employees with an attitude will have better customer retention metrics; then the nice customer service reps risk losing their jobs or also developing an attitude.

Even if that's true, Comcast's bad metrics aren't our responsibility.

Re: Tech Blogger Tries To Cancel Comcast Service, Hilarity Ensues

#136

Post by sergiotapia »

chatmasta wrote: post #39
personZ wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy who he was talking to works for Comcast, is pursuing Comcast goals (which aggressively punishes agents who don't have high enough retention rates), and is recorded and often monitored by Comcast. The Comcast agent clearly has a list of complaints/responses that they use to try to defuse all complaints -- not that they've actually solved your problem, but rather that they made you think the call was no longer…

I was able to cancel my account with comcast, just two weeks ago, in under twenty minutes. Are you saying that if he had hung up, and called again, he would have faced an equally long phone call? My point is that he did not have to put up with this. Obviously there are going to be some bad apples amongst the thousands of comcast customer service employees. He could have hung up on this guy, called back, and gotten a…

>I was able to cancel my account with comcast, just two weeks ago, in under twenty minutes.

It's hilarious how you say that like it's a good thing. Hint: No it's not.

Re: Tech Blogger Tries To Cancel Comcast Service, Hilarity Ensues

#137

Post by rakeshagrawal »

I had an experience similar to this last week. And I was trying to cancel my business account SO I COULD OPEN ANOTHER ACCOUNT TO REPLACE IT. Comcast is so bad at service provisioning and customer service, I'm thinking that it's actually their superpower.

Re: Tech Blogger Tries To Cancel Comcast Service, Hilarity Ensues

#138

Post by mikeash »

malka wrote: post #109
tinco wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this guy works in the cancellations department, to which you are connected when you indicate that you want to cancel your service. That means it is his sole job to convince persons to not cancel the service. He also receives a bonus for every phone call he makes that does not result in a cancellation. For you it's 15 minutes of time wasted, for him it means 15 minutes of hard work that came very close to paying o…

I wonder how long I could manage to get that guy to stick on the phone... I love being an asshole.

There must be a business opportunity here. Connect people who hate dealing with this stuff to people like you who love being an asshole. They get their service canceled without dealing with crap on the phone, you get to play the bad guy, everybody wins.

Re: Tech Blogger Tries To Cancel Comcast Service, Hilarity Ensues

#139

Post by kabdib »

kstenerud wrote: post #93

I only had a little bit of difficulty canceling my comcast service. After I figured out what the customer service guy was doing, it went a little like this: - I don't owe you an explanation. - I'm in a hurry. Cancel my service now. - I have your name. I will call back to complain about you. - If another bill comes, I will not pay. If you send a collection agency and it affects my credit rating, I'll take you to court…

At some companies, reps are trained to trigger on phrases like "talk to my lawyer", "i'll see you in court" and "i'm going to sue you" and transfer you IMMEDIATELY to a legal department.

I learned this the hard way with a car moving company; from that point on, my account was tagged with a "transfer to legal" and I couldn't even talk to a rep.

YMMV, but mentioning legal action is one way to get yourself into limbo.

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