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California Bill AB 2867 Proposed To Allow You To Cancel Comcast With 'Click Of The Mouse' (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the save-me-from-a-headache dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Los Angeles Assemblyman Mike Gatto has introduced a bill that would allow Californians to cancel their internet or cable services online with 'one click.' The bill reads, ''AB 2867 allows Californians to conveniently unsubscribe from a service with a simple click of the mouse,' said Assemblyman Gatto. 'It just makes sense, that if you are able to sign-up for a service online, you should also be able to cancel it the same way.' Rapid advancements in technology grant consumers a wide variety of cable, internet and phone service products from which they may choose, and while companies make it simple to buy or upgrade services, a cancellation request is usually a prolonged ordeal where customers are sometimes pressured into extending their contracts. AB 2867 provides a convenient and consumer-friendly option for Californians to remove unwanted services without a long phone call.' Bill AB 2867 would in theory spare you from an 18-minute call with a Comcast representative in regard to cancelling your service.

20 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Mike Gatto for President by MetricT · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, *every* business by law should be required to be cancellable by one-click or similar. There are a number of them that want to spend an hour on the phone listening to the pretty music, hoping to wait you out.

    1. Re:Mike Gatto for President by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 5, Informative

      This seems like a common-sense law, and it comes in direct response to abuse by these companies. I'm generally not in favor of legislation of this sort until it's been established that there's a clear problem, but this sort of thing has gotten out of hand. For companies that complain about over-regulation, maybe if you didn't treat your customers like shit, we wouldn't have to expressly forbid that sort of behavior through explicit legislation or regulation.

      My own experience with this "make it a pain to cancel a service" tactic was from an EA MMO from quite a few years ago: "Earth and Beyond" I think it was called. It was a pretty horrible MMO, got boring extremely fast, and there was very little content in the game. After a couple months, I tried to cancel, and realized I couldn't even do that online. I had to call an EA rep who's job it was to try to talk me out of cancelling. I had to do a lot of talking and repeatedly request a cancellation. While it was certainly not as bad as that infamous Comcast customer service call we've all heard, it was still extremely irritating, and I vowed I would NEVER sign up for an EA MMO ever again.

      What the hell are these companies thinking? Do they not realize the annoyance or even anger they generate with these idiotic tactics? If someone is cancelling your service, it's likely they're already not too happy with you, so you're now going to try to harass you into staying?

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    2. Re:Mike Gatto for President by KGIII · · Score: 2

      You're already canceling so, to them, what do they have to lose by pissing you off? That's what I presume is their thought process. Never mind that you might have been willing to order from them again or anything. Never mind that they may have now made you angry enough to tell others. No, they want today's revenue - bugger the long-term.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    3. Re:Mike Gatto for President by ausekilis · · Score: 3, Informative

      I've got an anecdote with my experience from Time Warner Cable. After navigating the phone maze a few times unsuccessfully, I finally managed to get to a "retention specialist" (or whatever). I told them I am moving and want to cancel my service.

      1) "First let me ask you some questions..." sigh.. okay...
      2) "Why are you cancelling?"
      3) "Can I have your new address so I can see if we provide service in your area?" No, you can't. I don't want your service
      4) ... few more questions...
      5) "Wait, you're moving? I need to transfer you to are moving department" WHAT?
      6) ... 10 minutes on hold, give up...
      I try again later, same story, this time I talk to someone more reasonable and tells me because the cancellation is due to a move they can't handle it. I finally get to the right person who understands. He was actually empathetic after I told him how many phone calls I've had to make just to get them to cut the cord.

      Long story short, they have many separate cancellation departments and they are deliberately confusing. It's hard to imagine it isn't a malicious decision by the C-Men of TWC.

      I hope this type of law catches on nationwide, it'll be awesome to give these sorts of companies a digital middle finger. I'll even click the button with both, just so they feel the love.

  2. a sign by wickerprints · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Tells you how odious such "retention practices" are when the ability to quit a business relationship with a corporation without undue burden has to be legislated.

    1. Re:a sign by nullchar · · Score: 2

      Exactly. If you can order online, you should be able to cancel online. Sad to see legislation requires this instead of friendly businesses that value their service.

      Though it does bring up security concerns - hopefully information like the existing credit card details are required to cancel and not just a guessable account number.

