Why You Can't Cancel Your Account, An Insider's Perspective
It's easy to forget that despite infuriating scripts and adherence to dogmatic corporate policies, CSRs are real people. A former call center worker wrote in to describe the extraordinary pressure CSRs feel from management to keep customers from canceling their accounts.
You'd think it was so easy: call to cancel service, and it's cancelled. And yet, it never is. Here's why.Corporations are ultimately responsible for creating and supporting ruthless retention practices, though that doesn't absolve CSRs who lie about canceling accounts just to get customers off the phone.Most customer service is outsourced, but either way, customer service is a cost. Businesses dislike costs. It's much easier to try to cut costs than to make more money; costs are to be minimized unless they can be directly quantified as creating more money. So customer service, which costs money, is generally done in a manner that costs the company the least amount.
Smart companies realize that good customer service does create more business. However, most companies either get the lowest possible costing customer service. This is done through, among other things, outsourcing to India. But one way to skirt this is to actually make money through customer service. This is generally done through two ways: upselling or retention.
I worked for a customer service outsourcer. It was part of our agreement with the client that we would retain a certain percentage of customers who wanted to cancel (25% to 30%). The client -- our real customer -- loved this. Through the magic of creating mandatory scripts for our CSRs to read, little actual personal interaction was a part of this process, in order to make it as predictable and regulated as possible.
In these scripts, if a customer wanted to cancel, you'd ask them why, then input the reason for a relevant retention script. There was often no option for "Prefers not to say" / "Doesn't know"; the CSR was responsible for asking more follow-up questions for "resistant" customers. In the rare cases that "Prefers not to say" was even in the script, the response would be something along the lines of "I can certainly understand you might now want to discuss the matter right now ... would you like to hold your subscription for three months [at which point we start billing you and you've probably forgotten] and be guaranteed the same rate?"
CSRs were tracked and rated based on their retention rates. It was also a part of their employee review. Reviews were done by the numbers: call length, attendance, customer retention. A small amount (generally 5%) was actually under the discretion of the supervisor for employees who, say, actually went out of their way to help customers out.
Failing to attempt customer retention was a serious offense; it was considered more serious than screwing up a customer's account. After all, screw up an account and it's probably an innocent mistake; fail to try to retain a customer, which was a huge part of employee training, could only be done by willful negligence. Not making at least two attempts to save the customer would also count against the "quality" of the call. Quality and retention percentages together generally comprised over half of the employee's score, which was the general measure of their performance, and strongly affected their pay and work schedule.
Not surprisingly, such strong focus on customer retention created many situations where employees would not cancel accounts. Misleading wording, while not encouraged by the company, was common to offer alternatives to canceling. Outright lies were less common, but still occurred. Often, many "mistakes" in processing accounts were failing to cancel. Strangely, accidentally cancelled accounts were rare to the point of extinction. After all, making a mistake on an account was less of a black mark than failing to retain customers, and a few extra mistakes were unlikely to be caught. Failure to meet the retention goals meant trouble and eventual termination. What's more, to decrease costs, management and any kind of oversight is minimal. Twenty, often thirty employees to one supervisor was the norm.
If you are a typical call center worker - unskilled, uneducated, living paycheck to paycheck off a generally low-pay and no-benefit job, being constantly driven by management to retain customers - what do you do when your numbers are low for the month: cancel Suzy Q.'s account and risk being fired, or sweep it under the table and be able to pay for your kids' school clothes? After all, if you call back tomorrow to see if the account's really cancelled, chances are this customer will reach a different CSR. Chances are, this call isn't one of the three or four calls a month that is actually monitored by someone. Chances are indeed very good that there will be absolutely no consequence to not canceling this customer's account, but there will definitely be a consequence if the account is actually cancelled.
You canceling your ISP's internet service or your magazine subscription is a very small matter to you. But it is a critical matter of employment to the CSR. Under such pressures, created by greedy companies, who can be surprised that "mistakes" are made.
