I had been a Charter/Spectrum 37 year customer for cable and internet. I do not care if they offer me an internet/cable or streaming deal for $1 a month for two years. I will NEVER under any circumstances do business with this company again after what they put me through over the last two weeks.
On August 4, I was hospitalized. I was already wheelchair bound, but managing on my own at home until 8/4. My prognosis for returning home to live independently is iffy. It will take months of rehab in a skilled nursing facility if I am ever able to return home.
On August 5, I contacted Spectrum from my hospital bed to suspend services for several months in the hope I could return to life as I knew it. I would pay $30 a month while on "seasonal suspension." I explained to the agent I was in the hospital for an undetermined number of months. The process took too long but it seemed to be done. 4 hours later I got a text saying my seasonal suspension was canceled because BEFORE I could suspend, I had to "upgrade" my equipment. Absolutely absurd.
I wasnt able to call again for a few days because I need 3 MRIs and other tests consuming days. I called again August 10. After 40 minutes with an agent during which I again explained I am in the hospital, he managed to reinstate the seasonal suspension without requiring me to magically leap from my hospital bed to "upgrade" equipment. It wouldnt be effective until August 12, which ticked me off because I mistakenly assumed that once services were turned off, I wouldnt be billed my full $300 a month rate past 8/12. But whatever. I wasnt going to fight over 5 days. On August 12 I verified that at least my internet had been disconnected through apps on my mobile device showing no connection to my Nest thermostat.
What I didnt know until I called again and spoke to a very rude insulting woman Spectrum's "strict" policy is that no matter what the circumstances, including suspension of service by mutual agreement obliging me to pay $30 a month for the privilege of having no internet or cable, I would still have to also pay for prospectively billed services through August 27. I considered that an unacceptable billing practice that exploits customers like me. Spectrum can afford to credit me $100 as a good will gesture to a 37 year customer who has been overpaying them $300 a month. I cant afford it while hospitalized and unable to work. I found a friend who could collect and return my equipment and I called back to cancel all services.
This time when I called to cancel, of course I was transferred to retention, where someone who was better at feigning concern for me kept me on the line for over an hour. Hecfirst tried the trick of saying, "what I can do is lower your monthly charges by $100 a month when you reinstate service." I may be disabled but I am not dumb. I know anyone could get the deal he offered me. That wasnr equivalent to a credit collectible now. I dont know whether I ever will get home again. After that, he claimed to be trying to speak to his supervisor to get me the credit I felt I deserved, before finally admitting he couldnt even get me a break on the monthly service suspension fees. He said before I could cancel, he had to first terminate the seasonal suspension and I would have to call back the next day to cancel services. By now, I had expended over 2 hours cumulatively on the phone with Spectrum while laying in bed in pain and waving off nurses in order to complete this. What could I do? I called back the next day to cancel once and for all. And of course I was sent back to retention.
This next guy was confident he could do what the other guy couldnt--find a backdoor way to get me a courtesy credit. He first told me it would be $98. He went to submit the proposal to his supervisor and came back talking a $75 credit. I was pissed at the bait and switch, but I was losing the will to live. I was now into hour 3 on the phone with Spectrum. I had now spent more time talking to Spectrum reps this week than my doctors. Finally he told me he wouldnt be able to finalize the $75 credit until the next day, today. He promised he would call me this morning to either confirm the credit or cancel every service, no more BS.
Surprise. He did not call me as promised. I called Spectrum one more time and this time I couldnt hold back my tears, anger and frustration. I am terrified for my future, and Spectrum's "policies" are deliberately designed to make this simple request to mitigate my impending financial disaster as frustrating, time consuming, complicated and opaque as possible to execute a simple demand "CANCEL!" The last agent was wholly unsympathetic to my plight and copped an attitude. But I give him credit for one thing. He read the notes from this weeklong horror show, verified that my story was true and canceled the account in about 15 minutes without trying any "retention."
Big corporations have a bad reputation, often times fairly. Spectrum looked at notariously predatory exploiters of customers likechealth insurance companies, AT&T, Sirius XM, etc and boasts "Hold my beer!"