This is not a difficult request....

[thegiraffe]

A little background:

I'm moving. I got a new job living and working with adjudicated teenage boys in the middle of the forest. I was up there a couple weeks ago for my 'working interview' (stay 48 hours and see how you like it), and I discovered that my cell doesn't work at the camp. It doesn't work within about 15 miles of the camp. That = no good. I did some research and found a company that DOES have service there for a decent company, so I got a plan with them. Meanwhile, I needed to cancel my existing account. I called up customer service (it was about 9:30pm on Sunday, but this is practically a 24-hr operation). I got, of course, India. Lovely.

I explain that I want to cancel my account because I'm moving somewhere where there isn't any service. I'm not unhappy with the service or anything (I had that particular plan for almost 4 years), it's just no longer feasible since I won't get service where I live. Easy enough, right? Evidently not.

Mr. India tried to make every excuse in the book: the cancellation department is closed, you have a balance due so I can't cancel it (I had it sent to auto-deduct), I need this, I need that, etc. I quit listening after like 5 mins and put him on speaker and brought it to my dad. Dad told me to keep repeating "cancel my account now and bill me for what's due". So I did. Holy cow this dude can talk! He kept giving long winded excuses for everything, talking over me. When he finally said he would cancel it for me (after repeating that for like 5 mins), I thanked him and asked for his name. He said it quickly. I asked him to spell it for me. He did, quickly. I had enough. I asked "I can't write that fast, can you? Please spell it slowly so I can write it down". So he gave me the first three letters slow, then the last three or four really fast. Wash, rinse, repeat. Finally, I had the name written down. I then asked for his employee number. "I can't give that to you", he said. "It will be on your account". DUMB THING TO SAY! My response? "If it's going to be on my account, you can certainly give it to me over the phone". Nope, he's still being difficult. I bring the phone out to dad and this dude is talking about who knows what. Dad interrupts "Excuse me. EXCUSE ME! May I speak with your supervisor please?" another lame excuse from Mr. India. Dad persists and FINALLY he says ok and puts us on hold for like 5 mins.

We hung up, called back, and got a sweet lady with a southern-ish accent. A minute later, my account was cancelled.

Now if only we could get a good proctologist in India to remove whatever had crawled up Mr. India's butt, life would be good.

[Spiffy McMoron]

Heh. Every time that my co-worker wants a better rate on his cell phone plan, he'll phone up the customer service line and immeadiently ask to see teh "cancellation department". Apparently, with his company, there is no "cancellation department", but all of his calls will automatically get directed to a manager, who in turn gives him a better rate for his cell phone!

As an aside, I've left the comments in the OP about "Mr. India" as-is, because I feel that they add the the richness and accuracy of the story. ANYONE who decides that this is a good thread to start talking about the "Indian call centers" will find out very quickly that this is not the place to do so.

[Bliss]

I do remember there was a famous recording not long ago of a guy calling the help desk of his internet company trying to cancel, and he was given the runaround so baddly that after I think 10 or 15 minutes trying to cancel the guy gave up. At the end the recording became a viral in the net and raised such a fuzz that the call center was forced to act and cancel this guy's account and appologize to the guy and discipline the operator if I remember well..

How many can bet it was policy set at HQ to be so obtuse and they blamed the rep just because they where exposed online? ah well. At least you where able to cancel at the end

[Shangri-laschild]

I hate it when I get the run around on the phone. That's a lot of why I'd much rather deal with people in person for stuff like this. I have to say, the people that don't give me a hard time and try to work with me are so appreciated when I finally talk to them.

[marasbaras]

My bet on the OP: Mr. India was doing exactly what he was trained, scripted, or instructed to do. Retain the customer.

Either that or the previous call was a complete dirtbag and he was in a bad mood.

[Anriana]

I do remember there was a famous recording not long ago of a guy calling the help desk of his internet company trying to cancel...

...How many can bet it was policy set at HQ to be so obtuse and they blamed the rep just because they where exposed online? ...

That was AoL, and yes, that is exactly what happened. Consumerist got sent a copy of their retention manual:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/excl...led-188005.php

[draftermatt]

I had internet service for a few months through Wal-Mart (wmconnect.com) it was horrible, but it was $10 a month which was all I could afford.

When I called to cancel I went through the prompts and finally selected to "cancel my account" where I sat on hold for over 45 minutes. (I had nothing else to do so I waited). I finally got to someone, who wanted to know why I was calling (grr).

She tried to keep me on at $2 a month so I could keep my e-mail and the "security" of their browser (it looked like a cheap AOL knockoff) in addition to my broadband connection. It took me a good 20 minutes to finally get it all cancelled, and I never felt secure about it being done until it hadn't showed up on my Visa bill (automatic pay) for a few months.

[thegiraffe]

My bet on the OP: Mr. India was doing exactly what he was trained, scripted, or instructed to do. Retain the customer.

Either that or the previous call was a complete dirtbag and he was in a bad mood.

I understand the whole retain the customer thing, but I guess it's frustrating because of my reasons for canceling. I wasn't canceling because I didn't like the service, I wasn't canceling because I couldn't pay, I wasn't canceling because I want a new phone or whatever...I was canceling because I'm moving to an area that doesn't have coverage by that particular provider. At all. I explained that to him, but he didn't seem to care.

I'm also more likely to think his attitude was a personal problem because when we called back and got another person, the account was canceled in nothing flat. We were on the phone for literally 2 minutes start to finish.

Perhaps he was bored? Who knows... But a jerk is a jerk is a jerk.