At some point they sent a debt collection agency, that was much less stressful than it sounds. They called me up, "you owe $telco money", "No I don't", "oh?", "Yes, I have complete documentation of cancelling it, but their CS reps kept hanging up. Sorry, you've been had.", "Oh, this again. Sorry to have bothered you.", never heard from the debt collection agency again.
Very hard to close the account, even in person. My point was to make sure that there is no recurring payments left on the account.
Similar bullshit. You ask to close the account, and they keep asking you back with a square face.
In the end, a year after I left Canada, I get a call from collectors saying that they have $600+ debt+penalties+interest on my allegedly closed credit card from a service the bank added itself, and that they set my credit score to zero.
Then I found that TD subscribed me on some bullshit "credit alert" right in the month when I asked for account closure.
An immediate WTF was how in the world my credit card was still active. In than latter came out that TD does not let people really close their CC accounts, only "stop them," which only amounts to just hiding you CC from web UI, and that you need specifically say that you want to "really close" the account, which I did. So, next time, if will ever set my foot in the country, I will need to ask them to "really, really, really close my account"
Ameritrade is owned by Charles Schwab now with TD having a minority stake in Schwab. Before that TD had a 40% stake in Ameritrade.
(source: Dave Ramsey's mentioned that in many of his radio shows/podcast episodes)
The answer? was a streaming box. I expect to see a monthly rental fee for the streaming box...
I had to cancel the plan and have my "roommate" (actually my wife), start as a new customer to get an internet only plan.
I already had them for Internet access, but had DirecTV at the time for my TV.
They must have a quarterly quota to upsell to their subscriber base, so I'd get a call like clockwork every three months, pushing a cable TV package. Each time I'd tell them that the only reason I'm with DirecTV is because of Sunday Ticket (NFL package; exclusive to DTV). That always worked, until one day.
This sales rep responds with, "We have Redzone". I reply that it's not the same, and I really need the package I have with DTV. Then he says, "You know there are websites that stream all the games for free, right? Why not do that?"
Yeah, basically telling me to pirate the games.
... "That's a good point! Hell, I don't need any TV service at all then, right?"
> Me to retention person: Hi, I just switched to AT&T Fiber and I'm up and running, so I want to get rid of my Comcast internet.
> Rentention person: Is this the sort of sitation where you would move your Comcast internet to a new location?
> Me: No.
> Rentention person: Ohh, well in that case, I'll go ahead and cancel you're account. Ok done now.
Literally a 4 minute phone call including automated prompts.
If it doesn't, trying to repair that damage could be an exercise in futility. :/
P.S. there probably going to get a lot of people "going to prison" in the future so the scripts will include questions to out the fakers, who want to cancel without trouble.
The only disadvantage is that you would probably have to give that company your billing information for that to work.
It keeps companies in line.