Is there is a company that will cancel your monthly services for you?

October 12, 2006 11:14 PM

Is there a service that will cancel a service for you?

I've got a couple of subscription services (online mostly) that I keep meaning to cancel, but when I get around to it, either..

1. I don't have enough time to do it at that moment .. too much time on hold, waiting for a chat representative to respond. Or other arduos cancellation methods are so frustrating that you postpone it.
2. The charge is negligible that I put it off (because of time restraints) and end up forgetting about it? (I don't scour my CC bill every month)
3. I don't remember the account info/login, or even where to go to cancel it (because they don't have a phone number).
4. The don't know what the charge is exactly for.

I think i've overpaid hundreds of dollars for services I don't use, so my question is, is there a service that you can give your user/pass, account # (not bank), some basic info, etc. that will take care of all these things for you? I'd be willing to pay upwards for $100 to get everything straightened out.


I think whats put me over the edge is that I see this charge from Microsoft for $9 probably every 3 months that it seems is for my Xbox (not 360) that I haven't played for over a year. I've dug through the Xbox live site for ways to cancel, but I don't even remember what email i used to register or my username, and have no idea what # @ MS to call.

posted by mphuie to work & money (13 comments total)

That's an interesting idea for a service but I kind of doubt that it would be workable.

For one thing you would potentially have to hand over a truckload of personal information to the proxy - date of birth, SSN, mother's maiden name, and probably a dozen other security-type questions. And then you would have to explain all the details that you recall of the service (when you signed up, what the terms were, etc) so that they could track down the right person to call. And doing so might require paperwork that the proxy would not have access to, like the credit card bill. By the time you add up all this it seems like it would be easier just to suck it up and do it yourself.

Besides, there is the legal issue that if this ever took off and became popular, the companies that want to maintain you as a subscriber would quickly start refusing to deal with this proxy service unless they were given legal power of attorney status, claiming that they only deal with the subscriber in person. They want to keep you subscribed and give you the run around, and legally they are under no obligation to allow a third party to intervene.

To find out how to cancel these charges you should be looking at your statements (they normally have 800 numbers next to recurring charges) or calling the bank that issued the credit card. They should be able to give you the contact information of the party making the charge, rather than starting at Microsoft and going from there.
posted by Rhomboid at 11:27 PM on October 12, 2006

It's a great idea. I don't imagine that the power of attorney issues would be all that hard to work around (or with). Besides, once the service got off the ground and became commonplace, services wouldn't realistically be able to say no to them, since they would lose customers if word got out that they refused.

To answer the question: I haven't heard of such a service. To answer the other question that you didn't ask: Yes, I'm going to have to now stake my claim to this idea for a business and become rich from it. Thanks! ;)
posted by JekPorkins at 11:36 PM on October 12, 2006

Well, there are personal concierge services where they pretty much do whatever you tell them to: Drop off your dry cleaning, arrange to get your taxes done, etc. I'm sure if you gave them a list of stuff to cancel they could do it. They could figure out the number to call and get your password emailed to you, or whatever.

One sure fire way to cancel a service? Lose/cut up your credit card. If it's lost, the bank will issue you a new one with a new number or exp date. THen when the charger goes to charge you again, it won't work and they'll have to call you.
posted by GaelFC at 11:39 PM on October 12, 2006

One can limit power of attorney to specific things, and that appears to be just what this is.

THen when the charger goes to charge you again, it won't work and they'll have to call you.

Yes, but if you have a valid contract with that company then you still owe them the money. They could then sic bill collectors on you. Not fun, or a good idea.
posted by grouse at 1:33 AM on October 13, 2006

For phone numbers for cancellations, try:

http://www.gethuman.com/us/

It's a fantastic site that gives your the real phone numbers (and codes for navigating their automated systems to get you a human voice). I used it yesterday to cancel XM - for the exact same reason. I didn't have the time, didn't have the account number since it's automatically debited, didn't have the phone number, and it wasn't a whole lot of money. But it adds up.
posted by clarkstonian at 5:46 AM on October 13, 2006 [9 favorites]

Clarkstonian: that's about the best site I've ever seen - awesome!!
posted by Mave_80 at 6:10 AM on October 13, 2006

This is going to be a very difficult service to run, as most companies, in order to cancel the service, you must be authorized to make changes to that service, which had to be set-up by the original consumer.

The 'cancel' service would have to have had an agent with you at the time of sign up, or you will have had to give authorization to that agent at some later time in order for them to cancel for you.

My wife and I run into this all the time. I will try to cancel one of her cc, and they tell me that she has to call and do it. So she calls, is on hold, talks to a representative, and gives me authorization to change the account, then and only then, can I call and cancel (or change address, or change phone number, email update service, etc etc...)
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 8:17 AM on October 13, 2006

Who cancels the cancellers?
posted by BaxterG4 at 8:25 AM on October 13, 2006 [1 favorite]

Esquire Magazine recently ran a story about an individual who used an online personal assistant service. Among other things, the personal assistant (who was in Bangalore) pays his bills online and deals with his cellphone company.
posted by jamaro at 9:10 AM on October 13, 2006

recently (ok, so I was in a waiting room and I didn't notice the pub date on the magazine when I picked it up).

Related links (though I suspect all will cost you more than $100):

Virtual Assistant for You
Brickworks
Get Friday
posted by jamaro at 9:21 AM on October 13, 2006

http://www.gethuman.com/us/

this is incredible!
posted by trishthedish at 9:27 AM on October 13, 2006

Grouse said:

"Yes, but if you have a valid contract with that company then you still owe them the money. They could then sic bill collectors on you. Not fun, or a good idea."

Disagree completely in this situation. The poster says he has been meaning to cancel but can't reach them. Canceling the card they have on file means THEY have to reach YOU. So instead of handing over a new credit-card number, you say "I'm sorry, I want to cancel."

If it were something they could sic bill collectors on you for, then that would happen every single time a credit card expired.
posted by GaelFC at 10:11 AM on October 13, 2006

Gael is confusing the ability of a company to automagically charge you for something with the validity of the contract you have with them. Most companies will make an attempt to contact you and get a new card when one expires or charges do not go through, but they are not obligated to do so - if they want to they can just hand the remaining balance over to a collection agency. It's bad business to do so given that it alienates customers and you pay a huge percentage to the CA but it's perfectly lawful.

Go google up some FAQs on your responsibility to pay a credit card bill even if the statement is lost in the mail if you need a corollary. If you have a contract with someone you must terminate it according to the terms set out within the contract or in law. Stopping paying someone, whether it's via credit card or just not mailing a check, is rarely a term.
posted by phearlez at 10:25 AM on October 13, 2006