  3. how many other things too? by supernova87a · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Would this apply equally to:

    -- gym memberships?
    -- credit cards?
    -- cell phone plans?
    -- America Online?


    Basically, anything where the business model is to rely on your inertia and hassle of cancelling the service, and the high pressure sales tactics to stay when you finally call them up? I constantly find it amazing that there are businesses that survive on this principle...

  4. Move to Uzbkeistan by starkadder · · Score: 4, Funny

    Last time I had to cancel, I told them it was because I was moving to Singapore. I even got congratulated for having such a cool life, and was wished the best of luck!

    1. Re:Move to Uzbkeistan by taustin · · Score: 3, Informative

      The last time I canceled cable, I walked into the local office and gave them the box. They didn't argue.

    2. Re:Move to Uzbkeistan by PRMan · · Score: 2

      Better get a receipt for that (and have a friend take a video for good measure).

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
  5. If only software could be regulated this way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Imagine "one click" acccess to
    Linux distros without systemD
    Firefox without pocket
    WIndows 10 without telemetry.

    One click access to all of this without the long hacks you need to resort to now.

  6. Two factor authentication by Etherwalk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seriously, *every* business by law should be required to be cancellable by one-click or similar. There are a number of them that want to spend an hour on the phone listening to the pretty music, hoping to wait you out.

    One-click with two-factor authentication, maybe.

    You don't want someone who gets the password for a business to be able to cancel the ISP service of a heavy-traffic ecommerce site with one click.

    1. Re:Two factor authentication by taustin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That won't actually be a problem, I think. The bill only requires provision to cancel the account online if you can sign up online. Business accounts of any importance usually don't get done that way. We had a sales rep come in and give us a presentation before we signed any contracts.

      It's a good bill, well written, and I dearly hop that the chimpanzees in Sacramento shove it down Comcasts' throat until they choke on it.

    2. Re:Two factor authentication by Sneftel · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The "one click" thing is all spin; the bill actually just requires ISPs to allow cancellation through their website. Presumably the process would involve the same identity verification as phone cancellation (though more securely, since it's more difficult to socially engineer a website than a phone rep).

      --
      The opinions stated herein do not necessarily represent those of anybody at all. Deal with it.
  7. theres an easer way of course. by nimbius · · Score: 2

    1. Never, NEVER authorize automatic payments from any service provider, ever.
    2. Notify the billing department by mail that you're cancelling service. include your full name. billing address, daytime phone number, and account number. request a final bill if applicable
    3. if serious about things, send the notification by certified mail.

    ignore anything not marked as a final bill. you dont need to call these assclowns and listen to some poor english as a second language wage slave beg you from flashcards not to cancel. and as always, if you should ever run over a Comcast manager in your car make sure to shift into reverse and roll over them again for good measure.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:theres an easer way of course. by riverat1 · · Score: 2

      If you have automatic payments set up then call your bank and tell them to cancel the automatic payments. Don't depend on the service provider to do it.

    2. Re:theres an easer way of course. by rahvin112 · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's far easier to just call them say cancel then when the retention folks get on the line tell them you are moving. When they ask where, tell them the state prison, that you are serving a 20 year sentence for assaulting the local phone company rep that wouldn't cancel your account after you asked politely.

  8. 'Assemblyman', eh... by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 2

    Does he favour Intel or AT&T syntax?

  9. It pretty much already has by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    Credit Cards are really, really tightly regulated in how they approach you cancelling. Gym memberships got that way after Bally Fitness got the *bleep* sued out of them by the NY Attorney General (sad we rely so heavily on NYAG's trying to kickstart their political careers to fix consumer law, but I digress). AOL had class action suits up the wazoo that they lost and had to cut the crap out (although if another company picks up the torch a recent law passed by our Republican Congress means they can just force Arbitrage so they nipped that in the bud, oh well. And yes I'm blaming the Republicans. DINOs have some of the blame too but this is still what we get for kickin guys like Grayson out.).

    I don't recall having much trouble cancelling a cell phone plan simply because they're constantly raising rates and doing away with the best plans, so they're usually happy to see someone go and get off one of the unlimited or cheap high bandwidth data plans.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  10. You should be able to cancel in the same way... by eepok · · Score: 2

    From the Summary: "It just makes sense, that if you are able to sign-up for a service online, you should also be able to cancel it the same way."

    That's just a great principle for most things. I think it would be great if getting divorced was just as easy as getting a marriage license.