Canceling an account is a battle of wills. Corporations are determined to keep your money; CSRs are determined to keep their job. Don't be a pushover. If one call doesn't work, call back. Keep calling until your account is cancelled; and then, call once more to verify.
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*i shouldn't have...
Policies like this just ensure that they'll never, ever get that customer back.
It all amounts to highly unethical behaviour. If a customer asks to close an account the account should be closed immediately.
So should we have a national Be Kind to A CSR Day? Everyone calls a company whose service you are perfectly happy with. Engage the CSR with a bogus story of woe. Insist that you want to cancel your subscription/account/service. Allow the CSR to "save" your account after making the obligatory two attempts to cancel. Happy CSR. Happy little children with new school clothes. Happy supervisor. Happy CEO. Happy shareholders. Happy stock brokers. Because, really, that is what we live for, to make THEM happy.
Yea, I totally agree, especially with the bit about try another job. I know times can be difficult, and that whole thing about choosing to close my account or buy your kids school clothes is a real problem for many people, but really... When they talk about the job market, they aren't talking so much about minimum wage jobs like this. Those are a dime per dozen. I could go out to any mall, or any cleaning service, any restaurant, etc., and get a job.
CSR industry is bullshit? Go work somewhere else. There are similar low-paying jobs that AREN'T so stressful. At 22, I've just broken into the market to have my first career job, rather than a job in the mall or something like that, but I've done my time in the shitty-job market.
Luckily for this writer, he/she was smart enough to realize all of this and get the hell out.
I think what's worse for people in this situation is that a lot of times they're in such desperate need of the money that they don't really realize any other option in life.
Though this may be true in some, and maybe most instances, it is certainly not true everywhere. I too was a csr, for an unnamed top 4 cell company, and was responsible for cancelling accounts along with everything else. My job was to try to make one reasonable offer based on your circumstances to try to keep you, and if it failed, we cancelled. It really was that simple, unless we truly felt you didn't really want to cancel. I was scored on a minimum of 2-3 calls/week. I too worked for an outsourcer, for a company that also had internal csr's as well. Truthfully, you got better service from us than the company reps, mainly because we got bonuses based on customer satisfaction, and the internals didn't. The only time I didn't cancel is when some weird computer issue wouldn't let me, I couldn't fix it, and the customer didn't have a call-back number for me to notify them it may take some time, and even that was rare. In fact, I was usually happy to cancel because people cancelling are usually in a bad mood. If the customer did not give me a reason that matched my codes, I just picked a reason for them and noted the real reason in the account. Also, we never used scripts except for contracts. I leave the company nameless to avoid advertising, or that perception.
I situation involving a CSR lying to me about canceling a credit card account. I signed up for the apple credit card through Juniper bank when purchasing a new notebook, but when the order was changed Juniper wouldn't apply the 0% financing. After speaking with their customer service and being repeatedly told they couldn't do anything I asked for them to cancel my account which had a zero balance and no transactions. They told me my account was cancelled. Three months later I received a letter from Barclay bank explaining that Juniper bank had been acquired and my account was now under Barclay bank. The same account I was told was cancelled. I was able to log into their online account system and sure enough my account was there, unused. I hadn't received a single statement or communication, or the credit card itself, since I'd opened the account.
When I called to cancel the account (again) I explained my suspicion that the first rep I talked to lied about canceling my account in order to keep his retention numbers up. I asked if records were kept about customer service calls and the representatives that handled them and the rep told me that information like that was not kept. Is this standard practice?
Your advice is nuts. Call once to cancel. And there after you can just dispute any future credit card charges.
Next time I've got to cancel and they ask for a reason, I think I'll just say, "Well I'm gonna stop sending you guys money, so you might as well stop trying to give me service."
Honestly, this "confession" is a disguised pity party. If you don't like the pressure of being told you can't let people cancel, and then can't deal with people being pissed off because some other CSR didn't cancel them, FIND A NEW JOB.
