Ma Bell and Me

When Jim moved in I asked him to transfer his cable service here since I've lived a TV free life for quite a few years now.  The only service I was using was broadband for my internet connection.  He added broadband to his package, and I cancelled my broadband access with the competing business.  Or thought I did.  Turned out I failed in my mission because I refused to answer personal questions about why I wanted to cancel.

When you call Phone-Co-Name-of-the-Year and ask to disconnect a service, a 'customer service' person transfers you to what they call the Disconnection Department.  Internally I suspect they call it "Customer Retention."  The purpose of the "disconnection" department is to talk you into keeping your service--whether you need it or not; whether you want it or not.  To learn why a customer wishes to cancel they ask, "Why?"

  

Apparently it is not okay to say, "Just because."  I personally didn't think it was the Phone Co's business why I wished to cancel.  But Mr. Customer Retention persisted in his questioning.  I felt like I was being interrogated and in a way, belittled.  I was certainly not feeling like a respected customer.  I finally said, "Cancel my service and we are finished now," and I hung up.

Darned if I didn't receive next month's bill as if nothing had happened.  Because nothing had happened.  I said a prayer for sanity and serenity and called again.  I spoke with a representative named Carmen who was willing to listen to my belief that interrogation should not be a corporate response to a cancelling customer.  She kindly cancelled my account and credited the billed (but unused) month.

Now that's the way to treat a customer!  Way to go, Carmen.

(As is often the case, I was too befuddled to ask Mr. CR what his name was.  I'm sure he answered with it in the beginning, but who wants to remember a jerk anyway.)