How to cancel your PeoplePC membership
8 Feb
I got Comcast 2 days ago, so I decided to cancel my PeoplePC account for good. I logged into my PeoplePC account and the first thing I noticed was that there was no information provided for customers who wanted to cancel their accounts. Here I will tell you about a few things I noticed along the way. I will also show you five easy steps to canceling your account that can hopefully be done with only a single phone call.
Does PeoplePC ignore cancellation calls on purpose?
One of the main PeoplePC numbers, 1-900-285-8333, results in a “cannot be dialed” message most of the time. Calling 1-866-772-6277 is your best bet when canceling your account. However, I found something interesting when calling to cancel PeoplePC: when I called at certain times during the day to cancel my account, I heard a recorded message that said “PeoplePC is experiencing higher than expected call volumes. You will have to call back at another time when we are not experiencing such high volume of calls. We apologize for any inconvenience.” However, calling for any reason other than canceling connected me to a live person without any issues.
Is this a tactic used by PeoplePC to avoid or ignore cancellation requests by customers? I cannot tell for sure at this moment, and if they were using such a tactic, I am not sure how that would help in the long run.
Five steps to cancel your PeoplePC account
Make sure you backup your PeoplePC emails and settings before canceling. Follow these five steps to cancel your PeoplePC membership:
- Call 1-866-PPC-MBRS [1-866-772-6277].
- Press 1 to choose option 1, which means you are an existing customer. Then press 3 to choose option 3, which means you want to cancel your account.
- If you hear the recorded message that tells you to call back later, try calling back right away and choosing any other option to either get to the technical support or new accounts department. Once you get connected to any person, tell them you want to cancel your account and see if they can help you. Also, try calling 1-900-285-8333 and see if you can get through.
- Once you get connected to a person who is willing to cancel your account, you will be asked the reason for your cancellation. I said I was moving and got broadband at the new place. The PeoplePC staff told me that I could use PeoplePC service 3 months for free and see if I preferred the cable internet or the dial-up internet. Instead of laughing, I refused such a modest offer.
- Ask for your cancellation number and write it down. Without this number, there is no proof that you canceled your account.
That is it. You may still be able to log into your PeoplePC account for a while. If you wish, you can go ahead and change your personal information like your billing information to something bogus to make sure your real information is not saved on the servers after cancelation or that you are not charged later on for any reason.
3 things to keep in mind when canceling your account
Remember the following 3 things when you call to cancel your account.
- Be careful when accepting the “3 more months for free” offer. When the cancellation staff tells you to try PeoplePC for free for 3 more months, you will be charged for the 4th month automatically unless you call to cancel your account, at which time you will be asked to try another 3 months for free. People used to abuse such an offer with AOL by taking advantage of such offers repeatedly until AOL found out that people kept using the service for free for years.
- Your account will take at least 24 hours to be deleted. It will take about two to three days before your account is actually canceled, and you can try to log into your account after that to verify your cancellation.
- You will not get any refund. You should also know that PeoplePC does not prorate your billing, so if you paid on the 8th of January for the rest of the month and canceled on January 9th, you will not get any money back for the remaining 29 days that you did not use.
I hope that helps. Good luck! :) I will be keeping an eye for for any PeoplePC charges in the upcoming months to make sure the cancelation was permanent and thorough.
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I tryed to disconnect from people pc back in december of 07, they continued billing me, the first bill. t thought well must have gone passed the billing date when i disconnected, but it continued.called my credit card and porotested it, got a temp credit, last month i was told they wo the dispute,,,they had NEVER GIVEN ME A DISCONNECT VARIFICVATION # OR I HAD LOST IT ONE OR THE OTHER! so discover saID THEY HAD TO PAY THEM,
I recommend sending a certified letter with return receipt to PeoplePC, 100 Pine St., Suite 1100, San Francisco CA 94111. Give them your PeoplePC account number, your name, address and phone number and tell them to cancel your account immediately. Just a short letter telling them to cancel your account immediately. Keep a copy of the letter and the return receipt and you’ll be set.
I’ve never had a problem with anyone after sending a certified letter with return receipt to a corporate headquarters.
PeoplePC is part of Earthlink.
http://www.earthlink.net/about/careers/index.faces
First tried canceling in January 2005 and they kept billing me until November 2006. I called and emailed many times did not get actually canceled until called Earthlink.
