Cancelling Hotmail Plus is a BITCH

Backstory: 18 months ago, before I went on a several week trip to the US, I upgraded my Hotmail account to Hotmail PLUS in order to get the 250 Mb of server space they were then offering, so I could post up photos from my trip. Now this was an era before my Gmail and Typepad accounts. So then I forgot all about Hotmail Plus until a $37.95 whack to my credit card turned up a couple of weeks ago. I don't even use Hotmail anymore. Haven't used it since I got my Gmail account. It took me ages to even figure out what the charge was for.

So anyway... tonight I tried to cancel my Hotmail Plus service. And what a near impossible task that turned out to be. Let me share with you the joy.

First you log into your Hotmail account. Then you see 4000 daily emails in your inbox from online job search services you signed up for when you were at the most disenchanted phase of your last job...

Okay now... click on "Options"... hmmm... click on "Account Billing Information"... ah... click on "Hotmail Plus" under the "Billing Home" page.. hmmm that shows me my statement, but no "Cancel my account" option... oh ok, on the left hand side, under the heading "Related links" there is a "Cancel my account" link... click on that, get a pop-up window which says:

To cancel your online service, you need to contact Customer Support. Depending on your service, you may be able to cancel by e-mail, telephone, or live chat.

To contact Customer Support for your product or service, do one of the following:

• For all ninemsn services, go to ninemsn Customer Support and select the service you want to cancel.

Okay, so we go to ninemsn Customer Support and get a page which lists the ninemsn services I am subscribed to. Click on Hotmail Plus, get taken to another site, the MSN Hotmail Plus support site. Get this message:

Accounts and Billing Support provides general sales information about ninemsn and answers to questions about your subscription, such as, an explanation of your bill or how to cancel your account.

With three options - contact by chat, email or phone. I clicked on chat, filled in some basic information and, 30 minutes later, I'm still waiting on the chat window being answered.

So I cancelled that and clicked on the email option. Again I filled out some basic information and sent them my question (How do I cancel my Hotmail Plus account?) using an online form. I got a form response saying someone would get back to me within 24 hours.

Funny... is it just me, or does this seem like this is deliberately designed to make it difficult to cancel your Hotmail Plus account? I don't remember it being this hard to GIVE them my money in the first place...

UPDATE: got a nice email from the Hotmail people telling me what I need to do to cancel my Plus account... but then telling me the account would revert to a free Hotmail account in 30 days. WHAT? I replied with:

According to my statement, I recently paid $37.95 for a subscription which is valid until 27/1/2006. Why will my account revert to a free Hotmail account in 30 days? Haven’t I already paid you for another 10 months up front?

Comments

[Ask Bjørn Hansen]

Had it been me, then at some point in the story I would stop feeling bad about "canceling" via the credit card bank.

- ask

[Nick]

Your story was very helpful... I've been struggling to figure out how to cancel my subscription for a while.

Here's a copy of my chat session!

Welcome to MSN Interactive Support
The MSN Interactive Support session has been accepted.

{MSN CSR} Thank you for contacting MSN Online Customer Service. My name is MSN CSR and I will be assisting you with your Issue today.
{Nick} hi
{MSN CSR} Hi Nick.
{MSN CSR} Please give me a minute as I go through your issue.
{Nick} sure, no problem
{MSN CSR} Thank you for waiting.
{MSN CSR} I understand that you would like to cancel your MSN subscription. Is that right?
{Nick} yes, but just downgrade it to the "free" version (I don't want to lose my email address). I currently have the MSN Hotmail Plus, and I just need to downgrade to regular Hotmail
{MSN CSR} Thank you for the information.
{MSN CSR} To better assist you, may I have your MSN email ID (@msn.com), first name, last name, telephone number associated with your account and the last four digits of the credit card number that we are currently billing?
{Nick} @hotmail.com
Nick

714-5555-1212
XXXX
{MSN CSR} Thank you for the information. Please give me a minute to pull up your account information.
{MSN CSR} Nick, I have verified your account it is in good status.
{MSN CSR} I am sorry to hear that you would like to cancel the account. May I know the reason why you would like to cancel your MSN Hotmail Plus subscription?
{Nick} i don't use that email address very often, and i don't want to pay the $19 per year if it's not my primary
{MSN CSR} Thank you for the information. Please confirm that you want to cancel your MSN Hotmail Plus subscription?
{Nick} Yes, but just downgrade it to regular Hotmail
{MSN CSR} Thank you for the confirmation. Please give me a minute as I cancel your MSN Hotmail Plus Subscription.
{MSN CSR} Nick, I have successfully cancelled your MSN hotmail Plus subscription.
{Nick} very good, thank you very much!
{MSN CSR} You are most welcome. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
{Nick} no, thank you. have a good day

