Sunrise does not allow written termination. If you want to get rid of an unwanted subscription, you spend hours with customer service.
Luc Hofstetter and Andri Heimann have one thing in common: frustration with customer service at telecommunications company Sunrise.
“I think Sunrise's customer service is very poor quality for such a large company,” complains former customer Luc Hofstetter. Like Andre Heymann, he wanted to cancel a subscription he'd never had before.
“I had a conversation with customer service regarding a cell phone and internet subscription offer. Instead of showing both, there was only an Internet show. “I got a contract to buy my cell phone,” Heyman says.
He has to make several phone calls to different call center employees over a period of 6 months and spend hours on hold to cancel an unwanted cell phone subscription.
Problem free 97% of customer service cases
Other customers with similar experiences are getting in touch with “Kassenjagd”. When confronted about this, Sunrise media spokesman Rolf Siebold responded that these comments were only “a marginally small part, as each case usually has individually different groups”.
97% of customer service cases will not cause any problems. Sunrise has about 2.8 million customers in the mobile segment.
Sunrise is the front-runner for the Office of the Ombudsman
In the Telecommunications Arbitration Council “Ombudscom”, Sunrise is the front runner when it comes to arbitration procedures. In 2023, there were 443 cases, SALT had 115, and Swisscom had 102, the latter having a much larger number of clients.
Sarah Stalder, managing director of the Consumer Protection Foundation, is also piling up complaints about Sunrise. Her advice: If someone can't cancel an unwanted subscription, she recommends going to an ombudsman's office.
“If you didn't know you signed a contract, it didn't happen. This means that I will tell Sunrise that no subscription has been cancelled, and no contract has been entered into. Then there should be peace. “But at Sunrise you have to take more action and then say relatively quickly: 'That's it, now we're going to Ombudscom,'” says Sarah Stalder.
Ombudscom mediates, but also invoices Sunrise, which may speed up the process.
Controversial ban on written termination
Sunrise's form of termination is also controversial: termination is accepted only via chat or phone, and written contract termination is not accepted. This usually causes anger among customers.
Sunrise justifies itself by saying that there are details to consider when canceling due to the links between different products. “When it comes to written termination, there are often ambiguities that require questions for clarification,” the media spokesperson points out.
This causes costs, which is why the company decides to cancel via chat or phone. The cantonal courts of Zurich have confirmed this practice. However, legal experts criticize this practice.
If customers are unable to reach their target via phone or chat, Sunrise will also accept written cancellations in the future: either via the contact form sunrise.ch/help Or in writing by mail. Rolf Siebold explains this in the Cassin Rush interview.
“Tv expert. Hardcore creator. Extreme music fan. Lifelong twitter geek. Certified travel enthusiast. Baconaholic. Pop culture nerd. Reader. Freelance student.”
More Stories
Siemens shortly before ordering high-speed trains in the USA
Playmobil: German toy manufacturer records decline in sales
Kansai Airport in Osaka: Not a single piece of luggage has been lost since it opened 30 years ago