So here’s the height of shady customer service this week … I canceled my Urge (now Rhapsody by Real) account this morning. First problem is that you cannot cancel online, you have to call into their customer service number to cancel. I guess they haven't heard of this Web 2.0 thing, but then if I didn't have the opportunity to talk to someone, they couldn't try to their confusing tactics outlined below.

After the typical customer service dance of trying to keep me as a customer, the CSR tells me that he has sent me an e-mail confirming that my service is paid through 11/29 and should I want to continue the service, I need to do nothing. If I want to cancel the service, I just need to reply to the e-mail.

Huh? I was calling him to cancel the account. Cancel. He just spent 3 minutes asking me why I want to cancel. Confirming that I want to cancel. I was pretty clear. I want to C-A-N-C-E-L my account.

And instead I get this shifty e-mail with the following verbatim text (emphasis mine):

As Per our conversation, please consider this e-mail as confirmation that your Rhapsody membership is paid up through 11/29/07 . If you would like to continue your membership at that time, no further action is required. However, if you should decide that you would like to cancel at that time, you may do so by contacting Customer Service prior to that date or simply by responding to this e-mail with your request.

Of course, now I need to follow up with yet another phone call to ensure that they received my reply and are canceling my account, effective immediately. Not the way to build trust, Real, and I will definitely not be back after that stunt.