The billing will continue until morale improves!
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Why does he want to cancel Comcast?
I feel for the phonedroid, Iām sure his paycheck depends on talking people out of it, and heās just trying to afford his life like the rest of us. Tryinā to do his shitty job in service of a shitty companyās monopolistic bottom line a la most folks.
But daaaaaaaaaaaaamn, son. If youāre going to get a constructive answer out of the customer whoās ending service, the hostility wonāt help. Know when to fold 'em.
2 Likes
I have had four instances in the past 15 years in which Comcast employees have committed property crimes against me. Their response to my complaints was always: weāre with Comcast, thereās nothing you can do about it. Calling customer service confirmed their smug statements.
I have never been a Comcast customer. Thatās how they treat EVERYONE in their purview, not just customers.
edited to add:
I donāt need to listen to the recording: Iāve been going through hell with AT&T (the only provider of a land line in my city, which I need for several specific reasons) for the past 22 months. AT&T and Comcast have been in the top 5 worst companies in the U.S. for how many years running now? Yeah, Iād blow a gasket (or something) if I listened to that recording. No way, Jose.
I think my introductory rate just went up on my Comcast internet. Wonder if they will try that hard to try to keep me when I ask them to lower it back down.
1 Like
What cracks me up is thisā¦
If Ryan had begun berating this little peon cursing at him calling him names, essentially been a belligerent disgruntled customer; they would have done anything to get his service turned off and out of their hair.
The reason this became a swirling void of maddening double talk was simply because Ryan was calm.
Companies and by extension customer service never seems to work with a calm person. I experienced this same basic issue walking into Best Buy a number of years ago. I calmly explained that the delivery people for our new washer/dryer and refrigerator had brought the wrong Washing machine entirely, broken the dryer during installation, and upon redelivery of the correct washer and a new dryer promptly left with my drill/driver - a $150 cordless powerdrill and LiPo battery worth $50. The Best Buy managerās response to this news was āThe delivery service is not actually Best Buy employeesā I responded āThey had shirts that said Best Buy on them, I paid you a $100 delivery feeā¦I cant say I care who signs their paychecks.ā This went on for nearly 45 min of this associate manager asking me why the store and Best Buy should be responsible for the mistakes of the delivery service, and how there was nothing she could do.
I contended that a reimbursement of the delivery fee would be the best start. She disagreed.
In the end she gave us store credit for the delivery amount. But when it was all said and done I pointed out to herā¦
āIf I had come in here screaming and yelling, frothing at the mouth, and making a sceneā¦you would have done anything to get me out of here. You would have given into any demand I made regardless of reason or sense just to ensure I didnāt cause collateral damage amongst your other customers. Instead I was calm and rational. I used reason, not demanding a full refund of $2500, just a refund of the delivery charge which was where the issue lay. I spoke to you with respect, and empathized with your situation having not been the person responsible for the foul up, but responsible for somehow making amends.For my part, you repaid me by stone-walling, infuriating me, and dismissing me. This was the opposite of good customer service in every possible way. After I spend this $150 in your store, I will never purchase from Best Buy again. You just lost a customer for life.ā
Iām sure my words and their meaning were lost on her.
10 Likes
I love how he offers a discount by saying āI can save you more than $100 / monthā. My first question would be āWhy havenāt you offered that to me before?ā I had an insurance company do this to me once. I called to cancel my service and they offered to save me a bunch of money. That made me want to cancel even more.
3 Likes
I am calling to cancel service on behalf of John Doe, who is deceased.
1 Like
If you stay on the phone after being informed it is implied consent. So, yes, consent is required, just not explicit consent.
You can always pretend to be somebody else calling on behalf of Professor59 and tell the cable company that you have died and nobody is watching anymore! It might work you never know. 
If worst comes to worst just change credit card numbers and donāt tell the cable company. They will disconnect you quick when they receive no payment! Of course after a short period of time pay what is owed via cheque but donāt try and get reconnected. State you have money troubles and canāt afford their overpriced services. It may be untrue but how on earth would they know?! Companies tend to lose interest fast when you have no money. Maybe it is a crazy idea but if you are desperate to disconnect from a company that wonāt disconnect you and you have tried everything else including being rude I donāt see any other choice.
