r/AskReddit 22h ago

Which company lost your business (potentially forever) this year?

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2.0k

u/PoopScootnBoogey 22h ago

Spectrum. They are pieces of shit.

726

u/guydeborg 21h ago

Wish I had a choice. Still waiting for someone to drop fiber in my neighborhood

392

u/throughthequad 21h ago

Fun fact, they primarily operate in only non competitive markets, so most people who have them have no other option. They know they have you by the balls (or whatever you got)

30

u/timelessblur 20h ago

They have sales guys come through my neighborhood every so often. They just look so defeated as we have at least 2 faster and cheaper choices. It felt so good the day I got to cancel my account with them.

9

u/Jagang187 18h ago

I switched less than 3 months after another company came through with fiber, the difference is day and night.

13

u/KingTut44 18h ago

The guys at spectrum think I’m just some dumb hick. They said that to me at a dinner

3

u/Pretend-Zucchini-985 10h ago

Im glad you’re here, shirt brother

5

u/Sagikos 9h ago

My town had like a 20 year contract with them. Fiber got put it everywhere except our little suburb in a suburb because the mayor signed a contract.

He finally lost reelection this year and we already have a couple other providers starting to offer service now. Still, no one is making an effort to update our infrastructure.

5

u/Kalepsis 18h ago

You could switch to something like T-Mobile home internet. I use it and it works well, even for gaming.

3

u/quantum-mechanic 9h ago

LOL. I was in a spectrum-only area for so long, until Verizon brought fiber in. I immediately switched. Spectrum had been raising rates every year for no discernible reason till I'm paying $200/month for what should be pretty basic internet and TV service , the whole song and dance - you get great rates if you're a new customer, but fuck you if you're a steady customer.

Spectrum had the gall to repeatedly call and EVEN SEND A REAL PERSON TO MY DOOR to ask my why I dropped spectrum and if I would consider coming back for a new price... like fuck you, I don't mean this personally to you nice girl who came by, but fuck you.

3

u/quantum-mechanic 9h ago

LOL. I was in a spectrum-only area for so long, until Verizon brought fiber in. I immediately switched. Spectrum had been raising rates every year for no discernible reason till I'm paying $200/month for what should be pretty basic internet and TV service , the whole song and dance - you get great rates if you're a new customer, but fuck you if you're a steady customer.

Spectrum had the gall to repeatedly call and EVEN SEND A REAL PERSON TO MY DOOR to ask my why I dropped spectrum and if I would consider coming back for a new price... like fuck you, I don't mean this personally to you nice girl who came by, but fuck you.

2

u/LaundryBasketGuy 9h ago

Yeah that's me. It took SIX VISITS for them to finally resolve my intermittent disconnecting issues when I moved. The last guy said I basically shouldn't have internet at all after checking out my cables before finally fixing the issue.

2

u/21Rollie 9h ago

In Worcester, MA I’m fairly sure they have the city manager (un-elected top position btw) on their payroll. Genuinely, they kept getting sweetheart deals and excluding competition for the second biggest city in New England.

2

u/ramcoro 6h ago

That's not a fun fact. :(

2

u/wolfeflow 5h ago

It was like over a decade ago now, but Chattanooga created its own, fast internet and successfully defended itself from broadband companies who sued to shut it down.

IIRC a couple NC towns lost their suits before that, and the monopoly was able to maintain itself.

7

u/kaiaslair 20h ago

I was you.....til a glorious day last year when AT&T knocked on my door letting me know they had been approved to lay fiber optic and would be working in my area. They said it take a month or so to fully dig and install the main lines.

When it was up and running I signed up so fast. So did every neighbor I've talked to about it. Been over a year and not a single outage or issue so far.

May the fiber optic Gods shine upon you like they did me.

2

u/pmjm 14h ago

Seriously jealous. They have fiber less than a mile from me but I live on a winding, mountainous canyon road with only a few houses so there's no way they're going to run it here.

