Someone At Mediacom Forged My Signature On A Service Contract
Stephen G. moved into a new apartment and decided to sign up for service for Mediacom Cable (not to be confused with the London-based media agency MediaCom). He called the local representative on an ad he'd been given, and was told he didn't have to sign a two-year contract, so he didn't. Later he found out his name was on a Mediacom contract anyway. Surprise!
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Gold's Closes Your Gym, Traps You In Contract Anyway
There happens to be a Gold's Gym right inside the building where Cynthia works. How convenient! She took her employer up on an offer to subsidize part of her membership, and was happy with the arrangement. Three months later, the building Gold's announced that it was closing. Not to worry, though: Memberships limited to only that location would change so members could visit any local corporate-owned Gold's club. That's pretty standard when a branch of a chain gyms closes, but Cynthia is annoyed that she joined so close to the change and has to pay for a membership she's unlikely to use. Someone must have known that branch was doomed, but would the front-line and sales employees have known?
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Elderly Couple Thought They Canceled The Insurance, End Up Overpaying Anthem $5,000
By the time the couple in their 80's noticed the monthly auto-billing on their bank account, they had overpaid Anthem $5,000 for insurance they thought they had canceled two years ago. That's money these two living on pension could have been using to fix their crumbling front walkway. It was until they beseeched their local consumer reporter and he took an interest in their story did Anthem retroactively cancel their policy and refund their money.
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Canceling Verizon Without ETF Over Fee Increase Is Hard But Doable
Some readers have tried out
the info from yesterday about using an increased regulatory fee Verizon is charging to get out of contract without paying an early termination fee (ETF). The most successful so far was commenter doogz, who got his ETF cut in half. Here is his story:
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MySpace Made It Really, Really Difficult To Cancel My Account
If MySpace were a scorned lover, we imagine it would be the kind that would hold onto your foot as you tried to walk away, crying desperately and clinging as you unwillingly dragged it along. Justin B. was done with MySpace, but instead of just accepting the breakup and letting him cancel the account, it flatly refused to believe it was over.
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Did The ECA Charge You For The Membership You Already Canceled?
Last year, we reported on the trouble that
members of the Entertainment Consumers Association had with canceling their memberships, as well as other complaints about the group. Now, one reader reports that he was charged for the membership that he canceled earlier this year.
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Why Won't Gamefly Answer Their Stupid Phones?
John tells Consumerist that he is having a baffling problem with Gamefly. He can't cancel his son's account online, but customer service is unreachable. The company keeps sending games that he doesn't want and charging his card. What's wrong here?
Update: the account has now been closed. More »
Get Sprint To Credit You For The Discount They're Taking Away
By calling up Sprint and insinuating he might cancel because they're taking away his discount, one of our readers was able to get Sprint to credit his account for the same amount they're taking away from him.
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Urban Active Gym Appears Lets You Cancel, Then Charges You More
Gyms are notorious for being difficult to cancel your membership at, so at first Heather thought hers was different. They even backdated the cancellation date so she wouldn't pay for the full month. So nice! A month later, collections called her.
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"This Is Why I Canceled Cable," As Told In Collage Form
Redditor Lambboy got an email from his cable company asking him why, oh god why, had he canceled cable? Doesn't he know that without it life is but a cheap oat paste? Lambboy struggled with the best way to communicate his innermost thoughts. The radio buttons on the survey, and, yes, even the optional comment boxes, were insufficient tools with which to express himself. So,
he sent them this collage.
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How To Cancel A Credit Card Without Hurting Your Credit Score
Say you've got a credit card you don't want for whatever reason and have decided to cancel it. Here are some simple steps you can take to make sure the card a) really gets canceled b) it doesn't harm your credit score.
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Charter Communications Rep Says Cable Companies Taking Over All Streaming Video On May 1st
The Charter Communications CSR who spoke with Dustin has some pretty astounding news about what's on the horizon for all of us. It looks like starting May 1st, cable companies will have total, FCC-sanctioned control over streaming video and will take down all competing services.
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Why Won't AT&T Cancel My Account?
Usually, when customers try to change an Internet service provider, the ISP will do things like discount the rate or offer some benefit in an attempt to retain your business. But that's not what's happening to Consumerist reader Addie; AT&T loves her so much, they've continued to bill her for six months for a service she doesn't even have.
