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

[dan958]

I once had a massive headache with my mobile network company, as I wanted to cancel my sim only due to finding another provider that gave better amount of data, texts, and call minutes, but for a cheaper price. The guy on the phone keys saying 'But sir, you don't need that many texts, I can see you do not nearly reach your quota with us'. He couldn't understand that it was also a cheaper deal with this other provider.

 

[MissChief]

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

No, they don't. Thousands of direct debits get cancelled or returned unpaid every day. Its all automated. We'll try again 7 days later, if that is returned your account is blocked. No person or human is involved in this process and no one will call you about it.

 

[MOOGLEYS]

No, they don't. Thousands of direct debits get cancelled or returned unpaid every day. Its all automated. We'll try again 7 days later, if that is returned your account is blocked. No person or human is involved in this process and no one will call you about it.

They called me ? Maybe they thought I was special...... lol

 

[CREATIVE!11]

You think thats bad my dude?

Try dealing with eBay........... by far absolute WORST company i've ever dealt with.

 

[BowdonUK]

There was a video on youtube of a guy experiencing exactly the same thing OP described. Video was about 15 minutes of him and the adviser arguing back and forth over why he wanted to cancel.

 

[dowie]

There was a video on youtube of a guy experiencing exactly the same thing OP described. Video was about 15 minutes of him and the adviser arguing back and forth over why he wanted to cancel.

I found a couple, the first one the caller gets it handled pretty quickly and efficiently, the second one the caller is a bit of a muppet himself:

 

[iamdjdz]

When I moved out of my dad's where I was paying sky it took me 45 minutes with an advisor who sounded nearly in tears before they cancelled. She was trying to read me the offers and I just kept saying I don't want an offer I'm moving house and don't want to keep sky. Was a right hassle.

 

[bartledvd]

Had this with sky spent 30 mins on live chat to be told i was in contract still after another 20 mins trying to get the guy to check my account as it had a note stating that my contract was 12 months not 18 because of another sky cockup at the start.

Had to ring them in the end after a stupidly long wait they finally seen the note, then was made to do all the usual nonsense sent to retentions tried to tell me a bunch of rubbish about deals they could offer the guy finally gave up after i said I'm putting the phone down and emailing the CEO sending the live chat logs and making a complaint about you to ofcom. Instantly no more deals talk just got in with what i wanted him to do

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

I had to do this with Virgin Media (internet) fairly recently. They were a bit like that in the OP, but not as bad it seems. I've switched to Plusnet and they attempted to price-match Plusnet for the same internet speed, and I said sorry I've already switched (which was true) and then I got issued with a disconnection date. After that, I had a few missed calls from 08000526735. Googled it and it was their retentions dept, so I just blocked the number. Now they've resorted to texting and emailing me in order to try and keep my custom lol. Sorry too late

 

[remy87]

Best way is to say you moving back to parents/family and they already got said service. Boom 5min done.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

OP - did you get free ring dings?

 

[Em3bbs]

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.

I have this as well, had my gmail account since the invite days in 2004 so it's <first initial><last name>@gmail.com. I probably get 5-10 emails a week for the wrong person, and there are a couple who seem to do it constantly. I've been tempted to cancel hotel reservations and other things in the past. This week I had a guy organising a 70th birthday party, then when I (or the other person) didn't reply he sent a crappy email to ask why not so I politely explained that it was the wrong email address and he should probably contact his friend another way. Not even a thank you for letting him know!

 

[Angilion]

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

On a related note, the thing that annoys me the most is companies advertising themselves at you while you're on hold waiting for your call to be answered. Sometimes interspersed with repeated statements that your call is important to the company, which is obviously a lie because if it was important you wouldn't be on hold for who knows how long. But it's the advertising that annoys me. At least the trite music is neutral. Advertising at you while not answering your call is actively hostile.

