Tanya’s sister Tina died in a motorcycle accident this past summer. It’s hard enough to deal with the untimely death of a young person, but Tina’s emergency care after the accident left huge medical bills for her estate to take care of. And there’s one irritating thing left that her family can’t make go away: T-Mobile won’t close her mobile phone account, even after receiving the death certificate. [More]
Beware Of The Not-So-Free Trial At Gold's Gym
By September 14, 2012
There is no such thing as a free trial. Well, sometimes there is, but be wary of any “free” trial that requires you to hand over your credit card or banking information. Craig’s wife signed up to try the local Gold’s Gym, then decided not to do business with them and end the trial before she ever broke a sweat. [More]
Imaginary Billing Problem Means I Can’t Ditch Hotmail
By July 24, 2012
Mavfan has a very old Hotmail account. It’s positively ancient in Internet years, existing since 2001. He was happy to just let the account forward to his wife’s Gmail address until it was hacked and began to send dirty spam messages to everyone the couple has ever e-mailed since 2001. It was time to put a stop to that nonsense, so he set out to shut down the account. Hotmail just won’t let him go. [More]
How Can I Prevent My Wells Fargo Account From Going Zombie?
By July 9, 2012
Aaron is ditching Wells Fargo. Not out of any animosity toward megabanks or dissatisfaction with their policies, though. He’s just moving to an area where they don’t have any branches. He did what you do when breaking up with a bank: withdrew his money and closed out the account. Well, he tried to. He wanted to. Perhaps he did. But the employee who helped him couldn’t guarantee that a stray old check or a recurring charge he failed to change over wouldn’t bring the closed account back to life, resulting in overdraft charges and a zombie account lumbering around. [More]
Gold's Closes Your Gym, Traps You In Contract Anyway
By September 23, 2011
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? [More]
How To Break The eFax Cancellation Cycle Of Stupidity
By June 23, 2011
Scott wanted to cancel his service with eFax. Simple enough. The site told him that this must be done via webchat. But the chat doesn’t work, so he called them on the phone. The phone line told him that he needs to try the web site. And so on… [More]
Did The ECA Charge You For The Membership You Already Canceled?
By September 30, 2010
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. [More]
Why Won't Gamefly Answer Their Stupid Phones?
By September 30, 2010
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]
How To Cancel A Credit Card Without Hurting Your Credit Score
By April 5, 2010
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. [More]
AOL Has No Reason To Cancel Your Free Account
By February 13, 2010
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. [More]
TransUnion "Zendough" Service Will Not Let You Cancel
By January 15, 2010
Reader Nathan’s wife unfortunately fell for a “Free Credit Report” offer from a TransUnion service called “Zendough.” They say they are being repeatedly billed even after they cancel, and the only customer service contact number they have is staffed by people who can’t help. [More]
AOL To Axe 1/3 Of Workers
By November 19, 2009
You’ve got pink slip! AOL plans to reduce its workforce by a third as it prepares to be spun off from its ill-fated Time Warner marriage. Who will be left to “cancel the account?” [AP] (Photo: RogueSun Media)
Blockbuster Website Tells You To Click "Cancel" Forgets To Include Button
By July 24, 2009
Valerie just wants to cancel her Blockbuster Online subscription. They tell her to click… but there’s nothing there.
What, You Expect Comcast To Stop Billing You Just Because You Canceled Your Account?
By July 5, 2009
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.
Gold's Gym "Misplaces" Serviceman's Deployment Letter, Keeps Billing For Membership
By June 13, 2009
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.
Canceling Vonage Early? You're Going To Have To Repay That Instant Rebate
By April 11, 2009
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.
UPDATE: E*Trade Returns Customer's $3195, And All It Took Was Eight EECBs
By May 25, 2008
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.
Quit AOL Using Highlighters
By April 24, 2008
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.