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AT&T Credits New Customer's $200 T-Mobile ETF Just To Be Nice
Mike shared with Consumerist a story that is almost baffling for many reasons. First, he writes that T-Mobile charged his wife a $200 ETF when there were only 90 days left on her contract. But then a delightful, wonderful AT&T customer service rep offered a $200 credit for AT&T service—effectively paying her T-Mobile ETF and earning themselves two delighted customers in the process.
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AOL Has No Reason To Cancel Your Free Account
Jim wants his AOL e-mail account to go away. It's a free account, so billing isn't an issue—he just wants it closed. This seems like a relatively straightforward request to anyone except AOL. He writes that the company somehow makes it impossible to cancel a free account.
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How Can I Make The Newspaper Stop When I Don't Subscribe?
We know that
the newspaper industry is suffering. Subscribers are fleeing, ad revenue is down, and things are generally dark and terrible. However, this does not mean that it is a good idea to throw sacks of junk mail on the lawns of people who won't subscribe to your paper. It will not endear you to them. We're looking at you, Baltimore
Sun. More »
Reach AT&T Executive Customer Service
Got an impossible issue with AT&T wireless? After trying and failing with the regular customer service, you can try this gal who works in the AT&T Office of the President.
Gina Cain
866-220 8446 ext.1047
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Kill Off Your Online Identities With The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine
Supposedly the
most depressing day of the year is just a few weeks away, and that sucks. But if you off yourself, you can't drink, so it's a conundrum. What you
can do is
use the website suicidemachine.org to remove yourself from unnecessary social media sites that either you've stopped using or don't really enjoy anymore.
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T-Mobile Doesn't Believe That You Moved To England
Chelsea moved to London while she was still under a T-Mobile USA contract. This would be a perfectly legitimate reason to let her out of her contract without an early termination fee. Unfortunately, she wrote to Consumerist, she can't prove to T-Mobile's satisfaction that she no longer lives in the United States.
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Sprint Fee Increase Is Your Chance To Escape Without Early Termination Fee
Sprint has confirmed they will increase monthly regulatory fees from $.20 to $.40 on January 1st, creating an opportunity for customers to drop their contracts without incurring an early termination fee, which could save you up to $200.
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ECA Responds To Membership Controversy, But Doesn't Say Much
Yesterday, ECA President Hal Halpin emailed Consumerist and other blogs a formal statement addressing the charges that the ECA is
deliberately making it hard for members to break free. I'm printing the letter below, along with a summary of the key points Halpin makes and the issues that remain unanswered.
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ECA Tries To Prevent Members From Canceling
Some members of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) are pretty upset that the consumer advocacy group for gamers
removed the ability to turn off auto-renewal on member accounts. They've also
removed the phone number you used to be able to call to cancel. In fact, the only way to cancel your ECA membership now is to mail them a letter—and if your request isn't processed at least 30 days before your membership is due to renew, you can expect to be charged again.
Update: The
ECA has responded, but their formal statement leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
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Planet Fitness Publicly Shamed Into Refunding Dead Member's Fees
Gregory Rowell has been dead for nearly two years, but no one knew that he'd set up an auto debit with Planet Fitness on a second checking account. The gym continued to debit his account each month until a bank employee notified the victim's mother, Patricia Rowell. When she provided the death certificate and asked them to refund the money, they
not only refused, but said it was her fault and offered her a six month membership instead. That's when Rowell took her story to the local newspaper.
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Blockbuster Website Tells You To Click "Cancel" Forgets To Include Button
—>Valerie just wants to cancel her Blockbuster Online subscription. They tell her to click... but there's nothing there. More »
What, You Expect Comcast To Stop Billing You Just Because You Canceled Your Account?