I did a call center job when I was younger, though it was one for a drug trial entry. The problem there wasn't people wanting to get out, it was addicts and people in REAL pain crying on the phone because they didn't fit the requirements to get IN. It was equally horrible with people screaming about wanting to know what disqualified them, etc etc.
I know that is was unethical as hell, but I called up XM radio last year to cancel knowing that the CSR
would try to "retain" me. So I was very firm with the rep and after a few minutes I was able to get a few months free and then have my monthly rate plan for about 6 bucks from there on out. But alas, it wasn't meant to be, because shortly there after, my XM radio along with several other pieces of car electronics were "liberated" from my truck. Guess karma's a bitch. But that's another story.
/oh, I was able to get Comcast to give me the promo price point on my internets subscription by just asking..
@Cowboys_fan: unless we truly felt you didn't really want to cancel.
That's not abusable, is it? (Not saying you personally did.) Personally, I say let the customers decide what they really want and not have CSRs play psychologist.
@Bay State Darren:
You're right in a sense but I more meant if a customer says something like that phone price is too high, just cancel. Well obviously in this case they don't want to cancel, they want a better price. If I cannot offer a better price, then I will offer a credit perhaps, or a free months service, but then will cancel. Its so funny too because there are alot of people who threaten to cancel, really because thats all they can do if unsatisfied, and I would call them on it and say okay, I'll cancel then, and suddenly they backtrack. There is a fine line between a customer who wants to cancel, and one who just wants a problem fixed, and it can be quite tough to know which is which. So be nice to your csr's, but more importantly, be honest.
Just because CSRs are a minimum wage job does not mean the person working it can just quit the job they are doing and find another minimum wage job. Not everyone is cut out to work in a restaurant, or a fast food joint, or a sales job at the mall or a telephone sales job or any of the hundreds of others of beginner jobs.
That being said, there is no excuse for not cancelling the account when asked. the managers should be fired for forcing their staff to retain accounts by coercion and deception.
on a second thought, why not just default in paying the account? Sure, you owe the money, but let them send a cancellation letter for letting the account lapse. I don't know how many times I've had arguments with CSRs over not cancelling services like cable because we've been a month late. They are more than happy to cancel the account then. I wonder if they'll let me cancel it if I am up to date on my payments. Makes me think...
@North of 49:
Not so good for the credit score. My advice is be persistant, and if they don't cancel immediately and this frustrates you, ask for a supervisor, or better yet, go along with everything they say, ask for the sup so you can tell them what a great job they did, and then complain until they cancel. Typically, supervisors don't get recorded from what I've been told, at least in some places.
The thing is, I know it's a bitch of a job and everything, and that companies have to make money, but I just plain don't care. I have some serious compassion fatigue happening. If I'm canceling something, I have a reason. It's not personal; it's usually financial, and retrenchment isn't exactly an activity I enjoy, because I tend not to sign up for things I don't intend to use or like. Being hassled when I call to cancel is a good way to ensure that the company will never get my business again, and that I will tell the story far and wide. I'm really sick of hearing companies cry that they can't make any money, and then paying their CEOs more than I'll probably earn in a lifetime. They've succeeded in creating an atmosphere of anger and distrust, and it's up to them, not their customers, to suffer the consequences of that.
When I was younger, some of my first jobs were outsourced call center jobs or telemarketing. It was easy, scripted and they would seriously take anybody. I've worked atleast 3 different outsourced jobs and while there are scripted, nobody really honestly took their jobs seriously, as it was usually low paying and laughable. If you think their retention techniques are unethical, get a better job. Really. I did. I went through multiple jobs like that because of that very factor. When calling to cancel, the customer shouldn't have to jump through hoops just to cancel THEIR account. The company shouldn't mislead the customer to believe it is canceled when its not. Try once, even twice, after that...its just bad customer service.
