Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tech Blogger Tries To Cancel Comcast Service, Hilarity Ensues

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 356 posts

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

#241

Post by dllthomas »

warfangle wrote: post #227
dllthomas wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

Ah. Cute, but doesn't look like something that can actually be applied to the real world.

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

#242

Post by Nickoladze »

greggman wrote: post #234
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…

Just tell them you're moving to another state/country. Works for me

"Oh, you want to transfer your Comcast account to a new home? Tell me your new address and we can start the migration process."

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

#244

Post by kabdib »

chris_wot wrote: post #152
kabdib wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll just transfer you to legal. Worst case, they tag your account and do this every time you call, and you're in limbo for months. Ugh.

That's not how it works. They won't transfer you to a lawyer: those are damned expensive. In Australia, if you threaten to go to an ombudsman, companies tend to listen. Ombudsman cases are very expensive.

You don't get a lawyer, you get the legal department. Big difference :-)

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

#245

Post by VLM »

dkrich wrote: post #229

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…

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

I could not disagree more.

That makes the huge assumption that the retention department is measured and paid by metrics like "increasing sales". I am almost 100% certain that would not be the case.

The longer you keep a quitting customer on the phone the less likely they are to leave, the more likely they are to give up hope and keep paying. Awesome job.

The company pays the retention rep to read arguments from a script to a quitting customer, and the rep read all of them, awesome.

Lets say we get $150/month from this customer and it costs us $8/hr for this customer's monthly hour long call to argue and lie to the customer. The company is not seeing a financial problem here. At $5/day revenue even if all the rep does is slow down the customer by one pro-rated day, as long as the rep spends less than 30 minutes per call the company is still making a "profit". More typically if you just lie to the customer and get on average half a billing period out of them, thats an awesome profit.

You get what you measure and select for.

"because they don't empathize with the customer"

Why would a monopoly provider want to do that? It doesn't even make sense. Like hiring a police chief based on how well he empathizes with the crooks, or promoting a military officer based on how sympathetic he is to the other side, or appointing a religious leader based on how strongly he believes in the opposition's point of view.

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

#246

Post by HarryHirsch »

bradleyland wrote: post #214
saamm wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to be canceling Comcast around the end of the month. You're telling me I can just send a letter to my local service center and say, "Peace out!"?

I have canceled many internet service accounts (while working with customers) from both Comcast and AT&T. While infuriating, this is not representative of the vast majority of my experiences. Reason being, this is not how retention reps are trained. This guy was clearly on a personal mission. I would be surprised if he still works for Comcast. Here's a really simple guide to getting past customer retention: 1) Be cou…

In all other cases, the process consisted of answering two or three questions, then I was on to cancellation.

It's not my job to play along with their script and help them raise revenue. It's their job to cancel service, no questions asked.

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

#247

Post by dminor »

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.

Or just tell them that Frontier offered you a free pony if you switch. Pretty sure that's not in the script ;)

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

#248

Post by alttab »

Nickoladze wrote: post #242
greggman wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just tell them you're moving to another state/country. Works for me

"Oh, you want to transfer your Comcast account to a new home? Tell me your new address and we can start the migration process."

Totally sleezy. No self respecting person would do this. That said, I've dealt with comcast before. After telling them I would cancel due to their arbitrary "end of promotion" I was redirected to their "loyalty department" which miraculously found another promotion for me that would prevent me from paying $80 a month for slow buffering internet.

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

#249

Post by fuzzywalrus »

greggman wrote: post #234
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…

Just tell them you're moving to another state/country. Works for me

Indeed, I used that angle when I called to cancel. It was pretty painless. When they asked me where I was moving to, I just said, "moving" and the rep pursued again, and I said "The moon".

That particular rep left me alone after that. I've received two phone calls since, to which I said, "I live in a yert in manitoba now" and the second call I just hung up. I still 9 months later receive occasion break up letters from comcast, asking me to come back.

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

#250

Post by seanflyon »

maxerickson wrote: post #134
verisimilitude wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I believe they could also be fined up to $16,000 if you put your number on the "do not call" registry and ask them not to call you again.

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0108-national-do-not-ca...

Post reply on HN