[Crashley]

This is great! I just went through this. I knew I had hotmail plus and wanted to turn OFF the auto renewal, because Outlook suddenly is not connecting to Hotmail, so why pay for the plus service when I am renew in July. I too did the chat, and was told that they can NOT turn off the auto renewal, so it is up to me, to remember the day before my account gets billed to "chat" in again and cancel my account!

Who offers a service where you can not turn off the auto renewal. I like Microsoft's products but that is a joke, just another way Microsoft to get your money. They assume most people will forget, as you inadvertently did. I am going to transfer my hotmail e-mail address in my last month of subscription, get a second gmail account and just use that.

[Topper]

Thanks for the info very helpful getting the ninemsn Customer Support link.

It is outrageous that Microsoft take money so easily but make it hard to cancel a subscription to Hotmail Plus.

IMPORTANT NOTE ON AUTO RENEWAL: There does appear to be a simple way to disable automatic renewal of payment if Customer support give you "Fluff" and tell you they "cannot" cancel...CHANGE YOUR PAYMENT info... thats your Visa/debit card details, expiry date and address...use the "Update this information" under "Personal Information" on the left hand side of Billing and Account Management: https://billing.microsoft.com

...then even if you forget they will have contact you ; )

[karen]

Please ..someone help me.. I am trying to cancel out the free service of HOTMAIL

I am not able to find out how to do that anywhere...

Thanks..Karen

[Stuart]

Man, I've been trying to cancel this BS for a year now ;) What a bunch of a-holes... I've finally resorted to reporting my card 'lost/stolen' to get a new visa number.. forget their website.. I can't even change my info.. I try to use their stupid CHAT and it doesn't even work... I send email, and they tell me to try sending email to someone else... this company is very bad at customer service... and yeah.. you should be able to turn off auto-renewal of the subscription fees... best software company in the world MY A$$.

Stuart.

[Stuart]

Canceled... requested email customer support from the urls you guys are getting.. they said that i had to use chat or phone, and that canceling by email was not possible! HAHAHAHA

Anyway.. call : 1-866-672-4551

And cancel... you lose the $ you paid for hotmail Plus, as they can't just turn off auto-renew... (Idiots) The account goes back to the free type .. I think immediately. WOohoo... and yeah, definatly a bitch. I told the lady that and she said she had alot of complaints about canceling.. but she also told me that their phone number should be beside the charge on my credit card..

Stuart

[Ciro T. Mundaca]

I have tried to cancel my membership to MSN Hotmail Plus at least ten times and the only thing I get is a lot of evading, send me from one site to another.I wish I could report this
unethical practice to someone to stop
the run around and get my membership to MSN Hotmail cancelled for good.
signed:mund12121@hotmail.com

[earl]

What a major hassel. I have a Hotmail plus which I like and decided to add a free Hotmail account. Since then I can't access my Plus account since the free one apparently takes over by default. I even try to sign on using the Plus account info and it comes back saying "someone else has the account". Trying to get help is impossible. So I decide to cancel the free account and have tried for for the last hour. Getting bounced around from one page to another,then I gave up.It's so obvious they have no interest in helping you cancel your account. Now I can't even access the Plus account that I pay for because the free account has taken over. What a bunch of crap this is.

[thinking]

http://www.insearchtravel.com/wwwboard/messages/15086.htm attcheddawnheheld

[Rasheed]

hotmail is really pathetic when it comes to customer service. Had a problem of acount closed,popping up every time i tried to lg in, and yet my account is active. I even have hotmail plus. tried to reach customer support, and they bhave been unhelpful and evasive. They really suck, and hotmail is fast loosing its customers, because of poor service. Hotmail, buckle up or sign out

[Bahjat]

AMAZING!! I got to work! I called the customer care number 1-866-672-4551 and canceled the Plus account in 5 minutes flat. And then Tim, the associate that helped me, told me that it will become a free account...big surprise.

So hit him back with "I want this account to be destroyed from the internet, like I don't anyone or anything to access it" suddenly Tim became a prepubecent child and his voice began to crack between every other word which was "um".