And that belief is NEVER going to change, no matter what you say about the plight of the underpaid CSR.
Trust me, it's not very easy to just "change jobs" if you're not "qualified" for some bullsit reason. Further, refusing to pay as a way to get cancelled may not be the best solution, since that reflects on your credit score.
A question, though: Would reversing the charge penalize your credit score? That seems to me like a pretty quick way to get service cancelled without having to deal with the phone tree hell, since it takes money that was already in their pocket and pulls it out.
Another solution: Consumerist could start maintaining, not on the blog itself but on some related site, a collection of numbers of retention complaints from us, the readers. Post a random sampling of them so people have an idea or three of this company's handling of cancellations. Statistically, I'm willing to bet that would let us find companies who don't do retention, ergo, are more worth our business. Enough people do this, and "no retentions assholes!" becomes a selling point.
Just an idea.
Quality and retention percentages together generally comprised over half of the employee's score, which was the general measure of their performance, and strongly affected their pay and work schedule.
Wow, I never thought of this! CSR's with the worst retention all get put on the crappy shifts! When is the crappy shift (in US hours)??? That's when I want to call to cancel my account!
I'd like to introduce that slightly sentient meat loaf to the other team that companies outsource these days: quality assurance. Y'see, companies know their outsourced call centers are probably lying their ass off in the stats report. They know they're getting screwed, so they brought in another third party.
When I was working in outsourced QA, we were monitoring every agent on our contract on three random calls every day -- not month.
I loved bringing up a new call center for the contract and finding agents with this attitude. Yeah, I know, call center work sucks, but it's a job and if you can't or don't want to do it, then gtfo.
Let's remember that this "insider's perspective" is one person at one company. I could give you my own, which would be very different. Basically, it seemed 90% of the callers were threatening to cancel because they wanted a "deal." They wanted us to argue with them... when we didn't, they'd either ask for a supervisor or keep calling.
My all-time favorite was the woman who said, "You're the sixth person I've talked to, and no one will give me a deal. I'm tired of this... connect me to the person who will."
Yeah, right.
If I went to cancel a service, even temporarily, and go through any retention crap, they will NEVER see me again.
I don't care about your job. I care about the cessation of billing. If you want to give me free service for LIFE, fine. I won't pay a cent after I say "cancel my account, please". "I have to to keep my job" you say? Fine. Lose your job, but after I tell you you are not authorized to keep billing me YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED.
End of story.
The call center I work at uses no scripts, cancels all accounts immediately on request, and uses no metrics other than the number of calls or emails taken in a day (to make sure you're actually working). We'd rather have a 25 minute call where everything was explained to the customer, than a 90-second call to get the customer off the line. We get paid decent money ($30k starting) and get full benefits. Apparently, it only costs marginally more to run this place than a rock-bottom call center or one that's outsourced, so I don't really understand why more companies don't go this route. Oh, well -- their loss, I figure.
I've read this post a couple times and I still don't get the impression that this person is saying, "Please don't cancel your account otherwise I'll lose my job".
I think this person is saying, "Hey, you know why you have problems and have to go through so much damn grief to cancel your account, here's why".
--On the other hand, as EverClear said, if you have the Promo price for something, when it comes time for that to end, chances are you can keep the rate by threatening to cancel. A win-win for both you (keeping the rate) and the CSR (retention successful!).
The post would have been fine with the whole "Here's why you have so many problems..." schtick until she brought up canceling vs. buying your kids school clothes. I think if it comes TO THAT at your job...you really need to look into another job because thats absurd. I understand retaining customers means more money for the corp which means more money for the employees blah blah blah, but at what point do you have to draw the line at trying to retaining customers and flat out lying and pestering.
Lucky us... We get to work in the liquid marketspace. It is no longer a marketplace is it?
Something people are forgetting is that many of these companies put these call centers in low income rural areas. These are places where people are already poor, there are few other jobs and they usually can't afford to move easily. So sometimes these people really are sort of stuck.
