Troubleshooter: Hearing-impaired woman unable to cancel TV service
HOPE MILLS, N.C. (WTVD) -- Canceling a service should be quick and simple, but that is not always the case. One local Cumberland County woman said she was faced with a lot of challenges when it came to ending her TV service.
Tanya Wren is hearing impaired and said she has about 95 percent hearing loss.
"I need sound and to be able to look at someone," she said.
Besides reading lips, she does the majority of her communication via text or email. When it came time to cancel her service with Dish, she wanted to do it via Dish's online chat, the way she normally communicates about her service with them.
"They said it cannot be canceled through the chat; it needs to be done by calling," Wren said.
So Wren reluctantly tried.
"I did call that number, if I push the phone to my ear I can actually hear sound, but I cannot understand them, I didn't know which numbers to push," Wren said.
She went back to Dish's chat room and tried to cancel her service again.
"I kept trying for about 2 months and it was the same thing, 'you have to call this number, no no, you have to call this number this is the only way,'" she said.
And although she kept trying to cancel, she was still being charged.
"I was trying to fight not to cry because it's so frustrating, I don't want to be deaf," she said.
So she reached out to ABC11 and we got in touch with Dish. Through email, a Dish representative communicated with Wren and disconnected her service. Wren packed everything in the box that was sent to her and mailed it to Dish.
Her service was finally cancelled.
"I'm relieved, it takes a lot of the stress off," she said. "I appreciate your help in getting this all taken care of."
A representative with Dish provided this statement:
DISH has long offered customers who are unable to call the flexibility to manage their account details through chat or email. The customer service agents who received this request failed to follow DISH policy. We regret the misunderstanding on our part and have provided these agents with additional training.
