Canceling Napster Takes 30 Minutes On The Phone
Eliot Van Buskirk over at Wired found that he was no longer in need of his Rhapsody, Napster and Yahoo! Music subscriptions now that the RIAA is starting to warm up to the idea of DRM-free music.
Yahoo! Music was painless to cancel, but Napster took a half hour:
NapsterSounds fun. If it were us, we would have told her we were canceling because robots from Venus were attacking our apartment building, and we thought they were somehow attracted by Napster.
What a pain. There's no way to cancel online, so I called the cancellation number (800.839.4210) and waited on hold for about 20 minutes listening to messages like "Did you know that your Napster subscription lets you access over 5 million tracks? Please hold, and a customer service representative will be with you shortly."A woman came on the line and asked me a bunch of questions (Was this my first call? Could I confirm my email? Is there a phone number on which she could call me back in case something goes wrong with the call? Can I hold again?). Granted, this is two days after Christmas, but still, I wasn't too happy at how long this was taking.
When she took me off hold again, I told her I wanted to cancel because 2007 was the year 3 of the major labels started selling music without DRM. Back on hold.
She came back -- presumably after consulting a manager or the internet to find out what DRM is -- and then responded, "I don't understand, because all of our music contains DRM." Back on hold. This time, I told her I wanted to cancel because the files were DRMed, and she finally canceled my subscription.
Total time for cancellation: 30 minutes and 32 seconds
Why (And How) I Just Canceled All My Music Subscriptions [Wired via BoingBoing]
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I guess they are just hoping that you get fed up waiting on hold and hang up.
You don't want to give them a reason, like they care. they are getting paid $7 hour and they can't realy make any changes to your complaints.
so just cancel it, and if they ask then tell them or just say I don't need it.
@Buran: I always tell them why because if enough people give the same reason, maybe they'll change their ways. I think it's responsible of the company for them to ask what they're doing wrong.
lol....reminds me of when I cancelled my g/f aol account back in the day. That was a hassle.
Similar to the Rhapsody cancellation experience.
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@qwickone: True. I think a good compromise would be to give them one explanation and if they keep whining to ask you to stay, that's when you say "Just cancel it" until it gets through to them that you are not going to change your mind.
"I don't understand, because all of our music contains DRM."
Holy crap. ROTFL!
Because, clearly, the savvy consumer demands DRM on all of their media.
I never give a reason when I cancel something. All I get are attempts to get me to stay if I go into any kind of specifics. My mantra is "I no longer need this service." It usually doesn't generate too many follow up questions. Except that one electronic fax serice I tried to cancel a couple of years ago: the rep kept me on the phone for about half an hour with weird, random questions. They totally held me hostage, I was afraid to hang up and try someone else for fear of having to go through that whole slew of questions again.
The only exception is if they have done something phenomenally wrong - then I will give them the reason so that they know what they did and hopefully, and I know this is just a pipe dream, they will use that information constructively. And then I follow up with "And just cancel it, please."
ironically there's absolutely no hassle when subscribing or canceling a p2p account, like napster used to be.
Lars: "Napster baaaaaad! Beer goooood!"
Here's how you do it.
Go to the California Secretary of State's website.
Get their corporate address for service of process. They are required to read mail there. Send a cancellation with your information so they know who you are.
It worked for me.
It's a sad commentary on the state of corporate ethics in the US that I see this headline and think "Hmm, that isn't half bad, why no 'above and beyond' tag?"
Napster hasn't charged me in several months for service. I simply stopped using it. No logins, no music searches or downloads or nothin'. They didn't charge me.
Then the credit card they had on file expired this month. They're not gettin' a new number out of me.
So, couldn't hurt to try it.
I had the same experience, although I managed to get mine canceled online after mentioning the words "fraudulent business practice." The e-mail string follows:
ME:
Please cancel my subscription immediately. I have been trying to cancel for months and there is NO WAY to do it on your web site. Please cancel IMMEDIATELY.
THEM:
Thanks for contacting Napster Support. To cancel your Napster subscription, please contact us by phone at 800.839.4210, and we'll be happy to assist you in your request.
