Canceling phone/ internet/cable

[bctbct]

So 2 1/2 months ago I cancel my t-mobile phone. Still getting bills, down to 12 bucks at this point.

Now I am trying to cancel Att Uverse. I spent nearly 2 hrs on the phone today being passed around to CSRs. Noone can give me a confirmation number.

COCK suckers are going to be sending me bills for months!

Time for law makers to get off their ass and make canceling these services easy by email so I dont have to listen to their sales pitches, and they should have to send you a letter within 48hrs to verify you cancelled.

 

[SickBeast]

Sometimes you've just got to learn the hard way with these companies unfortunately. Just never use them again. Ever.

I personally go with a smaller company for my ISP/VOIP. I've had a few issues, but I can cancel at any time no questions asked, plus my service is way cheaper than anything else I've found.

 

[Bignate603]

You run into this with everything. I had cancelled my renter's insurance when I bought a house but because of all of the stuff going on when I moved I never realized that they never refunded me the 11 months worth of insurance that they owed me. Fast forward to almost a year later and I got something in the mail at my new house (can't believe the post office was still forwarding my mail from the old apartment) saying my renter's insurance was going to be billed to my credit card in a few weeks.

I had to call them up and give them grief about that, I hadn't even been living in the apartment for almost a year. After about 30 minutes on the phone they said they'd refund the money from the apartment and it would be in my account in 5 business days. 3 weeks later I FINALLY get the money.

 

[Raduque]

No shady business practice bitch thread is complete without a rant on fucking Mail-In Rebates!

I hate those fucking things, you fill them out right (you know you did) and you put everything they need/want in the envelope (receipt, proof of purchase, part from the box with the IEMI, toenail clippings from the day you bought it, picture of your great aunt Agnes, a patch of vinyl from the seats of a 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais), you photocopy everything, and it STILL gets denied. Then you call and threaten them with the photocopies and they relent (or you have to spend 3 days faxing your copies only for them to get "lost") and you finally get your rebate... debit... card?
W.
T.
F.

MIRs should be outlawed, and companies that use them should be burned at the stake. Or maybe steak, I'm hungry.

 

[nageov3t]

I've moved every ~3 years since graduating high school... I've never had a problem canceling any of these services.

maybe it's user error?

 

[Bignate603]

No shady business practice bitch thread is complete without a rant on fucking Mail-In Rebates!

I hate those fucking things, you fill them out right (you know you did) and you put everything they need/want in the envelope (receipt, proof of purchase, part from the box with the IEMI, toenail clippings from the day you bought it, picture of your great aunt Agnes, a patch of vinyl from the seats of a 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais), you photocopy everything, and it STILL gets denied. Then you call and threaten them with the photocopies and they relent (or you have to spend 3 days faxing your copies only for them to get "lost") and you finally get your rebate... debit... card?
W.
T.
F.

MIRs should be outlawed, and companies that use them should be burned at the stake. Or maybe steak, I'm hungry.

I moved before I got a staples rebate and apparently it ended up getting sent to my parent's address (my forwarding address at the time) and lost. About 6 months later I got a letter from them that said that the check had never been cashed so they wanted to know where to send a new one. It was the only good mail in rebate experience I've ever had.

 

[TuxDave]

I must've had good luck. I called ATT and cancelled my U-verse television in 10 minutes (including hold time!)

 

[JS80]

Lol you think govt regulation will make it better

 

[boomerang]

You tell them you're cancelling because you're moving out of the country. You'll have your final bill in 3 days.

 

[dfuze]

Being billed after cancelling services is pathetic in this digital age, just as is having to wait 6-8 weeks for refunds/rebates

 

[xSauronx]

I've moved every ~3 years since graduating high school... I've never had a problem canceling any of these services.

maybe it's user error?

only issue I ever had was wit cancelling AT&T home phone/dsl

when i got the service i said i wanted the non-contract rate so i could cancel anytime, and id pay the $5 a month extra for that. they said fine, thats the rate I was billed, and when i wanted to move and cancel...no, youre under a contract

"prove it."
well..you have the service
"at the non contract rate. produce paper or a recording or cancel my shit right now"

they relented, finally, and turned off my stuff, and i thought id paid the last bill...those fuckers sent me a bill a month later for cancelling a contract and i had to dick with them for probably 2 months over it

it was fucking absurd.

 

[JimmiG]

Most services have a period of notice... You agreed to this when you signed up.

 

[PingSpike]

I went to cancel my geico car insurance the other day, since the rate kept going up despite my cars obviously not becoming more valuable and of course the only thing the website won't do is let you cancel. You have to call and wait in a phone queue. I didn't have auto pay on that bill so I just let it lapse.

 

[Blackjack200]

I went to cancel my geico car insurance the other day, since the rate kept going up despite my cars obviously not becoming more valuable and of course the only thing the website won't do is let you cancel. You have to call and wait in a phone queue. I didn't have auto pay on that bill so I just let it lapse.

Fucking this. why do comprehensive rates go up as your car gets older (is worth less) and you have a longer track record of not making claims or getting points? Granted it doesn't go up much, but it should go down.

