AT&T refuses to allow cancellation of service in writing

[upi402]

Is this legal?

I tried to reduce my plan and they penalized me 1,800 rollover minutes. So I asked to cancel and they refused to allow me to terminate my contract in writing, sent by USPS return receipt requested.

They will only cancel if I make myself available for a "specialized team" to talk to me on the phone first.

I'm going with CREDO mobile now. AT&T bought Cingular and now the service is terrible.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

1. they are just a retention team

a lot of companies do this...legality? i don't think that has ever been addressed but i am not certain. talk to them...maybe you can wring some good stuff out of them. i got six months of free cable and hi speed from Comcast after complaining enough and threatening to cancel my service...

sP

[OhioChick]

2. I never heard of that.

I've switched carriers several times in the past and never had to go through all that BS....oddly enough, even with AT&T.

Wonder what the purpose of the "specialized team" is?

[BlueJazz]

20. Here's the Ah..... "Specialized Team"

[eyesroll]

3. Read your contract. If it outlines a method of cancellation, that's what you have to do.

Good luck.

[upi402]

5. read my contract? OMG

I'm a single parent, I don't have time to pee!

[eyesroll]

21. Heh...well, point being, it's legal.

A contract can basically have any terms that aren't so unreasonable as to be unconscionable or illegal. And even unconscionable is hard to prove when you sign a contract voluntarily (and not, say, before getting admitted to the ER).

Inconvenient is perfectly fine, though.

[RoyGBiv]

4. Call them ...

I had a similar issue (well, my mother did), and I just got completely fed up with hearing about it, grabbed the phone, and, essentially, told the guy on the other end that I wanted the call to go dead because the service had been disconnected.

It took a lot of forceful, but extremely professional talking to get it done, but I got it done. Took half an hour, which is insane, but I got it done. It didn't happened in the way my intentional exaggeration stated I wanted it, but the phone did go dead within a few hours.

You'll have more success if you educate yourself a bit first by looking up FCC regulations, figuring out the names of people local to your area that have power and influence with AT&T, and repeatedly reinforcing the idea it is not legal to charge a person for service they have explicitly denied they want. This is especially effective if you can draw them into a "threat" by leading them to the spiel where they tell you about fines and extra charges or any "if you don't stay with us, we'll ..." spiel. There's a word for that: "extortion."

Disclaimer: Don't throw such words out lightly without knowing your local laws and any regulations that may apply. Read any contract you have and know it. I went into this situation with a lot of prior knowledge due to my employment at the time, but anyone can do it if you educate yourself. Don't let the bastards own you. They are there to *serve* you, and if they don't, you have every right to fire them.

[upi402]

7. I guess I'll have plenty of time to read while on hold

and while they try their sales and threat games on me. They already "warned" me about the 40 cents a minute if I go over on a reduced plan. Of course they're trying to educate me, they said.

I want to cancel without investing so much time into their salvage-sales team gambit.

[RoyGBiv]

10. I know it's a pain ...

But I cannot emphasize enough that to survive in this corporate world, educating yourself is essential.

I should mention one real problem with the "cancel by mail" scenario you've tried. It may not be legal for them to honor such a request unless you went to the extent of getting the letter notarized.

I worked in this industry for a number of years, not for AT&T thank gopod, and during my time I saw it all. My second week on the job I pulled a letter out of the night drop from someone demanding his service be canceled. Not knowing what to do, I took it to my supervisor who told me to ignore it. I was not *legally* allowed to cancel service just because I got a letter about it. The reason? That letter was from a disgruntled ex-husband. The office where I worked had been dealing with him for awhile as he tried all manner of ways to screw with his ex-wife.

We also had a lot of landlords who, for one reason or another, tried to disconnect their tenants' service via mail.

[silverweb]

6. WTF?

I don't see how that CAN be legal! When is your regular contract up?

I've been wanting to go with Credo for quite a while now, but am still stuck with AT&T. I'm in Mexico and Credo told me they don't have the phones or international service contracts to guarantee service here, so I'm stuck with AT&T for now.

My contract is up in February(?) 2009 and I'm hoping we can resolve the Mexico service problem by then. I find it hard to believe that Sprint doesn't have an interface in Mexico.

The more I learn about AT&T, the more I hate them.

[upi402]

8. CREDO will pay your cancellation fees

They're cool. I will pay the remainder out of pocket gladly but CREDO pays $200 of it.

[silverweb]

18. I need a guarantee of service in Mexico first.

Both of my kids are on my family plan, one in Los Angeles and the other in Seattle -- but transferring just won't work for us at all if Credo can't promise me service where I live in Mexico.

Credo needs to be able to interface with GSM or TelCel or whatever other Mexican service providers cover my area, and they don't have that at the moment. That's the only issue resolution I have to wait for.

[Cleita]

9. They refused to cancel a credit card I had with them.

Even though I haven't used it in years and was a victim of identity theft with them they still send me the cards when it's time to renew. I never activate the cards but they still come. We really need some laws to rein these corporations in. They have absolutely gone amok.

[bbernardini]

11. You might want to write to consumerist.com about this.

Just a thought.

[Posteritatis]

12. Reminds me of people trying to cancel AOL accounts a while back (nt)

[upi402]

14. I had to cancel a credit card to stop paypal

they were double withdrawing on an auto-payment and would not be stopped! So I cancelled my credit card and paypal account to stop it.

[upi402]

16. hassles? US Bank telemarkets me and I'm on the "do not call" list

They say that because I'm a customer they can do it. But I declined to receive their special offers, etc. on their site. Yet they continue to call. Each time I say, "take me off your list and don't call back please".

But they continue.

[Posteritatis]

22. If you do *any* business with them, ever, they're exempt from DNC lists, I think (nt)

[undergroundpanther]

13. OMG

I tried to have my roomate assume her own phone and cancel her phone on my bill.Ran into a WALL it pissed us both off.The guy was an ass and he kept hemming and hawing. Maybe this is why.
Ok This is ENOUGH.FUCK Verizon

[MannyGoldstein]

15. Easy Problem To Solve, Probably

Send a complaint email to your Attorney General, and cc AT&T.

You'll be canceled promptly unless you live in a wacko state.

[upi402]

17. true dat

and cc my Representative Jay Inslee who is a hero of mine.

[ColbertWatcher]

19. Apparently, your request to cancel service must be...

...tattooed on your first born, who must be left on their doorstep in a basket.

[KharmaTrain]

23. I'd Stay Far Away From AT&T

I got a pitch from one of their people not long ago. I had to have some fun. I asked the person if the call was being recorded...the caller said "yes"...and I asked why. He said "quality control. I asked "whose quality, yours or mine" and then said that I'm not about to do business with a company that is so cavalierre with taping conversations and then giving them to the government. He was dumbstruck...then I mentioned that AT&T was complicit in the FISA betrayal of millions of people. Then I asked if he worked from the Folsom Street office. I wished him a good day and hung up.