It's not like I have much sympathy for cable companies, but I can somewhat see their point here. Canceling your cable involves real costs, someone has to come to your home and disconnect it. Then if they quickly regret the decision, they'll be charged a not insignificant fee to be hooked up again.
That said, the cable companies could still work around this. The rules seems to still allow "saves," which could include them contacting you the next day to try and reverse your decision.
The save portion of the rule seems to be a loophole the telecommunications companies convinced the FTC to add for them, it sounded like originally those would be blocked.
The thing they are predominantly fighting is not "I don't want cable anymore". It's not likely anyone who wants to terminate the service permanently is unwilling to spend the time to cancel given the cost of sitting on it.
It's being able to trivially downgrade service packages the same way you can upgrade them. That does not involve a major cost like a technician visit.
I have never had cable activated without a technician coming. I live in a more rural area, but I've also heard other people discuss "the cable guy is scheduled to arrive sometime between 8AM and 4PM."
I think cable boxes change it somewhat, but the last time I had cable and not just cable internet they still had someone come to hook the cable box up. Admittedly, that was fifteen years ago now.
There has been zero reason to physically disconnect the hookup since analog cable was phased out 15 years ago.
It can still be cheaper to send a guy out on service start to ensure the existing hookup is of sufficient quality (hasn’t degraded or been chewed or cut by the last owner) and the new customer isn’t trying to hook it into their aerial or old satellite dish or something. Or if your records are spotty and aren’t certain there’s an existing hookup.
You're right that they probably don't disconnect it. Honestly, I've never considered what happens when it's disconnected, as it's always been when I move out of a place.
Needing somebody to show up to connect it made me assume someone disconnected it, but a status check makes more sense.
> the last time I had cable and not just cable internet they still had someone come to hook the cable box up. Admittedly, that was fifteen years ago now.
15 years is lifetimes when it comes to technology capabilities. They world has moved on from that.
I've had techs "need" to come out for cable internet connection setup, but all they did was the exact same thing I would do myself: connect the coax, plug in the modem, and call a number to say "here's the MAC address, it's plugged in". It's such a waste of time (mine and theirs) and money (depends on if they're jackholes who charge a connection fee or if they eat the cost themselves).
Meanwhile, another cable company I subscribed to last year for internet service just mailed me a kit, with QR codes that handled activation. It didn't work right the first time, and there was a number to call; they realized the problem was on their end and fixed it quickly.
>15 years is lifetimes when it comes to technology capabilities. They world has moved on from that.
I've had cable internet hooked up more recently and still needed a technician, I just stopped getting cable TV about fifteen years ago. Which seems to mirror your experience except last year.
And checking my local providers, I still need to schedule an appointment for a new connection. It seems like it's easier elsewhere.
I don't sympathize because I remember cable being both 1) long term (yearly) contracts instead of monthly and 2) if you cancel early you still have a termination fee. Those should make up for the need to come to your house to deactivate services.
These days, if they need to physically come out to disconnect/reconnect, that's their problem. Mechanisms exist so they can do this remotely; if they're not set up to do that in 2024, they can eat the costs.
Also... who cares? If there's regret and then the customer gets charged a reconnect fee, that's life. People need to learn that making decisions without thinking them through can have consequences.
That said, the cable companies could still work around this. The rules seems to still allow "saves," which could include them contacting you the next day to try and reverse your decision.
The save portion of the rule seems to be a loophole the telecommunications companies convinced the FTC to add for them, it sounded like originally those would be blocked.