Cancellations
When somebody calls or emails in to cancel, there are a few steps to be taken care of.
1) Verify contact information.
Verify the customer’s email address is correct. This ensures the letter of cancellation will be correctly associated with the customer.
2) Find a reason
Finding a reason gives us an opportunity to save them. Possibilities:
- Moving:
- When somebody is moving, as part of the cancellation procedure make sure you ask if the future tenants will be taking over service. See Transfer of Service for more information.
- Unhappy with Service
- If a customer is cancelling because they’re not happy with the service, check with them and see if they’re willing to work with us, to give us a chance to make it better.
- Cheaper Offer Somewhere Else
- Some other providers undercut our rate, like Signal, ExcelNet, Bugtussel, Starcom, and others. In any case, the procedure is the same – if they can service their area, we’ll make a competitive offer. The customer needs to provide the speed and price they’re being offered, and it will be considered.
- It’s Too Expensive
- Even if they don’t have a better offer from somebody else, if they’re going to cancel unless we give them a price cut, negotiate with Tim to get them the price cut. It’s better to make some money than no money.
3) Early Termination Fee
There are two possible amounts for the early termination fee. Contracts signed prior to August of 2018 carry an ETF of $250.00, and contracts post $350.00. Regardless of the date the contract was signed, check the contract, just in case the wrong one was signed.
Note: if the remainder of service is cheaper (i.e., 3 months at $59.95 < $350.00), charge them that amount rather than the ETF.
The early termination fee will always apply unless it is our fault – only Tim can say no to an ETF.
4) Cancellation PDF, Letter of Cancel
Send out the cancellation PDF to the email address on file. Verify the email address before sending.
Have the customer respond to the email with their official letter of cancel.
5) Timing
In order to not be charged for the next month, one of the following needs to happen:
- The Equipment Pick Up fee must be paid, with the pickup scheduled
- They must provide a tracking number for their shipment
- They must drop off their equipment.
If the gear is not in our hands in 30 days and account is delinquent, we will consider the account abandoned and we will send a tech to repo the equipment. Customer is then responsible for the pickup fee and the balance, if no communication is made by the middle of the following month the account will start the collections process.
6) Final Steps
Send a message to the Cancellations channel on Slack. Use this general format:
[Customer Name] – [Customer ID] – [Reason for cancelling]
As an example:
Nick Klein – 10703 – Cancelling service, moving and they can get Spectrum at the new location. Customer will be coming in later today to bring in dish and process paperwork.