151–160 of 225 posts
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What’s with this rising trend of authoritative comments on HN thinking their individual rationale/experience generalizes. It wasn’t this bad just a few years ago, but now I’m seeing just outright absurd generalizations like this.
Ironically, this is quite the generalisation of HN users.
Hi, European here. To hear these horror stories how hard it is to cancel a service in the US makes me wonder how the Americans put up with this.
Fellow non-American: Add in the random percentage increase in price when you try to buy something in a store from hidden taxes. Also add the culture of tipping, rather than paying staff.
It's not random.
Those of us with a state tax are familiar with the rules and the rates. Those with a modicum of arithmetic ability have a pretty good idea what the total is coming to.
Not saying "this is better" just that it is not as bad as you apparently think.
Visa/Mastercard have enough power to enforce this on their own. Although obviously regulation would've been better. If a bunch of elected officials wrote letters to execs and a couple of NYT articles were written about the issue, Visa/Mastercard might be motivated to help.
I'm listening to hold music right now, 30 minutes into my attempt at cancelling 3mbps home DSL service (not a typo), for which the price has crept up to $71 USD/mo. I first spoke with a customer service agent whose accent I couldn't understand very well. I have him ALL my account information. He mumbled something about being unable to forward me to the actual customer service agent (then what is your role, dude?), th…
The transfer process impacts the metrics of the agent. You know, like call length, customer survey, customer callbacks, etc
Well transfers are also a metric. That specific agent might prefer a "callback" over a "transfer" that month.
W/e Your best strategy is to open the call with: "hi, I want to cancel my service" And don't give details about any problem, you just want to cancel. Period.
If the agen't "can't transfer" ask for a supervisor. Could be 5 - 15 more minutes but at least you don't have to call again.
If you ask for "an American" or "someone who can speak english", depending on the call center company, you can get a call drop, a soft retention, a transfer to the agent beside, or a transfer to a call center in the US. YMMV
my two cents
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fellow non-American: Add in the random percentage increase in price when you try to buy something in a store from hidden taxes. Also add the culture of tipping, rather than paying staff.
> Add in the random percentage increase in price when you try to buy something in a store from hidden taxes. It's not random. Those of us with a state tax are familiar with the rules and the rates. Those with a modicum of arithmetic ability have a pretty good idea what the total is coming to. Not saying "this is better" just that it is not as bad as you apparently think.
I'm listening to hold music right now, 30 minutes into my attempt at cancelling 3mbps home DSL service (not a typo), for which the price has crept up to $71 USD/mo. I first spoke with a customer service agent whose accent I couldn't understand very well. I have him ALL my account information. He mumbled something about being unable to forward me to the actual customer service agent (then what is your role, dude?), th…
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People were only given 2 options. The democrats didn't even have a primary. We didn't really get democracy. There are plenty of things that are broadly unpopular that elected officials do and it's a lazy oversimplification to say that that's what the majority want.
There was a primary, it just wasn't a hotly contested one. I voted in it... That being said, there was no contest post Biden drop out, although there was a party alignment
This is something that should be governed by legislation (law) —passed by lawmakers, as we've seen in California - not by executive agencies. The FTC, as part of the executive branch (kinda independent but heavily influenced by the administration in power), shouldn't be in the business of creating new laws. But I get it now: when Biden directs the FTC to act, it's considered legitimate use of executive power. When Tr…
Do you not think the Trump administration is more authoritarian?
His style is certainly authoritarian, but that’s not the same as the actual impact on me, my family, and my community.
"If you can sign up online, you must be able to cancel online, too." That leaves a lot of room for the "Cancel" option to be buried in an obscure hard to find part of the website. I'd have hoped there was a requirement for it to be as prominent and as easy to find as the "Subscribe" option (and maybe there is, just not mentioned in this piece?)
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Perhaps the letter alone would be adequate. But frustratingly, the AT&T website appeared to allow you to replace your current (auto-pay) billing method with some other billing method, but I didn't see any way to remove all current billing methods, which makes just stopping paying nigh impossible. :-(
most credit cards allow you to create a temporary card number. Create one, set it to be the billing method, and then revoke it. crazy that we need to resort to that sort of thing, but it does work!