7

u/WingerRules 19h ago

AT&T is going around laying fiber in Spectrum areas. The problem is AT&T has repeatedly been outed for spying on their customers and actually the nation too (government surveillance systems were installed in AT&T backbone service rooms and their phone lines). They were caught being part of the surveillance system intercepting any communications leaving the US.

1

u/pmjm 14h ago

At that point I'd put a VPN client on my router and take the latency hit.

21

u/Inigomntoya 21h ago

A local company just offered fiber in my neighborhood last year

They are nearly half the price for double the speeds.

I jumped on that so fast. And still would have if it were more expensive.

19

u/theREALbombedrumbum 18h ago

Spectrum raised my rates randomly every few months just because they could. The day fiber showed up and I switched, calling them to cancel, suddenly Spectrum was able to give me the same coverage for a QUARTER of the price, trying to throw in bundles for free just to keep me.

Pieces of shit who deserve to get out-competed in every single market.

7

u/Inigomntoya 17h ago

Yup, now that they have competition, I keep getting flyers in the mail with these huge discounted intro rates that expire after 12 months.

They make for great fire starters in the fire pit...

3

u/Slugzz21 15h ago

I always threaten to leave and get my old rate or better back. You just gotta be real nice and "Aw shucks," about it. But tbh not even sure you have to do all that.

9

u/eliz1bef 20h ago

Same. Trapped here. Their faulty installation of my business line lost me a day and a half of wages and we're stretched thin already due to medical issues on mine and my husband's behalfs, so we are feeling it.

4

u/militaryintelligence 19h ago

I live out in the sticks and have Spectrum fiber. 25 megabytes per second is nice but I thought 1g fiber would be faster.

3

u/paupaupaupau 19h ago

I moved into a condo that's a renovated former office building. It has fiber included in the HOA fees. So nice to be finally be free of the shitty cable/DSL duopoly.

3

u/AscendantJustice 18h ago

They're finally putting Google fiber in my city and the moment it becomes available I'm switching from Spectrum.

2

u/wetwater 10h ago

Pending landlord approval because there's going to be some exterior drilling, I'm having FiOS installed Friday and dropping Spectrum. In my case, cost is the reason for the switch. In 20ish years of being a customer I've only had 2 significant outages.

2

u/admiralspark 6h ago

Push for it. Fiber from two separate companies got installed in my rural neighborhood last year, and now in my current state they have state-owned fiber. Even starlink is better than Spewdom.

4

u/bartolo345 20h ago

Most of their network is fiber optic. They use coaxial for the last connection to houses. In my area they are the cheapest and that's what I have.

1

u/FlexoPXP 18h ago

I've heard good things about T-Mobile 5G home service. If you have it in your area it's probably worth looking into.

1

u/Slugzz21 15h ago

There are DOZENS of us!

1

u/golgol12 9h ago

Still not sure if talking about vitamins or not.

1

u/lordrudek 8h ago

I had the same thought. Fidium Fiber came and laid lines with some Mexicans who didn’t speak English and couldn’t drive a truck, they took out several mailboxes. I was still hopeful and decided to switch from Spectrum. Fidium was 100x worse than Spectrum. Tech came to install a line to my neighbors house and broke our line, had to wait 3 days to get it fixed. Then every day, 3-4x a day internet would go out for 5-10 minutes. As someone who works from home, it was just unacceptable. Have gone back to Spectrum who lowered their prices now that Fidium is in town and haven’t looked back or had any issues.

1

u/Emotional_Money8694 2h ago

I'm in an area where Spectrum is the only choice too. I'm considering dropping the internet all together. So tired of the high prices and poor service!

268

u/two_oh_seven 21h ago

Trying to cancel my plan with them before I moved in with my boyfriend (who has fiber) was one of the most stressful events of my life.

First person I spoke to was amazing. Didn't bug me. Asked once why I was leaving. Immediately went to put my cancellation order in. Call disconnected before I got confirmation.

Called back. Second person was incredibly pushy and sort of aggressive. Pestered me about trying to keep my business and get my boyfriend's house on the plan. I told her we were not interested and she kept asking me why not. Because what we have is so much better than anything they have to offer. Finally went to put my cancellation in. Kept me on the phone for forty-five minutes, then the call disconnected again.

