'The install guy had to call me three times': Internet provider refuses to cancel customer's service, customer makes them drive to the middle of nowhere to prove they can't install satellite internet

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 26, 2023 3:00 PM EDT

One customer had a hard time getting their internet provider to understand them. When they said they were moving off the grid, they weren't kidding! 

Rural life is appealing to many people because of that amazing peace and quiet you find while living in nature. Isolated from other houses, cars, and buildings, you can really appreciate the quietude. Some people even love to live really deep out in nature. 

In places like Alaska or other very rural locales, it's common that some folks won't have addresses at all. Instead, they draw a little map to give to their local mail carrier, and the carrier uses landmarks to find their home instead. They're living so far out in nature that there are no other homes or streets around to help others navigate. Now that's rural! 

However, if you're used to living in cities and suburbs, you might not understand this wild concept at all. Like, what do you mean you don't have an address, doesn't everybody have one? That's certainly the approach that this internet provider took while working with one of their customers. The OP, u/Ihavenofishonlywater, kept trying to tell the service rep that they were moving to an area so rural that they wouldn't be able to have any internet there. The internet provider chose the "see it to believe it" method, and sent a worker out to prove their point. Too bad it totally backfired. 

Check out the entire story below, as well as commenters who have also shared the same unfortunate set of events. Then, this landlord requested a new paint job, but he wasn't specific about what kind of paint should be used. 

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  • 01
    Font - Won't cancel my internet unless you're unable to provide service? Ok... S OC So, when I was living in the city, I had a contract with my internet provider. (Rogers, for my fellow Canadians) After a year in my apartment I decided to move in with my then-boyfriend (now- husband) on a farm. A farm on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. So I call to cancel my internet. Me: I need to cancel, I'm moving-
    via u/Ihavenofishonlywater
  • 02
    Font - Them: (interrupting me) your service moves with you! You signed a contract for x years and it only ends early if we are unable to provide service! Me: you ARE unable to provide service, I'm moving to a rural area.
    via u/Ihavenofishonlywater
  • 03
    Font - Them: not possible! We provide service to many rural communities. What's your new postal code? (I provide it) that's for townname. We have service in townname.
    via u/Ihavenofishonlywater
  • 04
    Human body - Me: but I'm not living in townname. That's just my postal address. Im living on a farm OUTSIDE of townname.
    via u/Ihavenofishonlywater
  • 05
    Font - Them: repeats contract speech, with the additional offer of an absurd buyout fee if I want to cancel my contract early "without cause" cue malicious compliance Me: fine! You know what, I would LOVE hi-speed internet instead of sty satellite internet! When can you come?
    via u/Ihavenofishonlywater
  • 06
    Font - The install guy had to call me three times from the van. Twice because he was lost and a third time because he was stuck in a snow drift. When he finally arrived it took him about 30 seconds to determine that there is obviously no infrastructure for hi-speed internet. I offered him hot coffee
    via u/Ihavenofishonlywater
  • 07
    Font - for his trouble coming out and he happily cancelled my service free of charge and accepted my equipment return. Cost Rogers a 3- 4 hour call out when you count the drive, just to try to keep one impossible contract.
    via u/Ihavenofishonlywater
  • 08
    Font - Edit to add: Wow, this went a little crazy overnight! Thanks for all the upvotes and awards everyone! :)
    via u/Ihavenofishonlywater
  • 09
    Font - mmavcanuck I had the same issue with Rogers mobility. Moved to a town where their cell service w Is horrible, but Telus is half decent. After 45 minutes to an hour of being bounced up the ladder I get to someone that would make a decision. "This postal code you've given me makes it look like you're in the middle of the woods and our tower is on the other side of a mountain from you?" "Yes, because that's where I live."
    via u/mmavcanuck
  • 10
    Font - CraigBybee I had a similar conversation with my internet provider when I was moving, until I cut them off and told them "yeah, well I'm moving to Bucharest Romania...you provide service there??" "Okay sir, your final day of service will be June 16th"
    via u/CraigBybee
  • 11
    Font - HorsesandWh0 We had something very similar with sky in the U.K.. 'we'd like to cancel as we're moving!' 'Sorry sir but we can't do that as your service moves with you and you've got 9 months left on this contract, it'll be £ ££ if you want to cancel' 'You don't work where we're moving to though' 'We do all the U.K.' 'Ah yeah but you see we're moving to the Isle of Man and you don't there' 'Ah yes, you're right there sir.. we will go ahead and cancel that contract for you as we don't provi
    via u/HorsesandWh0
  • 12
    Font - Arctic Fox-EBE- Pro tip, i used to work for one of these companies and they will drop it no questions asked if you are moving out of the country or just say you are going to jail. Lol
    via u/Arctic Fox-EBE
  • 13
    Font - Hikaru1024 Ah, that reminds me of when I moved over a decade ago into a new apartment, the cable company I was using insisted I shouldn't cancel my service. In their defense, it was just down the street. The wiring in the building was bad. It was so bad you could not get regular cable television to display, forget internet.
    via u/Hikaru1024
  • 14
    Font - Building owner refused to allow people to fix the wiring because it'd have required them to punch holes in the walls. Town ordinance refused to allow anyone to have externally visible wiring. .. Totally unconvinced, cable company sent a technician who noticed the same obvious impossible to solve problem I did, and canceled my service.
    via u/Hikaru1024
  • 15
    Font - Go missoularedhead Had the same problem with AT&T in the US when I moved with my now husband. Called to cancel my service as we were moving in together, and they didn't cover where our new house was. They had to send out a technician who promptly said "we don't service this area." No - really?!?
    via u/missoularedhead
  • 16
    Font - Halikan I was that tech once. Got called out to the far end of a rural road in a developing part of the county. Went from pavement, to dirt, to gravel, to dirt again. I saw the electricity poles end about 1/4 way down that road. Just like yours, somebody was insistent on offering them service. One call later their address is marked as not serviceable, and I trotted off with an ice cold water bottle and Gatorade.
    via u/Halikan
  • 17
    Font - You gotta do what you gotta do. Thank you for being nice to the tech who got sent out there. We just get a list of addresses and figure it out as we go.
    via u/Halikan

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Canada rural malicious compliance cancelled internet malicious-compliance-reddit contract service moving apartment farm
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