A while ago, I wrote about cable company Noos, and why I was leaving them: in a nuthsell, because they do not respect their customers. This seems to be embedded in the DNA of this company.
Although I decided to cancel my subscription a long while ago, I can only cancel with 2 months notice starting at the end of the month. OK, I signed that contract 8 years ago, And I will stick by my word. But probably ISPs should make a real effort to satisfy their clients, and stop using these uncommercial techniques.
So, there I go: I got a new ISP with a much faster line (free) back in October. I finally got down to the paperwork by the end of december, and sent them a registered letter. Therefore my cancellation date was end of February 05. Please note that I did not cancel my cable TV service with them.
So what happens ?
- in march, they keep charging me for the internet service.
- in april, they STILL keep charging me for the service. This is insane, are these people nuts ?
So here I HAVE to call them again to cancel my service. Mind you, their hotline charges you 0,34€/min, and of course they bombard you with lots of commercial messages (you can hear euros adding up on their network), until you can reach an operator, a few minutes down the road.
Very politely I talked to the sales rep and asked for a refund. Ooooh... "There is a cancellation fee of 40€, so we won't be giving you back that amount, but you will get a refund for the remaining money NEXT month." "and I just called the responsible service, and your service is being cancelled today...". Did she apologize for the inconvenience ? Never.
Do the maths:
- they got 2 months service = 41€ * 2
- plus a cancellation fee of 40€
- plus 3 calls at about 10 minutes each = 0,34€ * 10 * 3 ~ 10€
- plus the interests of holding my money for another month: ok not much
That's 91€ to cancel a lousy service. I asked the girl to send me a letter or email confirming that they would NOT charge me anymore for the internet, and to confirm that the service has been cancelled. She wouldn't do it (I suppose that's standard policy with Noos?), and confirmed orally it wouldn't happen again.
This is one of the reasons I'm writing this up here: keep an electronic record of their word (it's one sided I know, but they can't try to deny the bank statements...). Not that I really care for the money (hey, they still have to give me back my deposit on the 8-year old modem), but I do care about customer service and respect.