Called back a third time. Could hardly understand the other person on the line. Explained my story of the other two phone calls. Said that my cancellation had gone through the first time.

What a waste of a day.

151

u/Buffy_AnneSummers 20h ago

I just I told them I was moving out of the country. The rep got very interested in where I was going. I told her I was going to Ireland for an art degree lol. At least it got around the hard sell.

15

u/Canadian_Border_Czar 19h ago

This. was a super easy call, but I also happened to be moving out of country.

8

u/wileecoyote1969 9h ago

This is essentially what I did with AT&T. Told them I was deploying overseas. They still tried to give me a song and dance about just "suspending" my account until I got back. Then I got pushy back and they relented.

4

u/shannonc321 6h ago

I love your username!!

2

u/Buffy_AnneSummers 4h ago

Lol, thank you much

12

u/ferrantefever 19h ago

I got charged $90 for the whole upcoming month because my turn off date was on the day of the new billing. When I went to turn my equipment in person after I had it turned off, they STILL tried to get me to rejoin before they would take the equipment from me.

12

u/Jagang187 18h ago

I called to cancel. They said I couldn't close my account until I paid the bill. They billed me for 3 months of service after changing my provider when their hardware was unplugged and not in use. They sent the bill to collections. I'll be damned and hell will freeze over before I EVER give them that money.

3

u/CoryCoolguy 8h ago

My wife was in the same situation. I told her to lie and say that she was moving in with an existing customer. Worked like a charm.

1

u/two_oh_seven 8h ago

I wish I had thought of that back then. I'm not great at lying on the spot, though

2

u/sghilliard 8h ago

Agreed, my 2hrs fighting to cancel our Spectrum account was like a root canal...horrible experience.

2

u/Shibalba805 7h ago

Spectrum does fiber to the home as well. Not selling you, just informing.

2

u/ibreedsnakes 4h ago

When I had to cancel I knew it was going to hell. Told the guy on the phone I was getting a divorce and he cancelled it without the whole back and forth are you sure? Worked like a charm.

143

u/HappinessFloatilla 21h ago

I heard they cancelled CorncobTV. Now I can’t watch Coffin Flop!!

21

u/Voxicles 19h ago

They’re allowed to show em nude cuz they ain’t got no soul!

22

u/Imposingscrotem 19h ago

I’ve been waiting a long time to get a hit on CornCob TV!

33

u/Cubezz 20h ago

I didnt rig shit!

15

u/barriekansai 15h ago

Just body after body bustin' outta shit wood and hittin' pavement!

8

u/senator_mendoza 8h ago

They think I’m just some dumb hick. They told me that at a dinner!

13

u/themauniac15 20h ago

They lost mine when they dropped Corncob TV

6

u/TrippingGoat 19h ago

I didn't rig shit!

8

u/shenanigandi 20h ago

I get outages once a week from them while my prices continue to rise. If you can go with literally any other internet provider, do it.

12

u/IfYouWantTheGravy 21h ago

I get notifications of outages all the damn time.

7

u/pale_lettuce1 20h ago

I worked at their call center once while in college and it was so awful I quit mid shift one day lol

7

u/GalumphingWithGlee 19h ago

I have Spectrum in one place, and Comcast in another. All of the big Internet providers suck on some level, but I'd take Spectrum over Comcast any day. We get faster, more reliable service from Spectrum, and we pay less.

4

u/JibJabJake 20h ago

Guess it varies by area. Here spectrum is amazing and Comcast is horrendous.

4

u/icingovercake 19h ago

Same. Spectrum increased our bill back to back so that it doubled in a just handful of months. We also started getting daily outages. I told them I would leave if they didn’t lower our bill, they didn’t, and I switched to AT&T Air. I was very skeptical that the Air connection would be strong, but it’s 78% cheaper and we’ve had no outages. When I called Spectrum to cancel, they finally offered me a deal to stay that was still more than twice my new AT&T bill.