Today got email of settlement of $3, $5, or $30 from People PC. They STOLE $200-250 from me. This email got me mad as hell.
So waiting on some legal advise if they say can not be sued I be putting up an anti-peoplepc site. People PC can take there money and shove it you know where.
Do not waste time calling People PC call Earthlink.
This information helped me out to cancel the membership. Thank you~
I tried to cancel my account, and it happened just as you predicted! The first number “call cannot be completed.” The second number, “due to high call volume…”. I called it right back, and got a human. When I told him I wanted to cancel and gave him my information, he said he’d need to put me on hold to “verify my information,” and left me on hold for about 6 minutes, probably hoping I’d give up and hang up. When he finally came back he said that the account was closed and gave me the long cancellation number. We’ll see if any charges show up on my credit card.
Thanks for the helpful information!
ditto on the ppc 800# nightmares. only been doing that for the last three days. whoever suggested the zeroes–they work. before getting to ” to cancel, press 3″, hit some zeroes. the stupid computer program doesn’t know what to do, so it gives you a live person. a couple transfers and “no thankyou for the $1.95/mo e-mail” got cancelled and cancellation number–total time 9min 34sec. now-we will see.
In order to avoid all the hassle of calling, I just called my bank and told them my credit card was “lost”, and they send me a new one within a week, no charge…it took me less than 15 minutes to update my online account information with my cable & utility companies. I’m sure I will get something in the mail from them about them being unable to access my account number any more, but oh, well – not my problem anymore….
Just a note about the “Due to high call volume…” message. It’s a pre-recorded message that ends with about 15 seconds of silence, likely to make you think you’ve been disconnected. If you stay on the line, after that 15 seconds of silence you will be “put on hold for the next representative”. A few seconds later I was immediately connected. Representative was cooperative, although clearly reading from a script to try to keep me a member. Total time: under 8 minutes, no transfers.
Other than that, the above advice is correct. Be firm about cancelling your account, and don’t fall for the $1.95/mo “free” email. Got my cancellation number, will check next month (and following) to confirm that I am no longer being charged.
Thats why you should always use citibank virtual credit card #s so you can turn them off when you cancel something.
If your card does not allow you to create virtual credit card#s with time and money limits you shoudl switch to a citibank card.
I called the 866-772-6277 number and received the “We are too busy now” crap. I pressed “0″, and then cancellation. I received an Idian type voice (VoIP no doubt). They wanted to discount the service, but I just kept repeating “No thank you. I want to cancel my service.” Eventually, it was cancelled and I recieved a cancellation number. Hope this helps.
Does anyone know how many digits is the peoplepc cancellation number supposed to be?
I also used the “live chat” feature (found in the “My Account” window). See the transcript below – it was easy.
*** Please wait for a site operator to respond.
*** ‘Frank’ says: Thank you for contacting PeoplePC LiveChat, how may I help you today?
Frank: Hi, this is Frank with PeoplePC, how may I assist you?
me@peoplepc.com: Hi Frank, I’d like to cancel my peoplepc account today.
Frank: I am sorry to hear you wish to cancel. Could you please tell me why you wish to cancel your account?
me@peoplepc.com: My land-line isn’t reliable, I cancelled that account last month. no longer need dial-up internet.
Frank: Okay!
Frank: Could you please confirm your PeoplePC member name, home phone number and your first and last name?
me@peoplepc.com: membername
me@peoplepc.com: XXX-XXX-XXXX(disconnected)
me@peoplepc.com: My Name
Frank: Thank you for the account information.
Frank: I would like to inform you that your account will be cancelled on “11/09/2008” and the confirmation number is “256290395953XXXXX”.
Frank: Thank you for using PeoplePC Live Chat. Should you need further assistance, please contact us again.
me@peoplepc.com: Ecellent, Frank. I appreciate your help. I was quite satisfied with People PC – just couldn’t live with the service from my land-line provider. Have a great day.
Frank: You too Have a great day.
Took about 3 minutes at my work PC – Easy
i’m using Earthlink for dial up and like it a lot. More expensive than people pc but it has worked great for years. a couple friends who had earthlink and moved told me it wasn’t hard to cancel (haven’t tried myself). good luck to you all.
