Canceling your Internet Service: Is this a weird thing?

November 21, 2013 12:26 PM

I had to send my ISP a letter in the mail to cancel my internet service. My question is, what this a weird/jerky requirement or is this something that the FCC makes them do?

So I switched to a new ISP recently (need MORE POWAAAAA) and when I called up my old ISP, they wouldn't shut me off because I wasn't calling from my phone number on record. This turned out to be unsolvable (without CID spoofing) because the phone number they had was an old land line number I don't have anymore. So I had to send them a letter in the mail asking to be shut off.

Nevermind that I can't figure out how that's any more secure, or why someone would want to shut another person's ISP service off. My question is: when I remarked to them that this seemed like an absurd requirement, they said that it was "in line with FCC requirements and their privacy policy". So I'm curious; is there actually some FCC requirement that tripped me up here? Or is my old ISP just being difficult?

posted by selfnoise to Technology (12 answers total)

I work for an ISP, though not in a customer facing role. I believe that we'll take extraordinary measures to verify that you are indeed who you say you are, but we don't require mail to cancel service (in fact, my cube is in the same area as the folks who serve the high end business customers, and I often hear them making outgoing calls to verify that the business is really ready for a shut-off, those calls would be irrelevant if this were an "in writing" thing).

Your old ISP is being difficult.

However, there is a balance: being super careful about things that could cause customer outages is often the result of having been burned, and maybe they've been fooled a couple of times into shutting down lines they shouldn't have and want a solid paper trail?
posted by straw at 12:30 PM on November 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

I used to work for an ISP. I took quite a lot of cancellations by phone. I've never heard of such a rule.
posted by instead of three wishes at 12:39 PM on November 21, 2013

"in line with FCC requirements"
The FCC probably has some requirements that your ISP take steps to prevent fraudulent account closures and to keep their customer's information private. This policy is to comply with those regulations. So they don't mean the FCC makes them require a letter if the phone number can't be verified, but they mean that the FCC makes them do something in that case. They decide what that something is.
posted by soelo at 12:44 PM on November 21, 2013

I will eat my hat if it's an FCC rule. Apart from recent tenuous and heavily contested net neutrality positions, they don't really regulate ISPs.

I agree your old ISP is being difficult, but it's probably company policy. Stalkers and the like often do order/cancel services and things just to interject themselves into their targets' lives, so the idea of verifying an account holder's identity is a good one, even if this particular implementation is weird and probably ineffective.
posted by ernielundquist at 12:51 PM on November 21, 2013

Sounds like a poorly conceived customer retention programme to me.
posted by singingfish at 1:05 PM on November 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

I've moved several times and cancelled internet service in the process. I never had to submit a request in writing, I just had to return any equipment.
posted by Jacqueline at 1:10 PM on November 21, 2013

This sounds like a CYA move. And not an unreasonable one.

Imagine if someone pretending to be you calls and asks them to shut off your service. You wake up the next morning, discover your service is off, and raise hell. They have no way to prove that you requested the shutoff (because, in fact, you didn't), and indeed, they have no reason to think that it was you, since you're not calling from the number they expect you to call from.

Now, in this scenario, if the person requesting the shutoff sends a letter, when your service is shut off, they can show you the letter and say "Did you not send this letter? Is this not your signature?" Also, for the fraudster shutting off your service, it might amount to mail fraud (not sure about that), which can have serious consequences.
posted by adamrice at 1:18 PM on November 21, 2013

My old provider wouldn't cancel over the phone, but they were perfectly happy with a quick email. Just wanted something "in writing".
posted by ktkt at 1:29 PM on November 21, 2013

I just went through something similar with canceling a hosting account. Since the email was not from my Gmail account they refused and asked me to request again from the gmail account that is the email address tied to the hosting address. Taking steps to verify your identity is a good thing, although I'm not sure how a letter really proves anything. I guess they figure its too much work for a common prankster?
posted by COD at 1:49 PM on November 21, 2013

Absolute bullshit. I've dealt with lots of commercial accounts with ISPs, and the most stringest required filling out and submitting a web form.

This is firmly in dark patterns territory right up there with xbox live requiring you to phone in to remove your credit card from autopay and endless renewal of your service.

I'm sure they did the math and figured out that making it this much harder to cancel generated them $XYZ more dollars a year because it took people longer to cancel, or they'd procrastinate about actually mailing it, etc.

There is no requirement that they suck like this. I've cancelled many DSL/Cable lines over the phone including commercial service. And only in the past few years have had to write a little "letter" and submit a web form to get it done.

I would file this under scummy, honestly.
posted by emptythought at 2:30 PM on November 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

I would have gone online to my account and changed the phone number they had on file. I also would have requested I fax them the request if they insisted it be in writing.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 5:08 PM on November 21, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks for the broad spectrum of responses, everyone. I feel better about being a little skeptical now.

For the record, the ISP, amazingly, has no way to log in and edit your account details. Basically all you can do is check your webmail.

Also the fax is a great idea and I wish the person on the phone had mentioned it... it got brought up as an option in an email they sent to me later (I guess they could tell I was annoyed). By that time I had already pipped out to the post office and sent them a letter.
posted by selfnoise at 3:36 AM on November 22, 2013