But what if it is the credit card company you are dealing with?
For example I wanted to cancel one of my credit cards. There was nothing in their FAQ's that mentioned anything around "canceling". There was nothing under "Account options" or any logged in setting menu. There was no chat/support on their webpage. They only have a phone line you can call. The phone line is completely automated, and has 2 menus to go back and forth, with no option to speak to a real person. You listen to the first menu, nothing is related to speaking to support or canceling a card. You listen to the second menu, same thing. You go back to the first menu, just to make sure you didn't mishear anything. The call disconnects because you took too long to figure out an option, Eventually you figure out you have to choose one of the options, then spam invalid input.
This finally gets into holding for a real support person. Unfortunately turns out all their agents are busy at the moment and there is a greater than 10 minute hold to get a support agent. If you would like you could hold your place in line and they will call you back when you are ready to take the call. You think to yourself, "sure why not?", and the call ends.
You get a call from their automated system 20 minutes later. It is finally your turn to speak to a human. An automated voice says: "Press 1 to confirm you are ready", you press 1. Nothing happens. The message repeats. You press 1 again. Yet again the message repeats. You spam press 1, the call ends.
You call the automated line again. Go 1 option deep and spam numbers again, get put into holding. This time you do not opt to have your place held in line. Shitty and horrible compressed music blasts into your ear. After about 20 minutes, you get a person. You explain you're canceling, support agent goes through the usual walk through and finally cancels your card.
> But what if it is the credit card company you are dealing with?
In general, I find dealing with any big company in writing, much easier than the telephone nightmare you describe. Your call is important to us! Due to unusually high [sic] volumes, the waiting time is half an hour!
Also, in writing, they don't accidentally forget previous conversations. If it has to be escalated to e.g. arbitration, then you have a good record.
If they don't do online messaging, send a tracked letter to their head office. Obviously, that's a pain these days (don't misplace the proof of postage). Thankfully there are companies who print and post letters as a service.
Yeah you still have to deal with it through the CC company, but the benefit of doing it that way is once you suffer through the BS and eventually get a live person, it's normally resolved
also I think some of the CC companies are less of a PITA in this, from my experience C1 is more of a PITA than Chase for example
For example I wanted to cancel one of my credit cards. There was nothing in their FAQ's that mentioned anything around "canceling". There was nothing under "Account options" or any logged in setting menu. There was no chat/support on their webpage. They only have a phone line you can call. The phone line is completely automated, and has 2 menus to go back and forth, with no option to speak to a real person. You listen to the first menu, nothing is related to speaking to support or canceling a card. You listen to the second menu, same thing. You go back to the first menu, just to make sure you didn't mishear anything. The call disconnects because you took too long to figure out an option, Eventually you figure out you have to choose one of the options, then spam invalid input.
This finally gets into holding for a real support person. Unfortunately turns out all their agents are busy at the moment and there is a greater than 10 minute hold to get a support agent. If you would like you could hold your place in line and they will call you back when you are ready to take the call. You think to yourself, "sure why not?", and the call ends.
You get a call from their automated system 20 minutes later. It is finally your turn to speak to a human. An automated voice says: "Press 1 to confirm you are ready", you press 1. Nothing happens. The message repeats. You press 1 again. Yet again the message repeats. You spam press 1, the call ends.
You call the automated line again. Go 1 option deep and spam numbers again, get put into holding. This time you do not opt to have your place held in line. Shitty and horrible compressed music blasts into your ear. After about 20 minutes, you get a person. You explain you're canceling, support agent goes through the usual walk through and finally cancels your card.