 

[PingSpike]

Fucking this. why do comprehensive rates go up as your car gets older (is worth less) and you have a longer track record of not making claims or getting points? Granted it doesn't go up much, but it should go down.

Yep, bullshit. I've had no claims, I know my car is worth half what it was when we started...rates have, crawled up? Maybe basic repairs have gone up a little (hard to believe when government inflation statistics indicate flat lining) but if it gets really fucked up you know they're going to just total it and hand me a few thousand bucks.

My home owners insurance (also getting tossed this week) was even more fucktastic. Bill goes up $157/yr from last year AND included a letter about how after 3 years with them and no claims I'll receive a new discount! Oh wow! A new discount of -$157! Thanks assholes! Choke on a screwdriver.

 

[Gibson486]

The only service I ever had problems canceling was AOL.

I canceled Comcast....they did not even try to keep me.

Canceled gf's tmobile account....did not even try to keep me.

Canceled FIOS....did not even try to keep me.

Canceled Anandtech....I signed back up...

 

[Gibson486]

Yep, bullshit. I've had no claims, I know my car is worth half what it was when we started...rates have, crawled up? Maybe basic repairs have gone up a little (hard to believe when government inflation statistics indicate flat lining) but if it gets really fucked up you know they're going to just total it and hand me a few thousand bucks.

My home owners insurance (also getting tossed this week) was even more fucktastic. Bill goes up $157/yr from last year AND included a letter about how after 3 years with them and no claims I'll receive a new discount! Oh wow! A new discount of -$157! Thanks assholes! Choke on a screwdriver.

Sounds like it has to do with your surrounding area. If your area has been having lots of accidents (cars and home), everyone will suffer.

 

[IronWing]

Thirty years after deregulation and the breakup of Ma Bell, people are still saying "F the phone company".

 

[nageov3t]

whenever a cable/phone company gives me a hard sell trying to keep me, I just tell them that I'm moving to an area outside of their coverage.

 

[DrPizza]

I canceled my landline quite a while ago, and it was a pita to do so. The account was in my name, but I don't have a schedule such that I can sit for 15 minutes at work to do it. So, I have my wife cancel it. They won't let her, because it's in my name. However, at another point, they let her make changes to the service - because those changes increased the amount I had to pay each month.

The side of the house where the phone line is attached is going to need to be resided some time after this fall. I replaced & moved a window in the kitchen, and my wife is looking at bay windows to replace our dining room window (which needs to be replaced before this winter due to some rotting wood; it was like that when we bought the place & has just about reached the end of its life.)

I don't want to reattach the phone lines. Can I just leave them dangling? Cut them off as high up as I can reach by the telephone pole?

 

[IronWing]

I dropped my phone service down to local only and use phone cards for long distance. This cut my monthly phone bill by half. Every six months or so the phone company sends me a letter offering to perform a 100% FREE SERVICE REVIEW which included a coupon for a 100% FREE SERVICE REVIEW! So far I have declined this awesome benefit. I am tempted to call them and ask how much the service review would be without the coupon.

 

[rh71]

We just moved 2 months ago and I had a laundry list of things to cancel, no problems whatsoever.

Fucking this. why do comprehensive rates go up as your car gets older (is worth less) and you have a longer track record of not making claims or getting points? Granted it doesn't go up much, but it should go down.

I just got my renewal in the mail. The premium for each item list has gone up but it also shows my discounts have increased, almost by the same percentage. What I don't understand is how my total is still noticeably higher.

I dropped my phone service down to local only and use phone cards for long distance. This cut my monthly phone bill by half.

how much is your local plan after taxes? I have Vonage for my work line and it's $33 after taxes which includes free calls to like 69 countries... it's the worldplan or something. I mention this because long distance cards can add up too. But you do need internet access for Vonage.

 

[dpodblood]

Know what else companies suck at? Changing you're address... I have had numerous problems with my bank, ISP, and even the DMV. Whether you call or change the address online it makes no difference. They still fuck it up. It doesn't even make sense. We moved 2 months ago, and I have yet to receive a bill from my ISP. They obviously know where to send the bill since they knew where to come and hook up the service. Same thing happened at the DMV. When I moved 2 years ago I changed my address. When it was time to re-register my car I ordered the stickers online. They sent them to some address I lived at like 3 apartments ago. When I went in to resolve it they charged me to change my address again! Even though I had ALREADY PAID THEM TO DO IT 2 YEARS AGO. What a bunch of fail.

 

[IronWing]

how much is your local plan after taxes? I have Vonage for my work line and it's $33 after taxes which includes free calls to like 69 countries... it's the worldplan or something. I mention this because long distance cards can add up too. But you do need internet access for Vonage.

It comes out to ~$23/month plus the phone card costs. We make very few long distant calls so it works out. A $30 phone card will last us ~18 months.

 

[bctbct]

Made some progress today with tmobile. $4.32 has been removed from the bill and the other $8bucks will be removed in the next billing cycle.

wtf