Thanks - I cut the cord, here's how the phone call went down

Warning: this will likely be a long read.

The HTPC is up and running, and it's glorious. So much so that I called to cancel cable last weekend and I'm saving the monthly fees upwards of 90 - 100 bucks a month.

Their retention efforts we're paltry at best. After informing him I wanted to cancel, that their prices are too high and it's getting out of hand...

Them: "You can't get HD with an Antenna."
Me: "You can Stop telling stories right here, It's almost all HD now and in better quality than what you have been able to provide. You and I both know that"

Them: "You have to worry about reception..."
Me: "I've had to call you more about cable signal in the 6 months passed than I've ever had to. I'll take my chances with my line of site to the signal sources..."

Them: "You won't be able to get it on other TVs"
Me: "I have extenders or I'll go buy 2 more 12 dollar antennas."

Them: "How will you get content?"
Me: " Well, most of the time I'm watching TV, I'm watching what the wife has on the DVR. I don't channel surf, In fact, I can think of 2 shows that I will miss for about 2 weeks then I'll forget about them. I can stream most of that the kids watch and the rest is just not needed."
Them: "You can't record over the Air..."
Me: "You're doing it again, I CAN and DO record OTA TV."
Them: "no one will be able to support it for you..."
Me: "I built the machine, I can have it back up and running in an hour. It would take you guys at least 24 - 48 hours to have a truck rolled. Support is not an issue anymore."
Them: "you can't get live sports"
Me: "This isn't an issue for me, I didn't even know who was in the Superbowl until a could of days before the game. Still didn't watch it. Don't remember who was in it."


He then went about quietly Cancelling the service. They stated they were sorry to see us go and he would cancel upon us hanging up. He stated it would "disconnect the call by cancelling the TV."

I politely informed him that "I do not have a phone modem, I have a cable modem. Pull the trigger on that cancel and if you fail at disconnecting this call, I'll give you a feather in your cap."

He pulled the trigger, Call was not disconnected, I upgraded my Internet package with him for a warm fuzzy. Thanked him and proceeded to end the call. He asked why we had cancelled and I simply replied,

"I'd rather pay for something we'd use, like bandwidth, instead of 200 channels of something we didn't. The price was stupid and you folks decided to up my price the day my contract expired. All the while, sending me fliers saying I could still lock in my rate with instructions to go to a website that doesn't work. I'm going to use the money I save to pay down school loans and..."
Them: "If you had told me that at the beginning of the call Maybe I could have done something, but it's too late now."



I took the boxes back that day and never looked back.

I got a call the next day at 8pm and it was the cable company, making a last ditch save attempt. They offered me 50% my cable bill for 6 months if I came back to TV. I asked them how long that offer was good for and it was for the duration of the call. I told em, no thanks.

Them: "Why did you cancel your TV service with us?"
Me: went about explaining to them again, Price, etc etc etc>

Them: 'did you go with another Company?"
Me: "We're done paying for TV we don't use. We were customers of yours at this address for over 10 years and we had a total of 170 dollars in credits over that same time, All incurred in the last year. Not once, did you offer one, I had to call and go after it. We tried the contract thing and the minute it expired, you raised our rates - again. This is not how you treat long time customers. You know your rates are high otherwise you wouldn't be dangling the carrot that you are right now. If you can afford to offer me that price for 6 months, then why isn't that the price everyone pays? I'm not doing the dance and calling you guys up every 6 months to get my rate back. It's not worth it."
Them: "okay..."

As a result of hearing my end of the conversation, It hacked the wife off and she's never going back either.

The real purpose of this post is I Wanted to give you folks Kudos. I hit this place several times a day sometimes with 2 or 3 threads going here and in HDTV technical and was always met with respect. Collectively, You folks are among the most tolerant and knowledgeable I know on the interwebs. Between this and a couple of other sites, I was able to piece things together and get it up and running with little investment.

TL;DR - You guys rock.

I realize you guys can't read into my intent and tone so I expected there'd be a bit of premature vitriol.