As far as canceling and getting a hassle. If I am getting a hassle about canceling I tell the CSR if they continue to bill my account I will dispute the charge and if needed change my card number to prevent further attempts to fleece me after I canceled. This usually does the trick.
I only had to actually do this once. I canceled but had to dispute the charge. They tried to run it a second time so I had the bank reissue the card with a new number. Luckily it was a seldom used card.
I wish someone would keep a list of companies that are difficult to cancel or have a track record of not actually canceling. That would be enough information for me to not do business with them, even if I really wanted what they were offering.
If you read the "customer agreement" for most "service companies" you will find that the only real way to communicate with these guys is by certified letter, return receipt requested.
If you send them a letter canceling your account effective one month from the date of receipt of the letter, you are covered. Then when you fail to pay your next payment, all you have to do is show whoever, your LEGAL document to that effect.
In business, phone calls don't mean shit. Even if you record them. Black and white is the way to go.
I gotta call crapola on this one as well. I just recently made a posting re: TiVo's cancellations where I showed sympathy for those who are under this type of pressure. However, to justify INTENTIONALLY misleading people is just bullshit. Sweeping it under the table to give your kids school clothes? What if I go to use my credit card in three months to buy groceries and it's declined because your company charged me for my "temporary" cancellation that is what you consider "sweeping it under the table"?
Sorry sister, we all have our sob stories. While I can certainly identify with having a job with those challenges, it's never right to screw people over. Working for big companies sucks, we all know. But that's no justification for the behavior described.
While I can certainly understand that these CSRs have a job to do and that is to retain me as a customer, but they are not entitled to lie and cheat about it. This article seems to be defending that practice... I don't think that should be encouraged, or even justified.
If you call to confirm your cancellation, don't you open yourself up to another "billing mistake" or "misunderstanding" where the next agent can boost their retention score by reactivating the account?
It seems like if you want to get something done right, you need to do it in writing.
The company I'm with makes this very easy. We allow them to cancel, they have to pay a fee to cancel. We're happy, the customer is happy, have a nice day.
Just make them pay a damn cancel fee. How hard is that? Don't lie and try to retain them!
@ThyGuy: Because I shouldn't have to pay you a fee to not want to pay for your services anymore. If it's a contract and the cancellation fee is part of that, so be it. But if it's just some month to month subscription service, I would raise holy hell with them if they tried to charge me a fee to cancel.
If a company feels is has to have a retention queue (or, much less, if an employee can't be "valuable" to the company without being an ethically-challenged sleazebag to customers), something is fundamentally wrong. There is something fundamentally wrong if the company is (a) losing a large number of customers in the first place, and (b) has to manipulate, persuade, guilt-trip, sleaze, lie, cheat, and steal to attempt to retain customers. Maybe, um, there is something unsatisfactory about the product, about the quality, about the value customers get for the money they spend? How about maintaining or improving profitability by improving your product or service? (What a concept!) The whole "retention" mentality is insulting, and I agree with previous posters that retention pitches -- or any kind of runaround in trying to cancel -- are a sure way that I will really and truly never come back, plus badmouth you to others (e.g., I encouraged friends to leave AOL -- AOL cancellation hassles left an extremely bad taste in my mouth).
Nekoincardine's idea is excellent. We should be rewarding companies that are customer-respectful and do the right thing by making it easy to cancel, and stay the hell away from companies that make it hard to cancel. Oh, the irony -- an irony some companies (e.g., AOL) don't understand yet: If you respect the customer even when the customer wants to leave, you increase the chances of future business because of giving that customer a positive experience (where they are not afraid of engaging with you) and creating a superb reputation (and reputation matters -- it translates to dollars and cents). A website or page that lists both the truly, immediately, no-hassle cancelling the account class-acts vs. the evil "retention" style culprits would be a great thing.
