There’s kind of a cheat code.
First, always call, don’t bother with chat. The first prompt you get, say ‘agent’. Don’t say anything else, and keep saying that until you get a live person (it should only take 1-3 times in the menu.
Once you have a person, threaten to cancel your service. You have to mean it (I always mean it if I’ve got to this point). They will escalate you to the customer retention team and they will listen.
e: oh, and also be nice, but firm. Angry tirades never work, but exasperated friendliness does.
It’s worth trying, even if you think you’ll end up cancelling anyhow. The last time I had to deal with them, they dropped my monthly bill from $150 to $80 for their highest speed broadband, and now I get roughly 1gb download speed for $80/mo. (eta in case it’s not clear: that wasn’t based on hypothetical sale prices; I’d been paying $150/mo out of pocket for half the speed; I now pay $80/mo for double the speed I had been getting.)
Your results will probably vary – I have 25 years of uninterrupted customer loyalty to leverage. (eta: not like I have a choice where I live, it’s them or dial-up, but their international agents don’t know that lol).
🤞
e: also if you follow this blueprint, let us know if it works. I didn’t come up with this pattern, but it did work for me.