kimilseung

Someone objected to this post being posted in the "WTF in America Part 2" thread, too many posts and threads about gun culture apparently. Can I ask that you post such requests in thread rather than in PM please. Site rules say that PMs cant be made public, and its difficult to discuss the matter of BE public interest in this public forum, without breaking the rules. I dont want your PMs or "reputation". Post in thread. Its abuse of the "add to reputation" button.

Pulaski

A bizarre story from Connecticut just a few days ago - a young couple cut through 2,000 fibre optic cables, severing the internet connection to 40,000 homes.

The article says nothing about motive though, so heaven only knows why they did it? And more oddly, the couple aren't even from Connecticut, they're from Flori ... sorry, no they aren't from Florida either, they're from North Carolina!

tht

People do talking about “cutting the cord” with cable when they go internet/ streaming… maybe they just decided to do it more literally, most just cancel their service… and return the cable box

BristolUK

Do they?
I remember returning a telephone to BT (they would have carried on charging rent) when I switched providers in the UK and got phone/internet/tv (Telewest I think) but then when I left the UK I just cancelled and they didn't ask for the box back.

Here (Canada) I changed TV package provider and we still have three old boxes from the old company.

tht

You do if you don’t want a big bill from them… they will hit you for $100’s for that and the modems… you you have to line up and make sure you get a receipt for the return, as they sometimes bill you even when it’s been returned…

Steerpike

I've moved several times over here and always had followups from the cable companies for return of equipment.

old.sparkles

That's really surprising - I would have thought the cost of administering the return was more that the cost of the equipment. I know they don't do it here in Australia - I have at least 3 different old boxes - nor do they in the UK anymore.

Pulaski

I don't think they do (in the US either), unless you are ending the contact early, when the equipment isn't fully depreciated. In the past I have tried to return equipment and they wouldn't accept it, it's only fairly new equipment that they will take back.

tht

Maybe it varies by cable company, Optimum in CT and when I was in the city TW made you do it. I am not sure it’s about the equipment, it’s more deterrent to canceling, because going to the store and waiting online etc are not fast or fun…

The other trick they use is to catch people on the timing, if you are off by even a day they charge another months service (no prorating), and then if people don’t pay they send it to collections where fees are added. The retention departments are terrible, my advice to people who want to cancel is to just tell them they are moving house / State and to pick one where that company has no service so they can’t offer a transfer..

chawkins99

I've had a couple of recent cases where they said they wanted the equipment back:

HughesNet satellite internet. Wanted the router and the satellite LNB returned. They said they would send a box to send them back but the box never arrived. No further consequences.

Cox communications. Business internet. We terminated service and they required us to drop the cable modem off at a UPS store. No box required. I dropped it off. They scanned the serial number and gave me a receipt.

I think it is usually either a deterrent to cancelling or a reason to continue billing. I don't believe they actually want the equipment back.

scrubbedexpat142

This.

Last time we moved apartments, we went to the local shop (UPC, but by then taken over by Vodafone who brought some of their nastier business tactics with them), terminated (or so we thought) our old service & started the new one. No mention of returning the boxes, although, luckily as it turned out, we brought them with us. Heard not a peep for 12 months until receiving a collections agency letter asking for €250! (Allegedly for boxes AND service supply) Our lawyer gave them a smack (she is VERY good) & returned the boxes.

Gave changed to have & smack changed them to snack! Grrrr!

robtuck

The return of equipment will entirely be a case of adding complications to the cancellation process - in the good ole days (not so much), I worked for a company that would insist you cancelled your mobile phone contract in writing, not e-mail, pen to paper with a signature. You'd also only count the cancellation notice from the date of receipt.

Pulaski

If that was in the UK, then that probably wasn't legal - under UK law, a contract document is deemed accepted at the time it is mailed.

As a very old (I believe from the early days of the postal service, in Victorian times) tenet of contract law in the UK, I suspect that it is the same in the US.

robtuck

I didn't say we were a good company ;-) It no longer trades and was back in the late 90's and early 00's just as mobile phones were taking off. One of the dealers we took connections from would often tell the customer they had "won" two phones in their sales spiel.

Pulaski

I never came into personal contact with any of the cell phone service providers in the early days (late 80's and into the 90's), but my employer had contracts with several of them in the London area, and there were some very interesting stories about the companies and their owners and business practices - calling them "shady" doesn't really do it justice. On one occasion when one of my colleages had been visiting a client's HQ a "delegation" from a competing firm arrived for "an impromptu business meeting". ..... The result was a melee in the lobby between the owners and the business competitors, fists were thrown and furniture broken. I suppose they should be thankful that the incident took place in the UK and not the US!