The underlying issue is that customer service is generally treated as a cost and thus a waste of the company's money. People at a decision-making level are strongly judged on how much they cut costs because it's easy to measure, so cutting costs regardless of the cost of doing so is common practice.

[..] 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.

A superb idea, assuming that he looks at email from the company's app at that address.

 

[wesimmo]

Because money.

This TBH.

Everybody wants stuff cheaper and cheaper but aren't prepared to pay for it.

Making sure you're 100% staffed for even part of the time is tough these days, you have to pay peanuts for call centre staff to provide 'any' sort of service, mainly because of the rate that companies are able to pay.

You may think it's cheap running a call centre, it's not, I've done 25 years in and around the financials of them, they're expensive and getting increasingly so from a people perspective.

 

[wez130]

I had fun cancelling my sky before i moved over to NZ

Can i cancel sky plz?
*Can i ask you why?
Yes, i'm moving
*Oh right, well you can move your sky with you if you like too?
Oh really, can I take it to New Zealand with me?
*Erm....afraid not!
OK, can icancel sky please
*Yep, no problem sir.

 

[weringo]

Just has this cancelling Vodafone, I said I’m changing because their network coverage is worse than EE’s, price isn’t a factor and there’s nothing they could offer me to persuade me to stay. Despite that they then proceeded to offer me every deal under the sun.

There should be regulations brought in to require companies to offer customers the option of cancelling through the same method that the customer signed up for the service

 

[AHarvey]

We've just cancelled... took the wife 2 hours via live chat. Constantly offering cheaper deals to get us to stay.

WOuld have been a different story with me because i'd have been more firm and made it clear from the beginning i wasn't going to stay.

 

[andy_mk3]

Had this with Three last year. I have a data SIM for the car, got a new one with less data as I don't use much. Found a £50 TCB deal so got a new contract. Took me far too long to cancel the old one with them telling me I could get a better deal. It's one of the first times I've lost my cool on the phone to customer services, there is simply no need for it.

 

[StriderX]

Just has this cancelling Vodafone, I said I’m changing because their network coverage is worse than EE’s, price isn’t a factor and there’s nothing they could offer me to persuade me to stay. Despite that they then proceeded to offer me every deal under the sun.

There should be regulations brought in to require companies to offer customers the option of cancelling through the same method that the customer signed up for the service

You actually offered reasons for cancellation? Why... honestly, you’re just wasting your time and it certainly isn’t going to force the company to change.

Though being forced to call to cancel is *****, there must be a form/online ability to do the same.

 

[mmj_uk]

Try talking to Apple support, they actually behave like robots.

Customer: "Hi, I'm phoning because I didn't take the security questions seriously and I would like to reset them to be able to access my account, I didn't realise I would need them simply to log in."
Apple support: "Sure, I can do that you just need to answer one of your security questions."
Customer: "But I didn't answer them seriously so I have no idea what answers I gave, that's why I'm contacting you."
Apple support: "Just try"
Customer: "Like I said the whole point I am contacting you is to reset my security questions so why would I be able to answer them?"
Apple support: "What was the name of your first pet?"
Customer: "<sigh> Fluffy" (answered seriously)
Apple support: "No that's wrong"
Customer: "I know I just told you I didn't even attempt to answer them in anyway seriously and I can't remember what answers I put, I need to reset them."
Apple support: "What was your first job?"
Customer: "Astronaut..."
Apple support: "No that's wrong, I can't help because you can't prove that you're the owner of the account."
Customer: "Please can you just send a security question reset link to the email address that is the login name for this account then?"
Apple support: "I can't you need to answer a security question."
Customer: "Well can you send a letter with the answers I put to the home address that has been on the account for the last 15 years and which I've used to buy thousands of pounds of hardware from the shop?"
Apple support: "Which city were you born in?"
Customer: <hangs up>

I swear they're either using AI or their support people have beem brought up to be docile robots with absolutely no common sense or initiative, their working life is basically scripted for them. A terrifying glimpse of our totalitarian government regulated future.