How have we as a species allowed it to come to this?

[Diddums]

Customer service.

Example 1, home customer:

Sky. Want to cancel Sky TV because Netflix. Go online, log in, manage package. "Soz this is for ppls spending moniez only, u wanna cancel, pls call". Strike 1. How the **** can I not cancel stuff online?

Fine. Call them. "Contact us". "Have you tried this?" Yes. "You sure?" Yes. "Wanna try the community which we don't pay and hope can resolve your problem for free so we don't have to?" No. "Wanna have a chat with an online advisor?" No. "Ok, phone number". Strike 2. Why the **** do we have to exhaust 27 other options before getting something as simple as a phone number?

Make the call. "Hi, due to extremely high demand blablabla 10 mins wait minimum". That's odd, let's try another approach. "Hi I wanna upgrade sky". Literally 3 seconds later "Hi Sky speaking how can I help?". "I wanna cancel". "Soz m8, wrong number, you can find the number online". Back at square 1.

**** this.

Try again next day, exactly the same story. Ain't nobody got time fo' dat. 10 mins minimum? Seriously?

Try chat. After an hour of waiting I close the tab.

Phone again, this time using an 0800 number I was given, and after 13 mins I get through. "Hi wot u want". "Cancel sky". "Ok, I pass u to retentions team". "No, I don't want the retentions team, I want the cancellation team". "Same team". Fine. Just get on with it. "Hi retentions team speaking, wot u want?". "Cancel Sky". "Why u wanna cancel Sky?". "Because reasons". "Lol, no sir, we need to explore every single option first before we allow that, what telly do you watch? Pls buy more telly". "No cancel pls". "But why?".

JUST. CANCEL. THE. *******. TELLY.

Aaaaaand breathe. I was also going to type out my recent experiences with SSE and BT but I've cooled down now.

Questions stands though, how have we as a society allowed it to get to this? Why is dealing with these companies always, always less fun than having your tonsels surgically removed with a chainsaw, through your arse hole?

I just beggars belief. I'm going to start researching companies which don't suck balls, I'm too old for this ****.

 

[Thekwango]

never had an issue with cancelling SKY. 2 mins i think it was on live chat and job done. they just don't like you......harsh but understandable

 

[Hagar]

We used to have gas and electric showrooms on the high street, pay your bills there. Everything telephony wise was probably the Post Office, and Radio Rentals could supply you with three channel heaven for just a few quid a week.

I feel your pain though every time I get into a phone menu system.

 

[R.C.Anderson]

There really should be a governing body legislation for how easy it is to cancel... Companies implement it in a way they hope the hassle means you don't bother, and keep paying instead. It's just wrong.

 

[Sutters]

trust me BT are just as bad, everytime i have to phone its like 30mins to 1hr of waiting or going through rights. Such a time waste, i actually fear having to call them.

 

[Bassmansam]

Because money.

 

[glenimp617]

We are experiencing an usually high volumes of calls at present

Really? Really? think about what you've just said

 

[Rroff]

I'm with you on this one - with moving house and wanting to cancel some stuff way too many services you have to phone up to cancel, despite everything else being possible online, with a micky taking process often with long queues and having to have like 3 attempts at it until it actually connects you.

 

[Diddums]

trust me BT are just as bad, everytime i have to phone its like 30mins to 1hr of waiting or going through rights. Such a time waste, i actually fear having to call them.

This is on my list for today as well, if it wasn't a business account I'd simply cancel the direct debit and let them chase as it's easier than clawing my eyeballs out whilst on hold.

See also:
Thames Water
Sky (as above)
BT
SSE
TalkTalk (special place in hell for this lot)
Vodafone (although they seem to have pulled their socks up in recent years)

Someone needs to start a company, make it marginally more expensive than all this lot and run it properly, not bleeding money at every turn, name it "Good Service LTD" or something and rake in the cash. Someone do this pls. tnx.

 

[Dyson]

I’ll be honest, I’ve never had an issue when calling Sky, or BT. Maybe I’ve just been lucky!

 

[Hades]

Hmmm going to cancel sky. Not looking forward to it.

 

[Bickaxe]

Went through this the other month. Took me about 30 mins and spoke to 4 different people just to cancel Sky.
Why cancel? Now TV is cheaper and offers what I want as well.
We have more channels. I don't watch them.
We have On Demand and Box Sets, it's a great selection. Now TV is cheaper and offers what I want as well.
You will lose the ability to pause live TV. I don't watch live TV.
Here's the best price we can offer. That's more than I was paying before my contract expired.
I'll put you through to Retentions.

And rinse and repeat with several follow up calls by Sky to convince me to stay.