—>Look, Comcast, when you take back someone's equipment and give them a receipt confirming that their account has no balance, it's not unreasonable for them to think that their account is canceled. Don't keep billing them for service and equipment rentals, and don't tell them that you "can keep [the account] active and [bill] indefinitely until [you] decide to disconnect it." Because if you do, they're going to call their state Attorney General's office. At least that's how Paul convinced Comcast to finally cancel his account. More »
Gold's Gym "Misplaces" Serviceman's Deployment Letter, Keeps Billing For Membership
—>Gold's Gym in Oxnard, California won't stop billing Molly's brother for membership, even though both he and his mother have repeatedly sent the gym copies of his deployment orders to Afghanistan. Two months later, the gym claims that it has "misplaced" the deployment orders, and is still billing for services Molly's brother can't use. More »
Canceling Vonage Early? You're Going To Have To Repay That Instant Rebate
—>If you cancel your Vonage service before the end of the first year, you're going to need to pay $70 for Vonage's proprietary router on top of a $29.95 cancellation fee. Don't even try to return the soon-to-be useless router because that's simply not an option. More »
UPDATE: E*Trade Returns Customer's $3195, And All It Took Was Eight EECBs
—>A month ago, we wrote about Brice's struggles with E*Trade to recover the balance on an account they closed. After eight months of letters and phone calls, Brice got E*Trade to close the account, but it continued to accrue interest and Brice never received the balance. Finally, after launching eight Executive Email Carpet Bombs, Brice has his money. More »
Quit AOL Using Highlighters
—>It looks like AOL is up to its old shenanigans and is still making hard for some people to cancel service (yes there are still some people using AOL), but reader Richard figured out a way to finally get through to them, with a highlighter. He writes:
I could not find a way to contact AOL to stop my service. So I took a yellow marker, drew a line though that line item on my credit card bill, and wrote on the bill...."Do not pay, account in dispute". I paid all the other items on the CC bill that month. It took AOL about 2 weeks to call me.....I told them what I thought of their service, and instructed them to terminate my account, while I was still on the phone. It worked. They seem to understand when you tell them you are not going to pay.
That's one way to go about it. You could also call up your credit card company and
request a chargeback, but this has the added benefit of zero hold time.
First rebates, now AOL cancellations, this highlighter is starting to look mighty potent.
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E*Trade Holds Your $3,195 Hostage
—>After eight months of calling and writing, Reader Brice finally annoyed E*Trade enough to close his account. At least that's what the letter from E*Trade said; in reality, Brice never received a check for his balance, and although he couldn't access his $3,195, his account is still earning interest. More »
Poland Springs Demonstrates A Method For Making Loyal Customers Hate You
—>New reader Lynne (Hi, Lynne!) shares with us a letter that she recently sent to Poland Springs after they refused to stop delivering and billing her for water she did not want. Originally, she simply wanted to place her account on hold while she moved to a new home. Poland Springs complete inability to follow her simple requests turned a loyal customer into a former one. More »
Canceling Your MySpace Account Is F$%!@&*# Impossible
—>Reader Julian can't figure out how to cancel his MySpace account. More »
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. More »
Not Canceling The Account Costs AOL $3 Million
—>AOL has avoided what was certain to be an entertaining court battle by settling with 48 states and the District of Colombia over allegations that it made it, uh, difficult to cancel for the many customers who were fleeing to broadband. More »
Recording Of Capitol One Going Off On Customer
Great job, Crapitol One! You just lost a(nother) customer! — BEN POPKEN More »
Ex-AOL Employee Releases "F*** AOL" Rap Song
—>A former AOL employee laid down a diss rap on America Online and wants you all to hear it. Because it's mad funny. It uses a sample of Vincent Ferrari saying "cancel the account." More »
AOL Sells Ogden Call Center To Wipe Hands Clean
Previously, we reported AOL is selling its Ogden call center to Teleperformance. But here's the twist: AOL will still use it as a call center, but as a client of Teleperformance. More »
Tip: Cancel Your Account To Get A Human
—>Courtesy of Bart, comes some excellent advice when trying to reach a human to resolve your problem: just threaten to cancel. They'll be happy to resolve your complaints then! More »
Parsing AOL Cancel Semantics
"Okay, I'm canceling
billing on your account as of today."
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EXCLUSIVE: Old AOL Cancel Script vs. New
Here's the essential differences between AOL's cancel script, the sheet pasted over every AOL cancel reps cubicle to tell them how to handle your cancellation request, from two years ago and today's. —>Inside, full images of both. More »
AOL Vows To Never Let Anyone Cancel
—>Now cancelling your AOL account seems to work like a charm. In fact, it's really only put on the dry docks. More »
AOL Goes Free
—>Confirming rumors that it itself spread, America Online formally announced plans to give away email and other previously subscriber-only service for free at AOL.com. More »
