2 Hours, 15 minutes to Cancel Service?
Developing a sustainable competitive advantage is one of the most difficult things to do in business. A great idea that isn't easily copied or that you can do so much better than anyone else that no customer would want to switch doesn't come along very often. I've decided that I'll be switching
cable companies every 2 years unless one could come up with a compelling reason
for me to stay. But I have to admit that Verizon has made cancelling so
uncomfortable that I might reconsider switching again.
A month after cancelling, I hadn't received anything to send back our set top boxes (which they told me would come within a few weeks), and then I received a new invoice for another month's service. I called customer service again, waited on hold for 1 hour 45 minutes (thank goodness for speaker phone) and the new rep told me that the original rep should have told me I couldn't cancel my service on the same day I ported my phone number from Verizon to Comcast (why not?), and they should have told me to call back in 3 days. But he would now take care of it and I wouldn't be charged for an extra month.
Fast forward two weeks, and my card does get charged for another month. I call again, and I am bounced through FIVE reps over 45 minutes before someone finally explains that the one thing no one bothered to do was actually process the credit to my account so I can get back the now $200+ they have overcharged me for service that I never used. I have hope that it has finally been done properly and I will soon be satisfied.
The obvious lesson is train your people well enough to do the work quickly and accurately so that it doesn't burn the bridge with your former customers. So many people want to place the blame on unskilled workers (and of course that does happen), but more often poor systems and poor training are the bomb waiting to go off on your business.
A month after cancelling, I hadn't received anything to send back our set top boxes (which they told me would come within a few weeks), and then I received a new invoice for another month's service. I called customer service again, waited on hold for 1 hour 45 minutes (thank goodness for speaker phone) and the new rep told me that the original rep should have told me I couldn't cancel my service on the same day I ported my phone number from Verizon to Comcast (why not?), and they should have told me to call back in 3 days. But he would now take care of it and I wouldn't be charged for an extra month.
Fast forward two weeks, and my card does get charged for another month. I call again, and I am bounced through FIVE reps over 45 minutes before someone finally explains that the one thing no one bothered to do was actually process the credit to my account so I can get back the now $200+ they have overcharged me for service that I never used. I have hope that it has finally been done properly and I will soon be satisfied.
The obvious lesson is train your people well enough to do the work quickly and accurately so that it doesn't burn the bridge with your former customers. So many people want to place the blame on unskilled workers (and of course that does happen), but more often poor systems and poor training are the bomb waiting to go off on your business.
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