If I were the retention person Iād offer my sincere condolences and say weāll do that for you right awayā¦and update your credit report with the information of your deathā¦to check if you were serious while being outwardly above the board.
Er, which is to say, Iād never tell a retention person that I was dead. Who knows what theyād do with that.
I seriously doubt a $12 hr. call center person has the authorization to update my credit report and to actually check to see if I was dead. These guys are just badly paid and poorly trained grunts whose only job is to upsell services and keep customers from leaving by being pushy and difficult over the phone.
1 Like
Sadly, losing your temper is a win for them. Itās their final gambit to keep the account - donāt forget they want you to walk away and thus not cancel the account.
Once you start shouting and/or swearing, you provide the opportunity for your adversary to say, āItās the companyās policy that we do not deal with abusive customers, Iām ending this call now.ā Click. --Dead toneā.
Unfortunately, you are then back to step one of the process, except you are now even more frustrated, so even less likely to run the gauntlet and get what you want.
He did the best thing he could do by saying, āPlease cancel the serviceā, until it was clear there was nothing that could be said that would cause him to get too angry to continue the call.
What I think is really sad, is just how miserable the guy at the other end of the call must be. Every day, heās being paid to harass customers until they get angry, just so that he can hang up on them and his employer can continue to charge for their crappy service for another month before the same customer picks up the phone to start the same conversation again, and he does this for hour after hour, day after day, week after week, what an utterly depressing and unfulfilling life that must be.
7 Likes
I agree but in this crappy economy more people are being forced to take such shitty survival jobs because in many cases it is either that or welfare. Call centers tend to set up shop in economically deprived areas where there is high unemployment so they can get people to do this shitty low paid work.
True. That is a subtle but important distinction. However, in practice, notice = consent, even if they say āI donāt want you to record meā after you put them on notice that you will be recording the conversation no matter what.
Trying to cancel Sky TV in the UK is similar. They will do whatever it takes to keep you as a customer. First, theyāll offer you a few months of free service and after that if you still want to cancel theyāll start playing hardball in the hope that youāll give up.
I learned that the best approach is to clearly say āI would like to cancel my serviceā and if they play hardball ask āAre you refusing to cancel my service? Shall I place this matter in the hands of my legal representative?ā. That usually gets them to play along.
They are trained/forced to engage you in conversation. If you refuse to play their game they will do what you tell them.
1 Like
If thatās true then it is hilarious - because AOL is the only company that ever gave me this treatment. It was years ago, and Iām over it, but Iām still entitled to my schadenfreude.
I just remembered the one time I had to cancel Comcast, on the last day of service they added in a PPV charge for a porno movie. Did the same thing to a few of my friends as well, probably thinking youāll be too embarrassed to make a fuss. Iām sure it was an honest mistake, and just one big coincidence.
4 Likes
I eventually got rid of AOL by just not paying the bill anymore. Every time I tried to cancel theyād give me another free month. So eventually I stopped calling and paying. Still took 4 months for them to cut me off.
Comcast, I almost got when I moved, before I discovered my house had already been wired for FiOS. And thank god for that, because just trying to order the services I wanted was a nightmare. I called with very specific requirements: internet speed of 30/mbps minimum and a landline phone. They immediately offered me a package of 20/mbps and cable TV. I repeated my requirements. They offered me a different package with the phone, internet and TV that was reasonably priced and I agreed to ā¦ except then they told me that didnāt actually include the phone line.
Frustrated, I told them Iād look at the packages online again and check back. I managed to set up a service plan that had what I wanted online, and when I called to schedule installation, they said I canāt have the price Iām quoted on the website because it combined two discounts. Now, I wasnāt asking for those discounts, the cart had done it automatically when I added the services to it. But it wasnāt allowed despite the site allowing it.
When we discovered the FiOS was already in, and my husband called to cancel the installation, they began calling him at work several times a day trying to get him to reschedule despite being told weād gone with the FiOS provider. Then they began showing up on the doorstep. We finally got rid of them by repeating over and over āYou do not have the services we want. Weāre with Frontier. We will never use your company.ā I was starting to feel stalked.
1 Like
Thatās right, hah, never thought of that. It never limits it to any one of the parties, and they are saying āmay beā which yeah, sounds like itās a-ok with them!
i see what you did there.
