I recently moved, and decided to go with FIOS at my new place. Now I have to close my Comcast account, which I’m dreading. I’m torn on whether I want to attempt it over the phone, or go to the local office in person. I have two problems with calling: one, the amount of wasted time I’ll be on hold, and two, there are many horror stories out there about accounts not really getting closed.
The last time I canceled with them, about four years ago, I took my equipment into their local office and asked to close the account, got a receipt, and it was painless. This time around, I have no equipment. I have internet with them only, and I own my own modem and router.
Can I go in person and cancel my account, if I have no equipment to return? I don’t want to waste my time going down there if I’m going to be told I have to call.
Op if you are moving out of their service area it’s not bad at all, i did it in under 10 minutes. As long as that’s the reason not “my bill is too hight” etc, they will just cancel you without much issue. Just make sure you tell them you are moving out of their service area.
Oh they let you. Bu yes, if you try and cancel for “my bill is too high” or “I am switching to satellite tv” they will transfer you a couple of times and keep you on the line trying to change your mind. It can take some time and be a little annoying. One nice thing- if you have been a good customer and do call to cancel for reasons like that, they will make you some great offers- such as a free month, free premium channels for six months and a $200 gift card. Or some combo of the three.
My thought is to avoid this BS by going there in person. They don’t have “retention specialists” at the office (which is only ten minutes away). I’m guessing I would spend less time and have less of a hassle if I go there and take a number and wait, versus calling the 800 number. But more importantly, I would get a receipt, so they can’t pull their “we have no record of that” nonsense.
I’m worried that if I go there, without any equipment to return, they’ll say “sorry, we can’t help you, you’ll have to call to cancel.” So I was hoping someone here might have experience with this, because Googling was getting me nowhere.
Call the local office and ask them. Keep it simple and non-personal. “Is it possible for one of your customers to cancel their service at your office in person?”
Well, I went down to the office, and there was no line. I was in and out in under five minutes. When I said I wanted to close my account, the clerk asked if I was moving. I lied and said I was moving in with my girlfriend, and she already has internet. I didn’t specify with who. And that was all the grilling I got. I’m sure calling customer service would have been a much different story.
I just wanted to give this update, so that if someone is ever Googling whether or not they can close their Comcast account in person when they have no equipment to return, they’ll hopefully find this thread and get their answer: YES!
I’m glad that you didn’t have any trouble cancelling. I think I read somewhere of someone who called in to cancel, saying that he was moving to Europe, and similarly had a pain-free experience. Basically, if you offer them any opening to try to retain your business (e.g., you’re not moving but are switching to a competitor, or you’re moving to an area in which Comcast offers service) they’re going to try their hardest to do so.
Comcast’s internal customer retention guide got leaked last year. Before I called to cancel my service in October, I took a look at it for the short list of situations in which their support reps are allowed to let you off the phone.
So when I called I (truthfully) said that I was canceling service because I was moving. When asked where, my exact words were, “Let’s say I don’t know the address.” This wasn’t a lie, just a friendly suggestion.
I had to go through this exchange once more in person when I went to turn in my cable box. After that they didn’t bother me, and I’ve been a satisfied U-verse customer ever since.
It’s possible Comcast has changed their procedures since then, hopefully for the less obnoxious. From what I know of them, I’m not inclined to be optimistic.
You can’t really blame them for trying to keep their customers. I bet if all you had to do was call them up and say - “I want to cancel.” And they said - “OK - bye.” People would complain about that.
