Don’t make me “talk” to you!

I know that title might well sound like an admonishment from an authority figure to some one not behaving, such as parent to child. But that is not what it means.

With this world of amazing technology, almost anything we want is at the tip of our fingers. We can book vacations, buy anything – even cars now – engage in contracts for people, places and things. The one thing we cannot do online is cancel anything.

I’ve recently made successful changes to my vehicle insurance and cell phone carrier. I also researched and spent more than 2 hours in a ‘chat box’ regarding changing my TV and internet provider. I spoke once – a brief call – to the insurance agency and spoke to the cell phone carrier through another ‘chat box’. My fingers did all the work – at my convenience.

Why, then, was I forced to make telephone calls to make cancellations to prior vehicle insurance and cell phone carrier as well as to cancel the account that was set up after I’d agreed to change my TV services and then decided not to follow through?

I get it. On the phone, the representative gets to try and persuade you not to make the change you’re planning to make. All of the sudden, the company is willing to offer you additional incentives and/or a price reduction in order to keep your business. Understanding that these people are only the messengers is the only thing that stops me from asking why, suddenly, they can do better for me. My business wasn’t valuable enough to do anything to keep me loyal until I’m no longer willing to be loyal.

I don’t like the telephone any more. Since I’ve retired, I’ve really started to prefer emails and texts over voice conversations. Much of that is that I can do anything online at any hour of the day or night (good for me who gets up really early in the morning). By the time companies have opened their businesses to take my phone calls, I’m ready to relax. Because I wear dentures, there are days I don’t even put my teeth in, which makes me more difficult to understand when I’m speaking. Also, I like paper trails rather than just the notes I’m scribbling while talking on the phone, which can always be disputed.

Add to that the frustration of the additional sales pitches to keep my loyalty, and it’s a frustrating process. I have better things to do with my time than keep turning down your offers and making you understand the meaning of the word cancel!

I will have one more cancellation call to make which can’t happen until my current cell phone carrier ‘unlocks’ my phone. (If you don’t know what this is, leave me a comment and I’ll explain it.) During my phone call to get that process started, I was asked more than once if I was happy with the service I have or might be looking to switch carriers. Rather than lie, I said I have had no problems with the service at all..

I’m glad I’m doing this all at once, and hope to be happy for a while with the decisions I’ve made. The thought of future calls to cancel services makes me frustrated just thinking about it…