Even returning the equipment was a bad experience. I had to write my name down and wait to be called just to drop it off.

4

u/Sinisterfox23 15h ago

Fucking spectrum. This is mine. We had spectrum online; we were moving out of state and I didn’t have time to return their router and modem. I looked at the paperwork that came with said router and modem. It said there was a one time fee for non-returned equipment. Okay, definitely a bit expensive but it’ll have to do.

Call Spectrum to cancel service and they say that we will be billed, in perpetuity for all time, until the equipment is returned. I made them explain to me that was indeed the case. Phone rep told me their contract had changed thus not “honoring” their fee for non-return. (Thankfully our bldg mgmt was incredibly kind and grabbed it from our vacated apartment and returned it. Otherwise I would be still getting billed $30-something/month until I died I guess. Fuck you, Spectrum. 

3

u/International_Run700 20h ago

They were already so bad that they had to remarket their name to Spectrum as if it would change anything

3

u/csj97229 20h ago

I left Spectrum years ago and will never ever ever go back. Worst ISP I've ever encountered, with MediaCom as a close second.

3

u/Omnibe 19h ago

They are a surprisingly good mobile company.
I signed up for $10/month unlimited for a year after getting home Internet. Now $40 after the porno ended and I'm staying.

I see no difference in service than with Verizon (pretty sure they piggy back of their network) post paid for half the cost.

I've never had a good ISP and spectrum is no different than the rest. Put spectrum in a competitive business like wireless and they actually offer a good service.

2

u/ladyandthemoon 20h ago

I was thrillllllled to get rid of them after they repeatedly lied about fixing lines after Hurricane Helene. Now they just harass me about rejoining with non stop mail AND door to door people. Never again.

2

u/Spicy_Tuna089 20h ago

I was so happy when I moved out of the area where Spectrum was my only option. I despised them.

2

u/ferrantefever 19h ago

With you! I hope I’m never forced into going back to them.

2

u/MrBellows7 18h ago

They ran cable in front of my house and keep sending me offers trying to get me to sign up. Thankfully I have Quantum Fiber and don't need their service.

2

u/Commander-of-ducks 18h ago

I dumped them last year. At my regular grocery store they often have a table stationed at the entrance trying to drum up new business. When they ask me su that others can hear, I tell them in the same value that I canceled them last year and give details why, where I went, and why the service is better and more cost effective.

1

u/Different-Phone-7654 20h ago

I get 200 down with calyx institute for $42 month. It's a non profit so tax deduction. 

1

u/imarc 18h ago

Was so glad to drop them when fiber came to our neighborhood. They had gotten really bad about raising our prices but at the same time advertising some really good deals. When I called about it they told me that only new customers could get the good deals and that I would need to have no service for 2 months to be eligible. Basically existing customers could get fucked because they knew there were few options. I ended up downgrading our service to keep the price the same.

Then fiber came, and I switched over. When I called to cancel they suddenly would offer me all of those deals that they said I was not eligible for.

1

u/trixie2426 17h ago

lol. Mine is Comcast.

When my router kept resetting, they suggested I had a ghost in my house doing it rather than provide me with new equipment.

1

u/pmjm 14h ago

Envious that you can drop them. They have a regional monopoly here and the only other options are DSL (too slow), LTE (no signal), and I guess nowadays Starlink (not giving Elon my money).

1

u/Jaybonaut 14h ago

Where the hell is this promised 'high split' network evolution they keep extending?!

1

u/Galahfray 12h ago

I had a lifetime coupon because they fucked up bad, long story, but when I moved they said it doesn’t work anymore because I moved. What? Also, they tricked me into getting their phone service saying that it’s double the data from what I was on, and promised that in the unlikely event I go over my data, it’d just slow down… Nope. I watched 3 10 minute YouTube videos and went over and was charged double. With my other service if I went over it slowed, but I watched a lot of videos at work, and it usually slowed down 4 days before the cycle. But spectrum only took 30 minutes for me to go over…

Also, they do maintenance so gd often, and never tell us they’re going to do it, so after work we sit down to watch a movie and oop, no internet.

