After getting rid of the Spectrum voice connection (and reducing my monthly fee by $15) I decided to go whole hog and get rid of my Spectrum internet as well.

You start by telling Spectrum you want to cancel your service. There’s no place you can do so on their web page. You have 2 choices: go to a Spectrum store or call them at 833-267-6094 and say “disconnect service”. Assuming a live person comes on the line (I was successful on my second attempt) they will ask a bunch of questions about: Why? Moving? Replacing? With whom? Need a (temporary) price reduction? I was honest and explained the YS pilot, which seemed to work pretty well at shortening the conversation.

As part of Spectrum’s offerings is anti-malware software that is free to install on your computer(s). They used to offer McAfee but recently switched to F-Secure. Within a hour or so of finishing the conversation my F-Secure licensing was discontinued. For me this wasn’t a big deal nor was it unexpected, but it is one more thing to consider. So far the YS fiber project does not offer any anti-malware software at all.

Next I had to return the Spectrum modem. There’s two ways to do this. The first is to take it to a Spectrum store, hopefully at the same time you tell them of the cancellation. I tried twice to do so and was not successful either time. Both times I tried their store in Springfield, at the corner of Troy and Bechtel. The first time, although their web site said it closed at 8, the sign on the door said 6. The second time it was a Saturday and the line was quite long, maybe 10 people, and it was moving very slowly. So I bailed.

The second way is to take the modem to a UPS store. Luckily I remembered this as I was driving to I-675. I pulled in, no line (it was Sunday), the clerk knew exactly what to do. I was out of there in 5 minutes! He gave me a receipt, mentioned that I should keep it forever.

I had hoped to get away from Spectrum without paying them any more money, but no luck. If you look at your bill, towards the top of the first page, in the “Summary” block, you’ll find the period your next payment covers. In my case, the period was 1/29/23 through 2/28/23 and my payment date was 2/16/23. I had erroneously assumed that if I cancelled well before the payment date I wouldn’t be billed. I cancelled on 2/3/23 and returned the modem on 2/5/23 so I theoretically used their service for all of 6 days. That was enough for them to bill me for the entire month. Live and learn, I guess.

Just FYI, they billed me an extra $60 for the modem which was forgiven when the modem was delivered to them.