The chat route worked very well for me too. It took about 3 minutes and appears to be a very efficient way to cancel your account.
So I just called to cancel my mother’s service, and I dialed using the number above, but also noticed that if you press the number 3, to cancel the account, you will reach the recorded message, so I decided to be put on hold under the number 1, the new account button or whatever, and waited for 20 minuted while the representitve was trying to reach the people whou can help me with terminating my account.
After being put on hold for another 10 minutes, he said that he was going to tell his supervisor, who would in turn call me back by the end of today and would help my cancel my order.
If he doesn’t call back, in which I assume he won’t, I’ll do the online thing.
Thank you. You saved me lots of time figuring this out on my own
I cancelled Peoplepc this evening and was given a 7-digit cancellation # is this correct
i tried calling to cancel my acc. with ppc. for a few days… and no answers…
Then i called for spanish opcion, and they took my call right away.. it took me 3 min. to cancel the account, and get a confirmation number.
I really dont want to canel my people pc account but just because i had to get a new phone service your people are telling me that they are canceling my account just to add a new number witch i think is unfare i really like the dsl service but at $150.00 that i dont have right now just to change my number and keep my account and i only had 44 days left what can be done please let me know thanks ED
It’s a mess and a half to cancel through People PC. I have been a customer of theirs for years, with minimal issues… until now. Having moved to a new house and not wanting to set up a land line, I called to disconnect my DSL at the old address. Surprisingly that went without a hitch, or so I thought. I was told that my account was down-graded to a month’s free dial-up account and that I had a month (more like a month and a half) to call and fully cancel out my account.
I called a days before the date that I was told so that I wouldn’t forget. Same crap about the “we’ll give you 3 months” or “you can keep your email account for $1″. At that point in time I was livid and told the representative that I didn’t want any of that and wanted my account cancelled and closed out. After a minute or two I got the confirmation number. After cooling off for a day I decided to check a few things out about People PC and found out about the fraudulent charges… so I checked my banking account to see that they had charged me for the blasted dial up. I’m on the phone with a representative at the moment.
And… I am getting my $8.95 refunded. Hassle yes, not a large sum by any means, but it’s the idea. Make sure you get confirmation numbers for everything. I’ll update if anything goes awry. Cross your fingers and I hope that other read up on this company before getting into this mess.
Want to talk to them? Just stop paying them… Then they call YOU five times a day :)
I signed up for a free trial, ended up having to cancel by card to turn off the payments.
Then they have a lot of time to talk to you … For back payments they think they are owed…
Amazing!
I have not been able to cancel peoplepc for over 3 years. I have had my car reposessed and mortgage payments bounce due to them withdrawing funds. Noone is able to help me at my bank or any number i call.
im going through #$%^ canceling my people pc,i got it when i got my computer about 4 years ago,i used it for less then a month and switched to aol,i tried and tried to cancel them,but i could not find a way to get them,every month they take 10.95 out of my account,i finaly had enough and stoped payment for them at my bank,which cost me 35.00 bucks,in no time at all im getting calls from them wanting their money ,plus added charges for being late on my payments.
i THINK that i finaly got them to cancel it,and after fighting with them for over a 1/2 hour,they said i didnt owe anything,ha ha,what a joke,they are still calling wanting 51 bucks in charges for not canceling before i stopped payment,,i fought with them yesterday for over an hour,and they still want that money,i refuse to give it to them,its the principle of the whole thing,i am thinking of a class action suit,its not all about the money to me,its the way they handle their bussiness.
i was told they are now owned by earthlink,and the website for that is…..fraud@abuse.earthlink.net…,i emailed them to help yesterday and so far ,i havent got anything back.
i guess ill wait and see what happens,if they still continuue to try to get any money from me,i really am thinking of a class action suit,even if i dont get a dime,sincerly john gibson
Great directions, thanks. I think it’s sad that these companies do not post any information related to canceling service. It sort of suggests that they think if the information isn’t available on their website, no one will cancel, how dumb is that!? And it forces customers to waste time trying to find phone numbers and who to contact. If you weren’t sure about canceling you will be by the time you figure out how to do it. I had considered keeping it for a couple of more months just for backup, but after I couldn’t find any cancellation information on their website, I decided I no longer wanted any association with the company. I think not providing the information is poor customer service and a burnt bridge. This has taught me to find out how to cancel before signing up for any new service. If the information isn’t available, that’s an indication to me that it’s possibly a shady company with limited, if any, scruples.