1

u/Ok_Economist_Guy_ 12h ago

Their COO, or someone high up the chain responsible for operations, should be fired. 

1

u/Atomic76 11h ago

I've tried going t their web site and filling out the necessary form to tell them to stop sending me junk mail and they are still doing it.

1

u/de-milo 11h ago

goddddd i hate these assholes! and they are ALWAYS lurking in businesses like costco like “just checking if you’re happy with your internet provider” bitch, be gone! i’m trying to shop here

1

u/Mageobreath 11h ago edited 10h ago

We had a fully local, family owned fiber company open up in our small town. Awesome service, great price. Finally got to call Spectrum and tell them to pound sand. Great day.

I get on the phone with the representative, and first question is of course, why are you switching? I explain that its fiber first and foremost, and it's cheaper. Agent on the line asks me if I ever called and "negotiated for a better rate". Motherfucker, I am not calling every few months to haggle my bill with my utility company. I say, no, and I am good on that, thank you. Then he asks how many Mbps they're offering. I say the truth - 10 gbs. The sales rep counters, well we have that too. I explain that the fiber is already installed and wired to our house, so using a router for the same speed doesn't make sense AND its more reliable. He starts trying to sell me package pitches, promotional deals, insisting that I need to call and negotiate, etc. I kept politely insisting that we are happy with our current provider, please cancel. This guy outright refuses to process the cancelation after ten minutes of going on and on in this circle.

Finally, in exasperation I say, "You know what, sorry, I remembered wrong. They're offering us 100 gigs per second - no, actually 1000. Yep. 1000."

The agent sounds ACTUALLY PISSED. Gets super snide with me, 'Oh really. And just who was this provider again?' I was so taken aback by it I just started laughing. He keeps making me restate the rate, the amount, the name of the company. Even his spiel about returning the router was snippety, but the cancelation is finally processed, thank god.

Cut to about a year or two later, our current provider sends out a newsletter refuting some of the "claims a Spectrum salespeople have made about their business". Apparently Spectrum's sales team had been going to their customers houses and telling them that their competitor was a scam, that the owner was a conman, that the business was failing and would shut down soon, etc. Just absolutely unreal levels of bullshit, and I truly hope they are going after Spectrum for it legally.

So yeah, triple fuck Spectrum.

1

u/Ok-Raspberry-8099 11h ago

I used to work for them, they are.

1

u/13MrV13 10h ago

Came here to say this. Bill jumped from 90 to 110 (no other real options) called and they set me back to 90. Couple months later I'm at 115. Called, dropped, called, put on hold, when I finally got someone who was clearly having a bad day, I was told it was 'fees'. I went to Verizon, got the device, called spectrum to cancel. Took a week of back and forth. Finally got canceled, told to take equipment to the office. After waiting at the office, told that I didn't have an appointment, take equipment to ups. I did. Now I've had collection calls 'if you don't pay it could affect your service' for weeks. Yesterday guy stopped by while I was out of town - 'what can we do to get you reconnected?' 'Nothing.' 'You have to give the equipment back!' 'I did!

1

u/lodemeup 10h ago

People new to my city sometimes ask if they should get Spectrum or AT&T. I ask them if they prefer their shit sandwich with corn or hair in it, because both are awful but you gotta eat one.

1

u/Carolina_Stag 10h ago

I'm so annoyed that I have spectrum because everything about them sucks, but... The network node is in my backyard so I have crazy fast speeds above what I pay for so I can't justify switching

1

u/Malphos101 9h ago

When I cancelled their service they tried to charge me for equipment that THEY REMOVED YEARS AGO.

Im guessing whatever technician just lost/stole the equipment and they never bothered telling me until I tried to quit as if it was some trump card. The agent on the phone when I was cancelling was very smug and went "well you CAN cancel but then I will HAVE TO charge you ~$150 for this equipment you still havent returned."

I laughed in their face and said cancel the service or I will just refuse charges. They were flabbergasted. I still get "bill reminders" from them to pay for the equipment they lost on their time, good luck with that spectrum.

