By Cancelling all services in 3, 2, 1... - 05/07/2017 15:57

Today, our old internet provider withdrew over $1,000 from our account for equipment they acknowledged receiving weeks ago, using preauthorized debit they claimed to have cancelled. Reimbursement will take 4 to 8 weeks. Our first mortgage payment is due just hours before my next pay cheque. FML
I agree, your life sucks 6 679
You deserved it 410

MommyMerida tells us more.

MommyMerida 11

OP here! Here's the full story. I live in Quebec, where we have basically two providers for telecommunication services, plus a few small redistributors. I'd had major issues with one of them in the past (another long story culminating with a phone rep yelling at me about how sometimes it's the customer's fault, admitting it was their fault once they finally listened to what I had to say and then their manager trying to charge me hundreds of dollars to fix their screwup) so we decided to go with the other, but after a couple years of crappy service with them we decided to cancel our cable and internet with them and give a redistributor a chance. They sent us the necessary slips and we returned our rented equipment using the mail services they had specified. So when we received a bill for over $1,000 the next month, my husband called to clear it up and was told that they could see in their system the equipment had been received, but it could take them up to two billing cycles to process the returns and they would give us a credit once it was done. He asked to speak to a manager, who said he would process it right away and cancel our preauthorized debit to make sure it didn't go through. Three weeks later, it did. That time, when he called, my husband was told that cancelling payments could take up to a month to process and we should have put a stop payment on it with our bank. The whole thing was ridiculous since they had all the equipment the whole time. We were able to make some transfers and pay our mortgage on time, but timing was just terrible and our savings are somewhat depleted right now since we did just buy a house about a month ago and were required to put a lot down due to my husband being self-employed! We did go to our bank to report this, and after a short investigation they were able to refund us a couple of days ago. But after all that we will definitely be cancelling what remaining services we had with that provider!

Top comments

Contact your bank and let them know it was not an authorized transaction. The bank will refund you money immediately while they investigate the situation and since the company has already acknowledged that you didn't owe them anything you will not be held responsible for the charges.

Yeah, internet providers SUCK. Mine refused to do basic troubleshooting when my internet had been out for almost a week, and sent me a $100 modem to 'fix' the problem.I would be charged, but once I send back the old one the charge would be removed. Fine. Just give me back my internet. But when I received it and called in to hook it up, and they FINALLY performed the troubleshooting, I learned that it was a problem with my computer and had nothing to do with the modem. One trip to the local computer store later, I'm back online. Talk to my internet people, make it VERY clear that I will be sending back the new useless modem, and I will NOT be paying for it or the shipping here and back, and I will NOT pay for the 2 weeks of service that I did not receive due to their incompetence. They agree. Two months later they have STILL not removed the charge on my account, charged me an additional $300 due to their own screwups, and shut off my phone due to 'non payment'. Internet providers can go **** themselves. Up the ass. With a cactus.

Comments

ttuseth 7

Sounds like something AT&T would pull.

Those ******* at AT&T **** you coming and going. Years ago I bought a bunch of stock from them and within minutes, literally, the stock price dropped over $5 - and stayed there for over a month. I took a bath on that one. >:(

Set up a second checking account for auto payments. That's what we did. Keep just enough in there for payments.

Ha! I have 7 bank accounts for this reason! One for mortgage. One for utilities. One for "accessories", as I call them (Netflix, Hulu, etc), One for medical stuff. One for investments. One for savings. And one for 'walking around money'.

mayalee713 7
MommyMerida 11

OP here! Here's the full story. I live in Quebec, where we have basically two providers for telecommunication services, plus a few small redistributors. I'd had major issues with one of them in the past (another long story culminating with a phone rep yelling at me about how sometimes it's the customer's fault, admitting it was their fault once they finally listened to what I had to say and then their manager trying to charge me hundreds of dollars to fix their screwup) so we decided to go with the other, but after a couple years of crappy service with them we decided to cancel our cable and internet with them and give a redistributor a chance. They sent us the necessary slips and we returned our rented equipment using the mail services they had specified. So when we received a bill for over $1,000 the next month, my husband called to clear it up and was told that they could see in their system the equipment had been received, but it could take them up to two billing cycles to process the returns and they would give us a credit once it was done. He asked to speak to a manager, who said he would process it right away and cancel our preauthorized debit to make sure it didn't go through. Three weeks later, it did. That time, when he called, my husband was told that cancelling payments could take up to a month to process and we should have put a stop payment on it with our bank. The whole thing was ridiculous since they had all the equipment the whole time. We were able to make some transfers and pay our mortgage on time, but timing was just terrible and our savings are somewhat depleted right now since we did just buy a house about a month ago and were required to put a lot down due to my husband being self-employed! We did go to our bank to report this, and after a short investigation they were able to refund us a couple of days ago. But after all that we will definitely be cancelling what remaining services we had with that provider!

writergirl1029 17

Internet providers are evil. We received a collections letter (no previous warning letters, by the way) from our old one saying we hadn't paid our bill in 6 months and we owed them a few hundred bucks. We cancelled six months ago and turned in the equipment. When we went in to complain they were really unpleasant and tried to blame us for their error.

Adeline90 10

That sounds really crappy...you can´t just take out money out of a bank account like that without any authorisation by the client...

I feel you! Sounds like Bell to me.... we continuously switch from Vidéotron to Bell in order to get better prices. A real pain in the neck!

MommyMerida 11

Your guess would be right! I've had such bad experienced with both Bell and Videotron at this point I don't want to deal with either. We're with a small redistributor at the moment and haven't had any major issues yet, so we'll see. (It's also way cheaper.) For anyone still reading this, there's actually been a new development. Like I said in my previous follow-up, our bank refunded us a few days ago, and today we got a text message alert from the provider stating that our payment had been returned or declined and that fees for non-sufficient funds or late payment charged may now apply. They have another thing coming if they think they are going to charge us additional fees for this. Just when I thought the situation could not get any more ridiculous!

Let me guess, Vidéotron? Because they did the exact same thing to me 11 years ago. And I'm still "amused" by the time they disconnected my neighbours' service instead of mine, took three weeks to get me reconnected, and charged me something like $200 for the privilege of doing so. I fought them for over two years and got sent to collections over that $200, but I finally prevailed. You have my sympathy, OP.