This company takes advantage of the elderly, so if you have an elderly relative please watch out for them and be their advocate.
My story is about my 76 year old father and his wife have been customers of Spectrum internet for years. They have ran into health problems and have not used their internet service for at least one year if not longer.
My father told us he canceled the internet because he was unable to get on his computer anymore. (be advised this is the only devise in the house that uses internet). My brother stayed at his house about 4 months ago and verified their was no internet service after tracking down the modem and performing several checks...
Well this month dad needed help paying bills and we discovered he has been paying for Spectrum internet service. Dad said he believed the Spectrum bill was for his cell phone, but after further digging we discovered he has different cell phone provider.
I called Spectrum today and now I can understand why dad may have thought the Spectrum bill was for something other than internet.
First the phone tree which kind of difficult to negotiate, I'm positive it is super difficult and confusing for a lot of people especially the elderly.
Finally spoke with a live person and got some run around and the call was disconnected. Back though the phone tree again, got some run around with the first person, then transferred to the cancellation department. That's where just about any elderly person would run into a huge problem.
The male tried to tell me my dad would lose his phone and tv service if the service was canceled the account. I tried to explain my dad does not have either of those services with their company but the male would not listen. I had to tell the male several times that I did not want to buy anything or compare prices and only wanted to cancel the internet that was not being used, as he tried to talk over me and deflect why I was calling....
I became very frustrated, where most elderly persons would have given up. I'm sure this is where my dad probably gave up or thought he would have canceled his cell phone. 15 minutes after the male refused to allow me to talk or cancel the service, I had to yell at him to stop talking because he could not hear what I was saying if he did not allow me to talk. Several more minutes ensued as I kept demanding that he cancel the service while he continued to try and sell me other products. We finally reached an understanding and the service was canceled.
I asked to speak with his supervisor and was transferred again. The gal that answered attempted to start the run around again but I'm sure from the tone of my voice she did not want to ruin her day and agreed to transfer me to the supervisor.
I spoke with the supervisor and she looked up my dad's account. She said she did not see any notes in the account that my dad has ever tried to cancel so she could not do anything for my dad.
Either my dad gave up, which I fully believe that most elderly would have after what I just experienced, and/or the employee that took the call did not document the call from my dad. Or my dad was unable to negotiate the phone tree.
If you have read this far and have an older parent or grandparent please watch out for them. My dad has paid this company at least $900 for services he did not use and would have continued to pay every month had it not been for us. I get it that their employees are trained to try and talk people out of canceling their service, but the extent of the behavior and practice that I experienced is unacceptable out of any company and borderline criminal.
If we don't watch out for our parents or grandparents there are people and/or companies (like this one) in this world that will take complete advantage of them. These companies are no better than the scam artists that only want to steal money from the vulnerable.
By the way, after this was over I spoke with several of my friends about this and discovered some of them have had similar experience with Spectrum, so this was not just a one time ordeal.
Shame on you Spectrum. read more