Completely agree! Taking the time to pull in the regulatory body that sits on top of a misbehaving behemoth absolutely works! I've done this with PHH Mortgage who "lost" a payment when they took over the mortgage from another company, and also with Enterprise Car Rental when they tried to scam me in Chicago during a drop-off. In both cases I received 100% satisfaction very quickly.

Other tips: * Take the time to find the correct regulator... It might be in a different state than yours * Prepare a complete document with as many facts and scanned copies as you can * Clarify your desired outcome * Send everything certified mail * CC the CEO of the company with which you are fighting * If sending a follow-up letter, included scanned copies of the certified mail receipt(s) from previous communications - they cannot then argue that they did not receive your previous communication.

Nobody wants a call from the AG or a Financial Regulator!

Yes, it is terrible that this needs to be done, but it works wonders.

Is there a website you can type a company name in and address and find all relevant regulators ?

Not that I know of. Kind of depends: Is the offending company a utility? A financial entity? Takes a bit of sleuthing.

Sounds like an opportunity for someone to set up a useful service. :)

Don’t know if it’s the same in the US as the UK, but the regulators details are generally on the bill under the complaints section for each company/utility.

Similar, except I went through Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Protection Bureau, the one Republicans want to kill off. I actually got a direct, hand signed letter from PayPal's chief legal counsel listing the ways they would, and did, to correct the situation. We need more power, not less, in regard to shady business practices.

"The quickest way to resolve all of these billing shenanigans: file a consumer complaint with the FCC"

This , I had to do this with Comcast because of their craptastic service ,BS, and invalid billing. Trying to cancel them I kept being passed around to ALL the wrong people and departments, hung up on, refusal to give confirmation that the service was actually cancelled. Finally figured the only way they would cancel my service was to write a complaint to the FCC.

Sure enough just a few days later comcast called and apologized and cancelled my service as requested and fixed the hundreds of dollars of wrongful billing.

Make sure to file a complaint with your state attorney general. Cases like these can quickly get their attention and more importantly, companies don't want to be investigated by AGs. Unlike state regulators, companies are less likely to have a pre-existing relationship with them. Since you're talking about telecom and not just internet, it's also worth checking to see if that is regulated by your state PUC/PSC. Don't bother with the better business bureau. A company can have an A rating as long as they respond to you, they don't actually need to fix your issue.

Also file complaints with your city. Comcast relies on licenses from the city to use the poles for their cables. Complaints about bad service tend to get fixed quickly when their franchise agreements are in peril.

The best way to cancel any cable service is to simply unplug your equipment and drive to the service office and plunk it on the counter while announcing loudly that you’re canceling your service. It took all of 15 minutes and all the service rep said was “Sorry to see you go.” No retention techniques, nothing. It was the best customers service experience I ever had with Comcast.

In my experience helping an elderly relative with the cable shitshow, the Comcast service center people are actually really nice and would have done so without the drama. But I definitely recommend the physical side of things.

Although I have done a bit of a chaotic neutral thing myself: Comcast sent her two new boxes instead of one after we switched her to a cheaper box. They wanted us to drive all the way back to service center. Grabbed their UPS account # from the tracking code, filled out the web form and had it sent back with pickup billed against Comcast’s acct. She never got billed a cent.

I recall a similar experience after cancelling over the phone.

I went to the store to return the box and they said I'd have to take a number.

I said "Nope, here's the box I'm returning, we're done here". Took some pictures and got the F out.

Returning something shouldn't take more than 30 seconds. And it wasn't going to take more than that for me.

Depending where you are in the US, you're in for an hour or two of waiting.

Another way to deal with Comcast is to go in to their local customer service office. The people there are real, live in the same town, etc and generally can solve any issue and will do so with no BS. At least that's my experience.

When I've tried dealing with someone in their call center, it's been much more frustrating.

Unfortunately sometimes they’re woefully understaffed. When we lived in New Haven they never had a line less than 20 deep and it was clear that they just needed not to skimp on staffing because the people were working as quickly as they could.

It's more like the DMV, pick a number, sit in the large waiting area for 30 minutes, just to get someone who doesnt really want to be there either.

I recently ran into an issue with Spectrum where an agent signed me up for a new plan with lower pricing and shipped me a new modem, but the pricing didn't actually update in their system. Called back a few days later to correct this, and no one could find anything about the plan I signed up for, claimed I was lying, etc. After escalating several times and getting no where I emailed the first person from this list [0] and received a call back the next that solved the problem.

[0] https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/charter-communicati...

Yea, spectrum is scamming people with that. Got an online quote for 400Mbps internet (no modem) for price X. Signed up for service. Billing price was $X + $15. Called service. Oh, we don't offer that pricing, you could not possibly have a quote for that. I was like I do, and I will hold you to it. So they sent me to the local store. Even the store was like "We don't offer that price" and I replied "So you are illegally baiting and switching on customers and committing mail fraud?". After that they adjusted our rate to the quoted price.

Free market only works when there is a choice. If there is only one provider available then regulation is necessary to avoid exorbitant fees.

We don't even need regulation. We just need the DOJ to actually enforce the Sherman Act.

Many states also have a Corporation Commission or similar that you can make a complaint to, in a similar way.

Don't forget your state's public utility commission, or equivalent, too.

This is Utah's:

https://publicutilities.utah.gov

I've reported to them in the past for things Qwest did. Seemed to be effective.

BBB complaints also work sometimes. Was playing back and forth ball with Verizon FIOS's billing department for a few months. Got tired of it. Filed a BBB complaint. Then soon after got a call and magically the issue was solved.

BBB is also a kind of scam: they are not in any sense a government agency, more of a Yelp-like entity. In the age of the internet, they go after small businesses, and are eagerly sought out by scammers because you can just purchase their approval, and it can help allay people's suspicions. For that reason I'm less trusting of anything that is touting BBB support. It might be an old person who's not up to speed with what they've become, but it might be someone purchasing a high rating because they know they're going to try and rip people off, and need some cover.

At the time of writing this, they think I'm just dandy, because I didn't respond but didn't attack them when they tried to shake me down. It'll be interesting to find out if they respond to this post ;)

> more of a Yelp-like entity

Yelp would also work, if the business concerned cared a ridiculous amount about resolving complaints there. That's the only value - that these particular companies care an awful lot about resolving complaints left with the BBB.

Got bullshitted by Comcast phone rep, skipped straight to BBB complaint since I didn't want to deal with Comcast for hours/days, less than a week later I had their VIP Customer Service department calling/emailing daily until they (not me) got the issue resolved.

Perhaps an FCC complaint results in the same result, but it worked out perfectly for me.

> For that reason I'm less trusting of anything that is touting BBB support

What is important is that those companies care about BBB and are quick to fix the issue. If they didn't care about BBB I wouldn't have gone that route.

Same with Twitter. Some companies can be shamed into helping by posting on Twitter. If they didn't care about Twitter, it doesn't nothing using that medium to get help.

You mean Yelp is sort of like a hipster version of the BBB since the BBB predates Yelp by a couple of decades