I'm currently a Contact Center Planning/Process Analyst in the medical field. I work with numbers and systems. I don't answer calls, I don't take escalations, I work with the Systems the agents and their supervisors use.


So, In no particular order:

I've worked at this very Cable company in their call center(albeit years ago). I know their tactics. they will try to get me to see a perceived "value" in their product. I'd already reached a point where any preceived "value" had diminished beyond reproach. I was prepared to offer counter arguments to the retention rep. I have friends still working there. I know how to play this game and play it well. I don't want to sit on the phone and debate pixels with a retention rep. I want to cancel my TV and be done with it. (Surprisingly enough, they didn't play the "it's cheaper with the bundle" card.) I LIKE this cable company. Their Internet is Superior to anything out here and it works.

Had he not offered any retention attempts, it would have been left with that. I would have cancelled and still upped my internet package. Potentially, He got Paid as a result of "convincing" me upgrading the internet even though I still cancelled TV at the end of the day. At the beginning of the Call, I was clear and concise. "I want to cancel my Cable TV subscription"

I want to make this point perfectly clear to those of you who saw the rep as a victim:

He is spreading disinformation, Intentionally or not, he DID try to "swindle" me out of money by outright lying to me not once, but twice... I was polite and called them "stories." I didn't ask to speak to a supervisor and request that they pull that call record and potentially get him fired. I countered attempts in a polite tone. (That's right, the tone you read the OP in was incorrect) If he truly thought his statements were true, He is now armed with better information and can potentially counter the next guy.

The phone call the following day was outreach. I took a survey the day before which likely prompted them to call me in the first place. They call because they have "access" to other deals - the good ones. I wasn't going to waste my time, but the call went on much longer than I indicated. They wanted to know what "they" did do lose my business. It was a good call overall, until they asked if I went to a competitor. At that point, I was firm, but not impolite. I'm notoriously blunt about stuff. If you ask a Question, I'll likely give you the answer. If you don't want to hear it, Don't ask me.

What irks me is they give you these deals to get you to come back, then raise the rates again. You gotta call em, Threaten to leave if they don't change it back ad infinum. It's akin to your sister going back to the wife-beating husband of hers saying "BUT HE LOVES ME, HE SAID HE WILL CHANGE! I LOVE HIM!" the day after she showed up at your door with a busted lip and black eye. You just gotta roll your eyes and wash your hands of it at some point. Also, a general rule that I've learned to follow. You don't want the deal that has a time limit on it. It's meant to get you to feel pressure and make a snap decision. Snap decisions are not generally good ones for you.

Simply put I was objective about the entire process. Knowing what ordinance they were going to use I was armed with knowledge to counteract those attempts. I likely frustrated the rep, but that's okay, he lied and he got an internet upgrade and got away with it. Had one of my former employees answered the phone, they would have known better than to prompt me for a discussion on the matter.

The lady with outreach got some good info from me which included my desire for TRUE Ala Carte Pricing and the likelihood of me removing their phone service in the coming months as well. (it's an election year)


I WANT them to know what they are up against and so should many here. If enough of us relay this information to them, they gotta take notice. Right now, they are trucking along with an old business model and expecting it to last. The party is going to change. Younger generations are comfortable with locating content online and cable subscriber-ships will continue to go down as the older generations die off or are convinced otherwise. Once rights owners figure out there is a market segment out there they aren't reaching, more advertising dollars will shift to the web content and will revenue will go down for cable TV companies and your rates go up.


I'm not going to name the Cable company outright. It wouldn't be hard to figure out. But I pay 64 bucks for 25 down. I don't expect it to change anytime soon as a result of me removing Cable TV and indicating I was contemplating Cancelling the land-line. I've shown my hand and they know I'm not bluffing.

I'll be honest with you because I like you...

The thought HAD crossed my mind.

Get her a DVR and a hobby. That's what happened at my house. the DVR made it possible for her to do other things and watch TV later.

The ONE stipulation I was given (by the boss) on the HTPC was the ability to RECORD American Idol.

easy peasy.