# Holy **** experience trying to cancel a monthly box



## iwearnosox (Jul 13, 2002)

I seriously had to berate the guy to finally get him to cancel, he kept trying to deliver a long drawn out sales pitch to keep it. After 10 minutes of it and him saying "I'm just doing my job" I basically threatened to cancel the credit card associated with tivo if he did not do ask I requested and remove the box from my account. It got verbally combative and then some.

I've never had an experience like that, ever. What little joy remained from being one of TiVo's best customers (I had one of the first 100 boxes ever made) is gone.

What a miserable thing Tivo has become, someone put that dog down. Why in hell would anyone want to activate a new box if you make their life hell when they decide to turn it off?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Sounds like Sirius/XM satellite radio.


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## That Don Guy (Mar 13, 2003)

I must have got one of the "good" ones - when I called to cancel my one monthly TiVo last December (it was at the multi-service rate as I have a lifetime TiVo as well), the salesman put it into some sort of "limbo" status for one month (I wasn't charged for it) and suggested I "give it to someone as a Christmas present." (I ended up selling it, although I might have gotten a little more for it had the salesman pointed out that, for some reason, I could transfer the multi-service monthly rate along with the box.)


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

Being an early adopter does not make someone one of their best customers.
But thanks for the chuckle.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Not that it is right. But, have you tried to cancel anything on the phone? Cell phone, cable, ISP, newspaper, (insert service here)- they are all desperate for keeping business, especially monthly revenue.

So, I'm surprised you are surprised. This happens to me all the time.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

Watch this youtube video if you think your experience was bad!

http://consumerist.com/2006/06/the-best-thing-we-have-ever-posted-reader-tries-to-cancel-aol.html


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## yoheidiho (Mar 31, 2011)

bradleys said:


> Watch this youtube video if you think your experience was bad!
> 
> http://consumerist.com/2006/06/the-best-thing-we-have-ever-posted-reader-tries-to-cancel-aol.html


Pretty funny!


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

It must work with some people, say people over 90 years old with Alzheimer's


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

jrtroo said:


> Not that it is right. But, have you tried to cancel anything on the phone? Cell phone, cable, ISP, newspaper, (insert service here)- they are all desperate for keeping business, especially monthly revenue.


In the beginning, Tivo was a much more customer-friendly company. I think that's why threads like this primarily spring up from some of the original owners. They are expecting something better than your typical company that makes life hell to terminate a product. I know I was a bit taken aback the first time I had to cancel one (albeit not as onerous as the OP of this thread), as I was also surprised the first time I was told I had to sign a contract to reactivate a Tivo that I'd owned for half a decade.


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## WhiskeyTango (Sep 20, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> Sounds like Sirius/XM satellite radio.


I called to cancel a radio yesterday and what should have been a 1 minute phone call turned into 10 minutes of sales pitches and 'special offers'. I told the rep repeatedly to just cancel the sub. When she finally relented, she told me the radio would remain active until the next billing date (presumably so they could keep the full months payment). I had to request that they cancel it immediately and she said she had to make a special request to her supervisor to authorize that. What a PITA. Oh, and they auto-renewed the sub and billed it 5 days before the previous sub was up. Then they tell me it will take 7-10 business days for my credit card to be refunded.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Ever try to do something with AT&T? Each service has its own separate accounting department, including home phone and DSL which are in the same section on the web.


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## bluetex (Apr 24, 2005)

Thanks for the heads up that they're doing this "beg to stay" behavior. I had to cut him off on the third "conversational confrontation" and say, ok let's just shut it off. Though he did come back with "well who's your cable service provider"... I said you know that from my S3 (which I'm keeping). How many DVRs are you renting from them? I said, "none of your business, let's shut down the Series 2 and be done here".

Him, "ok... " 

Jeff


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## sathead (Jan 12, 2008)

aaronwt said:


> Sounds like Sirius/XM satellite radio.