I continued to push to get him to tell me how long would it be before the account would disappear from the face of the earth. So the dance began and he dodged me by saying that I would have a 90 day "grace period" [an ironic phrase for such a merciless system] to access the account. Then I parried with "So after 90 days its deleted?" Tim said, "No...you would then have 30 days to reactivate the account because you wouldn't be able to access the emails."

This is the end right? No siry bobirunio! I said " Is it deleted then?" Tim said "No."
ME "Then how long before it's gone!!"
TIM "120 days."
ME "So in 120 days this email will be gone forever?"
TIM "No you'll then have 30 days that you can access just the name."
ME "So 150 days from this day the email will cease to exist."
TIM "Yes then it will be available to the public domain."
ME "Hallelujah!!"

Almost half a year to maybe, possibly, conceivably reconsider a very poopy service. No thanks I'll take my chances in the jungle.

Thanks for reading this. And thank you Cameron Reilly

[Edward Xu]

After spent about 10 minutes to figure out how to cancel the Hotmail Plus service, I decided to make a phone call to MSN customer service. The service rep was very rude. I think maybe it was because I am a foreigner who cannot speak English perfectly. Finally, I tried to confirm that I still could use my free account. He told me something but I didn't get it. When I asked him to repeat that again, he simply hung up my phone. This was a big NO NO. I really cannot accept this attitude. Because I forgot to write down his name, I couldn't file a complaint. However, I decided to try again and speak to their manager directly. This time I reached this very same service rep again! What a miracle! Of course, he said he didn't mean to hang up my phone and it was a technical problem. Well, I really could not believe him. I told him I couldn't accept his attitude and asked to speak with his manager. This time he didn't disconnect and put me through. Although I did complain to the manager about their service, I didn't file a formal complain against that service rep. I know it is not an easy job. However, I will never ever use any MSN service again.

[TP]

Thank you all for the MSN customer Service number to cancel my Hotmail Plus Account - 1-866-672-4551. I just spent almost 3 hours going in circles on the MSN and hotmail websites as many of you have already described. I could not find any way for to contact them by email, live chat, phone, or mail. I told the customer service representative, Jennifer, that I know Microsoft has set up the cancellation to be impossible for their own reasons, but they are killing their reputation. I probably would have kept my account if I felt I could cancel at anytime, but the idea that they have made it impossible for me to cancel made me angry to know that they would take advantage of people this way when it is just not necessary. Please, send out emails to your friends, contact the local newspapers, radio stations, and television stations and let them know about this customer service number and your experience. Also, write to Microsoft and tell them how you feel: Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA, 98052. Thank you all so much for having the courage and taking the time to post here. Peace, TP

[Skip]

thank you, thank you, thank you all who wrote in and included the phone number,1-866-672-4551 to cancel this useless service. I got through relatively quickly.

Skip

[Thomas]

I had the same problem and they refer me to so many departments and was not helpful. It went on for the last 3 years and still pending. After reading some of the comments I had reported my card lost and I got a new replacement. Now I guess MSN has to contact me.

[CD]

My Hotmail account has just been shrank to 25MB...so of course it has reached the magic "critical storage" 100% level and therefore the account is useless.

So I thought I'll suck off all of my messages using Outlook or Outlook Express (as described in the Help files)...to discover that this service is only available with a subscription.

Earlier I was lucky enough that my VISA card number was changed so I did not get caught in the renewal rigmarole like many other people.

Anyway...I am now moving all of my personal emails to gmail - well done Hotmail...you've done it again!

Now...for the record...I am ex-Microsoft employee...and my experience with Hotmail customer service is very similar to every post listed on this blog - one word = pathetic!

[Maako Chen]

If you didn't know MS will now charge you for using Hotmail in Outlook..
I wrote the support a mail:

"Message: To whom it may concern:
I got an old hotmail address that I've been using both in Messenger and in Outlook and it hasn't been any problems.
Now I'm working for a company that want to use messenger as main communication source between co-workers and costumers, so I created a new hotmail account, to avoid mixing business with pleasure..
But when I added it to my Outlook I got the "0x800cccf6" error..
Searching on MS website resulted in this:
http://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?st=b&na=80&qu=0x800cccf6&View=en-us

So there isn't such an error ey?
Google was more helpful, I got a lot of forums and sites telling me that "In a move which Microsoft claims will help fight spammers, MSN Hotmail users are facing charges if they want to access the email service via the Outlook email client."
My old hotmail account still works.. But it continues.. "Existing Hotmail users who have been accessing the service via Outlook will be able to carry on doing so until April, when this feature will be switched to paying customers only."

