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Comment by ramidarigaz | Hacker News Reader

When I called to cancel my account I told them I was moving out of the country. Total lie, but it made the cancelation process really easy.

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Yup. That's how I cancelled Comcast.

Me: "I'm moving."

Clerk: "Oh, where to? We can set up your service ahead of time so it's ready when you---"

Me: "Ireland."

Clerk (disappointed): "Oh."

Same for me when I was moving to Germany.

The only question I got was: "Is there a roommate or somebody else that could take over the account?"

Good idea. Next time, say you will move to China where there are state telecom companies only.

This didn't work for me when trying to cancel my Time Warner service. They kick you to the relocation department and demand to know the zipcode for your new address so they can confirm that they don't service it and try to redirect you to the relevant cable company's new service department.

I didn't have a zipcode for my new address, I was going to be crashing with a friend for a while, so that wasn't an option. On my third attempt (first, automated system. Second, live attendant, who kicked me out back to the automated relocation system), a lightbulb went off and I skipped the relocation options and told the rep I was just fired, I live paycheck to paycheck, and I had to move back in with my parents to try and scrape by.

He was extremely apologetic, but still "had" to go through the "can we lower you bills? what price would be acceptable for you to continue your service with us?" He had to "check with his supervisor," but the phone call ended after two minutes of holding with a successful cancellation!

...then I moved 2200 miles away to a city with multiple cable providers only to discover, surprise!, TWC still controls the area I live in. :'(

That's why you tell them you are moving overseas.

You would think so, right? I asked my rep and they still wanted to see if there was anyone else I wanted to transfer the account to, and then they asked if I wanted a discount for a service I couldn't possibly use.

Maybe I was an outlier, but it was really frustrating.

I had to call to cancel my AT&T account recently. The conversation was pretty short: I just told the rep that I was moving in with a roommate that already had service set up so I didn't need to transfer my own service (only about ~20% a lie).

The frustrating and insulting part was that I spent a really long time on hold before I was connected with the rep and every few minutes while I was on hold an automated message played saying something along the lines of "You can pay your bill, start new service, or basically anything except cancel way faster by going online!" It was bad enough without the constant reminders that I was only sitting there on hold because I wanted the one thing AT&T won't let you do online.

> (only about ~20% a lie)

Why are commenters here a bit apologetic about lying to customer service reps? The latter have no right to know anything about your life, you want the service cancelled and that's it, any information you may choose to provide is purely so they can service you better.

Tell them you're moving to Andromeda to set up an ice cream shop for all I care, I won't hold it against you.

I guess social convention says that it's bad to lie. Personally, I don't feel so bad about lying to a company... but I do feel a bit bad about lying to a person that represents that company.

My conversation with ATT went something like this:

Me: I'd like to cancel service.

They: why?

Me: I already signed up with Comcast. They're giving me 100Mbps for the price of your 10Mbps.

They: Oh.

<done>

This is the way - create a scenario to which there is no possibility of continuing Comcast service. I claimed I was going to be living off the grid and had no need for whatever the internet provided. Was cancelled in under 5 minutes.

I said that when cancelling my cell phone - the rep just kept hounding me, not believing that I simply didn't want a cell phone. Finally the ended with "well, good luck on your new life in the Yukon" - to which I replied - "did you even look at my address or listen to a work I've said to you - I've been living the Yukon for 4 years". "oh".

When I left the country I didn't cancel Comcast, I just closed the account that it was auto- deducted from.

Let's hope I never need a US credit rating for anything.

Ha, straight out of Friends: https://youtu.be/DtKgZjxuzVs?t=2m50s

That's probably the trick you are paying $5 for.

Just say you're moving to an apartment where cable and internet is provided.

I usually just say personal reasons.

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