By my best recollection I hadn't used my XM Radio in over 8 months, so I decided it was no longer worth subscribing. 
I made the dreaded cancellation call... I got offers for reduced rates, more channels, etc, I kept saying no, no, no! 
In a last ditch effort they offered me six months free service. I replied that I hadn't used the radio in over six months, and don't plan on using it ever again so they could give me 12 months free and I'd still cancel.
Even that wasn't enough to finalize my cancellation, argued for another 10 min or so on how I wasn't happy with their audio quality, and their lack of channels for the music genre I was interested in and so on.
The rep finally put my cancellation through... it only took 1/2 an hour to get it done


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

scandia101 said:


> Being an early adopter does not make someone one of their best customers


Considering the initial 30 hour unit (that's 30 hours of SD in Basic quality) cost $1200 + service, I'd say it makes him a pretty good customer.

Dan


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## Eddie501 (Jun 4, 2004)

One of the things I like about Netflix is that they let you cancel online & it's basically just "Thanks, bye!". And you know what? I always end up coming back.

But companies that have given me this treatment will not only never get my business again, they also become a 'horror story' if anyone I ever know mentions them. Is that really a good business practice?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I agree. Companies that try to trap you by forcing you to call and wait on hold just to cancel irritate me.

Dan


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

I gave up trying to cancel anything long ago. I switch the card to my debit card and then request a new debit card from my bank. Poof. Canceled.


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## TheWGP (Oct 26, 2007)

LOL, I wish my bank was one of the few that offered virtual debit card numbers. I've had to resort to your tactic once or twice, though - Vonage was one of them. They just couldn't believe I had found a better deal (Ooma).


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

I have a website I no longer use and I wanted to cancel the domain. I've given up on trying to accomplish this. I was able to turn off things like "safe-renew", "domain lock", and "domain expiration protection," but apparently to actually terminate the domain I can only do by sending them a notarized letter on company letterhead. What a pain.


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

aadam101 said:


> I gave up trying to cancel anything long ago. I switch the card to my debit card and then request a new debit card from my bank. Poof. Canceled.


A great way to end up with collection agencies chasing you down? Sure, you'll win in the end, but only after 10 years of your debt repeatedly being resold to junk debt buyers and negative reports on your credit report.



eddie501 said:


> But companies that have given me this treatment will not only never get my business again, they also become a 'horror story' if anyone I ever know mentions them. Is that really a good business practice?


Most companies only have a short-term view of the world. Mistreating customers to keep them paying produces a short term profit. They don't look further down the road to see what the impact of bad word-of-mouth will be on their business.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

smbaker said:


> A great way to end up with collection agencies chasing you down? Sure, you'll win in the end, but only after 10 years of your debt repeatedly being resold to junk debt buyers and negative reports on your credit report.


That has never happened....not once.

I even canceled a Tivo box that way. They sent me ONE letter telling me they were going to send it to collections for the one month that I owed them. It was a month to month box long before they had contracts. I never heard from them again and nothing ever showed up on my credit report. I think it was only for $6.95. I was shocked that they would even threaten collections for such a small amount.


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## TheWGP (Oct 26, 2007)

Lots of libraries now send their overdue-book fines to collections... I kid you not. The whole "collections & credit" industry is a pretty big racket, honestly.

Off-topic anecdote this reminded me of, from a few years ago:
My wife had this problem: her ex-husband somehow got stuff on her credit (in a way we couldn't prove, and a child was involved so we didn't really want to sue him directly). Of course, the ex then didn't pay it. I found that after proving she didn't owe, the collectors would just re-sell it again. The way I finally got it to stop was, if not exactly simple, a great deal of fun to see reactions to: a copy of an at least rudimentarily-filled-out draft complaint asking for invalidation of the debt, damages and throwing in a purely hilarious IIED claim, natch! I'd put on the individual names of the people who contacted us, and ask to make them personally liable. The cover letter mentioned that we were open to settling - if THEY paid US money.  

Would it have ever flown in court? Heeeeeck no. Did it matter? No way. They all dropped it, and never resold the "debts." One firm actually even sent us a $100 check "in full satisfaction of all claims." The thing that cracked me up was... the "debt" they were collecting was only $300 to begin with!