Well, you are right, there will probably not be any more spamming from hotmail when everyone leaves.
Do you actually think anyone will start to pay for a service that's been free from day one?
There are many other free email services with many better advantages.
So thank you for this time and goodbye..
/Maako Chen"

This is the reply I got:

"Hello Maako,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Customer Service.

I understand you are experiencing an issue in accessing MSN hotmail. I realize your concern and look forward to assisting you today.

As a Customer Service Representative, my role is to provide you with the appropriate support. I suggest you contact MSN, since they have the technical capability in this regard. They will be in a better position to assist you. You may contact them at the following web link :
http://support.msn.com/contactus.aspx

I hope the above information is helpful. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you for using Microsoft products and services.

Midhun
Microsoft Online Customer Service Representative"

For you who are allergic to bullshit the support told me to contact the support since they thought I couldn't log in at Hotmail..

So I replied:
"Hi Midhun.
Did you even read what I wrote..?
I don’t have any issues accessing MSN hotmail.. I’m having issues paying for accessing hotmail in Outlook 2003. My old account still works, but the new account I created gives me a “0x800cccf6” error.
An error you can’t find anywhere on MSN’s support pages.. Why? I guess telling people that they have to pay for it is embarrassing. And my old account will suffer the same consequence soon enough as I understand.
/Maako"

The next day I got this:
"Hello,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Customer Service.

I appreciate you for taking the time to write back to us and I also appreciate your patience regarding the issue.

I understand from your e-mail that you are facing issue paying for Hotmail to access e-mail in Microsoft Outlook. I realize the importance of the issue and I will help you reach right resource.

As a Customer Service Representative, I recommend contacting the MSN Billing Team for further assistance.

Please visit this link:

Web site: https://billing.microsoft.com

I hope the above information is helpful. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you for using Microsoft products and services.

Rafi
Microsoft Online Customer Service Representative"

For you who can't stand bullshit auto replies it sez the exactly same thing except this time they linked me to their pay site since they thought I didn't know how to pay..

I will continue to reply to these morons, but with quite bigger fonts since they apparently can't read normal sized text..

My prediction is that a lot of user will move to other free services that support POP3.

Now I don't really care about Hotmail since that's just my anonymous address for forums, logins and special sites that needs to be confirmed thru email.

The problem is the future choice of chat client..
All my old nerd geezers got IRC or ICQ and everyone else got MSN Messenger so I'm stuck with Trillian Pro to collect them all in one instead of having 3-4 different clients open at the same time..
But it wouldn't surprise me if MSN only will accept registered (read: paid) Hotmail- and MSN account to use Messenger in a near future.

Now I don't mind see the MS regatta sink due to all them brilliant decisions they are taking (DRM, Fritz-chip and trusted computing)..

But what chat client will prevail? I'm sure there will be a tsunami of alternatives as soon as Messenger implode; Dinky-Chat, IntaMessenger, Chat 'R' Us, Acme-txt2txt and all them already existing obscure clients..

To mock their auto replies I wrote:

"Hello,

Thank you for sending me auto replies that doesn’t relate to anything I expressed.

I do not appreciate you for not taking the time to actually read what I wrote and I also do not appreciate your way of dealing with this issue.

I understand from your e-mail that you are facing issues working for Hotmail and Microsoft’s so called support. I realize that the costumer’s questions and feedback has no importance at all and that you won’t help us reach the right resource.

As a user/costumer, I recommend you to seek help or get another job.

Please visit this link:

Web site: http://www.jobsdb.com/

But before that; please, with sugar on the top, tell me how to cancel my Hotmail accounts. Or should I just let them expire?

To uninstall Messenger was easy, thanks to a sweet program called XpLite.

Please visit this link:

Web site: http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html

/Maako"

The support (auto) replied:

"Hello Maako,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Customer Service.

I understand from your e-mail that you are unhappy with Microsoft's policy of stopping users from configuring free Hotmail accounts in Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. I realize the importance of the issue and will help you reach the right resources.

As a Customer Service Representative, I recommend contacting the Hotmail support team to put forth your feedback. Please follow the steps listed below to obtain the Hotmail support information:

1. Visit http://www.hotmail.com
2. Sign in with the Microsoft .NET Passport for your MSN Hotmail account.
3. Click on the "Mail" tab and then click Help.
4. Click on Contact Us.
5. The "Contact MSN Hotmail" page opens.
6. Fill the details (Note: You may also type a description of the problem in the text area.)
7. Click Submit, and then click OK again.

