Tech Blogger Tries To Cancel Comcast Service, Hilarity Ensues • Hacker News Board

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

#221

Post by antjanus » Tue, Jul 15, 2014, 4:12 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #198

spodek wrote: post #174

We're an entrepreneurial community and here is a case of demand. Why not meet the demand to cut off internet services? One idea: create a phone service where I call a third-party (you, the entrepreneur) that connects me to the best number to cancel my service. The third party determines if recording the call is legal and records if so, posting the recording online, along with metadata: date, duration, agent name, loc…

Then again, it might make huge money too, since so many companies play hardball retaining customers. How would that result in this endeavor making money? In any case, this is not actually a problem that is difficult to solve. Yes, a phone call like that is utterly infuriating, but you can still cancel your service at the end of it. Maybe people would pay money to avoid dealing with that. Maybe. But you do it, what, o…

Actually, there was a company that would take all your bills, call up the companies representing you, and get your bill lowered. They made 10% off that (so if they lowered your comcast bill from $90 to $60, they'd make $3 on it).

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

#222

Post by grecy » Tue, Jul 15, 2014, 4:18 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #55

Step one: write letter saying you want to cancel your service. Step two: send the letter via certified mail to the company whose service you're cancelling, cc'd to your state attorney general's office. Step three: there is no step 3.

How does one cc a letter?

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

#223

Post by Kluny » Tue, Jul 15, 2014, 4:20 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #188

wallawe wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You seem to be arguing that government intervention is what caused this mess, so more government intervention is not the answer. The trouble is that "government intervention" is such a general term that the statement is useless. It's barely one step better than "doing things caused this problem in the first place, so doing things is not the solution to it." There's good government intervention and bad government inte…

> You seem to be arguing that government intervention is what caused this mess, so more government intervention is not the answer.

People always say that, but I don't agree with it. Yes, the government caused the mess, but that doesn't mean they can't fix it. When I break someone's website with bad code, no one says "well, you caused this problem with code, more code is obviously not the answer so get the hell out." I iterate, fix the bugs and improve my solution. Why shouldn't government regulation get the same approach?

read the rest of your comment... we're arguing the same side. Sorry. I'll let my comment stand though.

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

#224

Post by sk5t » Tue, Jul 15, 2014, 4:21 PM UTC

at-fates-hands wrote: post #166

Nursie wrote: post #107

I've had lots of trouble with ISPs before. About a decade ago Bulldog Broadband were the first to offer 8Mb service in London, and at a reasonable price, and they oversold so massively their staff couldn't cope. After a month of no service I called to cancel, and after 45 minutes on hold I gave up. I tried again. And again. Eventually I got through to someone who processed the cancellation. I got an email saying "To…

This reminds of a guy who was on Leno back in the early 2000's. He got a bill from his energy company telling him he owed $0.00 and should pay immediately otherwise his service will get shut off. He ignores the notice and every couple of weeks, he starts getting threatening letters from the company. When he finally got the shut off service warning letter, he figured he'd better do something. He sent the company a che…

It looks like a pretty old tale... http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/zero.asp

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

#225

Post by freshhawk » Tue, Jul 15, 2014, 4:24 PM UTC

danielweber wrote: post #79

ekianjo wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this is actually amazing. I don't think I would have lasted more than 2 minutes answering the same question over and over again.

He wasn't answering the question over and over; he was refusing to answer the question. Which is, of course, his right. And maybe it would turn out that the rep would refuse to recognize his answer. And there is some social value in there occasionally being a crank who refuses to play by the rules just to expose them for the silliness there is. But realize he wasn't trying to get through this call easily. He was tryi…

The preamble text was pretty clear, this was 10 minutes into the call and after he had already answered these questions. They have a scripted response to every possible answer and none of them lead to "OK, we'll disconnect you" except for moving to an area they don't serve.

