No, this guy works in the cancellations department, to which you are connected when you indicate that you want to cancel your service. That means it is his sole job to convince persons to not cancel the service. He also receives a bonus for every phone call he makes that does not result in a cancellation. For you it's 15 minutes of time wasted, for him it means 15 minutes of hard work that came very close to paying off.
There must be a business opportunity here. Connect people who hate dealing with this stuff to people like you who love being an asshole. They get their service canceled without dealing with crap on the phone, you get to play the bad guy, everybody wins.
Its called being a lawyer. Its more about form letters sent via registered mail and filing legal injunctions than talking on the phone.
A decade or so ago, I came within days of needing one merely to disconnect a DSL line.
Once the cost of fighting the collections agency and the cost of the hit to your credit record exceed the minimal cost of hiring the lawyer, its a pretty obvious move.
Not kidding around at all, although its probably a better topic for a law blog than HN.
The main problem they're likely to have is authentication. Helping people is fun. Helping people who like having fun by disconnecting other people (-ex's, etc) is a problem and you need to authenticate them cheaply.
Exactly, I can't believe they pay to be like that. They surely might train you to try and retain unsatisfied customers, but that employee looks like a bit too dedicated to the mission.