I hope the above information is helpful.

Thank you for using Microsoft products and services.

Stanley
Microsoft Online Customer Service Representative

If you have any feedback about your Online Customer Service experience, please e-mail my manager, Abhijit Rao, at managers@microsoft.com"

I'm giving up this shit, but I won't leave without having the last word, so I wrote:

"You are unbelievable!
YOU are the support and this is the third time I get an auto reply telling me to contact your support..
I got no answers of any of my questions, I get basically the same answer every time (with 2-3 words replaced) and I would bet both my nuts on that you didn’t even read a single word I wrote. (Or should we make that bet on your nuts?)

This is what
I’ll do:
1. I will not visit http://www.hotmail.com ever again.
2. I will never sign in with the Microsoft .NET Passport for any MSN Hotmail accounts.
3. I clearly won’t click on the "Mail" tab since there’s no “Help” from you.
4. I already tried to Contact you.
5. The "Contact MSN Hotmail" page opens. Been there, done that.. Several times..
6. Fill the details (Note: You may already notice that we will send you to another supporter that will send you to another supporter that will send you to another supporter... I think I can go on here for a while.)
7. Click Submit, and then click OK again. Here I get the déjà vu feeling..
8. Register a free account at Gmail and Skype instead of Hotmail and MSN Messenger.

You would know that the above information is totally useless if you took the time to read all follow-ups that’s included in this pointless mail.

Thank you for making people leave Microsoft’s products and services.

“If you have any feedback about your Online Customer Service experience, please e-mail my manager, Abhijit Rao, at managers@microsoft.com”
You can bet your ass I will..

Best regards..
/Maako Chen"

I don't really care about the Email address, I'm just pissed off at Microsoft's tricks..
I'll just switch to Gmail and Skype, but it will take 2-3 weeks to change my settings at forums, lists, and site logins..
Then it will take 2-3 years to make everyone used to my new address and unite them all at Skype..
/M

[desi4prez]

Thanks for this number to MSN I talked to someone in 1 minute 1-866-672-4551 .

[Michael F]

I just got initiated into this hotmail plus fubar, as described above. Obviously Microsoft intends that we pay from now on. Any alternatives, other than Yahoo?

[Cameron]

definitely try Gmail if you haven't already Michael. I've been using it for 18 months and I'm very happy with it.

[Ayushq]

Ahhh can i get a hotmail puls for free

[Old Hippie]

If you think trying to get rid if Hotmail Plus is bad, sign up for Outlook Live! I had Hotmail Plus and received and email from MSN to try Outlook Live (regular $59.95) for $44.95. I got onto the Live Chat thing and ask if it was an additional charge over the $19.95 I had just paid for Hotmail Plus and they said no, so I was to be charged only an additional $25.00. I tried it for 4 days and kept getting a “can’t connect to the server, try later” error messages. I sent Hotmail tech support email and they said get in touch with MSN. I did and they said get in touch with Outlook tech support and they said get in touch with Microsoft tech support and they said get in touch with my computer hardware builder. I did, THAT’S ME! So, I got back on the chat thing and told them to shove it where the sun does not shine and was told I would not be charged anything for the 4 days I tried to use it. WRONG! Three weeks later my credit card was hit for the FULL $59.95 causing a $120.00 Unavailable Funds Fee plus four (4) $30.00 Overdraft Fees! I did get Microsuck to refund the $59.95 by filing a dispute with my bank but the bank says that Microsuck is responsible for the $240 charges. I called Microsuck and they will not send me anything by email or snail mail for me to take to my bank to dispute the charges, they say they can’t do this for liability reasons.

I’m SO glad people steal their software!

[Maggie]

Thank you for getting me to the point of E mailing MSN. Re cancellation of Hotmail plus.
I finally managed to Email them, but this time I told them that if thet did not stop hounding me for payment I would see a solicitor. They cancelled immediatley. This was after 3 months of going round in circles.

I was lucky because the Card I had used for the initial payment of £14.99 was no longer in use.
Thank you again. Maggie

[Maggie]

Can any one out there recommend me to Gmail.
I tried to join up after reading about it on your site but they tell me I must be recommended by someone already with them.
Maggie