ME:
THIS IS THE SECOND TIME I HAVE CONTACTED YOU. PLEASE CANCEL SUBSCRIPTION IMMEDIATELY. Let me reiterate, I would like you to please cancel my subscription immediately. I should not have to call in order to cancel. It had been made exceedingly difficult for me to cancel, and I have been trying for months, yet you still keep charging my credit card even though it has been EXPIRED for months. This could easily be considered to be fraudulent business practice. I insist that you cancel immediately.
THEM:
Thanks for contacting Napster Support. Per your request, your Napster subscription service has been cancelled.
Been on the phone with them for 35 minutes so far. This is the third time I've called to cancel. They just keep billing me, now close to 6 months. They offered 3 months of refunds. I mentioned small claims court. I'm on hold now. Can't wait to hear the final answer.
So I waited and waited, my customer nonservice rep (sean) came back online and said, sorry, only 3 months. I asked him to check back with his supervisor and find out who their agent for service is in CT (where I live). Sean says the manager (Mercial) won't give that info out, just their address in California. I let them know I'm on Consumerist right now and adding to their already sorrid history. Next I'll give small claims a shot, can't wait to see how much they spend responding to that. Truly a huge waste of time. I cannot for the life of me remember why I tried them instead of iTunes or Limewire etc.
@brookeln: This is one of the things I love about Consumerist. Learning how other people blow through the customer service blockade.
On a definitely related note, shouldn't there be a law that you can cancel in the same way you signed up? If you sign up on the website, you should be able to cancel on the web site. If you have to wait 20 minutes on the phone to cancel it should only be because you had to wait 20 minutes to sign up!
Ok. It sucks that it took so long to cancel. Truly it does.
But, "because it has DRM," is a really weak explanation.
Here is another annoying one: 1&1 Internet. If you purchase a domain + hosting package through them and decide to cancel it later, they make you fax or mail in a form to them that you really want to cancel the domain.
I got a free domain + hosting package one time (just for giggles, since it was free). 6 months went by and I canceled it. Had to print out the stupid form to do it, despite signing up completely online.
This is why I'm avoiding future monthly bill services. I've been tempted by Netflix and such, but I don't want to call to cancel. If I even begin to consider one, it has to have cancellation on the website.
That's not very honest, but when the rep starts getting annoying with it's questions, I just tell that I'm moving to England/China/France.
I canceled Napster a couple of months ago because I was trying to cut down on recurring monthly expenses. It was a quick and painless experience. Though I was mildly annoyed at having to call a number instead of being able to cancel online, and somewhat concerned the call would involve heavy tactics to retain my membership, the rep offered me a couple of free months of service and that was that. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes from start to finish.
To cancel Comcast, on the other hand, I finally resorted to telling them I was moving to another state because I failed miserably at canceling that account.
@Rectilinear Propagation: What's really funny is that this is NAPSTER we're talking about. "All our music has DRM"? Exactly why I quit using Napster when they dropped their original service!
@elliepants:
As Brookeln mentions, companies can still charge expired cards. Your better bet is to cancel the card or get another number and makes sure the credit card company won't allow further charges on the previous card.
@lorddave:
BTW, Netflix lets you cancel on their website. I've canceled and restarted an account before. No problems there.
@sven.kirk: A weak explanation on the part of the person trying to cancel or on the part of the person asking why they're canceling?
I waited a day too long to cancel my trial napster account and they canceled and gave me my money back without a problem. But that was almost a year ago.
I don't know about the person the poster has spoken to, but I'll give you an agent's perspective.
You are subscribed to a monthly service.
You call in to cancel. Our job is to make sure it's not because of a tech problem that we feel we can resolve in less than a half hour.
For you to call in to cancel and refuse to say does nothing toward improvement of the service. you have a right to cancel and we know it, but an ounce of courtesy and an answer to the basic question of why is not too much to ask.
By the way, I think the OP is throwing a veiled hissy fit because he found out he couldn't pirate the tracks.
I wouldn't have bothered to justify a reason. Just said "It doesn't matter why, I want to cancel." over and over. But that's just me... I mean really. Someone says stop charging, you stop charging.