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

#226

Post by madaxe_again » Tue, Jul 15, 2014, 4:28 PM UTC

Nursie wrote: post #107

I've had lots of trouble with ISPs before. About a decade ago Bulldog Broadband were the first to offer 8Mb service in London, and at a reasonable price, and they oversold so massively their staff couldn't cope. After a month of no service I called to cancel, and after 45 minutes on hold I gave up. I tried again. And again. Eventually I got through to someone who processed the cancellation. I got an email saying "To…

Hey, shared experience here - I also jumped on that bandwagon, and had the same experience when trying to cancel. By the time they acknowledge my numerous and increasingly furious demands, they'd flogged their customer base to Virgin, who insisted I had a deemed contract with them and couldn't cancel.

I went down a completely different route to you, ultimately - I took them to small claims court on the basis that they'd charged me illegally and therefore owed me £600 or so, they failed to show to either mediation or court, I got a default judgment in my favour, they didn't pay it, but they did stop contacting and invoicing me, and my credit score wasn't dented.

Now, British Gas and the electricity meter that ticked over from 99999 to 00000 and resulted in a £15k power bill is another story entirely...

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

#227

Post by warfangle » Tue, Jul 15, 2014, 4:28 PM UTC

dllthomas wrote: post #218

warfangle wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(edited for source) There is no such thing as a free market: it is an idealistic theoretical construct. And even if it were real, it would only be efficient if P=NP[0]. 0. http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.2284

"And even if it were real, it would only be efficient if P=NP." Because finding global optima is hard? I grant that, but: 1) things can be intractably hard even if P=NP - O(n^10000) is in P, and there are complexity classes strictly harder than P (e.g. EXPTIME)), and since there are innumerable moves anyone could take out into the future "optimal resource distribution" could plausibly fall in EXPTIME. 2) Regardless,…

My edit cited the paper in question, where the author shows how to use markets to solve NP-complete problems.

Either markets are weak-form efficient and P=NP, or markets are not weak-form efficient and P≠NP.

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

#228

Post by madaxe_again » Tue, Jul 15, 2014, 4:30 PM UTC

MichaelApproved wrote: post #176

xj9 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bank charges are also reversible.

I don't use a debit card much but I heard that you don't get as many consumer protects with debit cards as you do with credit cards. If you're going to pay bills, for many reasons, use a credit card instead of debit cards.

You have virtually NO consumer protection with a debit card. Once the money is gone, it is gone.

This is why merchant acquirers charge a flat rate of a few pence for debit card transactions, and an extortionate percentage for credit card transactions - chargeback risk. Cannae do with a debit card without bumping into Dante and his buddy in their digs first.

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

#229

Post by dkrich » Tue, Jul 15, 2014, 4:30 PM UTC

I thoroughly dislike Comcast and would go to great effort to avoid their service.

That said, as funny as this is, this to me is more of a failing on a personal level than by Comcast as a whole. He seems more angry at the caller because he's losing the argument and not getting any concessions and just wants some sort of response or willingness to hear what he's saying. I sincerely believe that by the midpoint of that recording he was no longer interested in keeping the customer, he just wanted to win a point in the argument to protect his ego.

Interestingly, these are the last people you want handling sales/customer retention calls because they don't empathize with the customer or see the situation from their point of view at all. They're more worried about their appearance than the ultimate business goal, which is increasing sales.

I'm pretty certain that he would be reprimanded for this behavior.

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

#230

Post by mikeash » Tue, Jul 15, 2014, 4:32 PM UTC

Kluny wrote: post #223

mikeash wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be arguing that government intervention is what caused this mess, so more government intervention is not the answer. The trouble is that "government intervention" is such a general term that the statement is useless. It's barely one step better than "doing things caused this problem in the first place, so doing things is not the solution to it." There's good government intervention and bad government inte…

> You seem to be arguing that government intervention is what caused this mess, so more government intervention is not the answer. People always say that, but I don't agree with it. Yes, the government caused the mess, but that doesn't mean they can't fix it. When I break someone's website with bad code, no one says "well, you caused this problem with code, more code is obviously not the answer so get the hell out."…

Hey, there's no law that says any reply must be an argument against the comment it's replying to. At least, not until out-of-control government regulators mandate it.