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.
cancellations
AT&T Employee Misleads Customer, And Now He's Trapped In A 2-Year Contract
By 2.13.09
A little over a month ago, Mark gave up on his GoPhone SIM, went into an AT&T store with his iPhone 2G in hand, and signed up for a new two year, post-paid plan. The sales rep promised Mark that his corporate discount would apply, and instead of a contract presented just a receipt. Now AT&T is saying there’s no corporate discount on an iPhone purchase—even though he didn’t buy an iPhone, just the service plan—and that he can’t cancel now without paying an ETF because it’s past the 30 day mark.
Before Traveling, Make Sure AmEx Hasn't Canceled Your Card
By 2.7.09
Ronnie Sue’s recent trip to Germany was a financial nightmare. Though she warned her bank she would be traveling to Germany, when she arrived, she couldn’t withdraw needed cash. The bank gently suggested that Ronnie Sue draw cash from her credit card, and even offered to refund any cash advance fees. It wasn’t until Ronnie Sue whipped out her AmEx that she learned it had been silently canceled two days before she left…
Hasbro Casts Spell Of Greater Invisibility Over D&D Cancellation Page
By 1.10.09
You can’t cancel your annual membership agreement with Hasbro’s “D&D Insider”—at least not easily, and not at all for some frustrated users. Company admins keep giving out ridiculous instructions on the user forums, but those posts are followed by customers saying all they get are error messages, no matter what browser/OS combo they try. To make matters worse, their customer service department was closed over the holidays, so nobody was answering the phone numbers they listed. This is the kind of runaround we expect from scammers like the Acai resellers, not a national toy company.
Vonage Says "If You Hang Up We'll Cancel Your Account"
By 1.10.09
We don’t know what the hell happened with this customer service situation, but somehow the CSR for Vonage decided that when Sarah abruptly hung up on him, she agreed by default to a service cancellation and $92 cancellation fee. That sounds like the kind of angry-CSR “mistake” that can be fixed with a second call—but according to the next CSR Sarah spoke to, that’s just Vonage policy. What?
Putting The Wrong Name On An Airline Ticket Is An $800 Mistake?
By 12.15.08
Here’s an odd problem. Reader Austin bought some airline tickets for a business trip and wasn’t sure who was going to go, so he booked an extra ticket with his name on it — thinking that the name could be changed later. Whoops.
Tonik Insurance Sneaks 20% Premium Increase On Customer After Approval
By 10.13.08
Tonik is the rad, x-treme! lifestyle health insurance for young people who can’t afford regular insurance—sort of the Poochie of health insurance, except it’s not going to go away. Aasma wrote to us to let us know that when she signed up for it over the weekend, she got a nasty surprise after she submitted her credit card information.
Really, Credit Bureaus, I'm Not Dead
By 9.5.08
I have been battling with a silly preconception the federal government has concerning my status as a deceased person, that causes them to routinely shut down credit cards that I am using, and stresses my ability to build credit. (All this despite being actively enlisted in the US Navy)…
United's "Bad Weather" Excuse Isn't Very Believable
By 7.31.08
Jonathan wants to know how long an airline can blame a cancellation on bad weather, and whether there’s any way to get such a claim rejected when it’s used inappropriately. Is it legitimate, for example, to say tomorrow’s flight is canceled due to weather, when what you really mean is an isolated thunderstorm the day before—which evidently affected no other airlines in the area—triggered a domino effect in getting a certain plane to the right airport a full day later?
American Airlines Cancels Flight Because Their Customers Are Too Pissed Off To Fly
By 7.8.08
Can it actually be unsafe to fly a plane full of seething, rage-filled passengers from Florida to New York? Apparently so. Flight 1908 from Miami to LaGuardia was delayed because the flight crew didn’t arrive on time. When they did finally show up, the angry passengers started to boo.
Dear United Airlines: "You Have Designed Your Customer Service To Piss Off Your Customers"
By 7.2.08
After a mechanical snafu grounded his flight to Zurich, Aaron received several vouchers and an upgrade as compensation from United Airlines. Unfortunately, the vouchers and upgrades proved so difficult to use that he has given up and is now publicly vowing never to fly United Airlines again.
How To Cancel An Order You've Placed On Walmart.com
By 6.27.08
As we noted in this earlier post, it’s technically not possible to cancel an order after you’ve placed it on Wal-Mart’s website. A helpful reader says there are a couple of ways around this, although neither option will immediately free up any hold on your funds.
Walmart.com Holds $550 Hostage For PS3 Bundle It Won't Ship
By 6.26.08
Consumerist reader The Unicorn has $550 tied up in some strange Wal-Mart purgatory for a PlayStation 3 bundle that they won’t ship to her, even though it clearly states in their online terms that they won’t charge you for your order until it’s shipped. Her customer service queries are being met with content-free scripted CSR-bot responses. She writes, “Here’s the thing: don’t ever buy anything from Walmart, ever. I knew this, and ignored it, and now I’m paying the price.”
T-Mobile Introduces Declining Early Termination Fees
By 6.23.08
Tmobile just announced that they will let early termination fees decline over the course of a contract. Previously, you had to pay the full monty whether canceled on the first day, or last day, of your contract. This chart shows you how the new fee breaks down over time:
Canceling HBO Costs $1.99 But Canceling Comcast Is Free, Which Do You Choose?
By 5.29.08
Reader Jonathon wanted to cancel his HBO so he contacted one of Comcast’s infamously useless online customer service representatives. CSR Adam informed Jonathon that to cancel HBO would cost him a fee of $1.99. He asked to speak to a supervisor to get the fee waived but CSR Adam said that would be impossible. The CSR then pointed out that there would be no charge to cancel Comcast’s service altogether. Decisions, decisions. Jonathon’s letter and chat log, inside…
BBB Works Against Sprint
By 5.28.08
Some people think the BBB doesn’t work. They do, but only if the company cares about keeping a clean record. See when you look up a company in the BBB database it shows you how many complaints have been filed against the company, how many were answered, how many did the consumer report as being satisfactorily resolved, etc. So if you have a valid complaint, file it with the BBB, and the company cares about its BBB record, you have a decent chance of getting a solution. You might not believe it, but it turns out Sprint is one of those companies. Here’s Kevin’s story of how the BBB got his erroneous text message charges refunded and let him leave contract early without early termination fee…