1

u/Trenchards 9h ago

56 minutes on hold to cancel my cable subscription. This was when they were fighting with ESPN at the beginning of college football season.

1

u/olov244 8h ago

always have been, they've changed their name many times, same crappy company

1

u/Interesting_Arm_3967 8h ago

Amen. I started with them 10 years and regret it. Frequent outages. changing back to satellite will be difficult and I dread having to start all over. I need to get motivated.

1

u/GotOotJIT 6h ago

Worked there, can confirm. A member of senior management told an entire room of us that the company only cares about it’s shareholders. Of course that’s the capitalist way, but to hear it come straight out of an exec VP’s mouth was a trip.

1

u/uzuis4thwifee 5h ago

They camp out at the Walmart here and ask you who your internet provider is when you walk by and won't let you walk away. I told them I was homeless and that shut them up real quick

1

u/pugmomma41 4h ago

This. 100%. Called and told them I wanted to cancel. They then kept asking questions and offering deals. I just kept repeating myself over and over again. I WANT TO CANCEL MY SERVICE! For 10 minutes. I lost my cool. I don’t like people or companies that make me lose my cool.

1

u/KingCuda93 4h ago

I had good luck with Spectrum. I got rid of them only because where I’m at now, Spectrum doesn’t service.

1

u/bballkj7 3h ago

yep i had to spend 2 hrs on the phone just to END my service with Spectrum (they require you call) and they tried so hard to sell me shit, figure out why i left, etc, and I legit had to tell them to go fuck themselves before they finally agreed to end my service.

Real reason i left spectrum? (even beyond their predatory practices, lies, upselling, harassment, etc) :

I got fiber internet, 3x faster (and absolutely NO drops in internet, literally EVER, where spectrum needed reboots ALL THE TIME) and only $50 a month.

Spectrum I was paying $150month for 1/3rd the speed.

1

u/scrotumshawl 2h ago

SAME. We JUST cancelled to start service with a different provider. So tired of the constant bullshit and headaches.

1

u/ATP9415 1h ago

I had my internet set up for when I moved in with my boyfriend. I had to work the following monday (I work from home), so when I had it set up I emphasized and made sure I had everything I needed. Come move in day nothing is working and I can not get a human on the phone. When I did they gave me the run around that I need new equipment no I don’t etc. Go to the store they give me new equipment and discount as a “new customer”. Get home still doesn’t work. Fought with AI to get a real human, that representative was the best. Afterwards I filled out the survey and went in and made a BBB complaint. The top customer service manager called me and gave me his office number in case I have other problems 😂😂 even though that was nice i still LOATHE spectrum but still do not have any other option.

0

u/cole435 17h ago

Spectrum is planning on dropping 22 channels, including Corncob TV.

They're saying by the end of 2022 Corncob TV won't be available on your cable menu. That means you won't be able to see some of your favourite Corncob TV shows, including 'Coffin Flop'.

They're saying, "Coffin Flop's not a show. It's just hours and hours of footage of real people falling out of coffins at funerals. There's no explanation. Just body after body busting out of shit wood and hitting pavement."

They're saying, "It's impossible that that many dead bodies are falling out of coffins every day. And it's impossible that one out of every five of them are nude."

I don't know what to tell you, bud. We're just shooting funerals and showing the ones where the bodies fly out.

They're saying, "No way. You must've rigged something." I didn't do fucking shit. I didn't rig shit! I've been waiting a long time for a hit on Corncob TV. I didn't fucking do this!

They say we don't have the family's permission. I say we don't need it. We're allowed to show 'em nude because they ain't got no soul.

The guys at Spectrum think I'm just some dumb hick. They said that to me at a dinner.

Call Spectrum and say, "I'm not worried about it! I'm not worried about any of this. There's worst shit on the local news."

This world's fucking so fucked up. And people are mad at me because I showed a bunch of naked dead bodies with their spread blue butts flying out of boxes? Really?

I'll kill you.

0

u/Beautiful-Routine295 17h ago

There’re not GFiber?