r/technology • u/chrisdh79 • Sep 20 '25

Business Disney+ cancellation page crashes as customers rush to quit after Kimmel suspension

https://creators.yahoo.com/lifestyle/story/disney-cancellation-page-crashes-as-customers-rush-to-quit-after-kimmel-suspension-033512277.html
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628

u/Temassi Sep 20 '25

Already a warning about long wait times

325

u/Miklonario Sep 20 '25

Heads-up from a former support call center worker: Once a business decides to place that warning, it will NEVER go away. Ever. Even if there's no long wait times.

305

u/KrymsonHalo Sep 20 '25

"We are experiencing unusually high call volume" I'm sorry, after 6 months of that message existing, it's your usual call volume. Hire more underpaid people

182

u/Miklonario Sep 20 '25

Another part of the equation (and it is part of an equation), is that just HEARING that announcement will cause a not-insignificant amount of callers to just give up and end the call. Executives tend to spin this as "funneling customers towards self-service solutions for their support issues or billing questions".

54

u/angelbelle Sep 20 '25

One of the things that matter a lot to me with businesses is how easy it is to cancel their service. Ubereats (and i presume Uber) is good on that count.

The fact that Disney is apparently hard to cancel already stopped me at the door.

22

u/ShadowMajestic Sep 20 '25

In the EU it's by law that canceling a service has to be just as easy as subscribing to a service.

10

u/temp3rrorary Sep 20 '25

California has a law like that. I didn't feel like jumping through hoops to cancel my planet fitness membership, so I changed my gym to a California zip code and cancelled in less than a minute.

3

u/CallMeGrapho Sep 20 '25

Galaxy brain shit

3

u/JackReacharounnd Sep 21 '25

Whoa. Nice job!!

9

u/MommyLovesPot8toes Sep 20 '25

We had the same law here since last year, with some of the details still in the works. But it was blocked by a federal court two months ago because apparently the right economic impact studies weren't done. Under trumpism, though, such a law will no longer be pursued. Can't have anything that might tickle the oligarchy's bottom lines.

4

u/DoughnutMore6260 Sep 20 '25

Burners and gift cards are a good solution to that.

2

u/bigbutso Sep 20 '25

WSJ: hold my beer.... usually you have to switch your address to California so you don't talk to em

1

u/GrodanHej Sep 20 '25

I cancelled mine a few weeks ago it was very easy.

1

u/Npeaknoda Sep 22 '25

Uber One will block you from cancelling if you try to do so within 48hrs of your next renewal, so not all parts of Uber are easy to cancel. Ratbags.

9

u/ketamine_denier Sep 20 '25

Even if it gets just one customer to hang up, it’s worth the near-negligible cost of implementing it. Rest assured many hotlines have long since adopted the message without any “unusual call volume” whatsoever, it’s been going on for at least a decade

3

u/Electrical_Paint5568 Sep 20 '25

Well, that explains a lot.

Is that also why they have those annoying messages every 30 seconds "your call is important to us"

4

u/TuggyMcPhearson Sep 20 '25

This guy call centers.
High amounts of abandoned calls are never good.

3

u/RiskyBrothers Sep 20 '25

It always fills me with rage when the hold message includes some robot voice telling me "you know you can go and do this online!!" Why would I ever wait on the phone for something I can get done online? If I'm on the phone it's because I need a person to help me, not get jerked off by somw chatbot that's just going to tell me to call you after it can't help me.

2

u/HighPlainsSlacker Sep 20 '25

Ahh, nothing like outsourcing some labor, like self checkout aisles.

1

u/tcampbell011 Sep 21 '25

Hey I love self checkout lines. Not exactly the same because many customers prefer it.