Canceling Unwanted Services

[dannylion]

Many have probably heard the stories of people entering a special circle of hell when they tried to cancel Comcast or other similar service.  What is wrong with companies that seem to think that bullying or strong-arming or even threatening customers who want to cancel services into keeping them is a good idea and a sensible business practice?  It appears that other companies looked at what the cable companies were doing and said to themselves, "Hey, that sounds like a great way to retain our customers!  Let's do that, only maybe not so much."  

I bought a new car on Monday and tried to use the Sirus and OnStar websites to cancel those services on my old car.  There was a "cancel service" option on the Sirius website, so that looked like it was going to be easy to do, but when I tried to take advantage of that option, the response was along the lines of "We're sorry.  Something went wrong.  In the meantime, you can call one of our customer service representatives to complete your transaction."  I tried again this morning and got the same response, so I called.  Got a mildly aggressive sales pitch about why I should keep my service.  Politely declined.  Got another sales pitch with an incentive of a low rate for a year.  Politely declined.  Finally managed to cancel the service.  I'm getting 3 months of free Sirius with the new car and will then decide whether I even want to continue with it since I don't drive much anymore.  I will almost certainly receive another offer of a low rate for a year to keep the service, so I'll consider it then.  The experience was annoying.  

As far as I could tell, the OnStar website didn't even offer the option of canceling online.  The only way to cancel was to call customer service.  Again, got the hard sell to keep the service, even though the new car is not a GM vehicle with OnStar connectivity.  They tried to persuade me to keep the OnStar app on my phone for a reduced price but finally relented after repeated polite refusals and canceled the service.  

Why do they have to make everything so hard?  I'd love to call to cancel something and hear "Sure, I can do that for you," followed by actually doing it without the hard sell to keep a service I have clearly decided I don't want.  

[wvugurl26]

I called to cancel the internet service at my grandma's house. I had previously canceled cable/phone with little hassle. They went hard sell on the cell phone service even after I said the move was to an area they didn't service. I had to seriously bite my tongue because I wanted to say a dead woman had no need for a cell phone.

Round 2 to cancel water service is tomorrow. House insurance, trash and electric were easy. Water has been a pain in the butt.

[dannylion]

Sept 12, 2023 20:46:38 GMT -5 wvugurl26 said:

I called to cancel the internet service at my grandma's house. I had previously canceled cable/phone with little hassle. They went hard sell on the cell phone service even after I said the move was to an area they didn't service. I had to seriously bite my tongue because I wanted to say a dead woman had no need for a cell phone.

Round 2 to cancel water service is tomorrow. House insurance, trash and electric were easy. Water has been a pain in the butt.

You're a better person than I would have been.  I would definitely have let them know she was deceased, hoping they would feel embarrassed.  What can companies possibly hope to gain by bullying people who are just trying to complete the last few things they will be able to do for someone they cared about.  Sorry to hear about the loss of your grandmother.  

[dannylion]

Deleted.  Duplicate post.  

[finnime]

There are companies, Sirius XM among them, who will only offer good deals on their products when the customer proposes cancelling.

I just a few days ago cancelled altogether televsision services from xFinity, which is the only game in this town for internet and cable. I kept the internet for a fair price. The process took me 2 months in the end. They really did not want to let me go. I was passed around from one CSR to the next on each call until the last, when I just blankly said to cancel everything but gigabit internet.

A company that makes it nearly impossible to cancel just hardens my resolve to not do business with them.

[daisylu]

I recently canceled DirecTV with no issues. The CSR immediately said they could do that for me, though they did ask why. (My equipment was old and the new doesn't pick up signal so well through leaves. Plus we finally got good internet so went to streaming.)

[tractor]

I actually had good luck canceling my AT&T service. The woman was very polite and was fun to talk to. She probably got fired for being too nice to customers 😀

[wvugurl26]

I had better luck with the city for the water account today. Probably because I waited long enough for the new owners to set up their service. The final reading has been done. It's sitting waiting for the 20th when they normally send the bill.

I've got 1 stock left and I'm anticipating issues with its transfer. The other 6 transferred with no problem. I'm ready to be done with this process.