As I see it, the problem is that WE are not the customer to th company we are buying product/services from. The Call center and company are the relationship, we consumers are just the ones bringing money.
Perhaps companies will learn from these mistakes, but I am not putting my money on that bet.
These companies should realize that even if a customer cancels, leaving them with a positive note can still make them money. I will never do business with many companies ever again simply on principle because of their cancellation or other policies. But companies like Netflix, that has a cancel button right on the website and make it easy and painless. I was their customer again just a few months later!
TEXASCOURT has it right. Save yourself the aggrivation & headache -- just write a certified, return-receipt letter with your request. I've yet to have this method fail me. Sure, there's a cost involved with sending something via certified mail, but it's far less expensive than my time is worth.
@FLConsumer: What they said. Call and write a letter to cancel any account. In the vast majority of cases, you'll get a letter back stating they have closed your account.
"I'm dying. I only have _x_ days to live."
I guess write a letter, and then if it's not cancelled within 10 business days take it up with the superior court in your county. And then call in, tell the rep to "cancel RIGHT THIS INSTANT and that's not a question." and if they give you any kind of runaround, say "It's a court order. Cancel or you'll subject yourself to prosecution for contempt charges."
Smarty: Why bother calling? The whole purpose of writing is: 1) To get the account actually cancelled, 2) Save myself time & frustration.
IRSISTHEROOTOFALLEVIL: I usually give them 30 days to reply and confirm my account has been cancelled. This is reasonable and fair and I doubt any court would rule otherwise. 10 days can be too short of a duration for some billing systems.
If you're calling an 800 number to cancel, remember it's their dime not yours. Telling them "I just never get the chance to use your service", whatever it is, seems to avoid some of the hassle of getting you to stay. Anything they offer, you can counter with, "But I don't use your service now." If that doesn't work, or you have to call back, just berate the service and tell 'em you would not ever recommend them because of their "deceptive trade practices". [That's a loaded phrase I like to toss around.] Always report 'em to the BBB and the FTC. FTC is a total crapshoot. Those guys are overwhelmed with a thousand and one things, and odds aren't good for your complaint. With BBB I find better results.
I agree with everyone making the point it's not so easy to quit a job and find a new one overnight, and that some jobs aren't for everyone.
It's fair and suitable for a company to want to save you, especially if you are a high-value customer who brings value to the company. Wouldn't you want to be saved? Don't you want the company to want to retain your business? Pperhaps the offer could be very favorable, such as a new 4.9% Fixed APR for purchases on your MasterCard account.
On the other hand, antagonizing and deceiving customers is not good. And the save offer should be clear, and if they decline, the request should be fulfilled.
Companies that use policies and procedures to "encourage" workers to bend and break rules/laws are just as guilty as ones who promote the practices outright.
I'm basically allergic to allowing people to automatically debit my bank account, though I have two or three carefully monitored agreements with reputable firms in which the money is a set amount taken out on a set day each month.
Back when I was in my early 20s, I signed up for life insurance premiums to be charged this way. Within two days, my dad had persuaded me to change my mind, so I met in person with the insurance agent and cancelled the agreement... got back the original paperwork and everything. To my surprise, I wound up being charged the next month. I called the agent, who said he fixed it in his records, but couldn't issue a refund. I disputed the charge with my bank, who said that without a written agreement, the charge should not have gone out.
Then the next month it happened again. I called the agent and threatened to call the cops on him if it continued (I learned hardball early). What do you know... the next month it didn't happen. Hmm.
If one call doesn't work, call back. Keep calling until your account is cancelled; and then, call once more to verify.
Consumerist are you even serious?!!! Fuck that, its my money I should have to beg and hound inorder to keep it. If I say cancel my account, CANCEL MY ACCOUNT I shouldn't be playing games for it, man I hope congress reforms this 'industry' for their dishonest practices. as for the CSR im sorry that's how it is but I need my money just as you need yours, maybe try college again, or find another job, but don't lie to me.