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## Stuxnet (Feb 9, 2011)

aadam101 said:


> I gave up trying to cancel anything long ago. I switch the card to my debit card and then request a new debit card from my bank. Poof. Canceled.


I had a annual subscription on auto-renewal that I terminated by changing the credit card expiration date... I figured they would bill me anyway, but I got an email noticed notifying me that my credit card needed to be updated to continue my sub, lol...


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

aadam101 said:


> That has never happened....not once.


Then you're lucky. Many outfits are all too eager to continue providing you service after a payment has been missed and then turn you over to collections for not paying. Cellphone companies in particular. I suspect the cable and phone companies would probably do the same.



stuxnet said:


> I had a annual subscription on auto-renewal that I terminated by changing the credit card expiration date...


One time I had an outfit automatically "update" my credit card expiration for me so they could continue charging me. Pretty sure that's a violation of terms, but still they did it. I think the culprit was Pitney Bowes.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

From a legal standpoint one should not change or cancel any credit card to stop automatic charges, just call up and cancel, if they (the vendor) gives you a hard time call your CC co. and tell them not to accept anymore charges from that vendor. I had this problem with my local newspaper and just called the CC co. and that ended the charges.


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## jiffyspam (Feb 19, 2010)

I needed to cancel the AT&T POTS line at a deceased relative's residence. I went on their website to see how to do such a thing. There were no instructions anywhere on their site.

I got on chat. After a bit of back & forth pleading, they finally gave me the number I needed to call.

I then asked the rep why this information wasn't available on their site. They said it was. I said it wasn't. They said it was. I asked them to show me the link.

What they sent me was the link to the ehow.com entry on how to cancel an AT&T account.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

jiffyspam said:


> What they sent me was the link to the ehow.com entry on how to cancel an AT&T account.


HAHA! Classic!!


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## uw69 (Jan 25, 2001)

aaronwt said:


> Sounds like Sirius/XM satellite radio.


+1


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## ducker (Feb 21, 2006)

You just need to not go in to the details... just go in to a broken record mode.
"Nope, I just want to cancel now."
"I'm not interested, I just want to cancel my service."

The more dialogue you engage with them the more drawn out it will be. I'm sure there are some statistics out there that says, the longer you can keep a person on the line, the more likely you will hit on a situation to have a customer stay on the service.

The only reason a call could take long is if you're stuck on hold forever to talk to a cancellation rep. or you want to *****/whine/vent at the cancellation rep.

I too feel that an early adopter isn't a "best customer" necessarily; best is all relative. 
I bought my first PC (a 386dx) for around $1k... the up front cost for the initial tivo box really doesn't put someone in a "best customer" category.

Someone who has bought multiple boxes of each release, I would place in that category.


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## DeWitt (Jun 30, 2004)

ducker said:


> You just need to not go in to the details... just go in to a broken record mode.
> "Nope, I just want to cancel now."
> "I'm not interested, I just want to cancel my service."


When I cancelled my Mothers cable account (Cablevision) to switch to FIOS I did this and it still took 40 minutes to get it done!

When I did my own conversion to fios from Comcast, it only took a slightly aggravating 10 minutes.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

ducker said:


> You just need to not go in to the details... just go in to a broken record mode.
> "Nope, I just want to cancel now."
> "I'm not interested, I just want to cancel my service.".


exactly what I did with Sirius/XM a few days ago. The only other phrase they got from me - "was I had not used the service in months as I used Rhapsody now on my PC and no one cared about the portable radio, thus reduced rates or free months was a no go. I am calling today to cancel for good."

nice even tone, no hard feelings for the person doing their job just simply "No, I am cancelling as of this moment"


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## larrs (May 2, 2005)

The good thing about this behavior is that you can use it to keep permanently good deals on service. With Sirius/XM, I call to cancel about every 13 months and always walk away with a deal I can live with. If not, I would be prepared to leave, but they haven't let me in 4 years.


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## belunos (Sep 19, 2002)

You all are far too nice. When I canceled XM the rep was rev'ving up for one of those pitches.. I cut him off twice to decline and he pretty much got the hint. That's the trick, don't let them finish any sentence that begins with 'we have this offer..'


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