I'll wait for the half price offer to come through in a few months.

 

[MOOGLEYS]

Just cancel the direct debit they then call you....

 

[Rroff]

Here's the best price we can offer. That's more than I was paying before my contract expired.

That is one of the best bits I've had recently - coming up with an "offer" that is more expensive than I was paying then saying oh but you get X, Y, Z feature on top of your current package then they try removing those despite you still wanting to cancel and still can't even match the current rate. Whole thing has become a farce.

 

[Roar87]

I cancelled my BT within about 10 minutes, guy on the phone was sound, I explained my reasons and he couldn't really argue. What time you call matters, if you're calling around the time everyone finishes work then expect it to be busy.

 

[Spuj]

I think I've been quite lucky recently. Contacted Sky through online chat to reduce our monthly, and while the process was a little slow and there were far too many questions the process itself was harmless.

BT I rang a couple of weeks ago again to negotiate a new price as our contract finished, the guy on the phone was a really nice guy. Really into his video games so he talked about that more than new contract, he sorted everything out nice and easily.

As said, it will partly be luck and the big companies are well known for being a nightmare for stuff like this.

 

[tom_e]

I had a vaguely similar experience getting the PAC for my O2 contract this morning, the only saving grace was you can get it using the online chat and it's much easier to tell them to stop asking a myriad of questions for them to then say "oh we could never beat that price" in text than while they're rambling down the phone from a script.

 

[Craig R]

never had an issue with cancelling SKY. 2 mins i think it was on live chat and job done. they just don't like you......harsh but understandable

I do this every year in order to keep getting a discounted offer to stay instead of paying full whack. Never had any issues.

 

[dowie]

Forget cancelling, try getting your e-mail removed after some tool signs up using the wrong e-mail address, has happened a few times to me as I got a good gmail account early on without the need to add numbers etc.. to my name, unfortunately this means some utter muppets get their own google e-mail address wrong and enter mine instead.

If there is an unsubscribe link then thats great, if there is e-mail verification in place then even better, those companies are great.... on some occasions there is no means to contact the person or easily contact the company - I did mess with one guy by re-scheduling his courier delivery about 3 times in a row.

Online dating sites are a bit of a pain, they acknowledge the issue and still provide no solution for it - in fact their actual solution involves requesting a password reset, logging into the account and then deleting it yourself... ergo they're actively encouraging strangers to access what are very private messages sent and received by their members.

Virgin media was a pain last year, some **** had set up a subscription with my e-mail and despite me not verifying the e-mail I still started getting billing information etc.. I had his account number etc... and was able to log on and talk to an online chat person who claimed to solve it, of course he didn't. I then phoned up, the first help desk person couldn't help, I was then passed to an incredibly stupid woman "computer says no" type... she claimed that all accounts need an e-mail address and tried to use the data protection act as a reason for not removing mine!!! I pointed out that they're using my personal data (my e-mail) and that I'm requesting that my personal information is removed re: Data protection act. She was adamant that the DPA meant they can't either contact the account holder or remove my e-mail address since all accounts require one. I pointed out that I've got complete access to the account online that I can easily upgrade the guy to a load of services etc.. and that I'd like to report a security breach, asked her if the call was recorded etc.. when I suggested that she put me through to someone who knew what they were talking about she accused me of being rude... but did reluctantly agree to pass on my complaint funnily enough I got an e-mail from them some time later confirming that they had indeed removed my e-mail address.

The latest fun and games involves an online marketplace, someone again used my e-mail address, after the unsubscribe function doesn't work I tried to log on to cancel the account (after changing the password) but they don't have the facility, instead you need to e-mail them... I tried the one e-mail address they have, then another... no response. Slightly annoying as this thing sends you an e-mail every time someone messages you either in reply to a message you've sent or in reply to your advert and this numpty had been super active on it in the space of a day or so.

I then logged in, amusingly the guy had the app on his phone so was still logged in too and had been messaging a load of people... I figured if I get all the people he's messaged to report the account that might work... so I copied and pasted a message to about 50 people explaining that the account was a possible spammer and to report it. But then I noticed that though you can't cancel the account you can edit the e-mail address.... I first tried the info@domainname address I'd contacted hoping their support guys would be spammed with all the imminent replies... that got rejected, I then looked up employee e-mail addresses, amusingly they just use firstname@domainname.... so I've edited the e-mail address with their CEO's, he's due to get spammed by his own app via the 50 or so confused people and any other e-mails.

Also amusingly the support team finally got back to me today, 2 days late, claiming they couldn't find my e-mail address...

 

[Nitefly]

I find those weird, faded musical ‘on hold’ loops the strangest. It’s like some old decayed tape... still being used...