Fortunately, my cancellation experience on the phone went smoothly with hardly any wait time. I will make sure to check my credit card statement to ensure that they are not still charging my account. As a side note, it’s usually best to sign up for services or subscriptions with a credit card, that way if you cancel and they continue to charge you, you can dispute the amount when it appears on the bill. If you use your debit card, you still can dispute the charge, but the money isn’t available to you until the issue has been resolved.
Ugh, I feel your pain. I’m stuck with PEOPLEPC now & for mos. have had problems checking/seeing my e-mail & they won’t give me a reason?!
I can’t take it anymore & am in the process of shucking them for another service! Too bad, I really liked them up until a few mos. ago w/these repeated webmail problems.
I’m calling anyone today & 5yrs free wouldn’t make their grief worth it!
Rosie McKeever
stupid y’all people.
if your going to cancel, dont accept any offers.
but if you want to take advantage to accept an offer make sure that you’ll remember it.
its your responsibility to cancel the account, you’ve use the service anyhow??? right?
then if you wanna pay for “highspeed” by just checking your email once a week and paying 30bucks/month its up to you.
all of these companies got their odds and flaws.
Just canceled my service via the “Live Help” option online. They will take care of everything from the chat window, including generating a cancellation reference number on-the-spot. They tried to give me a 50% discount, I politely refused. The whole process took about 5 minutes.
My overall experience with PeoplePC was a very positive one (aside from their slow, buggy software, which I promptly removed, using the Windows Dialer instead), and this just reinforces that. If they offered wireless broadband, I’d sign up in a second.
I just spent 5 minutes trying to cancel via their live chat. They claim that my credit and phone # etc was not matching up to their account….
the cancel button doesn’t work !!!
For 7 months we didn’t even use their services. We got broadband !! I am going to blog about this.
You suck People PC — power to the people
@zeerebel.com, I tried to cancel several times on the phone,no luck!
I tried canceling via live chat twice.The first time I canceled they did not give me a conformation#.The second time,(3/5/10) I was given a conformation# and was told that I had no outstanding balance in my account and would not be charged again and that my account would no longer be active after 12:05am 3/22/10.I printed the live chat pages so I would have some proof of this transaction.I canceled everything!I was in the process of getting DSL so I no longer needed dial up.I had my home phone shut off,(too expensive),I lost the credit card that peoplepc used to charged me monthly and got a new one with a different #. I thought I was all set. Today I recieved a letter from NCO Financial systems,Inc. a collection agency telling me that I owe $199.93 for a debt.to peoplepc? With so many consumer complaints how do the stay in business? What can we do?
Apparently they got wise to the ease of cancellation online, or maybe I need to try during “business hours”. Interesting that you can get other support 24-7 but not cancellation, hmmm. I just got this message…
“Thank you for contacting PeoplePC LiveChat support. Currently, we are unable to assist you with this request online. Please contact us by phone, 1-888-587-9669, and select ‘1’ for existing customers and then ‘3’ for assistance with this issue. Thank you. ”
So they can give me the phone tag run around. I just cancelled the credit card anyway, so service is going to be cancelled one way or another.
I too cannot believe there is not a class action against these guys already. All you have to do is get the judge to call and try to cancel and he would rule in your favor in a heartbeat!
P.S. Never use a Debit card for ANYTHING. As mentioned above, you lose the money until the dispute is resolved in your favor. Not like with a credit card. Also if someone steals your number, they clean out your bank account and I have never known anyone to get back all of the overdraft charges incurred from this and they had to fight tooth and nail to get back what they did get…it happens everyday now, not worth it. Protect you bank account. Debit cards are forced on the public by the banks knowing this. I had to jump through hoops to get an “ATM Only” card from by banks. I think they must get kickbacks from VISA and MASTERCARD for the debit cards, since 90% 0f the time you can use your ATM feature anyway and enter a PIN for security. Much Much safer, but only with an “ATM only” card.
Also (if anyone cares), best movie I have seen in years…Inception. WoW. That’s my new favorite movie!