The time finally came. We made the trip to our local Spectrum office to turn-in our (their) equipment and cancel service, and holy hell... Spectrum seems to be just “mailing it in” these days. No indication or effort what-so-ever to keep us as Customers. Took the kit, provided a receipt, and that was it... Buh-Bye.
Of course, this display of absolute apathy made me suspicious, so on our way to the car I was compelled to turn-around and go back in. I had a receipt for the kit that was turned-in, but no statement or proof that our service was cancelled and our account was no longer active. I asked for some proof of this in the event that we receive a bill in the mail... which we would ultimately have to challenge. Napoleon Dynamite sitting behind the counter had nothing to offer, so we called Customer Service during the ride home to confirm.
After the typical fifteen minutes on-hold, we explained our situation and requested confirmation that our account is ‘done’. Transferred to another rep, as rep #1 couldn’t help. Explained our situation (again) and requested confirmation that our account is ‘done’ (again). Rep #2 said nope, our account is still active.
Sparing all the details, a bill would be generated at the start of the next billing cycle (today), and once it was realized that our equipment had been turned-in, the billing “issue” would need to be addressed. The problem is, I have my own cable modem (no equipment to be turned-in there!), so we would likely be billed for internet service up to the point of the epiphany that we turned-in our kit (cable box and phone modem), and we would be stuck with this bill.
Rep #2 proceeded to cancel our service and ‘close’ our account effective yesterday, but she required verbal confirmation over the phone. Of course, prior to providing this verbal confirmation, I had to take the opportunity to bring-up the recent anti-trust settlement for Spectrum’s NY customers, and tell them just how unethical this practice we were discussing/experiencing is. We personally visited the local office, turned-in our kit, requested service to be cancelled, and then had to call Customer Service to make sure we do not get a bill... which we would have gotten had we not called after “cancelling” at the office!
While “firing” Spectrum yesterday was so liberating, we will likely (unfortunately) have to go-back to Spectrum after a month “off the grid”, at which point we will then get their new customer pricing discounts. We desperately need a quality alternative but this area is so backwoods, I do not see it coming anytime soon. Hopefully a competitive product arrives before our “new customer” pricing expires.
Cheers,
~TTF
